SF trip - day 2

The girls woke up much earlier than I was hoping after such a late night, but they were so happy to see Kaitlyn and SO excited to discover the backyard. Everyone's back door in Natalie's apartment complex opens to a playground and giant sandbox with every kind of ride-on toy imaginable left on the sidewalk for anyone to play with. It was kid heaven.

 The girls played for a while and after Jeremy left for work, Natalie and Kaitlyn came with us and we spent a full day in San Francisco. The drive was actually quite pretty, and even though the traffic in the city was a pain, I loved seeing all the rows of different colored houses and steep streets and beautiful churches. I'm not a big city person, but I really liked the feel of San Francisco!

We found parking and walked down to Pier 39. Alcatraz in the background:

 Watching the sea lions. There weren't as many as I expected and the girls weren't terribly interested. Oh well.

 This giant cleat, on the other hand, was a huge hit. I have no idea why. Ellie kept telling me she loved it.

 We ate lunch at the little Boudin cafe right on Pier 39. I'd been waiting to try San Francisco sourdough and it did not disappoint! We all got clam chowder in bread bowls and it was delicious.

Next we walked over to another pier where there was a WWII submarine and warship docked. Dan took the girls on a tour of the submarine while I stayed with Natalie and Kaitlyn. The girls apparently loved it. Everything was cramped and small but to them it was just their size!

Descending into the abyss:

 I guess there was no one around to say what you could and couldn't touch, so Dan let them touch everything:

 37 beds in one tiny room:

 Dan, probably wishing he could fire that gun:

After a bathroom emergency (SF had the WORST bathroom accommodations...as in they were very few and far between, and always had a huge line. A very bad situation with two little girls), we went to the bigger Boudin store to buy loaves of sourdough to take home. They had a window where you could watch them make the bread:

One of the workers gave the girls these sourdough turtles that they were SO excited about (I didn't take the picture until we were back at the apartment):

We walked back to the car and decided to drive around a little bit to give the girls a rest. We ended up at Coit Tower and walked around for a few minutes enjoying the amazing view of the city.

 And then headed to Lombard Street. This was Dan's request. He grew up watching The Love Bug and had to drive down this road. As expected, everyone wants to do this so there is a long line of cars (on an insanely steep road):

 And the view while driving down Lombard Street at 3 miles per hour. Dan wanted me to video it but I refused.

Next stop was Ghiradelli Square for ice cream with some seriously good hot fudge.  Alta was fascinated by the machines showing how they used to make chocolate:

And walking back to our car while the girls stuffed their mouths with the chocolate samples:

We were getting pretty tired by this point, but there was one last thing we wanted to do - walk on the Golden Gate Bridge. We had to park pretty far away and it was cold and windy by then, but it was definitely worth it.

Ellie standing next to a cross-section of the huge cables. Her sweatshirt cracks me up:

 We lucked out and had a sunny day and it was really cool to see the shadow of the bridge on the water:

We headed back home and let the girls have some much-needed play time on the playground.