Fisherman's Wharf and Alcatraz

Day 3 we slept in and had lunch at the infamous Fisherman's Wharf. We chose to eat at a popular sandwich shop where they made fresh bread and shaped it into lobster and different animals. It was super yummy. Then we were off for our evening cruise to Alcatraz. We rode a boat out into the bay and cruised around the entire island and then spent 2 hours or so touring the island before leaving for our sunset cruise back. It was a lot of fun!

The island from many different views as we cruised around it.



The actual jail.

The workers' sleeping quarters.

The bathing quarters.

The jail with all 3 stories being shown.

The yard area where inmates played.

Visitation Area

The jail workers' uniform.

One of the guard towers.

The warden's house.

San Fran at sunset.

The bridge at sunset.

Doug and I at sunset with San Fran behind us.

One of the cells.

The OR...glad I wasn't one of the inmates needing surgery:)

The hospital

The kitchen

The knife set in the kitchen. The knives were traced around with black marker so that you could see if one was missing.

The mechanism that opened the jail cells. You would push a button and crank the bar to open one or all cells.

Yosemite Park

If you don't know anything about California then let me tell you a little something. San Francisco is on the far west coast and Yosemite Park is on the eastern border of California...a 4 hour drive away and yes we made that trip! Doug was insistent that if we were that close to Yosemite Park that we should go and check it out. We loaded up after breakfast one morning and didn't get home until well after dark. The trip was long but probably for the simple fact that the roads curved and curved and curved. If I never see another curved road my life would be just fine. I would love to take the boys hiking at the park someday, but I really don't know that I want to drive there ever again. We got to the park and walked around a bit, had lunch in the deli, and drove back home. Once we got into the park grounds there was actually snow on the roads and it was chilly enough that we were glad we had jackets.

A quaint town on the way to the park.

The big waterfall attraction at the park's basin.

El Capitan

Doug showing off how big the redwood trees are.

The sun was right in our face as we were attempting to see the road to leave the park and guess who forgot his glasses:)

This is hard to see, but there were deer everywhere. They didn't run because they weren't in danger of being hunted in the park.

The sun setting as we were leaving.

This is probably only funny to Doug and I, but these signs were everywhere on the road leaving the park. They were literally no side rails on the road and cliff that went straight down. Doug was lucky to be driving 10-15mph!

Day 2 Done

San Francisco...Here We Come!

Doug was laid off again this year and quickly landed another job. We knew he would be traveling quite a bit with his new job so I insisted on getting some "Me" time before I started spending all my time with 3 little boys. We traded air miles and hotel points in for a quick trip to San Fran. We were able to do so much during our 4 days there that this trip will take several posts to show it all.

This is Doug's "standard boarding the plane" position. I got quite tickled at him and he even had a difficult time not smiling. This is suppose to be the I'm busy and DeAnn's purse is in the middle seat so don't stop and bother us and take our 3rd seat in the row so we don't get squished look:)

The cheapest car to rent in California is a convertible. It was a bit chilly so we only took the top down for one ride.

Driving around the first day we passed by the big baseball stadium.

Heading towards downtown where the Golden Gate Bridge is.

Downtown San Fran

We found the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory:) We actually made 2 stops while we were there because they gave out free samples...yummy!

Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time.

Going thru it.

Looking back at San Fran's bay.

Alcatraz from the bridge

Me at the bridge's lookout point.

and Doug!

After crossing the bridge we drove around on Hwy 1. We found this quaint area that was beautiful.

Muir Woods is known for the huge redwood trees.

Day 1 Complete

New Years Eve

We have gotten into the habit of hanging out with our church friends at church on New Years Eve. The kids absolutely adore going to church and just getting to play with their friends. We even let them take some of their toys and their scooters to play with. The adults play boards games and cards and then close to midnight out come the stringy "poppers". The parking lot was covered in crazy popper string and had to be cleaned up....but the boys had a blast!

Grant popping his popper.

Happy New Year!