Day 7 - Getting our Golden Gate on

This morning Trevor hopped out of bed before the rest of us, going for a run. He was gone about an hour, and then burst back into the room announcing he had just run to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. He's never been in this city before, and had already bounded his way to the Bridge before any of the rest of us had even seen the light of day. Clearly we had some catching up to do.

(Yes, it kinda weirds me out to have my son out running in an unfamiliar city--especially this kid, who is notorious for being directionally-challenged. But he'll be 18 in a few months, and as such, there are a lot of things weirding me out these days. But I'm just going with it. And also praying a lot more.) 

Not a lot to say about today. We mostly knocked around the city... the Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Haight-Ashbury, crookedest street, Golden Gate Park (found 3 geocaches there). We moved at our own pace, and enjoyed not having to be at a different destination by nightfall. 

I hate it when I can't seem to hold my camera exactly straight. It's not that hard.

Random picture of turtles at Golden Gate Park. Aren't they cute??

Our big fun tonight was dinner (a surprise for Dennis) with our friend Manu, who was a student on our wing at Illinois Math & Science Academy when Dennis worked there 21+ years ago. After our loosely scheduled--ok, unscheduled--day, Dennis thought it was kinda weird when I picked a specific restaurant at a specific time for dinner, but it made sense when Manu walked up to our table and pulled up a chair. "YES I'm having dinner with you!" 

Love. 

And it must have been SO fun for the kids to sit there while we reminisced about the good old days at IMSA. Actually, they said they enjoyed it, too. That's how cool you are, Manu.  

I wish there was time to catch up with other friends who are here and who have been along our route over the last week. I've thought about each of you, and felt your great auras as we've passed through your towns. If only there was more time! Trevor & Nate would love to have many more dinners with people they've just met.

One more day here in San Francisco, and then we hop a boxcar back to the Midwest.

Some reflections:

-We should not even try to interact with each other when we haven't eaten for a while. This especially applies to mornings, and super-duper applies to any lighthearted teasing attempts. Everything is better when the blood-sugar levels are a little higher. Still, after a week of near-24/7 togetherness, I think we're doing remarkably well. The close quarters of Amtrak sleeping compartments will be true make-or-break time. 

-No hotel rooms have enough power outlets to charge all of the electronics used by a family of four. We should have stopped at a store early in the trip to buy a power strip, rather than deal with this issue the whole time.

Tomorrow, the destination I've been waiting for. One of my favorite places anywhere. ALCATRAZ. I've been there 5 times (I think?). This will be my first time taking the night tour. I hope I can sleep tonight.