Busy Day in San Francisco

We had an ambitious day planned in San Francisco. We were going to turn these small city kids into big city kids by introducing them to the art of walking everywhere! We took off from the hotel headed to Coit Tower.

This was about 6 blocks into our journey with Coit Tower in the background. The hills in San Francisco made the walking a little more challenging but it would prove to be good training for Yosemite hikes...
These were the final steps leading up to Coit Tower and this would be where Drew spent most of his walking time.

The view from the Coit Tower parking area. There were some great views of the city from there and up in Coit Tower too. Of course, it started to rain up in the tower so we didn't pull out the camera.

Fortunately the rain had subsided by the time we made it back down and we caught a couple more pictures before leaving for Chinatown.

We walked to the Chinatown entrance, getting souviniers along the way and more on the way back with a few snacks mixed in the middle.

From Chinatown we took a walk to the bottom of Lombard Street. Despite heading to the bottom of the street there was quite a bit of uphill trekking. Madi was such a trooper -- she was cruising along even when I was ready to take a break. We had fun watching the cars come down the windy road and the kids couldn't wait to drive down it themselves.
Fortunately the hotel was not far from Lombard Street and mostly downhill. We made our way back, went for a swim and then off again to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. Though it would be cool to walk across the bridge, I am too terrified of that so we drove which pretty much is nervewracking for me as well.

Across the bridge, it was FREEZING as usual and WINDY as usual! We didn't last long...

Back over the bridge and our turn to drive down the winding Lombard Street. They made me stand out the sunroof of the car for these pictures. Pretty sure everyone around probably thought I was crazy... Hope the pictures turned out better for my efforts!

After parking the car back at the hotel, we left for some more fun down by the Wharf and Pier 39. Marty wanted street vendor food so we headed there first. Madi couldn't handle the seafood smell so I tried to keep her in open air... We sat to eat and then a sea lion came to visit the fishing boat nearby in search of some fish. No luck for him from the fisherman but we had some "fried" treats for him and the seagulls. From the wharf, we went to visit the Pier 39 sea lions. They must have been tired and pretty much laid around sleeping. Off to some shopping, crepes and hot chocolate before heading to the aquarium. After taking our time through the 2 tunnels, we headed to the exciting part... the touch pools. The kiddos enjoyed touching the sharks, bat rays, star fish and anemones.

The final thing Marty wanted out of the day was a charcoal drawn picture of Madi and Drew... After almost giving up, we found someone on the side of the street. After patient sitting, the drawing was complete and it was off to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Don't worry -- even after stuffing ourselves there we of course managed to get our ice cream at the Chocolate Shoppe next door so we could shiver a little more on our walk home. We are creatures of habit you know?!