Slowly going insane: Touring San Francisco and Alcatraz

Scott had a business commitment on Monday so the kids and I were on our own for most of the day. I let Amelia and John each pick one thing that they wanted to do or see in San Francisco. They both made good choices and we ended up having a relaxing time together touring more of the city.

Amelia wanted to go to Alamo Park, specifically so that she could see where the opening scenes from the TV show "Full House" were filmed. After a short bus ride from Market Street, we arrived at this beautiful neighborhood park set on top of a hill.

The architecture of the homes surrounding the park square was really pretty. With the exception of one block (the "Painted Ladies" block, more on that below), each block featured homes with unique designs and colors typical of San Francisco architecture. We also enjoyed watching the dogs run around the dog park area of the lot. I suppose that neighborhood parks that are dog-friendly are very important in an urban city like San Francisco where homes don't have front or back yards.

From this point of view you can see the homes perched on the rolling hills surrounding the square.

The block above was my favorite due to the style and colors of the homes. The photo below shows the famous "Painted Ladies" homes. Notice that each of the five houses has the same facade and that each is painted in a different, but complimentary, color. I love the viewpoint with the Transamerica Building and the downtown skyline in the background.

John wanted to rent Ford city bikes. These bikes are similar to the Nike shared bikes that we saw in Portland. It took a few minutes to figure out how the bikes worked but the process is simple enough. We learned that there are about 50 bike racks positioned around the city. To rent a bike you simply swipe your credit card to pay the fee ($9.99 for 24 hours), a bike is unlocked for your use, and somehow the kiosk remembers you each time you return a bike and take another one out based on the credit card. You can return the bike to any bike rack and take as many bike rides as you want during the 24-hour period.

We started on Market Street and rode over to the Embarcadero. We remembered seeing many bikers on the paths in this area on the day we went to the baseball game, so we thought this would be a good place to get used to the bikes. This turned out to be a good idea because we the road had a dedicated and clearly marked bike lane. Monday was a warm and beautiful day, perfect for riding bikes in the sunshine near the water.

After we rode both ways along the Embarcadero, we decided to head towards Union Square for lunch. Riding up and down Market Street was a little trickier. At times the bike lane shared a lane with the city busses, but the street markings were confusing to understand at first and I know I got beeped at by cars several times while I was learning the ropes. In the photo below, Amelia is gazing upwards at the tall buildings surrounding us when were stopped at a traffic light.

Once we arrived near Union Square, we returned the bikes to the closest kiosk and planned to get something to eat. Before we locked the bikes up though, we saw this older man riding his scooter up and down Market Street. While we were accustomed to seeing street performers around the city, this was one of the strangest sights we witnessed. This man was riding very slowly with loud Latin music blaring from speakers positioned all over the scooter. He was gently dancing in his seat and nodding at people walking on the street. He was so entertaining!

After lunch, we decided to try the bikes one more time. We selected three bikes from the closest bike rack and this time we decided to ride east towards the baseball stadium towards a different direction along the Embarcadero. There was a lot of construction on the first part of this route which made it challenging to ride alongside traffic, so I didn't take any pictures. But once we got to the Embarcadero we could relax once more. Riding the bikes was a great way to see the city!

By this time Scott had returned to our hotel, so we met up with him and went to walk around Chinatown.

When I visited Chinatown as a kid, I remember being fascinated by the architecture and the different atmosphere in this area of the city. I was curious to see if Amelia and John would like it.

Turns out, Chinatown was a great place to purchase home furnishings for our remodeled home.

Just kidding. But we all made many jokes about the decorating possibilities!

I find walking around to see the architecture and decorations in Chinatown to be a fun way to spend a few hours, but the kids were not big fans. They tolerated it for awhile before they started complaining about how things smelled bad and how their feet hurt from walking.

So we returned to out hotel and decided to try the lounge on the top floor (the 39th floor) for happy hour. We had been up here a few days before when it was too crowded to find a place to sit, so we were pleasantly surprised to find good seats the second time around. Obviously, the views from the top are magnificent, especially on a clear day like this one.

Tuesday was our last day in the city. The kids voted to start the day off with a cable car ride over to Fisherman's Wharf. Amelia and John declared it just as fun the second time around!

We took our time walking around the wharf area.

I remember these seafood stalls from when I was a kid. Back then I thought they were so smelly and gross, but they definitely looked more appealing now that my tastes have broadened.

Since the kids are not big fans of seafood, we stopped for a quick lunch at Boudin so there would be more choices for them. Scott and I went with the obvious clam chowder bread bowl. So delicious!

After lunch we made our way down to Pier 33. We had tickets for the 1:00 ferry departure for Alcatraz, and this was the departure point.

The weather was gorgeous once again, and we all enjoyed the beautiful scenery during the short ride across the bay.

The photo below was taken from the top of the hill on Alcatraz, near the entrance to the main prison block. From here, you can see the steep walkways leading up to the prison, a guard tower, and other prison buildings in the surrounding area.

The photo below was taken inside the prison. Standing in this space, I could clearly recall watching the movie "Escape From Alcatraz" with Clint Eastwood as a kid. I want to rewatch this with Amelia and John now that they have an understanding of the history of the prison.

We all enjoyed the one-hour audio tour of Alcatraz. The narrator did an excellent job weaving together the history of the island, along with specific personal stories of prisoners and notable events that took place at the prison. In the photo below, John is standing inside one of the cells that was used for solitary confinement.

After we returned to the mainland, we walked to Pier 39 so that we could see the famous pier sea lions. Normally, all of the docks are filled with the small, barking animals, so were surprised to find only a few sea lions here. It turns out that July is peak mating season, and many sea lions travel south during this time and don't return to the San Francisco bay until September or later.