RIDING THE CABLE CAR, CA

A must do in San Francisco, is riding the cable car. A several Trip Advisor reviews, many people advised that we avoid this stop because it become very crowded. On that day there was only a couple people waiting in line so we decided to start our ride here. After us, people came out of nowhere and the car filled up quick. 

It is definitely a interesting experience but it can become unpleasant very quickly. We learned that going up the first steep hill. All of the sudden you slam into the person sitting next to you, and continue to do so until you make it to the top. The best way to travel is to stand of to the side or just stand inside. 

The controls

We randomly jumped off at Chinatown, since we were passing it and decided to get some bubble tea. 

FISHERMAN'S WHARF, SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Fisherman's Wharf is a really neat place to hang out. We went there on our last day in San Francisco, where we spent most of the day since our flight was at 9:30 pm. There was plenty of window shopping, cafe's, outside food carts, souvenir stores, and restaurants. On our way in we walked by a store that had many souvenirs but it also had a great Coca-Cola collection. It was like Coca-Cola Collection Heaven. There were many things that the owner wouldn't sell because of their uniqueness and because he was personally attached to them. I ended up getting 3 things to add to my collection. 

Alcatrez was the most visible from this location. And it was really neat to see how close it appeared to mainland. 

We ate lunch at Alioto's, which had delicious food and an awesome view of the docks and boats.

While walking around on the docks after lunch we came across this sea lion swimming around looking for fish cleaning scraps around the boats. 

GOLDEN GATE PARK & CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

There are several entrances to this very large park, but the closest one from the bus stop was the Rose Garden. Some of the roses were blooming but we were more intrigued with different flowering bushes. The kids enjoyed some outside exploration. Adrian loves sticks and dirt so he had a blast. 

It was a lengthy walk from the entrance to the Academy of Science. 

The first thing that we did once inside was get some lunch. The eating area reminded us of IKEA. The food turned out to be delicious and it was a great start to the fun. 

There was a huge aquarium with some really cool fish from the Amazon.  There also several smaller ones that were very neat. Adrian kept saying, "Daddy look." 

Another neat thing that we all enjoyed was a Earthquake Simulation Room. The room appeared like a typical living room in a house. We stood throughout the room which had handrails to hold on to. The 2 biggest earthquakes that took place in California were demonstrated. It was an amazing and terrifying experience because it really demonstrated the violence of the quake. 

There also was a New Zeland Whale Exhibition in the special event room. It was really neat to see the actually size of whale bones. There was a whale heart display that the kids could actually climb into and play. It was 5.5' tall and about 6'wide (actually size). Unfortunately  there was no photo's allowed inside the exhibition.