Days 28 to 30 - San Francisco

Downtown SF viewed from Alcatraz ferry

Days 28 to 30 (June 22 to 24) -  As we came down from Yosemite, guess what David wanted to do.....yep, you guessed it....get more fruit.  This time we found one fruit stand and bought cherries, apricots, blackberries, blueberries, and peaches.  David is so excited about the fruit out here.

Our other memorable accomplishment -- we passed 5,000 miles of driving while in San Francisco.  Thus, we should be about half way through our trip in terms of mileage.  Its well over 100 hours of time in the car, so that is a whole lot.  We kept teasing Jaeyong that he was leaving our of San Francisco and flying about 5300 miles to get home to Seoul and it would only take him about 12 hours of flying and it had taken us over 100 hours to get that far in the car.

Kids at Golden Gate Park after Jaeyong left

Before we left Yosemite, we sat in the Happy Burger diner for about 2 hours while we had internet to fix a mistake of mine.  So far everything has worked as far as timing hotels, but I finally had a major screw-up.  I was a bit surprised when I got an email from Colter Bay Tent Camps in Jackson Hole, WY telling me what they had available for my upcoming visit.  Yes, I was planning to be there, but not until July 13 (and this was like June 5).  Then one June 15 I got an email thanking me for my recent stay at Colter Bay.  That's when I knew I was in trouble.  I checked the reservation and, yes, I did make it for the wrong month.  So, I went to make new reservations in July and they are sold out.  In fact, most of Jackson Hole is sold out.  So, we are going to have to cram into an overcrowded Super 8 in Jackson and one unlucky kid is going to have to sleep on the floor unless we can get a roll-away bed.  But, at least we have something, which is good because we have a sunrise float trip on the Snake River scheduled for the following morning.

Driving toward SF from Yosemite

Once we got on the road, the trip to San Francisco was uneventful.  My mom's best friend was allowing us to stay at her house, we we were happy to have a place to crash.  She even fed us dinner, let us do laundry, and bought us food for lunches.  It was great!  She was a blast to spend time with and hear about her kids (which I remember from childhood).

Alcatraz view as you pull up to the dock

On June 23 we had tickets to Alcatraz so we headed to downtown San Francisco to catch the ferry on Pier 33.  We were unlucky with traffic (Candlestick Park was backed up for miles), but finally made it downtown.  Once we bought some souvenirs it was time to get lunch (we ate wonderful sandwiches that Renee had bought all the fixings for).  The trip to Alcatraz took only a few minutes on the ferry and then we had a great tour of Alcatraz.  It was interesting to hear the stories from there and see the park rangers demonstrate how the cell door operated mechanically.

Bow is in jail! :-(

David's and my favorite things were the rules from the Alcatraz handbook which they had printed up on magnets (which, of course we had to buy).  Rule 5 -  You are entitled to food, clothing, shelter and medical attention. Anything else that you get is a privilege. Rule 30 - Loud talk, shouting, whistling, singing, or other unnecessary noises are not permitted.  Rule 23 - Any groundless complaints for the purposes of creating dissatisfaction and/or stirring up trouble...will be subject to disciplinary action.  Thus, our favorite new sayings are to say things like, "Daniel -- Rule 30."  Erin also got a new passport book to replace the one she lost on the trail.

The kids have also created interesting nicknames for each other on this trip.  Bow acquired the name Raven by Jaeyong.  Then she turned around and called him Mockingbird.  Then we had to come up with names for Daniel and Erin.  Daniel is either Turkey Vulture or Woodpecker (my favorite one).  Erin is flamingo (obviously for her spindly legs).

Painted Ladies (remember Full House?)

Favorite Diner!

After we got back from Alcatraz, we wanted to take a city tour so Jaeyong could see some of San Francisco before he left the following day.  So, we did the red double-decker open-air bus tour.  First we did the downtown day tour and then right after that we did the night tour.  It gave us a decent overview of the city, but the first tour guide seemed to be more interested in people watching then telling us about the buildings, regions, and history of the town.  The second tour guide was much better.  One interesting event that was going on that weekend was the gay pride parade.  They were having a bunch of events leading up to it on Saturday and then Sunday was the actual parade.  They were expecting something like a million people to come to it.  We, we decided to avoid downtown the next day because we knew that traffic and tours would be a mess downtown and it would be crazy to try to get around.  We finally stopped for dinner around 9 pm.  We went to a place recommended by our tour driver called Tommy's Joynt.  It was really good food and every inexpensive.  They just have and food line like a cafeteria and you tell them what food you want and they throw it on your plate almost before you finish the sentence.  David got corned beef and cabbage (which he hadn't had since the Palya's served it at their house and he LOVED it).  Daniel got sweet-and-sour ribs and the rest of us got buffalo stew over rice which was wonderful.  Also, we got a sourdough roll (a SF standard).  Such good food!

City buildings all lit up for gay pride week

Jaeyong leaving at the airport   :-(

So, the next day we got up moderately early and helped Jaeyong get packed.  He go everything put into suitcases and then we took him to the airport.  Of course his bags were overweight (because he had stuffed so much into them), but the lady was really nice and told him if he took a few things out, like a book and sweatshirt,  it would be enough.  He did that and placed it in an extra bag he had and she was nice enough to say that it was fine, even though it was still overweight.  Korean Air is much nicer about things than Delta!  We watched Jaeyong go through security (all of the ay through the long line) and kept waving to him every time he came into view.  I think Bow will miss him the most because she was closest to him.  Daniel and Erin still have Bow and each other to pick on.  But, Bow will probably be okay when she gets home to her friends and family.  We got a facebook message the next day letting us know that he was home, so we know he arrived safely.

After he left we headed back downtown, but this time to Golden Gate Park.  We ate lunch right outside the park in a little Vietnamese restaurant called Green Bamboo.  No one else had eaten Vietnamese before (other than me), so it was a new experience for them).  It is similar to Chinese and Thai, but a bit different.  David and Daniel got the 5 spice chicken which had interesting seasonings (ginger, anise, clove, etc.) and I got the curry chicken (which was really spicy because it had jalapeno peppers in it), and Erin and Bow got a pork soup with noodles.  Erin ate all sorts of things in that soup that we didn't know she ate (onions, tofu, etc.).  It was fun to watch, but she took forever to try to get the noodle out with chopsticks (Bow, of course, was an expert at it).

Our bicycle contraption

After lunch we tried to find parking (nearly impossible) and finally got a space.  Then we rented one of those 4-seat surries which you pedal and drove it around the park with Daniel steering and being in charge of the brake (that part was a bit scary!).  After an hour and a half of that (only having one gear and having to drive uphill from the beach) we headed back to Renee's house for some dinner and laundry.

At the beach by Golden Gate Park

Overall San Francisco was fun, but I still prefer natural areas and small towns to cities.  However, it was absolutely the best weather I've ever seen in San Francisco -- sunny, warm, and clear!  

Renee