Spring Break Day 3: Golden Gate Park Area

For today we started south of San Francisco with the intent of visiting a bunch of places and then ending up on the north end of San Francisco.  So our first stop was Twin Peaks.  It was a great place to get an amazing view of pretty much everything.  Then we dropped down to see the Painted Ladies which was accomplished I might add thanks to some pretty darn fine parallel parking skills on my part.  The Painted Ladies weren't actually that impressive.  I mean they were neat buildings, but just about all the buildings in San Francisco are like that and these particular ones were swarming with people.

From there we drove through Golden Gate Park and ended at the Dutch Windmill and Tulip Gardens.  After that, lunch called, but we ended up settling on ice cream since it was so warm.

 Alcatraz Island

 The Painted Ladies

 The view from Twin Peaks (above and below)

Then we migrated to the beach.  Dohnele and the kids went wading and sun-soaking while I hiked north towards the entrance to the Bay while looking at old forts used through WWII.

 Battery Dynamite, 1895

 Battery Godfrey, 1895 (above and below)

 Battery Crosby, 1900 (above and below)

 Battery Chamberlin, 1904 (above and below)

Finally we ended the day at Fort Point at the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge near sunset.  We checked into the hotel and then wandered around the Marina District until we settled on a place that sold sushi.  It turned out to be a delicious and super friendly little place.  The twins devoured ramen and pot stickers which was highly entertaining.  The sushi rolls we got were delicious!

 Dutch Windmill and Tulip Garden (above and below)

 Marble soda and ramen (above and below)