California here I come...Part 8

 One of the places that was recommended for us to eat was called "Super Duper"- and it turned out to be very yummy.

 We walked past the San Francisco Mint.

 They actually got mad at us for walking by and taking a picture.  They don't have tours here.

 Then we walked to the park that has this beautiful view of the city and the 6 Sisters.

 We took a short cable car ride to Chinatown

 We wandered through Chinatown for a while.

 These guys went up to visit the temple.

 We found a Fortune Cookie Factory, got to try some free samples and watch how they make them.

 We purchased a bag and snacked on them for much of the day.

 From Chinatown we walked past the Transamerica tower and saw the redwoods in a park next to it.

 Then we walked to the pier and purchased fresh food for lunch from the farmer's market.

 We hopped onto a street car.

 Noah had to pose in front of a cool eatery.

 We walked to an interesting ice cream stand that makes the ice cream right in front of you.

Pretty "cool". 

Lots of walking today!

California here I come...Part 7

We chose to stay in Alameda.  Each day we rode the BART under the Bay over to San Francisco.  The first day we went and saw where Philo T. Farnsworth was when he invented what we know now as television.  Then Brad said that the guidebooks said that there was a great view and a little park if we walked along this "street" (Filbert street).  How do these city planners get off calling these mammoth sets of stairs a "street"!  No kidding!  We climbed 500 + stairs and then...

We saw THIS sign!  Are you kidding me?  I already climbed enough stairs to get to where I was...but my husband said that "yes" we were climbing there and I couldn't just stay here and wait for them, because we weren't returning this way. 

So, I was tired, hot and sweaty when I reached the top stair, but I did it!

This was part of the view we saw...can you see Lombard Street? (now that is a REAL street, even though it is pretty curvy.)

We caught a bus down to the pier and hopped on our boat to Alcatraz.

A very interesting place and an enjoyable tour with the headsets.

So glad that I never had to live there.

This was the view from where the Wardon's house was.

We enjoyed ourselves even though we did quite a bit of walking and we were already a little tired from all of those stairs we climbed earlier in the day.

California here I come...Part 6

 We left Santa Cruz and continued up the coast highway.

 This is not something you see in Utah

 We stopped at the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and found harbor seals on the beach.

 

 The boys loved the tide pools.  Elijah wanted to come back another day because he liked it so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We finally made it to the San Francisco area.  We stopped by the Oakland Temple before going to find our hotel.

California here I come...Part 5

 We spent the night in Monterrey and got up early to take a look at Cannery Row. 

 

 On our drive northward we stopped at some fresh food markets and grabbed some snacks.

 Josh couldn't believe how big these oranges were.  Avacados and artichokes were 10 for $1.00...not back in Utah!

 We stopped for some fun at Santa Cruz Beach.  We hadn't been to many beaches with boardwalks and amusement parks.

 We opted for the "beach" part of the experience.

 

 

 

 

 It is interesting what you can find at the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 We decided to try the local food- garlic fries...

 deep fried twinkies and deep fried oreos...

 

 potato on a stick...

they all turned out to be pretty yummy.