Nana's Visit - San Francisco

Nana arrived on a delayed flight last night.  We all went to bed pretty late, but irregardless, today was a big day so we had to get started.  Mom wanted to visit Alcatraz, and today was one of the only times available.  Tours sell out far in advance.  No refunds, no exchanges.  Hard core.  Our tour time was 11:30am, and we left before 10am, so we could walk around and see some other things before the tour.  UNFORTUNATELY, I put the wrong place in my phone for directions, and did not notice it until we ended up at pier 34 in some sketchy part of town for cargo only.  A good 20 minutes away from where we wanted to be.  needless to say, we did not have enough to time to look around once we finally found parking.  When Art and I went in january, we parked at the first lot we found, which cost $50/day flat rate.  Then when Art took his parents they found parking on the street for way cheaper, so I kept driving around looking for street parking until we realized that all street parking is for 2hours or less, and our tour was 3 hours minimum.  So off to the parking deck, that at least charges by the hour.  $8/hr up to $40max.  Still cheaper than the other lot.  We ended up staying exactly 5 hours.  Should have stayed longer just to get our $40 worth. :)  We took the double stroller and walked down to the pier for our tour.  We were plenty early enough to use the bathroom, and get in line.  I knew for sure that this was Yannick's first time on a boat, but I am not sure about Wyatt.  It might be, but I can't remember for sure.

Here the boys are looking out the window before we departed.  They were both very excited to be on a boat.  There was a large Disney cruise boat parked next to us, and Yannick was enthralled.  He kept asking "where dat cruise boat go?" as we pulled away.  We had to walk to the other side of the boat to look out the window to see it.

After the little orientation talk, we went to see the orientation video about the island.  Nick started acting up a bit, and I thought "great, this is going to be a tough day", thinking that he was going to be difficult all day.  I was thankfully wrong.  After the video, we decided to have lunch before going up the long hill to the prison tour.

They only allow food down by the dock, so this was the best time to eat lunch.  The tables were covered in poop and I had forgotten my sheet to use as a table cloth, so luckily the boys wanted to stay in the stroller.  The wind was a bit chilly, but the sun was hot.  See that gull on the table?  He was VERY aggressive and not much frightened of people.  I had a hard time shooing him away, and he would NOT stay away.  One of the park rangers came over to chase him away.  Not the most relaxing lunch ever. :)  But sort of amusing, I'm sure, to see me cawing and waving my arms at this bird. 

Up the long hill.  We stopped several times to look at all the leftover buildings from when it was an army fort.  The boys wanted to walk for a bit which was great because pushing a double stroller straight up is not so easy.  Then we made them walk for a bit.  yannick wanted to walk backwards, like Mater, and that was s l o w  going.  But we made it to the top, and walked in to get our headsets.  I decided to get ones for the boys too (free) in case they might be distracted by listening.  Almost immediately, Yannick hated it.  I gave it back and got Wyatt set up.  he seemed to be enjoying it.  I gave Nick his paci and laid him back so he would (fingers crossed!) nap.

Here is Wyatt deciding if he likes the audio.  He does not trust having Nick behind him, and always sits in the back (yannick hits him on the head and pulls his hair if he is behind), but I insisted because Nick needed to lie down for a nap.  No nap yet.

Wyatt amazingly got very into the story!  He listened intently.  his recording was about 40 seconds ahead of mine, and he would admonish me if I did not move into the right room at the right time.  And he would yell out loudly (because of the headphones) "Mom, this is the Library of the prison.  A library here!!  They had books".  I was so impressed (and relieved!) that he was interested.  It was a 90 minute tour, and he never got bored.

Yea, finally Yannick fell asleep about 20-30 minutes into the tour.  Rest was easy peasy.  He did not wake up until we were back on the boat.

Here is the view from the prison.  How tempting to want to escape.

Those streets going straight up.  Very cool view!

The entire tour was enjoyable, especially since Wyatt was into it and Yannick was asleep!  I had done this tour with Art in January, but there were many parts I had forgotten.  I enjoyed helping Wyatt understand the bits he did not get.

We viewed a few other things one the way back to the dock, but decided we would rather try to catch the ferry in 20 minutes instead of the one in 45 minutes.  Which we did!  Yannick woke up on the boat back, but was in good spirits.  Wyatt was in good spirits because I let him have screen time the entire time on the boat.  Some couple was watching him play games.

Then we walked down to pier 39.  There is no shortage of shops and eateries, but we were mainly interested in what is at the end of the pier:

Here is Nana with the stroller.  The wind had picked up and it was getting chilly.  The boys and Nana all enjoyed seeing all the sea lions.  So loud!  And some are just bullies!

See if you can spot the large sea lion on the second dock from the bottom, on the right...he is laying on his back with his flippers straight out.  So funny! We watched them until Wyatt started complaining of cold.  By then the wind was really picking up.  We made a bathroom stop, and I was just moments too late in changing Nick's diaper.  he peed through his pants, and I only had shorts to change him into.  I had to put my jacket over his legs in the stroller.  We stopped for mom to get us some coffee and hot chocolate to warm up.  It was 4pm, and I wanted to avoid traffic as much as possible so we canned the idea of driving over the bridge, and down lombard st.  Next time.  Good thing, because it took us FOREVER to get out of the city.  A bit of getting lost, not trusting the navigation on my phone, and so on.  Then finally traffic at Palo Alto.  We were nervous about being late for Zachary's make-up soccer game at 6:30, but we made it in plenty of time to eat a quick dinner.  Mom, Wyatt, Zachary, and Art went to the game while I stayed home with Yannick who had been fighting a fever.  Zachary's team won, and he even scored a goal.  Success for Nana to see.  Especially since last time, she got to see Zachary's very first soccer practice while Art was in China, but not an actual game.

It was a long, but good day!