Call It What You Want...

It was getting too long, so this is Part II of the trip.

Saturday morning, Tim and I both were off to see the sights. First, we had breakfast at Lefty O'Doul's (just down from the hotel). Again, basic breakfast, better price. Then we walked and walked and walked and walked... I am not exaggerating the walking here... about three miles (not measuring changes in altitude, as we ended up near the top of Telegraph Hill) to the waterfront, meandering along the Embarcadero back to Pier 39 for some hot chocolate and snack, then over to that bus company to take the Golden Gate bus tour. Hey, at least I'd see it this way, since the fog had not cleared sufficiently to see it before.

Along the way we stopped off at the Palace of Funny Old Columns That Really Aren't Roman Ruins, where I auditioned for a part as a maiden holding up part of the column.  They say they'll get back to me when they get an opening.

Then it was on to the Golden Gate Bridge. I couldn't wait to see the cool red-orange structure, right up close.

Well.

That, my friends, is the best image we got of it.

Across the bridge in Marin County, we stopped at the beautiful scenic overlook for pictures our ourselves with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

Yup. By this time it was quite sunny. Except on the bridge. So. Pretend there's a bridge in the background and ooh and ahhh.

We saw pretty and expensive houses on the way back (sunny, again),  and, once back to the bus office, had a quick Inn-and-Out burger lunch, set off for Chinatown, getting a little lost once again (that darn hill makes streets end!).

We got there, and headed to a "tea tasting" at the Vital Tea Leaf on Grant. That was interesting. We were treated to a tea-tasting that would be like a wine-tasting by the proprietor of the store, "Uncle Gee", a 75-year-old retired structural engineer who operates on the same principle Grandpa Arnfinn used to -- "I'm old and crochety and can say what I want." (I didn't hear either of them say that, but...)
My Chinese friends would probably giggle at our tourist-ness, but, hey, it was fun. And we came away with a nice blue tea and enjoyed what ended up being over an hour with this kooky old guy and these two guys who were in town for the big game and just stuck their noses in to see what kinds of stuff they had in a tea shop and left a couple hours later with lots and lots of tea. Reviewers either go wild about Uncle Gee and the fun they had (isn't that what going to a tourist place is about?) or get all up-in-arms about them selling inferior teas. I don't care. It was fun and we had a nice time. So there.

Then supper in Chinatown, too, though I have to say it wasn't all that great. But we all know I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food anyhow... unless LEO is cooking it, Andrea!!!!! ... but, it was a nice view and we felt like we oughta. Just maybe we didn't pick the best place. Oh well.

Sunday morning was breakfast at Lori's Diner down the block from the hotel, then a cab ride down to pier 33 for our trip to Alcatraz. We ended up getting on the 9 a.m. instead of having to wait for 9:30, which was good because we had a flight to catch.

Hey. Did I mention it was foggy? Yeah. The views were not to die for, and we didn't get the audio Cellblock Tour because our time was limited, but wandered the place at our own pace -- okay, Tim seemed to want to read signs like always... and saw it all.

Tim was mad to be put in a cell, but

Being in "The Hole" made me s-s-c-c-a-a-r-r-r-ed.

Then a cab back to the hotel to pick up our stuff, and BART to the airport for a hugely crowded flight to Denver, and home to Indy before midnight, and tucked away into bed by 1 a.m.

Whew.

The End.

 

Tim and I are back from our trip to San Francisco (Tim for work, me coming later for some fun)... The boys stayed with Grandma and Grandpa and regaled them with fun and, oh, yeah, a little bit of under-the-weather, too.

But, In the meantime, WE were off having fun.

I arrived on Thursday and spent a little time wandering around the Union Square area (where the hotel was), finding, to my joy, this lovely sight. Eat your heart out, Mel, Mer, Laura, etc. Yeah. It was lovely. I ended up with some ribbon for a bonnet I'm working on. And I didn't even get back to the fourth floor. Sigh. Next time.

Tim got to the hotel and we went off for a walk north on Stockton to Pier 39, the tourist-heavy part of Fisherman's Wharf (about 2.5 miles). We found a seafood restaurant, which was what I wanted, ate there, and then took a cab home, enjoying some of the steeper hills of the route.

The next morning, Tim was off to work, and I was off to the Pinecrest Diner for some breakfast, not interested in what the hotel had to offer at horrifying prices.

The Pinecrest was just what I was after -- typical diner food, nothing near $25 (what a similar meal, except with more garnishes, I imagine, would have cost at the hotel). Yum. I love breakfast. Then a wander about and, yes, a ride on the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf for my bus tour.

This is the same sort of open-top bus that we took in London; a nice way to see the city and not have super-sore feet (more on that later). And yes, I saw all the sights:

steep streets (that's Lombard Street), a fog-shrouded downtown, a fog-shrouded Bay Bridge, the city center... etc. You get the idea. Got off at Union Square Macy's, had a snack (that turned out to be lunch) and then hit the SF Museum of Modern Art. All I can say is "I don't get it."

There was a blue fluorescent light mounted at an angle on the wall. That was art. Looks to me like someone didn't have his level. There was a string of lightbulbs plugged into an outlet in the corner. That, too, was art. There was a three-panel piece, all three panels painted white, no texture, no nothing. Art? Sorry to be dense. I didn't get it. All I got from that was the blue glow from the art piece next to it (the first piece mentioned).

There was also an exhibit that featured a super-fancy BMW stripped down and encased in ice. This was kept in a gallery where the temperature was 12 degrees F. Yeah. My nose hairs froze. I wrapped myself in the provided blanket and went in and looked around...

And it looked like a prehistoric crustaceon. Weird. I left off my blanket and went on to see the works of Joseph Cornell, who put weird collections of random stuff together in little boxes. Thousands of them.

From the SFMOMA: "A self-taught artist, Joseph Cornell relied almost exclusively on found materials. He collected items from books, newspapers, second-hand stores, exploratory walks — even sweepings from his studio floor — to create intricate, elaborate box constructions and collages. These enchanting works of art transformed commonplace objects into extraordinary and magical dreamscapes, earning him immediate and enduring respect as a sort of artistic alchemist."

Okay. Enough. For more of that location, see their website.

Then it was back on the hop-on-hop-off bus, except it didn't make the SFMOMA stop, so I speed-walked back up to Macy's, where I knew they would stop. They did. Back on for the rest of the tour, except they'd left someone back at the City Center, so we had to take a short-cut detour to get them, and ended up back at Fisherman's Wharf, where I went to the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. I had a walking tour of the pier with a ranger and saw the ships from the pier (I would go back later with Tim to board them. Didn't want to do all the fun without him.)

My favorite was

 

The Balclutha. To learn more about this cool ship, see here. After that, I talked with their volunteer who is in charge of the historical clothing for the few costumed interpretation events they do. Yeah. That took a while. She thinks my Prairie is wonderful and amazing and fabulous. (Don't think she's ever been there... but the fact that I do costumed historical interpretation was enough to make her excited enough to almost wet herself.)

Back to the hotel to meet Tim, off to a restaurant recommended by the SF co-worker he'd been around all week. Unfortunately, we missed the turn and ended up walking about an extra mile (total due to the error: 2 3/4 miles; total had we gone the right way: under 1 1/2) but found ourselves at the Tadich Grill.

(This is a photo from the internet. That table, there on the left, that's where we sat.)

Huh. funny what you find when you check the internet. There's even a BOOK!

Then back to the hotel to bed. This is the night -- well, early morning -- that I stubbed my toe on one of my shoes and ended up with a black toe for the rest of the weekend. And now.

Just in case you haven't seen my boys in a while, this is what you're missing. Apparently, just after getting home from watching them, Grandpa was asking Grandma when they would get to see boys again... :) Tee hee hee. Good thing he's retired!

Write your own caption for the above photo. The winner will be published next to the picture in a future post.

In this photo, Mark helps Daddy get the background set for an exciting photo session with our friends Anna, Noah, and Elijah and their parents.

This is Blankey Bear. It is Adam's favorite friend, and he got it from Uncle Brian and Aunt Tara. He likes to hold it and suck his fingers. It means it's bedtime. This is the day that Blankey Bear got washed in the washing machine because his nose was all brown (this is what happens when you suck on the nose and then rub it on the ground/floor/etc.), and then he almost got another bath in the bathtub.

This is most of the kids who went hiking a couple weeks ago with Pathfinders. Anna and Adam didn't make the picture because the swing was too full, and we don't trust anyone to hold someone on their lap. That's Dylan, Elijah, Noah, Mark, Ethan, and Ryan. Everyone was having a lot of fun that day at Cool Creek Park.

This is Adam with his horse on his birthday (when it was new). A few weeks ago, it quit working. It's been sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for new batteries, and every time Adam sees it, he wants it. So today I got new batteries. They cost more than the toy did! :( Oh well. Then I installed the new batteries. The horse didn't work!

Ugh. I got a tiny screwdriver and took the thing apart to see if there was a broken connection I could fix or something, only to discover, after I got it all apart, that the batteries were installed upside down. I turned them over. It worked. I put it back together, got the wheels back in place and all the screws in, to discover the red "C" circle fell a little wonky in the putting it back together and doesn't push in. I think I'm going to leave it. It still plays music and the other letters and shapes seem to work just fine. Hey! With a little pushing, I made it work, too!

Oh, and by the way, I had enough hair to donate, so I got a haircut the other day.

So it took a little while to share with you our Halloween joy...

We're still dealing with a computer issue here and there, I'm afraid. However, without further ado...

That's a firefighter, a dad, and a lion. You get to choose which is which.

Then we have the pumpkins...

Clearly, a backhoe. Done by Daddy.

A lion, done with a pattern, by Mommy. (Did I mention Daddy drew the backhoe FREEHAND?!?!)

Firefighter Mark is prepared to fight the fire, should it get out of control.