We had our 12th anniversary on Sunday.  I wanted to spend some time in San Francisco along with going to Alcatraz with the boys, so we decided to pick this weekend for a little getaway.  After our usual tennis lessons on Saturday, we quickly had lunch and packed up, then we headed up to the city.  We all were excited with the first sight of the Golden Gate Bridge, and thrilled that the weather was perfect.  We parked at a slight distance but none of us minded the walk over.  We took some pictures then we started our walk on the bridge.  It was good to see that the boys were enjoying their time as much as we were.  We walked to the first tower before we turned around.  We stopped for some hot cocoa and cookies at the visitor center before leaving the bridge to head to our hotel. 

    We checked in at the hotel at Union Square.  We had a nice view from the 23rd floor and we relaxed a bit before heading out for dinner.  We walked around the block to look at some restaurants and ended up returning to the hotel one as they had craft beers that Stuart liked.  After a nice meal and watching a football game, we took a longer walk around Union Square enjoying some nightlife before ending the evening.

    The next morning we hung out in our room for some video game and TV time, and we had breakfast from the hotel too.  We finally packed up to check out and checked in our bags.  We planned on riding the trolley to Fisherman’s Wharf, but unfortunately the line was quite long already at 10am.  We waited for a bit, and finally decided to bail and walk instead.  We strolled up and down the hills of the city and it was actually quite enjoyable walking through different neighborhoods.  We arrived at Pier 39 in less than 40 minutes later, I then realized that the Alcatraz tour was at Pier 33.  So I headed over to get our tickets while Stuart bought the boys a treat.  Then we quickly had a quick lunch of fish and chips before we lined up to board the ferry.

   During the ferry ride, the boys enjoyed the scenery but they were cautious and worried about falling into the water.  After we arrived at Alcatraz, we made the hike up to the cell building and the audio tour began.  The boys were completed engaged with the audio and followed every direction carefully.  They were fascinated with the stories and the background simulation audio.  The expression on the faces let us know that they were enjoying it as much as we did.  We all loved the tour.  Afterward we walked around the gift shop for some souvenirs, walked back down to the hill to watch the film at the little theater. This entire tour at Alcatraz was incredible.  By the time we returned to the Pier by ferry, we all were tired so we grabbed the boys a quick snack and took Lyft back to the hotel.

   We picked up our car and drove ourselves back home.  This was a very fun weekend and a great celebration for our anniversary.  We especially love seeing how the boys enjoyed exploring with us and able to walk a lot without too much complaints.  We all had 18 to 20K steps each day.