Vacation Day 7: The Scenic Route

Day 7 was a day for driving. 

Grandma drove into the city and picked us up. We began our journey with a quick look at the map and, of course, a chocolate frog. ;)

Lombard Street: The crookedest street in the world.

Coit tower off in the distance.

(Jumping the gun a bit with movie locations- ^ that shot was used in Alfred Hitchcock's, Vertigo. In fact, there is a house at the end of this twisty part of Lombard street that was used to represent where Scottie lived. It actually looks very much the same now as it does in the movie and I am kicking myself for not getting a pic of it!)

 I had been wanting to see some sights used in movies, etc. So we found/visited the following:

(I took this from inside the car.) This is the house used in Mrs. Doubtfire!

They used the actual address in the movie. Most movies will create a fake address.

Proof that I was actually there and didn't steal some one else's pic.

This person's house was used in The Princess Diaries to represent the school that Mia attends.

 After visiting those movie sights we headed to the Presidio. It was a very neat experience and Grandma showed us where she was born.

People call this the Arlington of the West

After the Presidio, we continued our journey and headed over to the Palace of Fine Arts. There is a really cool story associated with this building. It was built originally in the early 1900s as part of world's fair to bring in money for the city, as it had been recently devastated by a major earthquake. It was built using paper mache and balsam wood. It was never meant to be long lasting and by a year's time, it began to fall apart. Some wise individuals in the community petitioned to have it be made a permanent installment. Plans were made for such accommodations and the Palace of Fine Arts was reconstructed using long lasting building materials.

 It was very quiet and peaceful here. There wasn't much traffic and it was far enough away from the busy streets of downtown that it was easy to see why people wanted to keep it around.

While we were there, we met this guy. He was mad because I was too close. Too close to what, you ask?

Too close to soon to be Mama Swan. Her nest was caution taped off and she was very much protected by Mr. Swan.

This was someone's house/garden entrance. Oh, the life of the wealthy.

Ate here for lunch and wasn't impressed The waiters were slow to acknowledge you and then tried to rush you through your order as if you interrupted something better they had going on. They also weren't very nice about answering questions you may have had about the menu. 

I had a turkey sandwich-the bread was great but the turkey was so dry I had to chew it FOREVER. Not my fave.

Then we headed down the street to a bakery for dessert. MMM MMM YUM!

 After lunch we got back in the car. Nope! Our day wasn't over yet! Grandma continued on to another part of the city...more south and west I do believe.

By happen stance we drove by this place: The Palace of the Legion of Honor

I wish we had gotten out and taken a look around but we had places we had already planned to go. 

Now, if any of you are Alfred Hitchcock fans, you may recognize this building. 

Good ol' Al used this location in Vertigo. This was where the painting of Carlotta was hung, that Madeline was so mesmerized by.  This place gave me goosebumps for two reasons: 1- I was where Jimmy Stewart once was 2-The whole Madeline obsessed with Carlotta thing is just plain creepy. Anyway, I was glad we passed by but as I said before, I wish we had gone in and looked around. 

We took a drive over to Golden Gate park and walked around the beautiful Japanese Tea Gardens

These stairs were REALLY steep.

Those hanging flowers were my favorite part of the entire garden. They were lovely.

These Koi made me miss my little Fluffy who is now in goldfish heaven.

This bridge was easy to climb up and scary to climb down but it was cool.

Neil climbed up first and then I joined him.

Then it was off to Haight-Ashbury. I really wanted to see the "hippie" part of town.

You can't really tell because I was hanging out of the window as the car was driving to get this pic, but it is of the Haight-Ashbury cross street signs.

The last destination was one I was excited about. 

Can you recognize the pic below? 

Well, it's okay if you can't but growing up I loved the TV show, Full House. 

This location was used in the series' opening credits showing the family having a picnic on the hill in front of The Painted Ladies.

This was the house used to represent the Tanner household in Full House. The lady who lives there now is kind of a cranky woman, at least that's what all of my sources said. This was as close as I dared get to the house. (I can totally understand, to an extent, the lady's grouchiness. Living in a house where people believe the Tanner's to have lived...she probably gets pestered a lot. However, if you bought a house knowing it had been used for a very famous TV show, well, I can't say you weren't warned.)

Finally, after a LOOONG day of driving and stopping to look and then driving again we headed back toward the city. We found a yummy little joint for dinner called The Brick Yard. The service there was great but I do have to say that this city's lack of Dr. Pepper at restaurants is ridiculous. Seriously. 

Grandma went home and we hung out in our room and watched Escape from Alcatraz. It was actually a boring movie but it got us PUMPED for the next day. Why? Because Day 8 was the day we were to go to Alcatraz. 

Stay tuned.