IRE in San Francisco

IRE came down from northern California to San Francisco on Thursday. It was a 350 mile trip down the Pacific Coast. The drive was beautiful. The scenic route took us through the mountains of Northern California. Along the way, we came upon an even more scenic route. We took the route known as the Avenue of the Giants. This lead us through the Giant Redwood Trees. The trees were enormous! Some of the trees that we saw were around 5000 years old. Along the way, we stopped at a site that let us drive through a Giant Redwood. I was the lucky one driving, and I managed to squeeze the suburban through with less than an inch to spare.

As we approached San Francisco we were met by an awesome view - The Golden Gate Bridge. As we crossed this famous engineering marvel, we could look to our right and see miles out to the Pacific Ocean, and we could look to our left and see the city of San Francisco. Also to the left was Alcatraz, which is located in the center of San Francisco Bay. The view all around was awesome.

Friday was a busy day in the city. To start off the day we went to the California Academy of Science. Here we saw many interesting displays. A majority of the displays had to do with environmental themes. In the center of the building there were two giant glass spheres with circular windows in the top to let in sunlight. In one of the spheres was a rain forest. As we entered, the atmosphere became very humid. The entrance was on the floor of the rain forest. As we walked around in the sphere, the stairs led us through the madagascar, and then up to the canopy. There were birds, butterflies, and all sorts of other creatures in this exhibit. After the trek up, we took the elevator down beneath to see an aquarium of tropical fish. The second sphere was the planetarium, but I didn't go see it because Christy and I got tickets to see King Tut's exhibit at the DeYoung's Museum across the street.

Christy and I took a cab back to the hotel after we left the museum. This cab ride turned out to be a miniature tour and history lesson of San Francisco. The cab driver showed us the famous view of the Old Ladies. This view is a street that has very brightly colored Victorian houses(which are the old ladies), and in the background, you can see out over the rest of San Francisco. Then, the cab driver took us by the house that Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed. After that, we went by the city hall, and we got a history lesson on the hall and it led into a discussion about the 1906 earthquake. We were almost to the hotel when the driver asked if we had ever been down Lombard Street. Which, of course, we hadn't so he took us a few blocks out of our way to go down it. Lombard Street is considered the crookedest street in the world. It winds up a hill in San Francisco that has beautiful houses lining it. The driver also told us that the people that live on the street take pride in it because they do all the gardening themselves.

The afternoon portion of the day was spent down at the Fisherman's Wharf. The wharf has a bunch of little shops and cool places to eat. Pier 39 was the most popular of the places on the wharf. At the end of the pier we got to see sea lions. They came in and sat on the docks. It was pretty cool.

One of the shops we stopped at was called the Pearl Factory. At the Pearl Factory you get to pick out an oyster from a bucket, and then, with the pearl that is inside, you can get a necklace or ring made. The whole experience was pretty cool because they make you do a Hawaiian ritual, and then, they took you through the whole process of cleaning and setting the pearl.


Overall, it was an exciting and eventful stay in San Francisco. I forgot to mention that the weather was seventy and sunny while we were there. But all good things come to and end, and it's off to San Diego to continue our adventure.

Proofed by Christy