San Francisco

Christmas Break Trip 2005
San Francisco

The day after the Caterpillar internship ended, Juliana and I took a big trip to see San Francisco, Yosemite, and Seattle. We traveled by train and mass transit everywhere except in Seattle (my Aunt drove us around). The following few pages contains details and pictures from out trip.

Our first stop on the trip was San Francisco. We left LaCrosse, WI on Saturday, December 10th. We arrived in San Francisco 2.5 days later on Tuesday, December 13 around noon and we had the rest of the day to start exploring the city.

After checking in at our hotel, we took the bus to to Steinhart Aquarium. We only had about two hours before the museum closed, but we saw all the exhibits and watched the feeding of the penguins.

Fish at Steinhart Aquarium.

We then walked around the Shopping Center before catching a historic trolley on the F Line to Pier 39. We walked around Pier 39, did some shopping, then had a good meal at a fancy seafood restaurant on the pier--right next to the water and seals. We then went back to the hotel.

Christmas tree at Pier 39

The next day (Wednesday) we took off early for Alcatraz. Before leaving, we watched the seals on the docks.

Seals at Pier 39.

Soon afterward, we departed for Alcatraz. It was cool that morning, but we rode on the top deck of the ferry for a good view. The boat was parked backwards, and everyone was at the back end to see Alcatraz. Juliana and I decided we would stand at the opposite edge in the corner, where nobody was at. We knew the boat would turn around, and it did. We had the best view of the island as we cruised across the bay.

Alcatraz: View from the ferry.

Inside Alcatraz during the tour.

We left Alcatraz around noon and ate at Pier 39. We then caught a bus over to the Golden Gate Bridge. We walked all the way across the bridge and back, which was about 4 miles including the long walkway from the bus stop to the first pier on the bridge. The bridge was huge.

Here we are before walking across the bridge

Next we took the bus to the Japanese Tea Garden. We had little time there before it was dark.

The Japanese Tea Garden.

We caught a bus back to Pier 39, then ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Juliana wanted to eat there since it is sort of an icon. We shopped around and bought a few gifts for people before heading back to the hotel.

The next day we went to the Exploratorium. This is an awesome science museum. There were tons of hands-on experiments and things to do. Unfortunately there are a lot of school groups there with little kids. We stayed there for much of the day before taking a bus back to the cable cars.

Outside the Exploratorium.

Here we are, playing with one of the accoustic experiments at the Exploratorium.

The rest of the day we spent on the cable cars. We rode them all around the city, stopping to take pictures in a few spots. We also toured the Cable Car Museum. While riding the cars, we stopped at Lombard Street (the crooked street) and Coit Tower. We ate at a seafood market near Pier 45 before heading back to the hotel.

A cable car on the steep streets of SF.

These large sheaves powered by large motors drive all the cable cars throughout the city.

The next day we were up around 5:30 to catch our train to Yosemite. We certainly stayed busy in San Francisco and had a great time. Click on the Yosemite to see what we did the next day!