Since it was a beautiful, clear evening, we headed out for a little drive around the Presidio and down to Baker Beach...
It was super-windy on Friday, though, so we packed it in pretty quick and headed back to the apartment for a yummy dinner and some nice conversation. Poor dad tried to find a parking space - they had their mini-van with them - and could never find one. He had to go back to the hotel and then walk back to our apartment. So, when it was time to go home that night, everyone had their first S.F. bus ride. The bus driver let them ride free! It was really nice.
Swarley remembered how 
much he loves Neil's pillow! For some reason, he always made his bed on Neil's pillow - never mine, and he obviously remembered that. He made a beeline for Neil's side of the bed...
The next morning was early! Mom, dad and Lila rode the bus back to our house again, doggies and all and arrived around 7:45. After breakfast, we headed out to start the busy day. We tried to cram so much stuff into one day - I've learned not to try and do that again! We caught the bus down to Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf - which is basically just a huge tourist trap designed to separate tourists from their money. It is actually the world's third most-visited tourist place in the world, behind DisneyLand and DisneyWorld. No fishing really happens at Fisherman's Wharf anymore - and there is really nothing much there now, besides souvenir shops and over-priced restaurants. Still, tourists stream in by the thousands - I'm not sure what they're hoping to see. But nevertheless, we visited there. It's kind of expected that when you come to S.F., you see Fisherman's Wharf, so we did. The only interesting thing at Pier 39 is the Sea Lions that have taken over some of the old abandoned piers.
You can see how thrilled Dad and Neil are about the sea lions... And they were loud! There were fancy yachts moored right next door - those poor suckers. They probably signed leases before they realized they were next door to hundreds of noisy, smelly sea lions. Here's a treat for your eyes and ears: (That's Swarley barking at them in the background. He hated them!)After we quickly grew tired of the Sea Lions and mom had satisfied her souvenir shopping urge, we walked back along Fisherman's Wharf to the National Maritime Historical Park. This is right by the Aquatic Park and Hyde Pier and has 7 historical boats moored. You can walk on the pier and just look at the boats, but we paid the entry fee and got to go out onto the boats. A couple of them were closed for the day but there was one really cool big old boat that we got to go onto.
The blue angels were in town for the weekend for Fleet Week, so we got to see the opening act do some cool stunts while we were out on the pier. I also got some really nice pictures of Nob Hill and Ghirardelli Square. The water in the front of the picture is part of Aquatic Park - an enclosed piece of the bay where people come to swim - brrr!! :)
We spent quite a bit of time perusing the ships, then took a bus to the North Beach neighborhood for lunch at Rogue Brewery. It was a really necessary break and nice to stop walking for awhile. We had been on our feet from 8:30 - 12:30. After lunch, we hopped back on the bus (you see a theme here...) and headed to Chinatown. This was a real hit with the ladies. The men, not so much!
In Chinatown, every two feet is a little bargain-prices souvenir shop, or a shop of some kind. And mom and Lila and I managed to hit a bunch of them! There are some of the most interesting things I have ever seen in some of those shops! And the food markets are really fascinating, with chickens and ducks hanging in the windows. Chinatown goes on for quite awhile and with all the bargains to be had, it took us awhile to get through it. Lila liked it because she was taller than most of the people there! Unusual for her at 5'2! Lila and Mom found a stack of T-shirts for $1.88 and even managed to suck Neil in - he bought a Chinatown t-shirt. For $1.88, they were actually really nice t-shirts!
thentic. Chinese people actually live and work here, and shop in the markets. Although it is jammed with tourists, it also feels very much like a neighborhood - with a heartbeat. I couldn't say the same for Fisherman's Wharf! And the shops are really fascinating - you never know what you're going to find!
However, I think by this time, Neil and Dad didn't care what we might find, they were just ready to move on! Although Dad had a good time taking pictures of the architecture and other stuff.
At this point, the doggies had been riding in their backpack for most of the day and had been really good and quiet and patient. But I just started to feel so bad for them, cooped up in the little pack, so we let them out and walked them on the leash for awhile. Before you judge us too badly for having them in the pack, we walked them along Fisherman's Wharf, but they couldn't be out on the Hyde pier, and so we put them in the pack, then we rode the bus and ate lunch, then rode the bus again, then walked in Chinatown where it is REALLY crowded, so it really wasn't very possible to have them out of the pack. Anyways, I think they were probably really glad to get out. So we were just about to exit Chinatown through the gates, and Lola spots these two stone lions that are guarding the entrance to a shop, and gets all hunched down and starts growling at the lion. Of course, the lion ignores her. So she starts barking, which gets Swarley barking, so our two little dogs are creating a little stir, barking their heads off at two stone lions. Not so bright, those two... It was adorable. Lola flounced off afterwards like she had SHOWN that lion who was boss. We walked through Union Square to get to the cable cars, but there really isn't much in Union Square except really expensive shopping, so we didn't stop. I don't have any pictures of this part of the trip, because the dogs were out and I was distracted. We waited in line for awhile and then managed to hop on a cable car. Mom and I got stuck inside and Lila got seated on the outside, and Dad and Neil got to stand on the side. Again, no pictures of this because I had terrible seats.
I think at this point, we were all just exhausted and wanted to get home. Unfortunately, this would not be as easy as anticipated, because the Blue Angels airshow had just finished and everyone and their mother was trying to leave the Fisherman's Wharf area where, unfortunately, the cable car let us off at. So we ended up walking home to our apartment. About 12 blocks or so... Which doesn't sound so bad, but you try it after walking around San Francisco from 8:30 - 4:30. Needless to say, we were WIPED by the time that we got home around 5:00. Everyone crashed in the living room except me, who was responsible for making dinner - homemade pizza. (Note to self- Next time BUY the pizza, stupid!) Neil took some cute pics of the doggies while I was slaving away in the kitchen...
We finished dinner around 5:45 and left to catch the bus back to the hotel and pick up the car to drive to Fisherman's Wharf and catch the ferry to our Alcatraz tour. I figured that we would have plenty of time - the tour didn't leave until 6:50 and Fisherman's Wharf is just over the hill. Well, I underestimated the effects of Fleet Week. Even though the show had ended at 4:00, traffic was still all snarled up and our bus wasn't coming. So we started - you guessed it! - walking towards the hotel. It came up on 6:10 or so, and I was starting to get a little bit worried about the time crunch. Just then, our bus came in to view, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, that sigh must have cursed us somehow. A few blocks away from our stop and the motel, the bus driver decides to put the bus in park and WALK AWAY! He mumbled something about, "I shall return", got off the bus, ran across the street and out of sight. We waited anxiously as the minutes ticked away and no sign of the bus driver. 6:15, 6:16, 6:17... We finally decided to just get off the bus and walk. As we started walking up the street, we noticed the bus driver running back to the bus with his lunch now in his hand. Perfect time to stop for a snack, buddy. You're already way behind schedule with the traffic, why not make it worse by picking up lunch at this time? Perfect... We made it to the motel and into the van around 6:30. Twenty minutes to get to Fisherman's Wharf - no problem, right? Well, there was the little problem of the traffic clogging all the main streets of the Marina and Fisherman's Wharf. I drove like a maniac - California stopping like a pro - as the time slipped away from us. We got into a small traffic jam on Bay st., losing us a precious 2-4 minutes, then managed to get off the main road and onto some sneaky side streets (yeah, we're locals!). Once into the heart of North Beach, though, there was no going side streets, you have to get back onto Bay St. if you want to get to the Embarcardero and Fisherman's Wharf and the embarkation point for the cruise to Alcatraz. So we had gotten as far as we could, and I steered the van back into the traffic on Bay St. We were creeping along. The parking garage we were aiming for is right next to where I work, so I knew exactly how close we were - just a few blocks. I could taste it, but we just couldn't get there - we were barely moving. I was about to just die inside - the one thing on the trip that Lila really wanted to see was Alcatraz and I was going to ruin it by underestimating the Fleet week traffic. World's worst tour guide would be my new title. The time was now around 6:45 and we were so close, yet so far away. Sitting in the middle of traffic with the parking garage only a block away...
Would we make it in time? Stay tuned for tomorrow's post! It's taken too long to write this and upload all the photos and I need to go to bed and get my beauty rest. This will have to be a two-parter. Plus, I like the idea of leaving you all in suspense for an afternoon, if indeed anyone ever reads this thing...
See you tomorrow - wooo ha ha ha ha (That was an evil laugh)
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