San Francisco and the end of our journey...

On Monday we headed out to San Francisco for the remainder of our trip.  We had rented a large house and headed over to drop off our groceries and head out for a day of sight seeing. 
View from the living room:

Our plan was to visit Muir Woods but it was so crowded that we decided to head to Sausalito for the afternoon.  It is a very small, posh seaside town at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge with a great view of San Francisco across the bay.

 

 

On Tuesday we spend quite a bit of time playing in the Golden Gate Park.  It is a massive park (over 1,000 acres) that has all sorts of attractions from science to play areas to 'lawn bowling' (Bocce).  The kids had a ball. 

After that we continued walking around the city, stopping for ice cream (which had become a daily ritual by now) and taking in a museum.  We capped off our day in the city with dinner at Paxti's Pizza (http://www.patxispizza.com/).  It was a fantastic restaurant that had phenomenal Chicago style pizza (they also have gluten free crust and non-dairy cheeses for those with allergies).  We walked out of there full to the brim but with the needed energy and enthusiasm to tackle the big hill we needed to climb to get to our house:).

 

 

 On Wednesday, we were off to Alcatraz and Fisherman's Wharf.  We caught the train in the morning and took it to the Embarcadeo.  We then strolled along the water over to the pier where the Alcatraz boats leave from.  Right before this pier, was the 2013 America's Cup pavilion and docks.  It was pretty cool to see some of the boats.  They look amazingly fast and while we were on Alcatraz, we actually got to see the boats in action.

 

 Alcatraz itself is an interesting place.  They have an excellent audio guided tour (it is free ) and provided a great overview of the prison, some of the inmates as well as some interesting stories about the goings on while it was active.  The kids liked hearing about some of the infamous inmates as well as climbing into the cells.

After doing our 'time' in Alcatraz, we headed for Fisherman's Wharf.  By 5:30, we were ready to head home.  We waited a few minutes in the long line for the train, but then decided it would be more fun to walk part of the way and see more of the city.  So we strolled towards Market street, passing through some of China town and other diverse areas that San Fran has to offer.  It made a late night as we did not arrive back to our house until after 7, and didn't eat dinner until around 9. 

Thursday morning, we were up at 5:30am and on the road to SFO by 5:50.  It was sad to say good bye to our friends and to know that our adventure was nearing the end.  Our flight was on-time and by 8:30am, we were in the air and heading for Boston.  The flight on jetBlue was great and went by quickly.  This was our 5th flight on jetBlue during this vacation and all of the crew on each of them were excellent. 
We arrived in Boston at 4:20PM and were ready to head home.  We look forward to catching up with all of you in the coming weeks and sharing some of the amazing memories and fun times we enjoyed.  Thanks for following along!