Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part Two

Well, I have absolutely no pictures for this segment (there really wasn't much that was photo worthy) but at least I have some video.

So when I left off, we were enroute to get our rental car in a taxi. We rented the car from Alamo, which was located near Union Square. It was the best price I could find for a one way rental, and I actually booked it online through Orbitz.

So the taxi dropped us off, and I dragged all our luggage inside and waited while Brian signed all the paperwork and got the GPS I had also rented. I thought about bringing ours from home, but across the country and a two week vacation seemed like too much trouble for one day. So decided it was worth $11. There was a little confusion as to where our car was, but we got pointed in the right direction. We had to go into another garage and find our red Chevy Aveo. (Yes, of course I had reserved the cheapest type of car!) The trunk was small, but we had all the backseat, and so we loaded everything into the car and I started to try and get the GPS to find us.

I don't know what it is with GPS', but they always seem to take forever to locate us! We knew we had to leave the garage in order to get a signal, so into the roads of San Francisco we went. Of course the roads around Union Square are pretty congested, unlike the rest of the city we had seen. It was kind of stressful, driving in one direction waiting for the GPS to catch up with us! (I had TOTALLY forgotten that I had written directions in my phone. Yeah. Way to fail.) Anyway, the GPS finally got with the program and we got on the highway and headed out of San Francisco to San Jose. The drive was rainy but fine and the roads weren't very crowded because it was before rush hour. I found a decent station on the radio and enjoyed the lovely CA scenery. Despite the rain.




We arrived at the DoubleTree San Jose about an hour later. It was still raining. We went to check in and our room was ready. We were also given two delicious chocolate chip cookies. I love those! Brian had a little confusion with the parking situation, but we got to our room and brought our stuff in. It was very nice! Big, and we had a small balcony, even if the view was of the parking lot and it was raining.

We just relaxed for awhile and discussed what we wanted to do next. We both wanted to see a movie - sherlock Holmes - so I researched where the nearest theater was and we decided to head over there (with the help of our GPS) to see the movie.

I forget what time the movie was, or what time we left, but it was dark when we got there. We didn't have any trouble finding the mall (Thank you, GPS) but the parking lot was crowded and it was still raining. We weren't really sure where we were going, so we just parked where we found a spot and went into the mall. This mall was technically in Milpitas and it was called Great Mall. I swear, that's what it was called. Anyway, this mall was one level and it was HUGE and full of great stores. There was actually outlet stores in the mall! Man, I wish our malls were that awesome out here. I saw some stores I wanted to stop in, but there wasn't a ton of time before the movie and we still had to find the theater, so we kept moving.

The theater ended up being at the total opposite end of where we were - and it was outside. And still raining. There was a bit of a line, so we hopped on it, and gawked at the prices. And we thought NY was expensive! It was almost $11 a ticket. But more than that, I was perplexed why they felt the need to post a sign stating that firearms were not allowed in the theater. We weren't in a bad area or anything! Very strange. But luckily we just made it in time to get the matinee price, which I think lasted until before 6.

Anyway, we grabbed some snacks and saw the movie, which we both enjoyed. I just love Robert Downey Jr. He's a very good actor. Afterwards there wasn't too much time before the mall closed. Brian wanted dinner, but I had eaten popcorn and I was good, so I went shopping while he headed to the food court and had a hot dog or something. I ended up buying this really cute dress. I don't remember the name of the store, but it wasn't a store we have out here. It was kind of like Forever 21, because the clothes were cute and inexpensive. It was called Love Culture actually. Afterwards we found our car, went back to the hotel, showered and went to bed. We had a big day ahead of us!

Here's a look at the weird street lights in San Jose and a brief review of the our night:

NEXT...

Winchester House...of Mystery!
An important lesson about rental cars
San Diego delays

Trip Report - Day Three ~ Part One

It's our last day in San Francisco already? But we just got here!

We packed up our stuff (including the huge bag of chocolate I bought on our first day...and am still working on finishing over a month later) and headed down to the lobby where I enjoyed another delicious blueberry muffin. We had to leave our bags with bell services since we weren't picking up our rental car till that afternoon. We had to wait for a bit, but eventually someone showed up, we checked like 5 bags, and headed back outside into the 50 degree weather.

Finally no fog! Beautiful.

We'll be back here later - The Cannery.

Our goal? To ride the damn cable car finally!

The Powell/Hyde cable car started (or ended, depending on how you look at it) right near our hotel, so we took a ride over there. I wanted to go first thing in the morning because I had seen longer lines later in the day. It was nice and quiet over there. We bought our tickets, which amounted to $5 each way for each of us. Expensive, right? Well, you can get a pass for cheaper but there was no point in us doing that at this point. There was a car about to leave, and we could have gotten on if we wanted to stand, but we decided to wait for the next one. Standing on the cable car...not the safest looking thing to do. Those things pass very close to cars and other cable cars! But...we'll get to that later.

Took this video while we waited:





So we waited awhile for the next car, and we were the first ones on. The car filled up pretty quickly because a line had formed behind us and so before we knew it we were heading up the hill and riding the cable car!





I was filming as much as I could and enjoying the view until the second stop - that's when this guy got on and stood right in front of me. He couldn't stand in front of someone not clearly filming? Thanks a lot, buddy. Anyway, I tried my best to film around him. He got off at like the second to last stop.





Riding the cable car was really cool. I don't know how the brakemen control those things. Cars zoom around them, and they have to stop at traffic lights - it's pretty crazy. I think the video tells the story better than words could. But we rode the cable car all the way to the end, which was Union Square. And you have to get off at the end of the line.

The line to get back on the cable car? SUPER LONG.

And we were a long, long way from Fisherman's Wharf.

Oh well! Might as well make the best of it. We wandered around Union Square, and ended up in the huge, beautiful mall. This was probably the nicest mall I've ever seen. It had escalators that kind of curved around like spiral staircases. And it was packed full of high end stores, of course. There was also a really nice looking movie theater. And there was a gorgeous dome. It was pretty big, and we explored the whole thing but didn't go in any of the stores.

The beautiful dome.

Once we were sick of that, we started thinking about how we would get back. There was no way I was waiting on that long time. So we decided to walk a ways back up the cable car line, and just catch it at another one of the stops. We wanted to check out Lombard Street anyway, which is right along the cable car route.

So we started walking. In San Francisco. And have I mentioned how hilly it is in San Francisco?

A beautiful city it may be, but a walkable city it is not.





But we toughed it out. And we walked up about three or four stops. This British couple joined us in waiting for the cable car. One came along after a few minutes, but there wasn't a lot of room on it. We let the British couple go ahead of us since we saw another one was coming right behind it. So we got on that one instead. I got to sit, but Brian had to stand and hang on for dear life. He wasn't too thrilled with this, but it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.





But there was a problem! We were on the Powell/Mason line! Oops! Wrong line! Brian discovered this - I had no idea. We came to a stop where we could transfer, so we hopped off and waited for the right cable car line. This car was crowded too, but we were able to stand inside - at least there was no hanging off the side this time! We listened to a family from San Francisco chat with a family from Canada. It was funny, because the San Francisco family were acting like such tourists - they had small children with them, I'm thinking maybe the kids had never been on a cable car before?

At no point did anyone ask to see those extra, expensive tickets we had paid for. What up, California? And this wasn't the last experience we had with that.


The stop for Lombard Street came, and we got off. Lombard Street is really cool. There are houses right there, and people literally have driveways right on the street. I wouldn't want that to be my driveway! The view from there was awesome, and there are stairs leading down, so we walked down the street. Lots of people were driving down at the snail pace of 5 mph. Lombard Street is part of the much advertised 40-something mile drive through San Francisco.

Check out that view!

Yeah, it's just a little windy.

Me taping, what a shock!

Lots of cars coming down!

After taking some pictures and video, we decided to head back down the hills towards the Bay and find somewhere to have lunch. Along the way, we saw a truck that had run into a pole (the truck was hardly damaged at all - it wasn't a bad accident or anything) and there were a couple of police and firetrucks around. So, I took a picture by the firetruck. One of two accidents we saw in California, and the only one I wish I saw.


The walk back was nice. The streets in San Francisco are so much quieter than any other city I've ever been to.

Do not do this in New York City unless you want to wind up in a hospital.

Once we were back in tourist land, we headed to this place called The Cannery. If you guessed that it used to be a cannery, you're right! Anyway, now it's a bunch of shops and restaurants, but there really isn't much there. It's kind of a shame, because the building is really cool. We went in a sock store, but didn't buy anything. According to the directory, there was supposed to be a hot dog place in there somewhere, but we didn't see it. Maybe it closed. We kind of just wanted to grab some hot dogs, but since that clearly wasn't going to happen, we decided to go to The Buena Vista, which had been recommended to us. It's the first place in the U.S. to serve Irish coffee.




It's right by the cable car stop, so we headed on over. I don't remember exactly what time it was - kind of early for lunch - maybe somewhere between 11 and 12? Anyway, the place was small and it was packed! We walked through the whole thing and there wasn't a seat to be had - even at the bar. It's kind of a casual place, and there's really no one there to seat you. It's really pretty inside though. We weren't sure what to do, and we were just kind of standing there when the bus boy found us a table - a table for six! But we sat down anyway. And I was cold! So I just ordered some hot tea and a grilled cheese. Brian had the Irish Coffee and I forgot what he ate - maybe a hamburger?

Anyway, we were sitting there for a few minutes when an older man and his grandson approached us and asked if they could share our table. Of course we said sure. We had a table for six, and we were only 2 people after all. Anyway, the man was very nice and his grandson was adorable. (I think he was about 4.) He was from CA - just outside San Francisco, and we started telling stories about New York and such. He was very emotional about 9/11, and talked about how much he admired the NY police and firefighters. Since his grandson was visiting and they were planning to ride the cable car, Brian gave him our tickets that no one had taken on our return trip.

Mmm...Irish Coffee.

We had a very nice meal. The little boy, Casey, was very well behaved. The older man got an Irish coffee too and he got crab cakes that he offered to share with us, but we don't eat crab. Anyway, when our check came, the older man grabbed it and insisted on paying! We tried to talk him out of it, but he was insistant. He told us in exchange we could just buy a drink for a cop or firefighter from the Hurley family. It was so nice of him! Needless to say we thanked him profusely and headed back out to kill some time before we picked up our rental car.

So we wandered down in the direction of Ghiradelli Square, but we stayed at sea level. No more hills for us! There was this historic bathhouse place, so we walked inside. There wasn't much in there - just a pretty mosaic on the wall and a nice view of the Bay outside.

Shot this out there:




I thought we could walk down these steps and head to the path that runs along the Bay, but there was like a senior center down there with a bunch of older people exercising. Um, nope! Can't go that way! So we went back outside and found our way to the path and just walked along the bay for awhile. It was really nice. I miss San Francisco! It's such a fantastic city - I can't wait to go back.

The Rock

After that we found our way to this free ship museum. I know it sounds boring as hell, but it actually wasn't that bad - and there were benches! They had an interesting section on shipwrecks (there have been plenty off the coast) that I spent time reading about. When it was nearly time to pick up our rental car, we headed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and had the valet call us a cab. (Using this interesting whistle... I had never seen anything like it. But then again I don't really ask valets to call me cabs in large cities.)

Just one more thing I want to say before I forget - at some point I decided I wanted to get the paper - you know, the San Francisco Chronicle. I decided I wanted the newspaper from every city I visited. Well, that dream died right in our first city. I could not find one! I tried a couple of drugstores (they carry the paper here in NY!) and even our hotel gift shop, but they did not have it. Unless I wanted USA Today I was out of luck. Very strange. Oh well.

Next!

Oh god, we really do have to drive here!
Another lovely mall...
The clothes here are better. They just are.

Trip Report ~ Day Two - Part Two

And so day two of our trip continues in the lovely city of San Francisco.

Only we were about to embark to a place that isn't quite so lovely. In fact, I referred to it as the "Unhappiest Place on Earth" - hey, something had to be opposite of Disneyland. I think Alcatraz fit the bill.

Our night tour left at 4:20, and I knew we had to be there about an hour before, so after relaxing and uploading my videos, we left our hotel room at about 3 and took the walk to Pier 33. It wasn't too far.

Once we got there I picked up the tickets, and noted the tours were now sold out until Thursday! I'm so glad I got the advice to buy my tickets online a few weeks before! (If you're planning to go to Alcatraz, I can't stress that enough!) Tickets in hand, we got in line to wait for the ferry. They didn't keep us waiting out in the cold for too long. Soon enough we were moving towards the boat. They made us pose for a picture in front of this Alcatraz backdrop like we were having some Disney character breakfast. the photo was also ridiculously overpriced - like $25 bucks or something for a 5x7. Et tu, National Parks Service?

Once aboard the boat, we chose to stay on the first level near the door so we could get off quick when we docked. We grabbed some seats and eventually we pulled out, heading for the island.

I actually taped the entire voyage out, but it was too long to upload to YouTube - over 10 minutes. Along the way we heard the history of the island and got some pretty nice views of the bay and the bridge. When we were nearly there we passed a buoy that had seals on it! Unfortunately it was on the other side of the boat, so I didn't get very good video. But it was cool.

Once we arrived at the island, they explained how we'd be walking up a steep incline towards the island. They did have a transport that took people who couldn't make the walk to the top. Anyway, when they opened the doors we were in the first group that headed up. We had a guide and along the way he paused to tell us a bit more about the history of the place.

Down near the docks. You can still see the evidence of the Native American occupation in the 70's.

This, if I remember correctly, was once the Officer's club - both when it was a military prison and a federal prison. It was burned down during the Native American occupation.

It was a pretty steep walk up there! It kind of zig zags - you climb one big hill, turn a corner, and then go up another big hill. One of the stories we heard along the route was how once someone took the tour who had actually served time on Alcatraz - he can now be heard on the audio tour.

At last we arrived at our destination. The prison.



So we were taking the Night Tour - which I cannot recommend enough. It included the audio tour, the guidebook (which you usually have to pay like a dollar for, it's not very big) and tons of extra talks about the prison, but I'll talk more about that later. For now we were led into the building to pick up our headsets - and we got to see the showers.

Yeah, this looks like fun.

So we picked up our headsets and put them on to start the tour. I was happy that they were real headphones - not those stupid ear buds that don't stay in my ears.

If you've never taken an audio tour before (as I hadn't, before this one) they basically lead you around by telling you where to go - so there are a lot of people moving to the same areas at once! You can pause at any point, which is good if you want to hang back a bit. I took advantage of this a few times. It was also kind of weird because it was so quiet in there with everybody listening to the audio tour! Alcatraz creeped me out enough as it was. It was pretty scary in there, honestly. And just thinking about all the history there...I was a bit unsettled! But it the audio tour was really fascinating. Definitely don't tour Alcatraz without it!

So one of the first things we saw, was a cell. There are a lot of them, as you can probably imagine! Now I'd never seen a prison outside of TV or movies before (thankfully!) so I had no idea what to expect. And I was a little surprised, as this video shows:



After that the audio tour really got started, and we saw pictures of the 4 former inmates and 4 former guards that we would hear on the tour. And then everyone started shuffling around at the same time.

Our crappy camera sometimes takes some pretty neat pictures in low lighting. There are 3 rows of cells on each side. It's really overwhelming.

A better look at a cell.

The most dangerous place on Alcatraz - the kitchen and mess hall. They had the actual benches you could sit on...I declined. Creepy!

A view of the recreation yard.

Brian inside a cell. Again, I declined. Have I used the word creepy yet?

Hmm... This might be a picture of D-Block - where the difficult prisoners were kept. This was also where "the hole" cells were - you know, the isolation cells. You could go in one if you wanted. Brian did.



I, once again, declined. ULTIMATE CREEPY. You can see on the video how QUIET it was in there.

This damage on the floor was done during the battle of Alcatraz - an escape attempt gone horribly, horribly wrong. There were a lot of escape attempts on Alcatraz, but this one resulted in the deaths of a few guards and so much control at the prison was lost that marines had to drop grenades down to try and subdue them. This is damage from the grenades.

Eventually we got to see the administration offices and such - then we were led outside where we got a great view of San Francisco at night. It was pretty cold outside though, so we didn't stay outside too long. Though it wasn't much warmer in the prison.

Administration offices.

After this we learned about the famous escape attempt where the two brothers and their friend put fake heads in their beds and escaped on a boat of raincoats - they were never found. We'd learn much more about escape attempts later.

After the audio tour ended, we had our choice of a few talks that were happening that night - this was all included in the night tour. There was a talk about bank robbers, escape attempts and a cell door demonstration that we were interested in. There were two more boats leaving that night - I think the earlier boat left a little after 7 and the later boat left around 7:40. They made sure to let everyone know that they would make sure everyone got on that last boat! (Can you imagine getting left behind? Yikes.)

Anyway, first we went to the bank robbers talk. Many of the prisoners on Alcatraz were bank robbers. It was interesting - she gave us a little quiz to see how well we knew what it took to make a bank robbery attempt more successful. I got all the questions right!

After that we went outside to wait for the escape talk. It was cold, cold, cold outside now! It was pitch dark, and we were on an island in the middle of the bay. Brian had brought a hat with him that he didn't want, so I quickly stole it.


Anyway, despite being cold, this talk was AWESOME. In one of the escape attempts, the convict managed to steal a whole military uniform over YEARS, finally sneak on a boat - only to sail to nearby Angel Island where he was quickly caught and returned. In another attempt, the guy actually managed to swim all the way to the shore near San Francisco, but he was suffering from hypothermia and passed out. The teenagers who found him called the police. It was a really fascinating talk.

After that there was a little time before the cell door demonstration, so we checked out the store. Brian got on line to buy a few things and the line moved super slow because the store was closing soon so everybody could get the hell off creepo island. So we were a little late to the demonstration. But we made it in time to watch them open and close the doors a few times - you can see why they call jail the slammer. They could open all doors at once, or just one if that's what they needed to do. And when a door was open you could see it perfectly because of the red paint on the inside of the door.

After that we headed back down toward the dock. We caught some of another talk on escape attempts, but this guy wasn't as interesting as the first talk.

While we waited for the boat to board, I recorded this:



On the boat back, we sat in pretty much the same place. I was starving, and while there was a snack bar on the boat, it was nothing I wanted. The people who worked on the island were also on the boat, which makes sense. It really was the last boat off!

After we disembarked, we looked for our overpriced picture just to see how terrible it turned out - pretty terrible. Then we started walking back to the hotel. We were both hungry and just wanted to grab something quick - so we started wondering if there was a McDonald's nearby. We hadn't seen one yet. I knew there as an In & Out Burger on the Wharf somewhere, but in the dark who wants to go wandering around, you know? Anyway, believe it or not we ran across a McDonald's. Lucky us! So we got some food there (I think I got chicken nuggets), took it back to our room, and just relaxed for the rest of the night.

In conclusion, the Alcatraz tour was AWESOME. Take the night tour. It's totally worth it. It's really well done.

Next time:
Omg, we have to drive in California?!
Mmm...cookies.
No firearms in the theater?!

Day Two ~ Part One

If you're ever looking for other parts of this report, you can view them all by scrolling to the bottom of any entry and clicking on the trip report tag.

The next morning we got up around 8 and took showers. Then we started thinking about what the hell we were gonna do.

Remember how earlier on in this report, I mentioned how I didn't plan this trip as much as I would have liked?

Yeah. This would be a great example of that.

After we got ready we headed down to the lobby and I bought a blueberry muffin and a juice from the little cafe downstairs. That muffin was goooooooood. Brian just had some cereal we had brought. There was a concierge desk in the lobby that had a rack of brochures nearby, so we perused it and found some tours we were interested in. We were kind of trying to save money (at this point in the vacation, anyway...) so there were a few that we thought were too expensive. But we did find a tour we thought looked good, so we decided to just walk down to the office listed on the brochure and check it out.

Using the iPhone maps, we found the place. It was a few blocks away. And...it was basically a hole in the wall place that wasn't even open yet. So I was kind of annoyed that we had just wasted our time walking all the way over here for nothing.

A shot we took on our journey.

So we started heading down back towards the Bay (hey, it's downhill that way, can you blame us?) and we run across this tour company office. There are a bunch of people inside waiting for buses and such, and I send Brian up to inquire how much it would cost to do a city tour. They were offering a few different tours, so we decided to take the cheapest one - which was a hop on/hop off city bus tour. I forget what time it left - 9:30 or 10 - but whatever time it was, we had a few minutes to wait, so we milled around and sat on the benches until it was time to board the bus.

I did not take my jacket with me today (I had meant to, but I forgot) and I was a little chilly. So when we got on the bus, we did go to the top level (it was one of those double decker buses) but we sat under this covered portion. It had rained yesterday, as you may remember, so things were a bit wet up there, but under the covered portion it was fine. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect on this tour, since I had never been on anything like it, but I was hoping to see a good chunk of the city.

In this case, I must say, not planning ahead definitely worked in our favor.

On the bus we had a guide who told us all about the different areas. His name was Stephen and he was British and very informative. Brian really took a liking to him, and so he never wanted to get off the bus and get a different guide.

Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, which I was super excited about. I have a weird obsession with the bridge - it always looks so great in pictures!) so I couldn't wait to see it in person up close.

It was a little foggy that morning. Here was our ride over the bridge:






I was totally excited to be going over the bridge! I know that must sound lame, but to me the bridge kind of summed up San Francisco for me. (From my tourist standpoint, anyway.)

On the other side of the bridge there's one of those scenic points where people park and take pictures. It was a very large area, and the bus stopped there for a few minutes so we could take some pictures.



After our photo stop, we got back on the bus and went back over the bridge to San Francisco again. We went by the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. There was stuff in the park I wanted to see, like the Japanese Tea Garden, but there just wasn't time this trip. Along the way I took some video of the many gorgeous Victorian houses in San Francisco. They are also very expensive if you want to buy one! If I ever get super rich, I'm totally buying a Victorian here. I just love Victorian houses.



We also passed by Alamo Square, where the house from Full House is located - it's part of Postcard Row. I don't know why I don't have a picture taken of the houses, but I wasn't in charge of the camera, I was in charge of video, so I got some of that instead.



Next we saw city hall, which is the area where they finally stopped the fires after the earthquake in 1906.



After that it was on to Union Square! The bus stopped for quite awhile so we had some time to really see things - at least from the bus! This is the premiere shopping area of San Francisco - tons of high end stores, and in the winter they even have a (very crowded) ice staking rink.

A shot of Union Square - complete with a beautiful Christmas tree.

It was getting kind of cold on the bus at this point - for me, anyway. In order to see better we moved to the uncovered part of the bus. Brian let me have his coat. I still don't understand how he can have short sleeves on and be fine, and meanwhile I'm freezing my butt off.

Next we cruised by Chinatown and Little Italy. More places I wanted to check out, but we didn't have the time.

Chinatown Gate.

That's Lombard Street up there in the distance.

So we cruised around downtown, and then we headed back towards the Bay. We stopped at Pier 33, where the Alcatraz tours leave for, and they were sold out until Wednesday! (This was Sunday.) We would be back later to take our tour, and we were looking forward to it.

After that was the last stop on the tour - Pier 39. This is a very touristy area full of shops and restaurants. We got off here because we had a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe and they also give a AAA discount. Yeah for discounts!

The Hard Rock Cafe wasn't very crowded and we were seated right away. I had never technically eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe before, believe it or not. (I say technically, because I went to one once at Foxwood's for a special corporate event and the food sucked.) Our server was really nice. They didn't really seem to have any awesome rock memorabilia that sticks out in my mind, but we enjoyed the music videos that were playing on the TVs scattered around. (Even though I totally don't wanna watch Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane" while I'm trying to eat. Yuck!)

I don't remember exactly what I had, but it was some kind of salad, and it was very good. I don't remember what Brian had, but it was either chicken fingers or a burger most likely. That's all he eats! After our meal, we used our coupon to get a free lanyard and we got a free sundae with the AAA discount that Brian enjoyed. Then we headed out back onto Pier 39.

It was crowded! This was definitely the most crowded area of the city we had experienced so far. There were people everywhere. As we walked along, I stopped a tiny puppet store and just HAD to go in. I'll admit it - I'm a fan of puppets. I used to collect them when I was a kid and they all had elaborate names (most of which I unfortunately forgot.) and sure enough I found a puppet I just had to have - a cute little rabbit!

There was a carousel right by the puppet store. I kind of wanted to ride it, because I love beautiful carousels, but I decided I'd better save my money.

Next I wandered into a candy store and bought a really expensive coconut cluster candy. It was like 3.50 or something. It was good, but not really worth that much. Brian had wandered into the Del Sol store - I was kind of surprised to see one in San Francisco. It's not exactly sun central there. But I guess one pops up wherever tourists tend to gather in large groups.

We didn't do too much more at Pier 39. We wandered into a couple more stores, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed back to our room. It was really crowded, and I wanted to rest a bit before our Alcatraz tour.

Huge Christmas Tree at Pier 39

COMING UP...

More hills?!

"I am not getting in there."

Getting all bundled up at the unhappiest place on Earth!

Trip Report ~ Day One, Part Two

Okay, there are no pictures and only one video to go with this part. Sorry!

So my friend Emily moved to CA after fourth grade. She's come back to visit NY a bunch of times since she moved, but this was my first time visiting her! She and her husband had recently bought a house in Livermore, which is a suburb of San Francisco. So the plan that night was to go and visit her.

Emily had given me instructions on how to get to Pleasanton, and part one involved taking the MUNI to the Embarcadero BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. The closest MUNI station was only like a block away, so after relaxing in the room and freshening up we ventured back outside and started to head towards the MUNI station. (With the assistance of my iPhone map.)

Now, while wandering around San Francisco and riding in that awful taxi cab, I had seen some bus looking things that were attached to wires overhead. (I've tried to find a decent picture online to no avail.) Anyway, we were expecting a subway of some sort. Not a bus on a wire.

So we stumble upon the station. And we have a few minutes to wait. And...it starts to rain. More people gather around. And more people. And I'm getting nervous, because I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.

So the MUNI pulls up, and everybody crowds around to board. The bus driver starts SCREAMING at people to have their tickets out - she was seriously being really nasty. Now I understand she was probably having a long day and there were a lot of people, but holy crap was she rude! I had exact change for our fare, and thank god I did because that was another thing she was screeching. We moved to the back of the car and found two seats together. They were some of the last seats on the bus. And then it quickly filled up so that people were standing from the back to the front - it was like after closing time at the Magic Kingdom. The seats were tiny and the bus was gross - there was stuff carved into the windows.

It gets worse.

So we continue along, rain slapping against the graffiti decorated windows, and the bus driver has decided she hasn't yelled at everyone enough. Oh no. She gets on the PA and starts screeching about how it's a dangerous city and there are pickpockets everywhere and to watch your stuff. Um, hello? I've been in this city less than 10 hours - this is what I get treated to? And she doesn't just say this once. She says it REPEATEDLY. Like four times. Seriously. I could not get the hell off that horrible bus fast enough.

Finally our stop came, and we ran off and never looked back. The BART station was right there, so luckily we didn't have to do any more wandering around in the rain.

And I decided what MUNI really stands for - Massive Under-performing Network of Incompetence.

So we purchase our tickets, and we're a little confused at how no one takes the ticket...it's not like the subway where you have to insert your ticket to get through the turnstiles. You just walk right through.

BART trains run like the metro North trains we have here in the NYC area, but they look like subway cars. There was a guy behind us who decided he had to share his rap music with the rest of us, and some panhandlers came through (they were all over Fisherman's Wharf, too, and they were aggressive) so it was REALLY like the subway. But I just relaxed and we rode the train for about 45 minutes to the end of the line - Pleasanton.

When we got off the train, we realized that we had to put our tickets into the turnstiles to get OUT. Bizarro land...

It was raining pretty hard outside. I had texted Emily from the train, and she was waiting to pick us up at the station. We looked around for her car, but she spotted us first. We quickly greeted each other, and then we were off! Emily claimed that we brought the rain with us, since it hadn't been raining a few minutes ago. Sorry! We New Yorkers bring the crappy weather with us. It's a curse.

She offered to take us on a tour of Pleasanton, and we took her up on that offer. Even in the rainy darkness, it was a really cute town. Hopefully I'll be able to go back soon and see it in the daylight! After the tour, we got on the slow moving highway and headed to Livermore.

When we got to Emily's house, we got to meet her husband, Ivan, as well as their rescued greyhound, Fantom, and Ivan's sister's pitbull puppy they were watching - Tila. This was our first time meeting Ivan since we weren't able to make it to their wedding and they hadn't been able to make it to ours. He's really nice, and we all got along well right away. Emily gave us a quick tour of the house and then we all talked for awhile while she made dinner. It was really comfortable in their house because they had the fireplace going - but I was surprised at how NOT TIRED I was. I'm not a night person at all, so I thought I'd be jet lagged like crazy, but I was actually doing really well.

So we just sat around and talked, and I got to see their wedding album. (We had the exact same album cover - weird, right?) Emily made chicken and rice for dinner and it was delicious. We also had this really good natural soda - it was like ginger ale. I can't remember what brand it was! Anyway, after dinner, Ivan wanted to play this game he had.

And so it began.

The game was called "Last Night on Earth" and basically it's a tabletop RPG game that pits zombies vs. humans. That means it involves fighting and rolling dice to see who wins. I'd only played one game like this before, and it was overly complicated and took forever and we had monsters lined up outside our town waiting to get in like it was Space Mountain. But this game was much simpler and much more fun - Emily and I played as the zombies and the boys were the humans. We won! Okay, it was kind of cheap, but we still won! Brian immediately fell in love with this game and it became his goal to own it. (Ivan also made some yummy brownies for us while we were playing the game.)

When the game was over, we talked for a bit more and then decided we should probably head back to the city. Emily offered for us to spend the night, but all our stuff was back in San Francisco and I didn't want to impose, so she took us back to the BART station. It was a really fun night!

The rain had mostly stopped by this point, and even though it was after 11, it was still like 50 degrees out. While we were standing on the platform waiting for the train, this young couple were asking us about the stops - I guess we looked like we were from San Francisco. (One city for another, I guess.) I fell asleep on the ride back, so it went quickly. We caught a cab (this cab driver was much nicer and didn't drive like an escaped maniac), went back to our room around 12:30.

Here are some reflections from our first day:



By the time I got ready for bed and laid down, it was 1 a.m. PST - that's 4 a.m. EST. And I'd been up a full 24 hours.

And I never had jet lag the whole trip.

That, my friends, is how to kill jet lag.

COMING UP...

A Trip Over the Golden Gate
The house from Full House!
And how I'm a sucker for puppets

Trip Report ~ Day One, Part One

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Well, here we go.

4 a.m. was here before we knew it. I got up quickly and got ready. My parents wanted me to wake them up so I knocked on their door. Within a few minutes I was all set to go in my comfy plane clothes and had tucked all my last minute items into my bags. I didn't want to eat anything so early in the morning, so we just sat down on the couch and waited for our town car to arrive.

Now, the previous day I was nervous about the weather for that morning. I kept checking it obsessively because they were talking about freezing rain. But I wasn't worrying about it too much because I figured by the time we had to leave it would be too warm to be icy. Before I fell asleep the night before I could hear the 'clink clink' of the freezing rain on the windows...which made me nervous. But by morning the roads were fine, and the freezing rain had turned over to plain old rain.

Within a few minutes our car arrived (nice and early!) so we said good-bye to my parents, loaded our bags into the car and started the hour ride to JFK. It was raining all the way but the roads were fine. It was a nice, smooth ride. When we got there we unloaded our bags and started looking around for where we could check our one bag, since there was no curbside check-in.

There were counters for several different airlines, and some of them were crowded, so I was a little nervous. We started looking for Virgin America, and ended up walking all the way down in the opposite direction! Anyway, we eventually found it and got on the really short line for bag check only. We checked our one bag (I had pre-paid for it and we already had our boarding passes) and headed down to security. There was a little line, but we got through it pretty quickly. Then we just waited for the plane to board.

They loaded the plane and we ended up taking off a little late. I watched Home Alone and some other shows. Somewhere over Nebraska we lost TV signal so I listened to some podcasts. There was no free food (but I did get a free water) so we just ate some of the snacks we brought. It was a pretty uneventful flight, and it wasn't as bad as I had imagined a cross country flight to be. Especially since they told us the flight wouldn't be as long as it usually was because the headwinds weren't as strong.

Here's a compilation of some video I took on the flight:







Once we got the airport, I was kind of in shock. After so many years of waiting, I was finally in California! We had left at 7 am EST and we arrived at about 9:30 PST. So it was about a 5 1/2 hour flight. We made our way to the baggage claim area - which was kind of strange. It was this huge room with no windows and one huge baggage carousel. It was like a closet! Anyway, we started waiting for our bag, and once they started coming, some idiot jumped on the carousel to get his skis, so the whole thing stopped and we had to wait for them to restart it. Thanks, asshole! But we finally got our bags, and headed out to the taxi stands by following the helpful airport signs.

We got in a cab right away. And the cab ride, was, well...interesting. If by interesting I mean FEARED FOR MY LIFE. It was so bumpy, and the guy was rude, and well, we'll get to it more than a minute. The important thing is we arrived at our hotel safe and sound. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf. I was happy our room was ready. So we went upstairs, and dumped our stuff.

And here's a video where we describe our cab ride, and you can see our room:

Me in the doorway of our room.

So, since we hadn't eaten anything but snacks all day, we were pretty hungry. We didn't feel like wandering around, so we just went to the nearby Denny's that we referenced in the previous video. It was a really quick meal - I had pancakes and they were fine. Brian probably had chicken fingers.

After our meal, we decided to walk around for a bit. It was about 50 degrees in San Francisco, and for some reason on this particular day I was not finding it cold at all. We started to walk down near the Bay, just soaking in the new scenery. I knew San Francisco was hilly, but I didn't realize just HOW hilly until I saw it for myself.

Brian snapped this picture on our walk down.


Anyway, as we were walking along, I had a vague idea of where I was going, so I wasn't too surprised when we ran across this...

Ghirardelli Square! I love this shot. It looks like a post card.

So we headed up the hill (you're always heading up or down a hill in San Francsico) towards Ghirardelli Square and started to explore.

Hill! See! That's Alcatraz back there. This was taken from the upper part of the Square.

Christmas Tree in the Square. We had to wait for some other people to take a picture first and they took forever! How long does it take to snap a picture? Anyway, even though Christmas was just the day before, it already seemed like kind of a long time ago by this point. You can also see I'm wearing gloves in this picture - it was chilly, but I wasn't cold enough for a jacket. This is important to remember later!

A fountain in the Square.

Ghirardelli Square got its name because it was once a factory for Ghirardelli. Now it's a bunch of shops, restaurants and several (yes, several) Ghirardelli stores. Plus I'm pretty sure they were building condos in there or something.

So we just walked around and explored. There was this pet shop selling all manner of dog outfits and collars. A doggie boutique. Nothing we'd buy for our dogs! We also went into a store selling extremely expensive soaps and bath products.

After that we ran across this place called Kara's cupcakes which kind of reminded us of Crumb's Bakery, but the cupcakes were not as huge. They were, however, quite expensive - they cost $3.50! But they were all natural ingredients. And we're a sucker for cupcakes. So we bought some vanilla thing with a chocolate reindeer on top. It was good.

After our cupcake, we went into one of the many Ghirardelli stores and were handed a sample of their peppermint bark. Mmm... Peppermint bark... That stuff is good! They were having a sale on some of their products, and I'm a sucker for chocolate, so I started buying stuff, including a chocolate bar for my dad and a huge bag of assorted chocolates for me. (I'm still working my way through the bag.) There was also this cute little cable car tin filled with chocolate, but I didn't buy it. When I went to pay, they offered me this nice looking Ghirardelli logo reuseable shopping bag, so I bought that too. It actually came in handy during our trip.

So yeah, I've been in San Francisco for only a couple of hours and I've already bought souvenirs.

Ghirardelli is also famous for their ice cream, but we were too full to enjoy any of it now. We said we'd come back. Spoiler alert - we never did. :(

I kind of wanted to find Lombard Street - one of the several touristy places in San Francisco I totally had to see. I tried using the map on my iPhone, but I wasn't totally sure where we were going and didn't want to get totally lost, so after venturing up another hill (of course) we decided to head back down to the bay.

We wound up wandering around a pier where there were a bunch of historic ships. We didn't want to pay money to go on any of the ships (I'm not really into that kind of thing) but we explored the Hyde St. Pier and I was horrified by the people swimming the San Francisco Bay. I could not see how it was at all warm/clean enough to swim in. We made some East River jokes, checked out a souvenir shop, and then started to head back to our hotel. We were heading out to the San Francisco suburbs to see my friend Emily in a bit and I wanted to freshen up and get myself organized before we caught the BART train.

Here's a quick movie that shows our exploits at Ghirardelli Square and down by the historical ships (it bounces around because I just made a huge movie out of all the videos):




On our way back, we stopped in that Spy shop I posted a picture of earlier. Wow - did they have a lot of weird stuff in there! There were hidden cameras, weapons, books that had cameras in them and a whole bunch of these creepy powders you could use to ruin somebody's car or make them sick, among other things. It was interesting, to say the least.

We didn't buy anything, and retreated back to our hotel room to get ready for our evening.

And I want to let everyone know that my Flip video camera takes better video than YouTube leads you to believe. The upload quality is not as good as the actual quality.


COMING UP...

What MUNI really stands for...
A Rainy Tour
Brian Takes On A Quest