Day 146 - San Francisco Baseball Game

Our family day trip to SF began with a two hour rush job to finish the John Muir Trail packing, followed by a trip to the post office for mailing, followed by a long drive to a ferry terminal north of the bay. Shaw had masterminded a jamboree of mass transportation in and out of San Francisco, including four ferries, two streetcars and a couple of long walks, taking us to the SF harbor, Alcatraz and the Giants-Nats baseball game.

Here is the gang leaving the first ferry. I have the kiddos liberty to act like animals.

We walked down the harbor, grabbed a nice lunch, and then took our second ferry to Alcatraz. Here is the required pic of the kiddos in lockup.

The Alcatraz tour was fantastic: a narrated audio guide took you around the prison at a steady pace and talked about prison life and famous escape attempts with passionate prose. The view from the outside area, experienced by prisoners for five hours each weekend only, was quite nice.

Dad and son.

After our third ferry back to the mainland, we took a crowded streetcar then the metro to the ballpark. Anderson and Carrington watched batting practice and Anderson was handed a ball from a Nats player. The view from our "view level" seats was best in baseball.

The game started with a lead off home run by a Nats player on the first pitch, but was then dominated and won by the Giants. We still had a grand time. We took our final ferry from just outside the ballpark back to our vehicles, then Dad and I drove to our hotel, arriving after midnight. A long fun day.

Comments

Day 43 - Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef, a national park centered around a 90 mile ancient seabed reef was next on my list. A sensationally scenic three hour drive from Bryce, back through Escalante, and then through a national forest led me to the park. A stop by the visitor center to get the lay of the land and insider info on local free BLM campsites complete, I set out on Chimney Rock trail up the the top of the first reef to get a view. Yes sir!! The weather was ideal for hiking and the views completely blissful, but I was frankly tired today. I set out along the scenic road down the west side of the reef and remember wanting to take a nap-- but still having a sense of urgency to complete the desert portion of my trip-- I pushed on and set out to hike down the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash canyons. The Capitol Gorge had a "Pioneer Wall" with inscriptions from the early 1900s and the Grand Wash had a nice narrow section with towering canyon cliffs all around. I took a photo of the surrounding reef...

Day 35 - Escalante River

Our group of eight intrepid but novice backpackers and two incredibly experienced guides gathered for breakfast at 8am to meet, greet and bulk up for 5 days in the Escalante River area. We laid out all our gear to ensure we had the needed hiking, camping and survival supplies and drove to our trailhead for departure. We hiked along a trail following the course of the Escalante River for a mile or so before getting to our first of many river crossings. Wet feet were not something we could avoid so we simply hiked across and sometimes down the river. When the river ran close to the canyon walls we knew we would have to find a shallow entry to the river, then cross the river to the bench on the other side. Guides Andrew Skurka and Alan Dixon offered instruction along the way on map reading and route finding and information on local vegetation and geology and how the knowledge of both helped make your off trail travel more efficient. For example in geology their were two main ro...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

Road Trip Daily

Search This Blog