San Fran

We decided to go to San Francisco for Labor Day weekend, spur of the moment.

I guess we were excited that we now live so close to California.  San Francisco is only a four hour drive.  So in spite of the fact that one boy (who shall remain unnamed) was not happy at all about going on this little trip ("I don't want to drive all that way to go somewhere I don't even want to see.  I don't care about San Francisco!  It's boring!") I think everyone ended up having a good time.

I was excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  In fact, we brought our bikes so that we could bike across it.  Below, you can see a gorgeous picture of the Golden Gate Bridge uh, Onion Ring.  Actually, if that bank of fog were not there, this would be a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge (resting atop Onion Ring's head).  This is how it was the entire time we were there--the bridge was covered by a bank of fog while it was sunny and beautiful everywhere else.  I thought the fog was supposed to burn off by the afternoon, but apparently not.

Anyhow, we still attempted to bike across.  (Look!  You can see a tiny bit of the bridge in the upper-right-hand side of the picture below.)

This view is looking out at the city from the hill leading up to the bridge.

The boys were excited to see Alcatraz.  If we had planned a little bit more in advance we would have taken a tour, but they were all booked.  That is our top priority for next time.

Unfortunately, one boy (who shall remain unnamed) was not happy about the biking thing.  It was unfamiliar, crowded, windy, cold, and loud.  Which is why we did not actually bike across the bridge.

We only biked a short way onto the bridge with great deal of coaxing.

Then the trauma was too great and we turned around.  Oh well, there wasn't a whole lot to see, anyway, with all the fog.

Then we rode back to the beach where the boys cozied up to the warm sand.

And then dipped into the cold water.

The steep streets really freaked us out, they were so steep!  One of the first streets we drove up had stairs for the side walk.

We drove along Lombard, the most winding street in the world.

We also walked through Chinatown after petting the gargoyles.

The boys were impressed with some of the shops, especially this carved woolly mammoth tusk.

We also liked these outlandish chandeliers.

What a beautiful, interesting city.  This trip made up in a small way for the fact that we went on virtually no vacations this summer (I sense some bitterness amongst some of the boys) due to the fact that we were busy relocating.  We only touched the tip of the San Fran iceberg (or shall we say, fog bank ), so we are excited for our next visit!