Saturday, July 28, 2012

San Francisco - Day 2 (Friday)

On Friday, we did many of the activities on our Wharf Pass.  As we drove into the city, we decided to do a drive by of the famous "Full House" house... not creepy at all (as we stuck our camera out the window as we drove by to get some pictures. Hehe.)  After parking, we walked to the Pampanito submarine near Fisherman's Wharf.  We toured the Navy submarine, which was really neat and interesting.  I don't know how those men stayed in the submarine for so long in such small quarters.  An older gentleman, who served on a similar submarine during WWII, enlightened us on some of his experiences.  It was very interesting to listen to him!  Right next door to the submarine was the Jeremiah O'Brien, a Navy ship used in WWII.  There is a museum inside that is very cool, and the ship has been fully restored!  We toured the ship as well.  The engine room was incredible, and the film, "Titanic," was shot in that engine room!

For lunch, we decided to walk up to North Beach (the Italian section of the city).  We got Tony's Pizza by the slice, and it was delicious!!  They have a larger sit-down restaurant, but it was much more expensive and a bit of a wait.  After lunch, we headed back to Pier 39 for a Blue and Gold Fleet tour of the bay.  We rode under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island.  The tour was narrated and was interesting (basic knowledge about the bay was included)! We're glad we had our jackets because it's cold on the boat.

We decided to ride the cable car towards where we parked our car.  We waited for a long time, but we eventually got on and rode it to Lombard Hill.  We got off there to take some pictures of the extremely windy hill and then headed to our car (it had to be out of the lot by 5pm).  We were going to head back to our campground to make dinner, but the GPS told us that it was an incredibly long drive home because of the traffic.  So, we decided to head to Pier 39 to have dinner (restaurants validate your parking so that you don't have to pay for up to two hours). We ate at Fog Harbor Fish House and got the famous clam chowder in bread bowls for dinner. Yum!

"Full House" house!


Patrick, in front of the USS Pampanito

Me, inside the submarine


The men slept three high on tiny beds!


Look at those torpedoes

The gun on the front of the submarine


The "Jeremiah O'Brien"


Patrick, taking aim at that sea gull


Steering the ship

The engine room... very impressive and much bigger than you can imagine!

The Blue and Gold Fleet ship we took for our tour

On the ship, about to go under the Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz Island

The buildings on the island. The long one at the top is where the prisoners were held.

The Oakland Bay Bridge

Cable car ride

Lombard Hill


Pier 39 from the harbor cruise

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