San Francisco Saga concluded

Need to finish up writing about our San Francisco trip!

Beware!  This may be a long post!

Sunday May 15

Bay to Breakers Day!

Here we all are at the very beginning of the race. 

We got up very early so we could figure out how to get the muni to the Embarcadero where the race started.

On the muni we met a homeless man who was making a sign advertising

his availablity for adoption.

He kept us entertained with jokes and funny comments on our bus ride.

"No checks" he said, "but Visa and Mastercard are okay"

It was a poignant and sad encounter.

There are SO many homeless people in San Francisco.

Bay to Breakers is a long standing tradition in San Francisco.

This was the 100th annual race!

The run is know as the Mardi Gras of the west

because of all of the alcohol, costumes, nudity and general craziness!

Before the race started we recognized that the man in the photo

above would probably we naked when we crossed the start line.

I wonder where they store thier clothes during the race?

It took us 2 hours and 55 minutes to walk the 7.4 miles course.

The serious runners finished it in under 45 minutes! 

Alot of folks worked really hard to prolong the experence!

If you are interested and would like to see more Bay to Breakers

costumes, youtube, and info

Check out this link:

http://bayarea.sbnation.com/2011/5/16/2173037/zazzle-bay-to-breakers-2011-costume-pictures-photos-captions-youtube-video

We probably walked another 2 or so miles getting our really sweet

finish medals AND trying to find a bus stop to get back to our hotel.

We had some lunch then Brian and Jen had to leave us to get a flight back to Phoenix and Mike, Rafael, Jenny, Mia and I went to the Aquarium.

Nice aquaruim located close to Pier 39.

Mia got a little touchy feeling with a large lizard at the Aquarium.

Monday May 16

We had a 9am tour time for Alcatraz this morning

so we grabbed some doughnuts from the shop adjacent to our hotel

and hopped on the trolley.

Jenny spent alot of time on the internet before our trip scoping out

places to visit and to eat. 

The place pictured below is supposed to be where the locals eat

and hang out. 

It was raining at this point and we walked a long way trying to find it.

So here we are finally at Red's Java house located right on the water and full of local color!  I could have eaten the onion rings here all day!  They were delicious!

No trip to San Francisco is complete without a ride on the cable cars.

Here is Rafael hanging off the side.

The rain must not have started yet in this picture.

By the time the cable car stopped everyone who

was hanging off the side were SOAKED!

Then we had to find a ride BACK to our hotel since the cable car was

not a round trip ride!

Tuesday May 17

We visited the Acadamy of Sciences which is a wonderful

Science museum.  They had a really cool place for toddlers

crawl around and experience science at thier level.

Mia had a blast here because she got to actually crawl around,

something she didn't get to do much of on this trip.

Who wants to put a baby down on the floor of a hotel?

After the science museum we boarded the muni and were off to see the Presideo.

The Exploratorium was located right beside this so we visited that next.

 Mia getting some tactile experience in the sand.

Playing with bubbles with mom and dad.

A Sip of Conflict.

Would you take a drink from a water fountain made from a toilet?

I didn't!

We finally boarded another muni to get back to our hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport.

I have to say that SF has an extremely good transit system. 

They always seem to be full.

Sometimes to the place of having NO PERSONAL space at all.

Makes me wonder why I always see completely empty buses here in Phoenix.

We had one pretty tense moment on the muni.

The bus was packed, standing room only, and 3 big scary looking dudes get on the bus and one of them started blaring music on his phone.

Everyone was pretty uncomfortable,

especially when the words of the song started getting raunchy.

So I hear this voice from somewhere in the crowd asking the guy to please turn the music off....it wasn't appropriate for the kids and women to hear.

It was the voice of my husband!

As you might imagine the request was not met with compliance, but with a verbal onslaught of "I can play whatever I want, whenever I want, etc, etc"

The young man finally looked over at Mia who was sleeping and said that he would turn it off, but only because of the baby.

There were a few moments when I thought there could be trouble

but it all worked out okay and I was very proud of my husband for

speaking up for what is right.

Good Bye San Francisco...........We had a great time!

Hope we'll get to see you again soon!

God Bless,

tammy

Judging Eyes

Remember the old saying "You can't judge a book by it's cover"?
The last 5 days has been a series of re-learning this old saying.

Last Friday we set our alarms for 3am so we could make our 6am flight from Phoenix to San Francisco.  Mike has always wanted to run in the Bay To Breakers run, Rafael graduated from college and had a reason to celebrate, Brian and Jen decided to go as well, so off we went.....all seven of us!

Our first task upon entering the city was to figure out how to navigate the BART system.  (with 4 large suitcases, several assorted carry-on bags, a stroller and a baby!....babies DON'T travel light!) 
San Francisco is a fabulous and facinating city!  Full of very friendly and helpful people.  After unloading our luggage at the hotel we headed off to find some breakfast navigating yet another public transportation....the F trolley.

The first day was spent at Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Zazzle Expo (to pick up our race bibs) and the Museum of Modern Art.  PHEW!  A full day already!  Checked into our hotel and met up with Brian and Jen who had taken a later flight.

Can you see us under the sign?

Mia carried the sourdough bread we picked up at Boudins at the wharf.

Alot of time was spent looking at maps!

This t-shirt quilt was diplayed at the Expo and

contained shirts from past Bay to Breakers run.

Painting at the Museum of Modern Art.

We stayed at the Renior Hotel which turned out to be quite old and charming with a wonderful and helpful staff.  Unfortunately the hotel was just on the fringes of the Tenderloin district, one of the worst areas of the city.  We were a little nervous, but the hotel was safe and clean and it turned out to be quite interesting being up on the 5th floor and looking down upon a side of life that we never witness.  One night we saw a man rummaging thru the garbage can.  We assumed that he was looking for cans to recycle.  Well that was just what he was doing.......Our eyes widened abit when we realized that he was peeing in the can!

This "Cinema" has a facebook page!

The highlight of our first day was meeting up with Casey and Amy.  Jenny and Rafael met Amy when they were interning at Walt Disney World in Florida.  Amy and Jenny frequently worked together as Chip and Dale.  Casey is a family friend whom we have known since she was a toddler.  She lives in San Fran now and is in grad school there.

Thanks goodness for these savvy city girls!  They showed us yet another form of public transportation!  There was a muni bus that was in a tunnel underground!  Who knew?!?  So off to dinner we went!  At rush hour!  Everyone was getting off work and getting on the muni.  We crowded on with the rest of the city and off to a restaurant in the Castro district.

Turns out that the Castro district is known for flying rainbow flags.......
We had a really nice dinner and enjoyed visiting with Amy and Casey, and on our way out of the restaurant I could see from the corner of my eye that 2 people had fallen in behind our little group of 9.  Mike was in the back of our party and was holding Mia on his shoulder where she was looking back. 
I guess that when these 2 gals fell in line behind us Mia looked at them and I guess her eyes must have widened a little.  The response from one of the girls was "That baby has JUDGING EYES".  The "ladies" were dressed in leather strips placed stratigically around their bodies and one girl was holding a chain which was attached to a collar on the other girl.  Wish I had a picture!
Dinner AND a SHOW!
It was a fun evening.....one that I'll remember.

Sweet Mia says good night and God Bless!

tammy