Happy New Year Dec 31, 2008

We had tickets to Alcatraz this morning at 9 am. We caught the trolley car and made our way over to the pier. We waited in line to board the ferry. This morning San Francisco was covered with a thick blanket of fog which left the airr feeling very cold. We boarded the ferry and sat there talking while we waited to leave. One of the things that Scott and I love to do is people watch. Scott likes to study faces and sort of classify them in categories. As he was people watching he spotted someone that he knew. He kept thinking, I know that person and he said to me that guy looks like someone famous, who is it? I turned and saw Dylan McDermott in a cheesy baseball hat and high end sunglasses with his expensive leather coat collar turned up. He was totally conspicuous reading the New York Times. We got a little star struck and even looked up his picture on my phone to be sure. He was with a VERY skinny waif girl in designer jeans, not that I am judging or anything. Anyway, he was headed to Alcatraz with us and when we unloaded Scott stepped p next to him and said "so I can't help but notice, you bear a striking resemblance to Dylan McDermott" and Dylan turns and smiles and says "some people would definitely consider that a compliment" and they both smiled and we left Dylan to his privacy. Now, I love to read a good People magazine and I confess that TMZ is a guilty pleasure so over the course of the next hour and half we ran into him about 4 times and rode the same ferry back to the docks and we got a little giddy. Scott had taken a picture of him with his phone before he knew it was really him. We admit that this a little stalkerish but it was a really cool thing to happen. Alcatraz was very creepy. The morning fog probably made it more so and one of the creepiest parts was the echo of the recreation yard. You could imagine never being alone in that prison. They had an author who had been in prison there from 1959 to 1963 for bank robbery and his direct comment to me was "it was hell on earth". We got our 11th passport stamp for the trip!!
So after our tour, we went ate lunch at Fisherman's Wharf and then made our way up to the Powell - Hyde cable car turnaround for another ride. We rode to the Cable Car museum which while really a neat thing for adults was "boring" to the kids. We made them suffer through while we looked at the exhibits and then caught the Powell Mason line to within two blocks of our hotel. The kids are tired of walking and seem to be needing more rest over the last couple of days. So we watched a movie in the hotel room and then went to Boudin at the Wharf for an early dinner. Scott had the Trout and I had a crab cake sandwich with avacado and a salad. There has got to be nothing better than a crab cake on sourdough bread. Heaven on earth! We ate the whole basket of sour dough bread they brought to the table (me and Scott, the kids don't like it). We then bought Sourdough bread in the shape of a turtle for snack tomorrow morning. Next we headed back to Ghirardelli square for another sundae and Luke had a cookie that must have weighed a pound. We then caught the bus back to the hotel to repack and hang out. Tomorrow is sort of a free day to spend in Golden Gate Park and see a few other things we want to see before we head to the hotel near the airport for a travel day on Friday.
We won't be awake to see the clock turn from 2008 to 2009 so we hope all of you have a very Happy New Year celebration.