bay area

We spent an extended Memorial Day weekend with a group of my friends from college. Two of them, Ryan and Kari, moved to the Bay Area last year. We were joined by Doug, Allen, and Heather for a great five day trip. A huge thank you to Ryan and Kari for being such great hosts.


When we arrived on Saturday, Ryan and Kari picked us up from the airport and we hit In n Out. We then picked up the others and headed into San Francisco. Had a snack at Fisherman's Wharf and went on the Alcatraz tour. None of us were expecting much from the tour but both of us ended up enjoying it. It gave me flashbacks of one of the best episodes of Unsolved Mysteries from back in the day on the escape, including some guy who volunteered to swim from the island to a strip of land (its been too long since I have seen the Robert Stack show - can't remember where the guy swam). After watching the movie The Rock last week, Lelaine was a bit disappointed that there was no hostage situation involving disillusioned Marines, vx gas, and a dopey FBI scientist who becomes a super agent overnight, but still pretty neat stuff.


After prison we decided it was time for some fresh air and went to look at the Golden Gate Bridge. This was the site of round one of Lelaine vs. Chris. I wanted to hike up the hill. Lelaine wanted to view the bridge from the comforts of the parking lot. In a very rare occurrence my side prevailed and we went for a nice stroll. It had been cloudy all day, but as we approached the bridge the sun made its first appearance of the day. The view was great and offered a postcard-like view of San Francisco. We then continued the Palmer van tour, including down Lombard Street and ended up at a good pan-Asian restaurant for dinner. After dinner we hiked up a hill that seemed a lot more like a mountain to get to the minivan. While the walk, particularly after a big meal, pretty much stunk, we got to see the city lit up when we got to the car.