Cali2010: San Francisco

Alrighty now. Let’s finish up the northern part of our trip with a few last shots of beautiful San Francisco.

After visiting the California Academy of Sciences, we headed out to the Music Concourse, played in the fountains, and got some sun.

We then drove through Golden Gate Park, admiring all the cool attractions which we no longer had the energy to explore, and decided to let the kids blow off some steam at a playground.

After being cooped-up in his stroller for much of the morning, the baby was VERY happy to be out and about.

Though his big brother was pretty happy to just play too.

When I first saw this sign, I thought “Aw, how cute and quirky of San Francisco!”, but then the creepiness factor sunk in.

This guy was clearly not abiding by the above signage, but he was doing some very interesting exercises.

Oh, how I adore the patina of time.

We headed back to Alameda for dinner, chillaxing, and eventually sleep, then decided to go back into the city the following day.

Going over the Bay Bridge to get into the city (from Alameda).

A view of the city from the “Grand Old Bridge”.

Driving along the Embarcadero towards Fisherman’s Wharf.

As we had done Fisherman’s Wharf and a boat tour to the “Big Orange Bridge” / past Alcatraz on a previous trip, we decided to take a cable car to the “South of Market” (SoMa) district this time around.

This is us – thank goodness for helpful photo-taking tourists.

Look, there’s one now – helping to illustrate just how hilly the ride is.

 

So many cool things to see on the way…

Oh, how I also adore the funky architecture!

And unusual businesses. (Seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it?)

And Swensen’s! Mmmmm… Swensen’s. Suddenly I was 16 again, drowning my sorrows in vanilla with hot fudge.

All in all, the ride went fairly well (on the way there at least).

When we got to the SoMa district, we did a little shopping – daddy enjoyed hitting the Adidas store…

While mommy preferred poking around Anthropologie. *sigh*

We then grabbed a quick bite to eat and got on the cable car to head back towards our parked car… at which point the baby decided it was nap time and he did NOT want to be on a cable car. A major tantrum ensued. Luckily, he cried himself out after several minutes, and we made the return trip without further incident – i.e. without the other riders pelting us with rocks or some such thing.

We survived!!!

The following day, we packed up and headed a few hours south to enjoy some beach time… but that will have to wait for another day.