Road Trip - Part 3

Day 3 of our trip began with breakfast at The Buena Vista. It's cheesy and touristy, right across from the Cable Car turn-around and between Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf, but it has a lot of history for me and my family. When I was very small my parents used to go there for Ramos Fizz's, my dad would lay his coat on the floor and I'd curl up and go to sleep on it, under the table, while my parents chatted with their friends and pretended they weren't hippies.

So off we went. In typical Boy fashion, The Boy loved the cable cars. He kept dragging Hubs out to look at them, and wanted a seat near the window so he could keep an eye on them while we were eating.

And then, much to the chagrin of my twenty-something self, we visited Ghirardelli Square. Here's The Boy on a bench made for him

And walking beside Ghirardelli Square with the Bay behind him

And with my beautiful mom in front of the Christmas tree.

I then decided that we had to pass through Fisherman's Wharf, something I haven't done since I was practically The Boy's age, so we could look at crabs. But first we saw an awesome, to everyone but Hubs, Christmas cable car

Then some crabs, although they were a bit more chilled out, or sad, than I remember.

We carried on to Pier 39 so we could look at sea lions

A walk around the Pier gave The Boy a chance to see Alcatraz - though we'll save an actual visit till he's older

While at Pier 39 my boys went on the merry-go-round, The Boy's first time

After we'd had our fill of the most touristy of tourist sights, we headed to North Beach - slightly less touristy but, like the Buena Vista, a place loaded with personal history. My dad became a fan of North Beach when he was in the Navy, which was shortly after North Beach's Kerouac/Ginsberg/Ferlinghetti heyday. He introduced me to Caffe Trieste when I was about The Boy's age, and I've been a devoted fan ever since,so we couldn't miss it when we were up there.

Sadly, they didn't have the fixin's for an egg cream, so we settled on cappuccino's for Hubs, me and Mom and a croissant for The Boy

I had to take a requisite pic of my boys in on Columbus, in front of City Lights Bookstore with the Transamerica building in the background.

Here's one of my boys in the alley behind City Lights, named after either Kerouac or Ginsberg - I can't remember

Here's The Boy working on his straw skills at a diner on Mason Hubs and I used to frequent when we lived on Post.

After dinner we went up to check out the ice skating on Union Square. It was really cold but The Boy seemed to enjoy watching. We watched for a bit more then returned to the warmth of the hotel, hoping to get a good nights sleep before the drive home in the morning.

The next morning we packed up and headed across the Bay Bridge for breakfast in Berkeley. It was lovely, and before we left my favorite part of the US during my favorite time of year I took one last(bad) picture of Christmas baubles on bare trees.

And then we hit the road. What an awesome trip! We're so lucky to have a good little traveller in The Boy, and to be able to get out and go on trips with him.