Katie is my Sci-Fi Goddess rocking it out on the new "da Vinci" surgery robot at the hospital. She went down to San Jose (home of Google, etc) to do some robot training and I flew down the following day so we could spend a weekend in SAN FRANCISCO together without... WITHOUT the kids.
(BEGIN ROBOT VOICE)
This is da Vinci. He'll be your Robot Tour guide through this blog post.
We woke up late, and got out of the hotel at 1130am. Dottie's True Blue Cafe online had rave reviews... so we waited in line for 30min and watched SF go by. Old lady in a Fur Coat and spiked heals picking through and eating the garbage was the morning highlight. More importantly, it seats 40, has 6 burners on the stove, and no rush... you can sit at your table as long as you like. We did.
da Vinic liked the salt and pepper shakers. Meow! Ian liked the jalepineo jam in the glass jar. Sorry we didn't take pictures of the food... we were busy. IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT.
da Vinci and Katie at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory. da Vinci liked the maiden in the fountian.
Nice mermaid. (smile)
Chocolate made the old way... awesome. We had a cup of hot coco to go... it was divine.
Walking the fisherman's warf as we wait for our Alcatraz tour at 4pm. It was sunny (not Seattle) so walking the city was awesome. The warf was very touristy... but the people watching was awesome and the street performers aplenty!
"Alcatraz should be reserved for desperate or irredeemable types of individuals". And a whole lotta nesting birds. Did you know Alcatraz means "Island of a lot of birds", well it does.
In our free time waiting for the Alcatraz tour we climbed the stairs to Coit tower. A monument, cool, and a stellar view, but we forgot to take a picture of the stairs, etc... all 300+ vertial feet in 10min. The houses and gardens were awesome. The people living here must have calves, thighs, and asses of steel!
Katie did take a picture of this... California Violet. They were everywhere and smelled lovely.
Coit tower! We couldn't go to the top. :( there was some construction, but cool story. Go look it up.
Awesome view. Monument to Columbus and a view of Alcatraz, the city and the bay and bridges.
Back down from Coit Tower and on our way to the Alcatraz Night Tour! IT was a steep hill, but worth it :) Find the stairs and walk them.
On the boat to Alcatraz! SO COOL!
OK. More soon... lots to load for your viewing pleasure.
OK... back. Been busy, but going to drink some coffee, listen to Wait Wait Don't tell me on NPR and blog. Best show ever... SO we are on the boat to Alcatraz! Blue sky, sun, cold wind, but excited for the night tour.
da Vinci enjoying the SF skyline and some kid enjoying him.
The Rock. Did you know the original intent was a navel base to gun down enemy ships that entered the strait and that they blasted and cut the sides steep like this to deter landing forces.
Later the steep sides made the idea of "walls" pointless for the prison. If you didn't break something jumping from the side, the cold water and currents would make things "difficult."
The Golden Gate bridge is awesome.Long and interesting history to this island.
The "Shower" where naked the men are cleansed, given clothes to carry, and then paraded naked to their cells. Wow.
Took a walk down "Broadway" to their cell.
To this... 5x8 foot cell. Yikes.
When prison was "prison" and not enjoyable with amenities...
If you were lucky... you make have had a sneak peak of the real world across from your cell. Those lucky (and well behaved) enough got sunlight from the East and South windows.
Bored Beyond Belief.
Solitary confinement would suck. Really... this is when both of the doors are open. They had no control of the light and only let out for like 10 min a day to eat or something awful.
During the largest prison uprising the US Marines scaled the walls and from the roof top cut holes in the roof and dropped grenades into the prison. These are marks that look like giant splatter marks, but it's where the tile has been blasted out.
A "window" in the hallway that is for the enjoyment of good prisoners and maybe a chance to see the city or a guest.
The guest window. Da Vinci is giving Dr. Kt the secrets to robotic surgery hand techniques.
Completely enjoying our trip without the kids. It's San Fran!
The Bridge! The sunset wasn't captured very well. It was pretty.
San Fran's night skyline.
Here is the view... amazing. The island is lucky that there is NO fresh water source. All water had, has, to be shipped to the island.... which is mostly likely what saved it from becoming a condo complex.
Getting an X-Ray!
The surgery table. (couldn't get da Vinci on this one)
We loved the Trollies!
Trolly!
We couldn't get enough of the Trollies. Here is a bit of live action Trolly excitement.
So much to do. So much to see in a great city. So hard to get outta bed before 10am and out of the hotel by noon. Kids? What?
Chinatown was gearing up with the Chinese New Year celebration!
Nuts, but fun.
Local girls school performance. da Vinci liked.
Ian loves Dim Sum, and this was out best find on Yelp (i'm sure there is better, it was good, but not Ian's best experience) Kt's first time eating Dim Sum. These... black sesame dumplings were... interesting. Almost made Kt throw up. So gooie and super sweet... hard to explain.
The End of the Line of a trolly stop near our hotel. Again, we loved the trollies. Hanging on the side going through traffic was fun.
Driving across the GG Bridge! Neat.
Amazing Navy memorial at the bridges view point. The rain made all the memorials look like they were crying. It was oddly moving and well done about all the men and women who sailed past this point serving their country.
Impressive.
It started out sunny, then the a storm started to blow in... which in itself after our days of sun was a cool SF experience. SF in the background.
Our trip nearing it's end... but a last picture before we walked the bridge and it was swallowed by the clouds.
A huge cargo ship going out to see. We watched it pass, go under, and then go beyond the storm and off the horizon. It was a cool vantage point being so high up and looking out to sea.
On our drive to the hotel by the airport in San Jose (South of San Fran) we drove along the coast and stopped at a beach to see the ocean for a bit. It was nice.
So we didn't drive at all in SF, as you can tell from all the Trolly pictures, but we really like the Nissan Cube that we drove. Fun car.
In the airport at like 5am... just after coming out of security there was this art display about privacy and surveillance... in a fish tank.
That's it. We took a lot of pictures, but really liked Alacatraz, and thought you might enjoy it as well. We took LOTS of picture of SF, but decided to not post them all. Ian reconnected with a roommate from his International Summer School in Oslo (Erik) and we went to a night club for some good dancing till 4am. We didn't take any pics of the very nice Frairmont Hotel we stayed in, by the airport, and enjoyed very very much... but we loved our first trip without the kids. THANK YOU to Jane and Darryl V for flying out and watching the boys. Next trip is hopefully Hawaii, but which set of grand parent(s) or family want to come with us? Hm... think about it. HAWAII :)
So I (Ian) was quietly watching Soren play. He likes his personal time, such a different kid than Odin. I was getting laundry out and clothes for the day for him, when I found he had set himself up on the table to play and finish some Cheerios. 
I think Buzz Lightyear was being Force fed what's good for him.
