SF

While I love to visit different places in the country/world, the actual act of traveling drives me nuts. We devoted 11 hours total to traveling on Monday. Lots and lots of sitting. Zero activity. Way too much eating. Don't like those days at all!
We had a direct flight from Milwaukee to SF but didn't arrive here until about midnight our time/10 pm CA time. We were all very hungry so after checking into the hotel we ordered some pizza. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed until almost 2 am (our time) which is only a few hours from the time I usually get OUT of bed. My body clock is a mess!
We spent our first morning in SF getting driven around the city on one of those double decker buses. We LOVED it! The nice thing was, we could get on and off as we wished so we had the opportunity to check out some spots.
It was a gorgeous day. Plenty of sunshine and a cool breeze that kept the body temperature in a great place.
The bus drove us through the business district, Nob Hill, Union Square, and Chinatown among others. It was interesting to see such wealth in the Nob Hill area where just a few blocks away in an area called The Tenderloin there were LONG lines to the soup kitchen. It was very sad.
A few stops, we got off the bus and entered a different world in Chinatown! Wow! A friend of ours who is from the bay area recommended we try a restaurant called Sam Wo's. We were able to find it among the many, many shops and restaurants. What an experience!!! We walked into the building and the doorway immediately took us through the kitchen. We were esorted upstairs by a little middle aged Chinese woman who had us sit at 2 seperate tables since there wasn't one to accomodate all 6 of us. This place was, how do I say this, a throwback to many generations ago. It was only about 10 feet across and had maybe 8 tables with short 4-legged stools. In my mind, there was no way this would have passed a health inspection.
So we get our menus and it is difficult to decide what to order since it has so many selections, some of which I'm not familiar with. Finally I decide to order Chow Fun Chicken. I figured how can I go wrong if something has "fun" in the name. It was basically chicken with rice noodles which looked alot like egg noodles. It was FABULOUS. We were all very happy with our meal and were stuffed to the gills when we left.
We continued to wander around Chinatown, visiting a fortune cookie "factory" where we had to pay $.50 for each picture we took of them. It looks as though making fortune cookies is a lot like making the krumkake we make every year. (Only Norwegians and those of Scandinavian decent may know what I am talking about.)

Another interesting sight we saw yesterday was the Westin Hotel where Gerald Ford's assisnation attempt occurred.
We rode the bus back to the bay and walked back to where we had parked the rental. On the way there, Jenna bought some groovy hippie threads. We continued walking to Ghiardelli Square which is up a very steep hill. By this time we had been in the city for 6 hours and our energy had completely left us.
We walked into the ice cream shop and a young woman was standing there with a big container of their famous chocolate. We munched on that while we waited for our ice cream. Its amazing what a little sugar can do for an energy boost!
By this time, we were all ready to return to the hotel and relax. The kids swam in the pool and some of us just laid around.
Today we got everyone up a little early as we had to be to Pier 31 by 9 am to catch a ferry to Alcatraz. We sent about 2 1/2 hours there wandering around the grounds. This is the 3rd time I had been there but I learn something every time I go. So many of the buildings are just shells now, having withstood the salt water and the other elements that have been beating on it for over 130 years.
We all took a tour with headphones to narrate. The recording was done by actual inmates and correctional officers that worked there before it closed in 1963. Working in corrections, its interesting to see the different philosophies that existed then versus now regarding how to deal with criminal behavior.
We returned to the city around 1:30 and went to Bubba Gumps on Pier 39. It was "Okay" foodwise but very expensive.
By this time, all of us were a little too tired for any more adventure so we returned to the hotel for swimming or napping. (Guess which one I chose?)
Sitting here in the business area of the hotel Bob and I just realized there are only 30 days in June so we are leaving here tomorrow and no Friday for our trip to Yosemite! We've got some packing to do!! More later......