California part 1, San Francisco

Nobles & Williams made their 5th trip together, enjoying National Parks along the way. Our latest adventure took us to Northern California. The tradition is that the high school grad chooses the destination, and Emily Williams had the honor this year. Aaron chose Glacier, Yellowstone & Grand Tetons in 2006...that was his last trip with the family - a decision he has made. Alyssa chose New England in 2008, as she wanted to see Gillette Stadium (GO PATRIOTS!). That trip included Boston, New Hampshire, Vermont, & Acadia National Park in Maine. Here's the traveling crew at Columbia Rock in Yosemite.

We rented a 12 passenger van at the San Francisco airport and then we were off to explore the city. BTW, we took only carry-on luggage for our 11 day trip! That saved us from paying the airline luggage fees! Yes, we washed clothes at several locations.

We ate at the Boudin Bakery twice...breakfast and lunch. It's a great place if you are at Fisherman's Wharf. You can also buy loaves of bread to take on the trip.

No trip to the Wharf would complete without checking out the Sea Lions on Pier 39.

We took the ferry across to Alcatraz. The audio tour is worth the money you pay, it's so informative. While we were there Kate got her Junior Ranger badge by completing a booklet as we walked through the prison.

Alcatraz as seen from the ferry.

Here I am in solitary confinement.

When we got to San Francisco we bought the one day MUNI passes ($13 per person). This allowed us unlimited rides on the trolleys, buses and cable cars. We got our money's worth as we took the MUNI everywhere. Some people will tell you not to ride the cable cars, but we had a blast. Maybe because we didn't pay $5 for a one way ticket. Most of us were on the outside of the car holding on, just like you see in the movies (or Full House)! It was a blast. At one point a Cable Car got stuck and had to be pushed...it was in our way, so we had wait for the pusher to come.

Our trips always include ice cream stops. Here is Carrie at Ghiradelli Square having mint chocolate chip.

We stayed on Lombard Street at the Coventry Inn, it was a great place...nothing fancy, but the rooms were big and the location was convenient. A few blocks from the hotel we found Mel's Diner. On our 2nd morning were enjoyed breakfast at Mel's. Thanks to Joe & Abby for the recommendation. After Mel's we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. We parked the van and walked on the bridge to take lots of pictures. We got the full San Francisco treatment, as the fog was quite heavy that morning.

We enjoyed San Fran, and saw lots of interesting people - like reefer man. This homeless guy rolled a joint across from us on the bus, of course we were in the Haight Ashbury section of town!

After we left the city we took Highway 101 to the Redwoods, that will be California part 2.