Day 3 ~ San Fransisco!

Our 3rd day didn't start out as early as we wanted it to, due to the fact that we slept in a bit, and we had to go and find a pharmacy. Yep, I had to go and spend 1 hour 1/2 getting my prescription transferred to California and fixed. What a pain in the butt! Oh well, we do what we have to. Onto the great part of the day!

We started at the Oakland Temple! Beautiful! This temple was the best show of California ever! The design was so unique; I have never seen anything like it. The gold twisted spires were so neat, and the landscaping was magnificent! Rows of palm trees, a flowing rocky river and fountains. It was nearly impossible to get shots of Oakland and Sacramento without people in them. There were people everywhere! We just took a couple of shots with people in them (hence the fun bridal party shot).

This shot is funny! After I had took it I looked and thought, "I don't remember a helicopter in the sky when I took this??" It is not a helicopter. Look carefully and you can see the fly that invaded my shot!

We drove into San Fransisco across the Bay Bridge. It took FOREVER! Oakland is 11 miles from San Fran, 11 miles. It took us 2 1/2 hours to drive there. It was so depressing to be able to see the town and all the things we wanted to do and to watch the clock tick tock away. We got into San Fran at 3:30 in the afternoon. Bummer!!

The weather was bringing in a tropical storm at the same time. Here are the kids in front of San Fransisco! What a fun and unique town!

As we were heading to the parking we drove by a cable car and a 2 decker tour bus! Awesome!

We had lunch at the famous "Bubba Gumps". Yummy! The food was fabulous, the best seafood I have ever had! The view was spectacular too! We had a perfect view of Alcatraz and the bay. Because it was so windy there were plenty of sailboats to watch come into the harbor while we ate.

This princess liner behind us was HUGE! The boat is actually quite a distance away, it was unbelievably big. The kids liked watching the tour cruises come in and out of the pier too.

Here is a shot of Alcatraz and the sea lions at Pier 39. The kids thought they were so cool. They even spent time picking out the little baby ones. There really is nothing like the sea lions basking on the pier.






Here is the only view that we had of the Golden Gate Bridge. That storm was ruining our pictures! Even so, it was spectacular to visit again. We loved taking pictures in front of the big cable. I remembered doing this when I was 12 (the last time that I came to San Fran). It got so cold about this time though. The time between Alexis and the boys was about 20 minutes and you can see the difference in the light. We also learned that you must have lots of quarters when you visit San Fran. All parking requires feeding the meter.

As we were getting ready to leave we come to the other side of the bridge, where there was a little more visibility. We also saw this wonderful beach. The sign said it was only a 0.9 mile walk. No problem right. The kids desperately wanted to play on the beach so we headed out on the trek. Little did we know the path was snaking straight down the cliff side, hundreds of wooden stairs. The beach looked so close, we could hear the crash of the waves, feel the spray of the water. Keep moving everyone. As it got darker and darker, and the beach didn't get any closer we realized that there was no way we would make it before it got dark, and no way we would be able to head back up the stairs in the dark. We heavy hearts we made the decision to turn around and go back. So sad. Of course as we turned and started back up we noticed the the tide was coming in as well. Our beach got smaller and smaller. The biggest bummer of our trip was that we missed the beach. But there will be another time I am sure.

We closed the day out by going to China Town. It was lots of fun to wander through the stores and look at all the great deals. Alexis choose to get a Japanese dress and a little purple parasol. Domenic choose a wooden Samurai sword. Skyler slept through all of China Town, it had been a long day! We also collected a large number of pressed pennies, another good reason to have lots of quarters on hand!