Adam, the kids, and I all woke up early, snuck out and picked up cinnamon rolls, Starbucks coffee, and some gifts for our host. It was a special day as well for 2 other reasons. 1. It was our last full day in California 2. It was our 10 year anniversary! After breakfast, we headed out for our first stop. Our entire family are big Mythbusters fans. (If you recall last year's birthday party) While watching a few episodes the night before, D drew a picture of the entire crew. She really wanted to send it to them, but since I let her know we were heading for M5 Industries in the morning, she agreed to wait.
We took our picture in front of the sign. There was a note on the door that said to please not disturb because they were filming. D happily slipped her note inside an envelope through the mail slot in their door.
From there, we headed into the city again, aiming for the
Chinatown area. This was a neat thing we saw on the way. It is seriously a real car flattened and hung up on the side of a building.
We parked in a garage not far from Chinatown. As we came out of the garage at street level, we wandered into a neat Scottish Import Store.
A short walk from there, and we were in Chinatown! The kids had a really fun time checking out all the shops. Andy did show us to this tiny little fortune cookie factory down an alley. As you walk into
Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory the first thing you notice is that they are freshly making the cookies in a tiny little room. There is a line of ladies taking the cookies off of the hot press, sliding a paper fortune inside and folding into the unmistakable shape. The lady in charge has a plate of misshapen or broken cookies for you to take a sample of, and there are bags of freshly made regular or chocolate cookies. We munched on these all day long!
After cruising around for sometime, picking up a few souvenirs, and having Vietnamese sandwiches for lunch (yes, they kids happily gobbled them up!), we tried to catch a trolley. We stood right on the corner at Chinatown for a long time, but every trolley was totally packed. A man walking past said we might have better luck walking to the next stop just 2 blocks away. Those 2 blocks were up a very very very steep hill. We made the trek, pausing to catch breath a few times.
1 block into our hike, I noticed this statue of
Hermes and thought he just needed a pocket necklace. How else would he carry his messages? So once again I left my mark on San Fran.
After a short wait, we were able to all get on a trolley. The kids were bummed that we couldn't hang on the outside, but they said no one under 16 could do that. We also went ahead and bought a day pass, so that way we could ride it back and it would be cheaper that way.
Once we got to the end, back by
Ghirardelli Square, the kids got a picture taken hanging on it once it stopped.
Another duck into the Buena Vista Cafe for Irish Coffee and Sprite before picking up boxes of Ghirardelli chocolate and explore a few shops. Another stop for ice cream for the kids at Ben & Jerry's!
Headed back to ride the trolley back again, but stopped in a really cool spy store. The line to ride back was shorter, and went really quickly.
Once we were back at the car, we headed back home to relax, wash clothes, and pack up for the long ride for home in the morning.
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