vacation catch up, part 3: harbor tour, g.g. bridge, lombard

Holy 25 pictures, Batman! Well, I'll just let them do most of the speaking for me. Suffice it to say that we had a blast. We didn't make it actually inside of Alcatraz (that's okay tho, cuz Gene and I have been before years ago and our kids are too young to appreciate it), but took a boat cruise of the San Fran bay. I loved walking across the Golden Gate bridge.

But seriously probably my favorite part (even tho my toe was killing me) was walking through the hill-y neighborhoods of San Fran as we walked back to the parking garage. It was so fun to see the houses up close--with an occasional peek inside through a window or door--and imagine what it would be like to live in San Fran. And it reminded me somewhat of the days tracting on my mission. I reeeeally enjoy seeing architecture up close! It was dark by the time we got back to the car and then we drove down Lombard street half a dozen times--the kids loved it, and Gene enjoyed freaking me out by coming to a stop at the top of a steep hill. Seriously, there were times when I thought the van would just flip over backwards, the streets were so steep!

Our family at Pier 39 on Fisherman's Warf

Heading to Alcatraz Island, Gene w/ Emma & Morgan and Lorraine taking pics with Sarah & Nathan in the background.

Morgan & Emma snuggling with me to keep warm from the ocean breeze

Pelicans with Alcatraz in the distance

Alcatraz...

Original sign

yours truly

this is a pretty good pic of Gene if I do say so myself

close up of Emma

Sarah as we pull into port

Sarah, Alex, Megan & Nathan

view of San Francisco from the boat

view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the van

Sarah, Morgan (being silly) and Emma before our walk across the bridge

Our family on the Golden Gate Bridge

Sarah & Megan looking at a pod of dolphins

Emma & Gene (her legs got tired)

Gianna & Morgan resting at the base of the north tower on the bridge

Gene & I getting our picture taken by a stranger

(love this pic) Morgan reacting to seeing dolphins in the ocean from the bridge

view looking up at the Golden Gate bridge

walking back to our car and standing at the top of a steep street

with cable car approaching, Alcatraz in the distance

Walking to our garage after visiting Ghirardelli square

(look at the angle of the sidewalk compared with the threshold of the door)

view as we were walking--see why it was my favorite? If I didn't know better I'd say we were visiting a Caribbean city...

Lombard street looking down

a pic of Lombard Street that I took earlier from a distance

(then zoomed in--sorry for the grainy-ness)