Days 2-3: July 24-25
You know that scene in “Pulp Fiction” where John Travolta wants to know what a $5 milk shake tastes like? Imagine what he’d say about $16.50 pancakes.
We had some of those as part of an insanely expensive breakfast at a small cafe/restaurant Saturday morning. It set the tone for our meals here in San Francisco. We have had $13 ice cream sundaes, $6 bottled water and $24 spaghetti and meatballs.
After that $85 breakfast we boarded the Big Bus Tour, one of those hop on, hop off deals that let’s you see a lot of the city easily. We saw the Painted Ladies (which the kids know as from the opening of “Fuller House”), Golden Gate Park, drove over the Golden Gate Bridge absolutely freezing in the wind, and got a look at Haight Ashbury.
We jumped off at stop 13 as it seemed like there were lots of restaurant options. We then proceeded to stand on the sidewalk completely unable to agree on any restaurant. Thankfully a woman walking by steered us in the direction of a street with a ton of restaurants. I feel confident she stood nearby for at least five minutes listening to us argue over choosing something before she finally took pity on us. (Also World Wraps is amazing and I want to open one in Charlotte.) She’s probably writing a blog right now about that crazy family who couldn’t decide between burgers or pizza.
After fortifying ourselves, I told everyone it was a short walk to Crookedest Street. It’s clear to me now that their definition of short is not mine. I also now know that it’s important to them to know if a walk is flat or hilly. Live and learn. There was a lot of “how much longer?”, “We have to walk up that hill?!” and “you said it was two more blocks two blocks ago!”
We made it, got all the requisite pictures, and then took the bus back to Union Square and walked back to the hotel for a brief chillax before the Giants game. The stadium is beautiful, the lines crazy long and their mascot, Lou Seal, adorable.
We got a later start Sunday morning and walked to Chinatown for a free tour of the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory. We had to walk through a tunnel and just barely missed an extra close up view of a homeless person in a stairwell without pants or underwear on. Thank goodness Casey listened when I told him to come back down the stairs we had just sent him up.
The fortune cookie tour was not quite the tour it was billed to be. It’s just a tiny store front on a side alley but we saw women taking the fresh cookie circles off a machine, add the fortunes and fold them up and we got a free sample. Total tour time: 90 seconds.
We rode the city bus to Little Italy, where we had lunch and gelato. We also learned that almost no one seems to pay for their public transit rides. Is it free for residents? Is everyone a friend of the bus driver? Are we just suckers? We don’t really know, but we did ride for free on our last bus ride of the day even though I was convinced the driver would look back in that giant rearview mirror and call us out. We. Are. Rebels.
We had to move hotels Sunday afternoon because the travel company includes a hotel for the night before you get the RV and we had added on in San Francisco. Two Lyft rides later and we had dropped our bags and returned to Fisherman’s Wharf for a 5 p.m. tour of Alcatraz. I have been to the Rock before and for some reason have always found it fascinating. It did not disappoint and I motivated the kids to read all the signs by offering $5 to whomever wins Alcatraz trivia tomorrow. (Pros of having competitive kids: this motivates them. Cons: every Easter egg hunt ends with someone in tears because someone else “cheated.”)
After the tour, we called it a day and headed back to the hotel. Everyone needs a good night’s rest as tomorrow is the big day: we pick up the RV and head to Monterey.
Peace.
