SF

7/4/7

We arrived in San Francisco in the evening, with just enough time to find our lodging and check out some fireworks. We didn't see any big official firework shows, but there were a bunch of crazy people in Mission Dolores Park lighting off stuff. At some point the cops started driving by saying something out of a megaphone, but nobody could understand what they were saying. Probably something related to the fact that fireworks are illegal there.

After we got tired of M80s and smoke, we wandered around and found a El Salvadorian/Mexican place that was still open.


The service was REALLLLY slow, so Eri decided to show us some of her Thai Chi moves.

Emily countered with, "Oh yeah, well I have a cool shirt."

7/5/7

Emily booked us a room at this house in the Mission District. The room we reserved, the Pyramid Room, was somehow double booked, but we ended up with a larger room anyway.



In the morning we decided to take a stroll through Golden Gate Park, which is larger than Central Park in NY.


We didn't go in here because it cost money. But Eri decided to celebrate anyway.






This art museum looked kind of like an alien space ship.



Turtles!


Eri monkeying around by the monkey tree.

The Japanese Tea Garden cost money too, so we passed it up.

After lunch eating a tasty but gruesomely overpriced Kobe burger, we set sail for Alcatraz. It was pretty cool--places to see, and a walk-though audio tour with former inmates and guards.

On the boat ride over the wind was brutal.


The "Indians Welcome" paint is from the late 60s when Indians took over the island to protest the government taking their land.

The island is now a bird sanctuary. We found a baby seagull hiding by a garden.


Following our return voyage, we took a look around Fisherman's Wharf.


Emily was pretty cold from the wind, so she bought some really tall socks.

We took a walk up to Coit Tower, but we forgot to take any pictures of the tower itself.

You can just barely see Alcatraz in the background