So tomorrow is here…it’s Saturday and we’ve had another fun day. A little late start but that was ok cause the kids got to rest and I got to talk to Christina, my SIL!! We headed out walking to our pier 33 for Alcatraz…on our way we stopped at this fun French Café to get lunch on the go to eat at our pier. They had animals made out of bread…and of course where there is fun animal bread there are OUR children wanting that bread…so that was their lunch…they each got a bread turtle with blueberry eyes! This actually filled them up for a nice long time! Mark and I ate normal sandwiches that were super tasty! We sat and waited for our fairy to take off to get to the island and ate our food…slowly but surely the seagulls showed up to try to sneak a bite…so Grissom pegs one in the head while Mark was getting our tickets. It was a perfect hit…the bird kind of staggered a bit…I was laughing SO hard then felt bad cause I figure some freak might come running over to ‘rescue’ this thing…he ended up coming back for more!
Before we loaded the boat we gave Ella and Keegan a good pep-talk…about how we were going to see a jail and we’d be on an island and all this fun stuff, so we were feeling a little over confident. As we boarded the boat the guy took our tickets (we only needed 3; Mark, Me, and Ella), gave them back and said, “So you got 2 you are leaving there?” I replied, “Yes…we are leaving the boys!” Keegan turns around very concerned. He punches me and says, “Mom…you better not leave me, the police will come get you!” Now…funny sounding but I knew that was the start of something we’ve been noticing with Keegan. I think he’s a very sensitive kid and this hurt his feelings and so he blessed us with a nice mini-meltdown on the island (thank goodness it was while we were waiting for the return fairy!) We are going to start being very aware with how we joke with him, cause he’s getting hurt and reacting to it…I feel terrible! Good one mom!! Anyway, we boarded, found seats and noticed that the excitement was too much for Grissom for he’d already fallen asleep!
We got to the island and I was totally amazed by again, the beauty of it all, not to mention the old building and flowers. We started our time watching a short movie about the island. It had subtitles in English, French and Spanish at the bottom. We sat in a crowded room to watch with tons of other people. When the subtitles started Ella used the quietest moment in time to announce to all who could hear, “This is great, now I can read it in Spanish…cause I speak it…” we interrupted her before she could recite her 10 Spanish words out loud! It was cute. We then took an audio tour of the prison. It felt like we were listening to a movie and yet walking thru it at the same time. Ella and Keegan were totally enthralled by it for a good 90% of the tour…it was cool to actually see the fake heads a few of the guys used when they escaped as well as the spoons they used to dig the wall out and the pipes they climbed to get out…too bad they were never found (assumed lost @ sea…or did they escape? hmm).
I had no clue that the prison workers actually lived with their families on the island with these super dangerous men…I also found it intriguing that some of these men were put in this prison just because everyone was afraid of them! It was VERY educational and Mark LOVED it!! Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed it, but we went because daddy really wanted this!
We sat on the top floor of the boat coming back and had to wait until everyone else was off the boat to exit but at least we had bathrooms cause everyone ended up having to go at different times during our wait! We ate dinner and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge. We’d planned to walk across it but by the time we got there the sun was setting and the wind was picking up and we were all pooped from walking the island! So we crossed and stopped for ice cream before heading back over!
I wanted to at least see China town…so we drove thru it. It was neat! The darkness was setting in so we started home all agreeing that we needed more time here…so we plan on at least another day trip. It’s only 2 hours north of us! We had a heck of a time finding a bathroom for mommy and Ella. Did you know they have 7-Elevens out here without gas pumps…it’s just a store…a store withOUT a bathroom! We found ourselves playing car-hopping, cause then we tried a Starbucks…CLOSED @ 9p.m. what?!? So we ran across the street to an opened Chinese restaurant, thankfully they didn’t mind letting us in without buying dinner! Whew! We come back to the van to see Keegan peeing on my front tire! Irritating that boys can just go wherever! Anyway, we PJ’ed the kids and headed home!
We took the ‘Scott’ way back without knowing it. What is that you ask? Well, Scott, my father-in-law loves a good drive…scenic…and so that is what this was. I am good with it, BUT I always prefer the straight interstate method…Mark enjoyed the ride while I almost lost my dinner!
When we got home we were welcomed by a nice haze of smoke from our neighbors by our parking spot. It was nice…very strong and very willing to follow us all the way around our building and into our own apartment! The kids slept in until 9!! Which made it too late for church…so…we…headed to the beach?
This was our first taste of what summer will be like weather wise here…it got up to 72 degrees and the wind wasn’t bad at all. Grissom fell asleep again and we had to battle the seagulls for our things. We left our bag of towels to build a sandcastle and the birds were for real pecking in our bag and trying to take it out and run with it! It was funny and irritating at the same time!
Mark is having a ball perfecting his castle building skills! All the Chinese and Japanese tourist wanted and took many pictures of it…they all thought he was a professional star!
I started this week by getting my hands on a free family pass to the aquarium here…that’s worth $100 to get our family in just once! The libraries out here give away 100 free passes at the beginning of each month! Yeah!! Free fun!
I’m going to post pics soon!!
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