Cat and I arrived home Saturday night from her soccer weekend in Arizona. Then we left at about 8am on Monday for California to spend Thanksgiving week with my brother and his family, and Grammy, who flew in from South Carolina. The kids were really excited and we actually got on the road at just the right time, and then made good time as we drove. We arrived earlier than expected - which never happens - and spent some time at my brother's house, eating pizza and hanging out, before trading out Cat and my nephew Sawyer. Sawyer came in the van with Ben and the younger kids and me, while Cat stayed with Andy and Amy to pick Grammy up at the airport before heading to SF. We had an easy drive into San Francisco and started getting the kids to bed, hoping they'd be rested enough to have a fun day of sight-seeing on Tuesday.
Our first stop was breakfast at Sweet Maple, a restaurant I loved when I was in San Francisco with the TabChoir over the summer. I even ordered the exact same thing I had in June. And everyone who wanted to tried out the signature item: Millionaire's Bacon. It did not disappoint.
Then we went to Alamo Square Park to admire the Full House Painted Ladies, let the kids play, and have a little photo session. And by the way, Cat enjoyed being photographer for most of this trip.
Next we went to CandyTopia, an interactive candy appreciation experience. Mostly, it was 3D and 1D art made of candy; candy handouts - more than we could eat; and lots of photo ops. We had a great time.
That afternoon we were supposed to go to Alcatraz but the air quality was so poor due to the smoke from wildfires in the area that all tours were cancelled that day. (We happened to think the air wasn't that bad, but oh well.) I found it ironic that the tour was cancelled, since the Alcatraz tour was literally the main thing we wanted to do in San Francisco and we planned everything else around it. All of the adults in the group had been to the city multiple times before but only one of us had ever been to Alcatraz. We were pretty psyched up - I'd even checked out library books about California and Alcatraz and read them with the kids on our drive out the day before. But we chose to go on a Bay Cruise as a substitute, and that ended up being a great activity. Nobody had to walk anywhere, none of the kids got scared, and we still learned a lot about Alcatraz as we circled the island. It was cool to go under the Golden Gate bridge and get some pictures there too. So, it worked out just fine. And now we'll just have to go back to San Francisco to tour Alcatraz another time.
Mom decided to support a local businessman after that and hitch a ride for herself and three lucky youngsters so we could have dinner at Boudin just past Pier 41. Dinner was delicious. The kids enjoyed the hats and complimentary Sourdough Teddy Bears. The adults appreciated the seafood, in various forms.
After dinner we took in some of the nightscene by walking to Pier 39, then driving back to the hotel and checking out the view from the lounge, and finally, those of us who had enough energy walked to the nearest Ghiradelli ice cream shop a block away and enjoyed one more San Francisco treat for the day.
It was a full, fun day, blessed by great weather.
More about our trip coming soon!
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