San Francisco Days 3 & 4

Time & internet connections have been scarce at times over the past few days, so I apologize for not posting more. Even today we're pressed for time, as there are tooooooooo many vineyards and never enough glasses.

Here are some highlights from the past few days:

The Columns built for the 1916 World's Fair at the Palace of Fine Arts
Kim and I on the Cable Car
Kim-No-Evil (Union Square)
Cable Car Turn-Around
CRAB!!
Mikael Gorbachev's House (Your tax dollars at work!)
The Golden Gate Bridge
Bank Building in Chinatown
Hopefully we'll have time to post more tonight when we're recovering from whirlwind wine tasting.

San Francisco, Day Two, Alcatraz Edition

The weather report said that it was 52 degrees yesterday morning, but if that was true, it was a 52 degrees unlike any other Kim & I have experienced in our lives. In line to board the boat, we both shed all the layers we'd dressed in (as instructed by the Alcatraz website) and stood for an hour slowly getting both sun and wind burnt (and enjoying ourselves, somehow). The ferry ride itself was rather short and before we knew it we were pulling into the dock at Alcatraz.

The first building you come to is the Barrack/Apartment building for Alcatraz staff. There's a prominent sign announcing the island as a US Penitentiary with red writing scrawled across that saying "Indians Welcome". This mystified us until we actually got on the island took the tour. The Island was apparently the sight of an American Indian uprising in the 1960/70s. A group of Indigenous People took over the island for approximately 19 months and claimed it as Indian land. They were eventually removed, but the occupation did lead to changes in the US policy toward Native Americans.
We saw way too much to record here, but a few highlights include: Kim in a cell:

Kim in the Hole!

And later, Kim stuck in a pot:


You can check out more photos on my Flickr page.

San Francisco, Day Two (Part One)

Kim and I got each other moving pretty early today so that we could make it down to Pier 33 for the boat to Alcatraz. We continued our fabulous run as Urban Warriors! and mastered the cable car system.

The cable car ride was amazing, and not only because it saved us crawling on our hands and knees up the truly ridiculous hills. We jumped up to try and capture the view, especially at Lombard Street:

Although, we know we haven't completely done it justice and we definitely intend to try and walk it (on foot!) tomorrow.

We toured Jefferson street and the Fisherman's Wharf at a brisk pace, so that we could get to our boat in time. Once we were safely in line (and I got a second cup of coffee) we felt free to look around and relax a bit. Sadly, relaxation does not necessarily heighten either of our intelligence, as we both stared at this sign wondering what could possibly be on our cell phones that might be considered contraband by the Alcatraz boat crew:

Luckily, we quickly figured out our mistake (with the help of a park ranger). On board the ferry to Alcatraz Island, we couldn't help but be amazed by the view of San Francisco:

I'm afraid our photos don't begin to do the city justice.

More to come, but for now, DANCING WITH THE STARS is on!

San Francisco, Day One

Kim and I arrived this afternoon at the San Francisco International Airport. It will remain a total mystery how my dear sister survived 7 1/2 hours without a cigarette, but let me tell you, she burst out of that plane once we'd reached the ground and made her way as quickly as possible to the fresh air for the sole purpose of polluting it:


We mastered the BART and arrived at our hotel without incident because we are Urban Warriors! After a nap and wine and cheese in the common area (both staples of the Urban Warrior lifestyle) we went out to explore Chinatown. We turned down several interesting dinner choices:



and settled instead at bar Vesuvio on Columbus Ave. in North Beach, a favorite hangout of the Beat Generation. We enjoyed their signature drink, the Jack Kerouac and relaxed a bit from the challenging walk.


Kim continued her tradition of photography without irony:


On the way home, despite dragging a bit because of the time change, we managed to take in a little "culture":


And all of this only in the first 12 hours!

More tomorrow!