Letters from Pemberley

My back was hurting so much from lugging around my 8-lb lens that I changed it out for my cheapo kit lens on Wednesday when we went to Alcatraz.  Turns out something is wrong with its focusing mechanism, and I spent the day angrily trying to force the camera to work, then giving in and using my phone.

Landing on the Rock!  It rained intermittently throughout the day, but we managed to stay relatively dry.

showers

parade grounds

So close, and yet so far. We took a tour on all the escape attempts, and no prisoner ever managed a successful escape.

Not exactly luxury accommodations.

The tour guide said they don’t shut you in the cells anymore because sometimes they have trouble getting them back open.

Solitary confinement.

Not as scary as the kids had feared.

I’m not sure why Susie was so happy in most of these pictures. She really loves audio tours.

We headed out that night, stopping in Davis for dinner and ice cream.

On our second day in San Francisco, I wanted to give us a break from museums and tours, so we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands, where it’s mostly state parks and beaches.  We visited the Marine Mammal Center, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing sea mammals and helping rehabilitate them for life back in the wild.  Elizabeth was a big fan.

This statue shows how big an adult male elephant seal can be! Note the silly nose that gives them their name.

If it hadn’t been raining, the views would have been amazing.

At fish school, the volunteers teach the seals how to catch fish on their own.

In Sausalito, these Harbor Seals were happy and healthy!

From Sausalito, it’s a great view across the Bay to San Francisco!

The kids couldn’t get over the fact that the Golden Gate Bridge looks red.

Back on the San Francisco side of the Bay, we headed over to the Presidio, the old military fort right on the point that has now been turned into museums, apartments, and parks.

Thanks to some nice Midwest college students here on spring break, here’s the proof that all six of us were at Fort Point (scene of the end of one Alcatraz prisoner’s escape attempt AND the spot where Jimmy Stewart jumps into the Bay to rescue Kim Novak in Vertigo)!

Derek got us a hotel right on Fisherman’s Wharf, so most of our time in San Francisco was spent right along the Bay.  On our first full day, we explored WWII submarine USS Pampanito and liberty ship USS O’Brien.

Then we took a cruise of the Bay!

There’s a Susie behind all that hair blowing in the wind.

Then we went over to the wharf to tour more historical ships!  A ferry that used to bring commuters across the bay before they built the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, a timber ship, tugboats, and a few smaller vessels.

In fourth grade, all California children are supposed to visit one of the missions and study it as part of our state history.  Last year, it didn’t fit into what Tommy was studying in history, so we did it this year, splitting the difference.  We read Zia (the sequel to Island of the Blue Dolphins, cool because it takes place at Mission Santa Barbara!) in the hotel room and in the car on the way up, and we stopped at San Juan Bautista because it’s the mission in Vertigo!  Derek and I rewatched it before leaving on the trip; I think the kids are going to wait a few more years before we introduce them to Hitchcock.  Fun fact: the infamous church tower does not exist–it was a model added on in post-production.  Another fun fact: the church lies just a few yards away from the San Andreas Fault.

Model of what the mission originally looked like.  Pretty plain, with buildings around a central courtyard.

Church services had just gotten out, so we were able to peek into the original sanctuary.  And yes, they did allow Kim Novak to run along through here for the film.

Across the street, there are a series of historical buildings that have been preserved as museums.  Here’s the outdoor kitchen area of the Breen house (one of the infamous Donner Party families–all of them survived).  Whalers who were done using their enormous cooking vats to boil down whale blubber into oil would sell the vats to the residents along the coast, who used them for slightly smaller-scale cooking.

The old hotel has many historical artifacts, including lots of pretty dresses.

Tommy’s favorite: the two-story outhouse!

Log cabins are old hat to us after our midwest adventures, but they claim that this is the oldest original log cabin still standing in California.

We were so glad to have the sun shining Sunday morning as we left San Simeon!  The beaches across from Hearst Castle are a rookery for elephant seals, and we were lucky enough to run into a volunteer who could give us some details about the weaners (300 lb babies who are newly weaned), the moms (who have abandoned their babies forever and are off to Alaska to feed), and the daddy elephant seals (who weigh over a ton!).