June 16, 2017 – San Francisco, CA –Muir Park and Alcatraz and Pier 39
Atkins Go West 2.0 –Adventure of a Lifetime Continued…(May the Forest Be with You!)
Bucket List Item: Benjamin wanted to see the Redwoods!
Funniest thing we heard:
Baby Foxes yipping at each other!
Most memorable moment of the day: Seeing the mighty Redwood Trees!
Captain’s Log:
We woke up bright and early so that we could make it to our
first adventure in time to get a parking spot.
We ate a hot breakfast at hotel together and loaded up into the
van. We got to go into San Francisco
again and this time we actually crossed the Golden Gate Bridge this time. It was a bit foggy, but not too foggy to see
the enormous bridge.
The car and foot traffic across the bridge was heavy. We crossed over into a smaller community and turned away from the ocean up a ridge. We crossed Tennessee Valley Drive on our way! We made our way down the road until we got to Muir Woods National landmark. As the park guide books said, the parking was limited, but we lucked out to find a family already leaving for the day. We parked and took a short hike through the forest to the entrance of the park and the visitor’s center. With Joe-Nicholas’s help, we got into the park and got our park map. We hiked through the bridges and sidewalks until we came to our first grove of Redwood Trees!
They were simply amazing. Tall, red, straight, growing in clusters or groves together, the trees were worth the trek across the country. We continued on through the short hikes around the park and took pictures of our favorite trees.
As we got nearer to the end, we saw a family of foxes playing nearby the walkway. The three tiny pups were fighting and wrestling and nipping at each other. The mother was nowhere to be seen. The pups didn’t seem to notice the dozens of humans huddled nearby to watch them.
After more pictures, we made our way to the gift shop where we made our usual purchases. This time, the kids found two unique treasures; a tiny Sequoia and a tiny Redwood sapling.
Joe-Nicholas had read all about how the wild fires in the forest actually help the Sequoia trees in reproduction and asked if we were going to have to set our tree on fire once we got back to Knoxville. It totally cracked me up! It will be a miracle in itself if the tiny trees make it to Ktown in one piece. Fingers crossed!
The car and foot traffic across the bridge was heavy. We crossed over into a smaller community and turned away from the ocean up a ridge. We crossed Tennessee Valley Drive on our way! We made our way down the road until we got to Muir Woods National landmark. As the park guide books said, the parking was limited, but we lucked out to find a family already leaving for the day. We parked and took a short hike through the forest to the entrance of the park and the visitor’s center. With Joe-Nicholas’s help, we got into the park and got our park map. We hiked through the bridges and sidewalks until we came to our first grove of Redwood Trees!
They were simply amazing. Tall, red, straight, growing in clusters or groves together, the trees were worth the trek across the country. We continued on through the short hikes around the park and took pictures of our favorite trees.
As we got nearer to the end, we saw a family of foxes playing nearby the walkway. The three tiny pups were fighting and wrestling and nipping at each other. The mother was nowhere to be seen. The pups didn’t seem to notice the dozens of humans huddled nearby to watch them.
After more pictures, we made our way to the gift shop where we made our usual purchases. This time, the kids found two unique treasures; a tiny Sequoia and a tiny Redwood sapling.
Joe-Nicholas had read all about how the wild fires in the forest actually help the Sequoia trees in reproduction and asked if we were going to have to set our tree on fire once we got back to Knoxville. It totally cracked me up! It will be a miracle in itself if the tiny trees make it to Ktown in one piece. Fingers crossed!
The lady at the gift shop asked us if we needed Junior
Ranger Books and we told her we were on our way out. She asked us where we were from and she was
so impressed that we made the journey to see the trees that she gave each of
the kids including Kayden a Junior Ranger badge instead. They are very cool badges that are made from
recycled Redwood Trees! We have met some
of the neatest people on this trip!
We needed to head on back to San Francisco for our next
appointment. We re-crossed the Golden
Gate Bridge, which was now covered with a dark fog. It almost looked like smoke. 
We parked downtown and headed to Pier 33 where we ate lunch at the Alcatraz café. We split a quick lunch of fruit, chicken tenders and cheese sticks.
Next, we boarded the Alcatraz Boats and sailed towards the famous island.
The trip across the bay was scenic as you could look back to views of the whole city around the bay.
As we got off of the large boat, we stopped at the rangers’ platform to listen to some important information about the island. This place was fascinating. It is a mixture of natural beauty and wildlife habitats in contrast with the gigantic brick and stone structures once dedicated to one of the most famous prisons on Earth.
We stopped first to watch a film about the history of the island. From Civil War times where tanks and massive walls protect the island and San Francisco Bay from attacks. Next, the army transferred the operations over to the Federal Department of Prisons when public outcry over the gangster violence that got out of control during prohibition in America became a political concern. The ‘Rock’ became known as THE destination for the worst of the worst. After closing in 1962, the Island remained unoccupied until the late sixties when it was taken over by hundreds of protesting American Indians. The Indian nations ruled over the island for 19 months until Federal marshals finally removed the last protesters.
This movement helped to later create new legislation to protect the Native lands. After the movie we explored several buildings around the island stopping to look at blooming flowers and baby birds throughout the trails. Our final stop was on the top of the island at the cellblock house. We took an interesting and informative audio tour of the prison. (I highly recommend this experience for everyone!). The tour took us throughout the rooms, cells, and dining hall all while explaining in detail the events of the historic prison. A former inmate was on location in the bookstore signing his book while we were there. It was interesting to think about his life before and after his time at Alcatraz. After the tour, we went to the gift shop to buy Christopher a souvenir.
In 5th grade, Christopher won the big school speech contest by writing a speech about Alcatraz. When I told the gift shop clerk that story and that he couldn’t come on the trip with us, she threw in a special Alcatraz pin for him as well when we bought his t-shirt. The crew headed back to the boat and rode back across the bay.
We parked downtown and headed to Pier 33 where we ate lunch at the Alcatraz café. We split a quick lunch of fruit, chicken tenders and cheese sticks.
Next, we boarded the Alcatraz Boats and sailed towards the famous island.
The trip across the bay was scenic as you could look back to views of the whole city around the bay.
As we got off of the large boat, we stopped at the rangers’ platform to listen to some important information about the island. This place was fascinating. It is a mixture of natural beauty and wildlife habitats in contrast with the gigantic brick and stone structures once dedicated to one of the most famous prisons on Earth.
We stopped first to watch a film about the history of the island. From Civil War times where tanks and massive walls protect the island and San Francisco Bay from attacks. Next, the army transferred the operations over to the Federal Department of Prisons when public outcry over the gangster violence that got out of control during prohibition in America became a political concern. The ‘Rock’ became known as THE destination for the worst of the worst. After closing in 1962, the Island remained unoccupied until the late sixties when it was taken over by hundreds of protesting American Indians. The Indian nations ruled over the island for 19 months until Federal marshals finally removed the last protesters.
This movement helped to later create new legislation to protect the Native lands. After the movie we explored several buildings around the island stopping to look at blooming flowers and baby birds throughout the trails. Our final stop was on the top of the island at the cellblock house. We took an interesting and informative audio tour of the prison. (I highly recommend this experience for everyone!). The tour took us throughout the rooms, cells, and dining hall all while explaining in detail the events of the historic prison. A former inmate was on location in the bookstore signing his book while we were there. It was interesting to think about his life before and after his time at Alcatraz. After the tour, we went to the gift shop to buy Christopher a souvenir.
In 5th grade, Christopher won the big school speech contest by writing a speech about Alcatraz. When I told the gift shop clerk that story and that he couldn’t come on the trip with us, she threw in a special Alcatraz pin for him as well when we bought his t-shirt. The crew headed back to the boat and rode back across the bay.
We got back and decided to go down to the famous Pier 39
area. It had a Gatlinburg type feel and
had tons of shops and restaurants along a small walkway and boardwalk. Kayden had researched the food and knew that
we had to stop at the famous Boudin’s bread shop. 
We ordered the most amazing croissants and cookies there. The kids and I were equally disturbed that the doors were all propped wide open and pigeons just freely flew in and out of the restaurant. I saw one bird fly over the counter to try his luck at grabbing a loaf of bread. It was so weird. The workers didn’t even seem to notice the 4 or 5 birds wondering about their store! Benjamin declared that this could not be sanitary. We enjoyed our delicious bread despite the indoor birds. We continued on down the pier to get ice cream. We ate it along the marina walk.
It was also delicious! The kids and adults were exhausted so we headed on back to our car. Because Chris is 100% addicted to Trader Joe's Apple Stix, we made a quick stop in the store to pick up the apple snacks, the famous delicious frozen Mac and Cheese, and a frozen chicken Alfredo meal to take back to our hotel.
Of course when Chris is driving, he always has some additional stops in mind on the way back to the hotel. Our first stop was on my "list"! We drove by (not down) Lombard Street which is the crazy curvy street you always see on movies and on TV. While in that same area, we turned down a long steep road and followed one of the original trolley cars along the street.
It was so neat to see it running along the track. Chris wanted to run by the Pacific Ocean drive just one more time since the sun hadn't set all the way yet. We drove down that same road along the shoreline and parked at Ocean Beach. We walked across the very large beach in the fine warm sand. The ocean was very cold and the waves were huge compared to the ones we see in the Atlantic off the East coast. It was so nice to walk along the ocean one last time.
We ordered the most amazing croissants and cookies there. The kids and I were equally disturbed that the doors were all propped wide open and pigeons just freely flew in and out of the restaurant. I saw one bird fly over the counter to try his luck at grabbing a loaf of bread. It was so weird. The workers didn’t even seem to notice the 4 or 5 birds wondering about their store! Benjamin declared that this could not be sanitary. We enjoyed our delicious bread despite the indoor birds. We continued on down the pier to get ice cream. We ate it along the marina walk.
It was also delicious! The kids and adults were exhausted so we headed on back to our car. Because Chris is 100% addicted to Trader Joe's Apple Stix, we made a quick stop in the store to pick up the apple snacks, the famous delicious frozen Mac and Cheese, and a frozen chicken Alfredo meal to take back to our hotel.
Of course when Chris is driving, he always has some additional stops in mind on the way back to the hotel. Our first stop was on my "list"! We drove by (not down) Lombard Street which is the crazy curvy street you always see on movies and on TV. While in that same area, we turned down a long steep road and followed one of the original trolley cars along the street.
It was so neat to see it running along the track. Chris wanted to run by the Pacific Ocean drive just one more time since the sun hadn't set all the way yet. We drove down that same road along the shoreline and parked at Ocean Beach. We walked across the very large beach in the fine warm sand. The ocean was very cold and the waves were huge compared to the ones we see in the Atlantic off the East coast. It was so nice to walk along the ocean one last time.
We got back to the hotel without too many detours. Kayden heated up our Trader Joe's goodness for dinner and we all settled in for a Friends Marathon. It was a great calm ending to such a busy day! Blessed doesn't' seem to be a strong enough word when I think about this trip, this adventure, this sweet little family during the brief moments I have time to reflect on our day. God is good!
No comments:
Post a Comment