Dana wanted to try out an Adventures by Disney tour. We looked at all the possibilities and what was practical from a cost standpoint. Since Madeline and I had canceled our trip to Northern California just before we moved to Florida, we thought that maybe we could do AbD in San Francisco, and then extend the trip outside of the city.

 

Day One began with a bike tour along the bay and then a nice welcome dinner with our new friends. We spent more time with the whole group in the area and particularly a couple we bonded with. After the AbD tour, we had lunch with Uncle Al and hit a couple more iconic spots before we left San Francisco. We returned, though, on the final full day before our flight the next morning.

San Francisco

After an early morning flight that took us through Dallas to get to San Francisco, we made it to our hotel. We met our guides Anne & Eleni. It turned out that Anne was from Indy and had relatives in Greensburg, including my niece’s boyfriend.

 

We went to lunch and then mid-afternoon took a bike ride from the Wharf to the Presidio, stopping for pictures a couple of times.

07/20/17—07/29/17

After our difficult bike ride, we went to M.Y. China for a nice family-style dinner and drinks with our new friends. After dinner, we drove out to Treasure Island to get a good view of the city and the Bay Bridge.

 

We spent most of Friday outside of the city, but we had dinner on our own that night. Dana had a friend that recommended an Italian restaurant not too far from our hotel. We went there with Brian & Mickie. Afterwards, Madeline and Dana walked to Lombard Street, rode a cable car, and saw China Town.

Saturday morning we got up fairly early and went directly to the Golden Gate Bridge, which was celebrating its 80th birthday. After a group photo and individual families, we had time to go out on the bridge. Karl the Fog was very interesting that day, coming in and out while we were walking the bridge. We made it to the halfway point, which Dana was just barely able to touch, but then we had to head back to the gift shop before leaving. Fun fact: a Purdue professor was chiefly responsible for the structural design of the bridge.

We continued on over the Golden Gate Bridge to  Marin County, ending up in Tiburon. From there we boarded a ferry boat to Angel Island. The island was once used as an immigration station, where over 1 million Asians passed through in a 30-year span. It was a brief visit on the island to learn its history, but we practically had the ferry boat to ourselves back to Tiburon. Dana and Eleni seemed to bond, and we were just happy to be able to have some lunch before continuing our adventure.

We said goodbye to Mickie and other friends and drove past the Painted Ladies and the house used for the front of Full House and Fuller House.

We dropped Dana back off at the Disney Family Museum, and Madeline and I went to the Wharf to see the sea lions on Pier 39.

We went to Boudin to have some great sourdough bread with Uncle Al and family. Eventually Dana returned so that she could see them as well.

Our last full day ended at the Marriott by SFO Airport. It was a nice hotel with a good view of the airport runways.