And another BEAUTIFUL day :)

SF was so wonderful!!! And, the fun just continued :)

Saturday we had a slow morning since we were out late on Friday at the game. We walked up to see the view from our roof. Pretty nice! So many places have these rooftop views from SF. It's so hilly that almost everyone has a view in one direction or another.

We headed downtown to walk the Piers. There were lots of fun places to stop and look around. One of them was Pier 39, I believe, where we saw the Sea Lions. If I remember correctly, they all just started to appear after the earthquake in October 1989 and haven't really left! The Bay provides plenty of food and is a protected area, so they are quite happy to stay. They started with around 300 sea lions, but grew to an all-time high of 1701 in 2009. Some do migrate, but most stay there. AND, they are SUPER loud. Crazy loud. Barking at each other and protecting their spots on the K-Docks they live on.

They were SO loud!

It was fun to watch them "fight" each other!

We did a lot of walking around. We went to this arcade where they had vintage arcade games and had fun playing! We also went to Boudin Bread Factory and watched them make HUGE batches of bread! We even got to taste some too and tour the little museum they had on the history of sourdough.

They had this class earlier in the morning where people had made unique creations with the dough. Pretty awesome! Not sure what this one is supposed to be, but it was really cute!

We walked over to Giardhelli Square and were SO sad to find out they didn't have a factory you could tour. We then did MORE walking UP and Down streets to get back to where we boarded the boat for our evening tour of Alcatraz. On the way back we made our way to the famous "Crooked Street". So many tourists and so many cars. I couldn't believe people actually lived on the street. I would HATE to have to wait in a traffic line to access my street!

A view from the top... and then from the bottom

Becca and the boys being silly... but some of the streets were really super steep you truly could fall over if you didn't watch yourself.

I love their smiles

We made our way to the boat that would take us to Alcatraz. 

It was a beautiful sunset!

Once there we were given a short lecture/explanation of its history, etc. Then we had an audio tour of it. WOWZERS. Truly an experience in the dark and they do a fantastic job! I would HATE to be on that island by myself at night! But, I found it really interesting that many family members of the guards actually LIVED on the island as well! They had their own community there! It wasn't that big of an island... and I don't know how I would feel being SO secluded from the main land and being stuck there with some of our nations WORST and most deadly criminals!

This is the view from the prison to SF

and below is the main entrance. 

Eek... even touring a prison is enough to have me have NO desire to EVER commit a crime that would possibly get me to spend even a night in such a place!

The next morning we had most of the day before I had to drop them off at the airport, so we went back to Golden Gate Park and let the boys go to the actual "park" in the park! I saw the sign below and understand why its there (no child predators, etc) but I also thought it was kind of funny! What if I was a child at heart and just wanted to swing! But, how sad that out country has to post things like this and the innocence of just playing and having fun is gone.

After the park we walked over to this arboretum and I was LOVING it because outside there were beautiful palm trees.... something I rarely get to see. Picture time for sure!

Jace and I loved watching the fish swim in the pond inside.

I LOVE palm trees :)

And this was one of the many pretty flowers we saw inside. 

It was so peaceful!

We then headed back over to the Piers to find a place to get a late lunch. We ended up eating at this fantastic Thai/Asian cuisine place and walked around a bit more before heading to the airport. It was SO sad for me to say goodbye to them. I had such a great time and it was just one more reminder for me... or two really... I need to move closer to family... and I need to get married so I don't have to do everything ALONE. :( 

BUT, I was so grateful for the time I had with them and it just makes me look forward to our next time together!