Goodbye to California

With an Alcatraz tour off the table, we decided to make the most of our last day and cover as much ground in the city as humanly possible on transit and foot power. The boys were given the Rock-Paper-Scissors choice of a boat ride around Alcatraz or a visit to the aquarium. Nature won out over the consequences of crime this time around.

Bussing it down to Fisherman’s Wharf one last time, we visited the Aquarium at the Bay and took in some great exhibits of Pacific west coast sea life from around the Bay area. I was having a lot of trouble keeping warm with the stiff shore wind, so we stopped off for a quick coffee and cookie before heading off on our next expedition, an uphill trek to the Coit Tower.

We climbed the 172+ steps up the hillside (without any real complaints from the peanut gallery, but they were quite aways behind us down the staircase) to the 1933 landmark. The height gives a fantastic 360 degree view of the city. The high winds were still blowing, and we could see the Italian and New Zealand America’s Cup catamarans were racing across the bay below us - the helicopter with the tv crews were keeping up, but the tracking boats were really struggling.

The downhill walk was a lot quicker if harder on the quads, but it wasn’t long before we were climbing again on the way up to the crookedest street in the world. Lombard Street’s twists and turns were crowded with tourists and cars/trucks trying to make it down the street without mishap while snapping photos the whole way. The boys VOTED it the “Worst Street EVER” and we headed down the other side of the hill in search of lunch.

….and straight onto the end of another line-up. Swan’s Oyster Bar at the bottom of Polk Street came highly recommended all round, so we thought we needed to give this SF institution a try as well. Thousands of happy seafood lovers couldn’t be wrong, and Evan was curious about how the clam chowder was going to stack up to mom’s. After almost an hour, we took our seats at the small lunch counter in the vintage lunch spot. Swan’s celebrated their 100^th anniversary last year, and their tried and true plain but oh-so-fresh seafood dishes still serve customers who are happy to line up for Swan’s food and service at least as long as we did. Evan proclaimed my chowder STILL better than what he ate at Swan’s (J ) but we really enjoyed our own, and Norbert slurped his way through an entire order of local oysters. Ours was definitely worth the wait!

We needed to top this lunch/dinner off with a bang, so headed BACK up and down the Powell-Hyde St cable-car, to Ghiradelli Square for dessert. Coffee & a shared sundae for us, and malts for the boys pretty well finished us off for the night. The walk home was a must, and it was time to get started on packing for the journey north tomorrow.The natives are getting restless (see last photo)
Goodbye Motel Capri - FOREVER!!!