The City

The Car Wash Ride

It was a very overcast day

When I was a kid and out of state relatives came to visit there was always one thing at the top of their list of things to do. And so at some point during their visit my dad would load us all in the Country Squire (yes the one with the wood panelling!) and we would head to S.F. or as my mom always called it, Frisco. This was before the days of mandatory seat belts so there we would be, 4 adults, at least 2 teenagers and anywhere from 5 to 6 children all squished in for the drive over the bridge into the city by the bay.

The Car Wash is a Thrill a Minute

Later on, as a young mom, my go to zoo with the boys was the San Francisco Zoo. We loved it and no matter how many times we went I always got lost. That insured that we were able see just about every neighborhood in The City.So you would think that I have done all of the tourist things that it has to offer. But no, there are some things that I have missed. One being Alcatraz. On our summer bucket list we put a visit to the Rock as a must. We picked a date. We planned our itinerary. We talked to others who gave us tips on our visit. And then ... EPIC FAIL. Who knew (well you probably did) that during peak tourist season the Alcatraz tour sells out? Until August? Seriously?We didn't want to waste all our careful planning so we decided to go on an adventure to San Francisco anyway. And we weren't disappointed. Cold, tired, but not disappointed.We started our excellent adventure with another bucket list item ... the car wash. Laugh will you? Driving through the car wash can be very exciting. It's like a ride at Disneyland without the lines.

Starfish

Our next stop was Alameda and the Ferry. This is another activity I hadn't done before. Why Not? This was the most fun ride into the city and pretty cheap too. Parking is free and round trip ticket for adults is $12.00. ($7 for kids). The ride was great and pretty quick as well. Along the way we got to see lots of sailboats, a different view of the Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena Island (and it's very cool lighthouse that we had never noticed before) as well as coming as close to Alcatraz as we were going to get on this trip.
We disembarked at Pier 41 and then went over to Pier 39 where we skipped most of the shops and instead visited the Aquarium of the Bay. Now this isn't in the same league as the Monterrey Aquarium but it is nice and pretty informative. And all of the employees were really friendly, which is definitely a plus when you're travelling with a chatty 9 year old.

Speaking of said 9 year old, I tried very hard to convince him of the "when in Rome rule" and that we needed to have seafood for lunch. He was having none of it, especially  after making friends with all kinds of sea creatures at the aquarium. After some serious negotiations we settled on Johnny Rockets where he had to admit, the burger was delicious.
Another one of our stops was the Visitor Center of the San Francisco Maritime National History Park. This is another free venue with some really cool exhibits of the role the Maritime industry had in the city's history. One of our favorite exhibits was the life size shipwreck and the collection of items found under the streets of historic S.F.
Street performers are a staple and we were entertained by some really good ones today. I think Ter's favorite was a magician who stopped him with, "Hey Kid". Poor guy. He had no idea he was going to be doing a two-man act! Never shy, I think the passers by thought he must be part of the team. We also got to see a fire juggler, those guys who paint themselves Gold and Silver, a group of cheerleaders (picture Bring It On type routines), and several musicians.
The return trip on the ferry was just as much fun as the voyage over and our only regret was that it was too short. But we spent the ride back planning our next trip ... probably sometime in August if we can manage to escape TO Alcatraz.

Trying on hats

The Rock