I'm home!

I had a great weekend with the kids out in San Francisco. It was my first time out there and my first time on the west coast since a trip to Las Vegas 10 years ago. The first thing that surprised me is that I wasn’t jet lagged at all. I had to get up at 5am to head out there, which was equivalent to 2am Pacific time and I felt fine throughout the whole weekend.

The next thing I noticed was it really was cool there temperature-wise. I didn’t believe everyone when they said it wasn’t going to get over 70. C’mon now, it’s almost August. But they were right and I was wrong, and it felt fantastic!

My flight got in right at noon, and Barbie picked me up at the airport. Since the kids didn’t get out of camp until 4:30, she gave me a tour of the coastline. We drove up from the airport and stopped at the Cliff House for a bunch of photos (See link at the end) then continued over the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito. We had lunch at a place called Horizons, and then went to get the kids.

After picking them up and hanging out for a while, we went to Chevy’s for dinner. Yea, I know it’s a chain restaurant, but it’s always been one of my favorites and the one in Raleigh closed 5 years ago. I missed it! After dinner we wandered around in San Mateo for a bit.

The next morning we drove up to Pier 33 to pick up the ferry for our Alcatraz tour. Besides being a tourist attraction, it’s also a bird sanctuary and smells every bit the part. I enjoyed it quite a bit. We wandered the grounds for a while, and then when we got to the cellblock, there was an hour-long self-guided audio tour which was fantastic. It walked us through the entire place, documenting everything and even included the spots where the famous jailbreak took place.

Once we finished in Alcatraz, the ferry took us to Angel Island. Angel Island is often called the Ellis Island of the west, but that’s not entirely accurate. Initially it was used during the Civil War as a base for the North. But mostly it was used as a holding station for people being exported. And then when it was no longer used for that purpose, it became the spot where they sent people with non-curable contagious diseases to live until they died.

After returning from Angel Island, we headed to Pier 39 to wander around and check out the shops and the all the sea lions hanging out on the docks.

From there we went to Fisherman’s wharf to visit Boudin’s sourdough factory/bakery/restaurant and picked up some bread. By that time we got hungry and went into Chinatown to a Sushi Boat restaurant, which was excellent.

Then on Sunday, the kids and I headed down to Paramount’s Great America in San Jose. That was a lot of fun, and the only thing the kids didn’t want to go on was the “Drop Zone” which was very similar to the ride in Ohio where that 13 year old girl lost her feet when a cable snapped. That wasn’t the reason they didn’t want to go, but I wasn’t complaining. We did however hit every rollercoaster in the park, most of them several times. And if you want to see how scared (or not!) DQ was, check out the video…

Then when we got back we went to a Brew house called BJs (Hold the jokes please) where I had a couple of microbrews to help soothe my back, which took a beating because I was dragged onto the wooden rollercoaster… several times. I love them, but my butt really could have used a shock-absorber. It all went directly into my spine. I probably set myself back a week or so, but for the kids it was worth it.

Yesterday was all travel since I lost the three hours I gained going out there, plus my shuttle jump from Charlotte to Raleigh was delayed. Anyway, that was my trip. Here are the pictures I promised! (If you don't have a free KodakGallery account, you may need to create one.)