Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Vacation, part 2!!

San Francisco is, I think, much windier than Chicago any day!

On Sunday we all went to church with Kyle and Erin. It was a fun morning, and apparently two of the teeneagers asked Kyle if Jonathan and I were their age or Kyle's age. Of course!

After church and lunch and a little bit of leisurely downtime and Kyle and Erin's house, Carolyn, Denise, Jonathan & I went to San Francisco. We had decided to stay in a hotel overnight to cut down on the amount of travel time we were spending. I drove through the very narrow and very steep streets of San Fran until we stumbled on a gas station (thankfully!). We googled a nearby hotel and unpacked our stuff at a Holiday Inn. On the way to the hotel I noticed an ad for the muscial Wicked that was playing at a nearby theater. As we settled in at the hotel, I began to call the box office to see if we could get tickets to Sunday's performance. Unfortunately, the phone and online box offices had closed, and we would have to just show up at the theater to see if tickets were available. Low and behold, the theater was actually across the street from the hotel!! We walked over, and just happened to get 10th row center tickets (they said...."hold on, I think we can release house tickets"!!! What are the chances? So finally, after 6 long years of waiting, I saw Wicked! And it was just as fabulous as I thought it would be (Patty Duke played Madame Morrible!).



On Monday, Kyle and Erin joined us for the Alcatraz tour. We took a ferry boat on about a 10 minute ride to The Rock. There we watched a short film explaining its history, and then walked to the audio tour entrance. They gave us each headphones and an MP3 player, and we each listened as a former inmate toured us through Alcatraz. It was very very cool. I took pictures of what the cell looked like, what D Block (the isolation block) looked like, and learned about the various escapes that had been attemped on the island. We saw their cafeteria (that was complete with the capability of releasing tear gas) library, showers, administration building, and the guard's living quarters. Ultimately the prison was shut down in the 60s due to rising costs of keeping it up. It was a great tour, but very cold and windy!!

More photos:
Lighthouse
Prisoners' View

After leaving Alcatraz, we drove to see the Golden Gate Bridge. You know, it is a really big big bridge!! I, of course, was the driver, and that explains why I no longer have fingernails after visiting San Francisco. We ate dinner on the way back to Sacramento, and exhausted, fell asleep around midnight.

Golden Gate
Denise and Carolyn in McKinley


1 comment:

  1. Hey Erin! I just wanted to let you know that I came across your blog address on facebook and I've been reading about your little adventures! It sounds like you are having so much fun! Aaron and I are actually headed to San Francisco at the very end of May for a couple of days, so it was great reading about your little vacation there as well. Have a good day!

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