Tag Archives: san francisco

Bloggings, Travel

Cubs vs Giants in San Francisco

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This morning we had a bit of lazy morning, but we were still up around 6:30. Lucas and I went to the general store to get a couple of sandwiches. We all had to pack up to go back to San Francisco. While Don was packing, we went to the zipline and Lucas did that for a while. Papa, Gigi, Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline showed up.

Around 8:45 we set off in the cars. This time Gigi rode with us. The drive went well. We stopped in Dublin at a brewery for lunch. It was ok, I’m unable to remember the name right now. Lucas was into watching Canada in the world cup on TV. From here we were about an hour from San Francisco. We gassed up the car, unloaded our luggage at the Comfort Inn By the Bay again, and returned the cars. Don, Lucas, and I got the same room! 307.

We hung out. Lucas and I played chess and had a slice of pizza for a snack. Kelsey, Jared, my dad, Lucas and I were going to Oracle Park to see the cubs face the giants. Mom and Adeline were staying back at the hotel, and Don also stayed behind. He ended up checking out Chinatown.

Oracle Park was awesome. We sat in the 300-level, right behind home plate. So we had a great view and could see out to the water. Lucas and I walked the whole stadium to take pictures. The cubs actually pulled out a win. Micheal Busch hit a homerun into the bay. We were lucky to be in a pocket of cubs fans. It was fun to get loud with them and celebrate. We all brought our W Flags and we were pumped to fly them. After the game they had a fireworks show to celebrate Pride. The show was great. We didn’t get back to the hotel until almost 11pm. Lucas was exhausted.

Lucas had some memorable quotes at this game like “That’s rare.” He said it a few times whenever the Cubs did something good. Most notably Suzuki. “Suzuki had a rare double. That’s rare.” The Cubs have been in a bit of slump lately so he has probably heard me going off about them, but it was fun to have a win. During the 9th he said, “Let’s cook these babies!”.

Our last day in San Francisco Lucas slept until 7:30. Then we all went to Chestnut Diner. We went for a walk up Lombard Street to see the curvy road. It was a crazy walk. Then around 10:45am we headed to the airport with my parents. Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline stayed to explore Chinatown because their flight was much later. We all enjoyed SFO. It was a super nice airport.

Bloggings, Travel

Alcatraz

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We got up and moving around 5:45 today. There’s no sleeping in here! Then we were out walking around 8 to go to Pier 33 for our Alcatraz tour.

When we first got to Alcatraz, we listened to a ranger talk a bit. This is when Lucas and I learned that one of the last living ex-prisoners was going to be here at Alcatraz today signing his book. Lucas was very excited and wanted to see him. We showed Lucas the movie Escape From Alcatraz a few months back. So he knew the story and was very excited to see things. He recognized things from the movie. It was really cool. He was really into the audio tour. At the end he found a magnet and Christmas ornament that he wanted. As we were heading back down from the prison Lucas said “this is the best day ever!”

We made it down to the bookstore and we bought the ex-prisoner’s book and the man signed it. Lucas was a little nervous and afterwards he said he was nervous because he was a bad guy.

We made it just in time for the ferry and we got back to San Francisco around 1. Then we walked to Wipeout Bar and had lunch. It was pretty good. We then decided we would meet up with Mark at Fort Mason Park. We walked there and saw things along the way like break dancers, a visitor center, and Ghirardelli. We found Mark at the park and he had strawberries and sour dough bread he got from the farmer’s market. Lucas had a perfect tree to climb in and Adeline enjoyed pulling grass. Then Mark came back to our hotel and played chess with Lucas. We all hung out and ordered food. Dad and I walked over to the pizza place and I got sushi. Then we found a liquor store to get some beer. It was nice to see Mark. Tomorrow we get the cars and drive to Yosemite.

Bloggings, Travel

Muir Woods

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Today was my dad’s birthday. And we got to go to one of the places he wanted to see the most, Muir Woods. Lucas was up around 5 am. We ate breakfast at the hotel at 6:30. Then we all walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf to get our 9am tour with Dylan’s Tours.

We set up a guided tour to Muir Woods to see the Redwood Trees. Our bus tour started with a little tour around San Francisco. I really didn’t expect that, so that was pretty cool. Dylan drove to Chinatown and showed us some stuff. Then he showed us some very expensive houses and let us walk a couple blocks to look at them. He drove by the house from Mrs. Doubtfire and the house from Full House (even though tour buses are not allowed to drive by it). Then he made a 15 minute stop so we could take pictures by the Golden Gate Bridge. I really thought the bus would just go straight to Muir Woods so this was a nice surprise.

We got to Muir Woods around 10:50 and we had to meet back at the bus at 12:20. The trees were awesome. The walk was easy and fun. We made it to the Cathedral then we turned around. Lucas worked on his junior park ranger book and earned his badge. The woods were really awesome; I have never seen trees like that. On the drive back we had the option of being dropped off in Sausalito or taking the bus back.

We decided to get off and have lunch. We had lunch at Napa Valley Burgers. It was very good but very expensive. After lunch we walked over to the ferry terminal to buy tickets for the 3:10 ferry. While waiting Lucas played on rocks near the water and looked at crabs. Then he played in a fountain. We had asked Dylan where the ferry from Sausalito would drop us off and it sounded like it would be close to Fisherman’s Wharf. But on the ferry Don and I discovered it was actually going to be much further away from our hotel than Fisherman’s Wharf.

This stressed me out because we were supposed to meet my cousin Mark for dinner at 6. When we got to the ferry station in San Francisco it was already approaching 4. We had wanted to stop by the hotel to get a banana bread that my Aunt Patti had made for Mark, but then my mom decided let’s just go over to the park with the Painted Ladies before dinner.

So, we figured out the bus and made our way to Alamo Park. Our bus driver was very friendly. Mark met us at the park. After walking a bit and seeing the Painted ladies Mark told us we should take a Waymo to dinner. A Waymo is a self-driving car. So Lucas, Don, and I got one and my parents and Mark got another. Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline took an Uber because we were unsure about the rules for kids in Waymos. The Waymo was pretty cool and a super smooth ride. Lucas loved it.

We ate at Boiling Hot Pot. It was a really cool experience for everyone. It was good to see Mark. After dinner Mark came back to our hotel and he was able to get some banana bread. So it all worked out! He even was able to play chess with Lucas.

Bloggings, Travel

First Day In San Francisco

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Yesterday was Lucas’s last day of school. He rode his bike there. When I picked him up he wanted to ride around the playground with his friend Matti a few times. I can’t believe he’s done with kindergarten. When we got back to the house my parents were there. We went to dinner at The Ivy, which used to be The Piggery. It was pretty good. Then we got ready for bed and watched the cubs for a bit. They were losing bad but somehow made a miraculous comeback in the bottom of the 9th.

Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline were staying the night in Austin because they are flying out of there tomorrow. Adeline had a tough time sleeping in her tent they brought, and they eventually had to get a pack N play. Hopefully she sleeps better for the rest of the trip.

We woke up around 4:30 am. Lucas watched the cubs highlights with Papa and Gigi. Then we made our way to O’Hare at 5:30. The airport was crowded! By the time we made it thru we only had about 50 minutes to eat. So we went to the food court. Our flight was delayed by 20 minutes because of air traffic control in SFO. When we eventually boarded we were on the runway for probably an hour. Lucas was so tired and cranky. He couldn’t get comfortable to sleep. When the plane took off, he finally got to sleep.

The plane ride was ok but it felt long. Lucas slept for maybe 40 minutes. Once we got off the flight, we easily got a taxi to our hotel, Comfort Inn By The Bay. Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline had been here for a couple of hours already, so we met up with them. We were really hungry, so we went to a Pizzeria across the street called Chico’s. It was pretty good.

Then we walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf. The walk felt long but we made some stops and we were tired. We made our way over to Pier 39 and saw the sea lions. There were so many of them. Then we looked at some shops. Adeline and Lucas rode the carousel. Then Lucas and I watched a short magic show. I was holding a balloon sword that Lucas got and one of the balloons popped. It made me jump and say, “oh my gosh!” the magician stopped and said, “are you ok?” 😂😂

We ate dinner at Pier Market Seafood Restaurant. It was pretty good. Lucas and I had fish and chips. Don had clam chowder. Of course we had calamari. Then we made the trek back to the hotel. We made it back around 7 and got Lucas to bed. He did very good for waking up at 4:30 am, having a 40 minute nap, and gaining 2 hours.