San Francisco (July 2003)

To celebrate Julia's graduation from Clarke Central HS, we spent a few days out in San Francisco. The weather was simply unbelievable; highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 50s. We did all the appropriate tourist stuff while there and had a great time. Here are some pictures and stories to chronicle our stay. On mouse-over, you may see a short description of each image. Click on the picture of your choice to see an enlarged version of it.

Julia, the graduate.
We flew out of Atlanta on Saturday morning (7/19/2003), arriving in San Francisco in the early afternoon. We got to our hotel at Fisherman's Wharf in time to do some local shopping and sightseeing.

After checking into the hotel, we wandered around Fisherman's Wharf a bit. We stopped in at Joe's Crab Shack for supper and got a few pix waiting on our food. Joann and Greg Biz and Julia Doug, Tim and Biz
Doing the cable car thing.

Patiently waiting at the cablecar turnaround, which was a couple of blocks from our hotel. Here is a picture of the cablecar ticket, which contained a postcard that could be used for a mailing, a neat idea. Workers in the process of turning the cablecar around. We took the cablecar one day, mainly to say that we had done it. We found the personnel working this service to be extremely unfriendly, however. As a result, we refused to use them any more during our stay.

Walking about the town.

This shot was taken out the rear of the cablecar after we had concluded some shopping in downtown San Francisco. You can never truly appreciate how hilly this city is unless you go there and do some walking. This is a picture where we tried to give some perspective as to what the terrain is like. At Pier 39, pointing back up at the city. You can see Coit Tower off in the distance. Sisters

On Monday, we had a very busy day of touring. We began with a bus ride up to Muir Woods, an ancient forest of redwood trees just north of San Francisco. The redwoods are such that they don't do much to attract bugs and consequently, not many birds abound in the woods. As a result, our walking tour through the woods was eerily quiet.

You can see Alcatraz off in the distance. At left is a WWII sub that was available for tours. We spent some time in Ghiradelli Square, as you would guess. This shot was taken from inside the bus as we crossed Golden Gate Bridge. You can see how the fog was already surrounding the structure.

The pictures don't do justice as to how immense these trees are.

Greg, Biz, Julia, Doug Biz, Doug, Julia Greg showing off. Julia and Biz at a stop just after crossing Golden Gate Bridge, seen in the background.

Greg at a stop just beyond Golden Gate Bridge. I took this shot up toward the forest canopy. It was much more impressive than this picture shows, I'm afraid. Group shot. Biz had to get one of these to verify her status as a genuine treehugger

We couldn't visit San Francisco without spending sometime on the famous section of Lombard Street. This one block section is touted as the "world's crookedest street" and that's not far from the truth.

Didn't know what this tree was, except that it was very pretty. Looking down Lombard Street. More of Lombard. This picture was shot at the base of the crooked section of Lombard.

Still more of Lombard. Copy of our ticket to Alcatraz (which is Spanish for pelican). On the ferry, headed off to Alcatraz. You can see San Francisco in the background. Seagulls trailed us out to Alcatraz, looking for a free meal I would suppose.

Approaching 'The Rock'. About to dock at 'The Rock'. Posing on the main drag through the cell block, aptly named 'Broadway'.

Julia and Biz in one of the very small jail cells that existed on Alcatraz. We went to church at Sts. Peter and Paul, located near Washington Square. It was about a 7 block hike from our hotel. While at Pier 39, we had supper at Bubba Gumps. Here are Doug and Julia posing outside. Look at the bench near Julia. There is a box of chocolates on top of a suitcase, a la the movie. Julia's feet are also positioned inside a pair of Nike running shoes. This sunset was nice, taken from our table at Bubba Gumps.

Doug, Julia, Biz, Greg Doug, Biz and Greg. You can see a boat and Alcatraz off in the distance. Sunset was beginning to light up the skyline. Waiting for our flight out of San Francisco.



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