Finishing up day 1 and moving on to day 2

WOW! After that cruise, which was awesome, we moved on to the cable cars. There are two main lines, the Powell-Hyde line and the Powell-Mason line. The Powell-Hyde line is the longest and it was closest to us, so that's what we took. And it was covered in our city pass (note: unless you have a week and you're staying in the city, I don't recommend the city pass. I think we got our use out of it money wise, but we didn't do half of what we could have).
From the end of the line we could see Ghirardelli Square. Just a little history, the guy that formed this company from the ground up started in Italy in 1817, moved to Uruguay, then to Peru, then to San Fran to participate in the Gold Rush. He wasn't such a great miner so he started a few different businesses (interesting story, look it up online) and ended up with this company because he had a background in confections so he started this company. Blah blah blah, he came up with a way to make chocolate that now, pretty much every company uses, the chocolate used to be made at this location but isn't anymore. We never actually made it to the square but it's a cool sign (it's been up since 1923).

So, like I said, we were at the end (or the beginning) of the Powell-Hyde line and this is how they turn the car around.

They actually turn it around!!

And point it the other way!


This was our first cable card driver (called a gripman). To do this job take a LOT of upper body strength. There are only 8 ladies that operate these cable cars!

A few views from our ride. It took about 30 minutes to go from one end to the other.



This was our next gripman. We thought we were going to get a lady at first. They all have these special gloves to use while operating the car.

I took this picture upside down! I just thought it was a cool building.

Christie and Victoria enjoying our ride.

Christie with the kids in front of the car.

The Painted Ladies. Apparently lots of cities (including St. Louis) have "painted ladies", they are just a term used for Victorian or Edwardian (used after Victoria died) style homes that are pained different colors to embellish or enhance their architectural details. This particular set is also known as "Postcard Row" because they are used in a variety of media and mass-market materials. You'll recognize these in the intro to Full House. But for you Full House fans, the hill (park) the intro was taped from has apparently changed a lot, there's many trees and it's very hilly, not really a great, level place to have a picnic!


Victoria wanted to play red light/green light on her way down the hill.

Me and Victoria in front of the the Painted Ladies.

A park at the park Victoria wanted to play at for a few minutes.

A cool palm at the park.

More ladies

It was time to leave so we took the bus back toward the city to catch our trolley. This isn't the one we took but it was pretty and I got a better view of this one.

This was our trolley. It took forever because the city folk actually use these for regular public transportation, not just the tourists. All the trolleys and busses are on cables so they are emission free. These were also included on our city pass.

And this was a bunch of people playing chess. While we were loading people I noticed there are a TON of people that ride their bikes!! But there were a number of times where I didn't want to be a biker!! Watch out cars!

That was our first day!! It was a long day. We didn't even leave the city until 6:30 but it was a lot of fun!

The next day we were beat so we decided to do a couple things in the area we were staying in (Davis and Sacramento). I found this Fairytale Town. It was cheap and I figured Victoria would have a blast, and Aaron had some fun too.
The whole thing was build for little kids, so we had to duck or bend down every so often!


They had stations for different fairytales that had a box. Christie bought Victoria this little key that she could insert two different sides and get either a song or a story. She started to do this at every station, but they were pretty long so she didn't stay and listen to all of them.

This was Mary had a Little Lamb (this was more of a sheep, and apparently she had a goat, too).

This was the Old Woman in the Shoe

The shoe had a slide, V had a great time!

I don't remember what this one was. They had a lot of fairytales we didn't recognize.

This was a cool water fountain!

Something about a farmer, so there was a cow, chickens and a donkey


Didn't know Winnie the Pooh was a fairytale but here's Owl's house, also has a slide, there were lots of slides.

Something about a winding road. Not sure, but it was fun. Aaron was glad to get out of the stroller. He runs off now and doesn't like to hold my hand, so he staying in the stroller a lot...poor guy!

Cinderella

I think this was Jack and Jill because there was a little well or something at the top of the tiny hill. But there was a tiny slide, so I got Aaron out again. He kept wanting to go town but he couldn't climb up the hill (it was REALLY steep!!). He's so cute!



The three little pigs (look to the right)

Like I said, everything is made for little kids!

A playground in Sherwood Forest

See?

Peter Rabbit

I thought this was kind of creepy, but V wanted to get on him anyway.

This was Captain Hook's ship. I thought this dad was funny, he was acting like a target for his kid.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, apparently this moat goes all throughout the park and ducks usually swim along it, but it was obviously not operating!


That's all for today. After Fairytale town we had to find "Chicken Teriyaki" for V and then us girls had to hit the outlet mall...heh heh heh...

That's quite a few!! I'll work on some for tomorrow...second day in the city!