Day 4: Euro Cup Final

Sunday, June 29

Today we had breakfast in the hotel diner. We left to go meet one of my dads German friends, Ramin, to watch the final of EURO 2008. We decided to walk to an Irish pub and it soon filled up with German and Spanish fans. There was one really loud and annoying Spanish fan, who was actually from Tunisia, who yelled a lot. The Germans didn't wake up until it was too late and lost the game. At the end Valentin punched the crazy Spanish fan. I'm sure everyone is disappointed because of Germany's loss. After the game we went back to Ramin's house and played in their yard and had dinner. After dinner we went back to the hotel and played on the computer before we went to bed. Tomorrow we will pick up our RV in Oakland and are going to drive towards Yosemite National Park.

Day 4: Euro Cup Final

Day 3: San Francisco-Alcatraz

Sunday, June 28

Today we went and had breakfast at a diner across the street. After breakfast we got on a cable car which was really fun. We rode the cable car to pier 33, where the Alcatraz cruise leaves at. We met Wolfgang Kemna who mom and dad know since our early days in the US. Our family got on the boat at 10:30. It was about a twenty minute boat ride to the small island of Alcatraz. Alcatraz was the most famous maximum security prison in the early 1900s. One of its famous prisoners was Al Capone. On the island we went and watched a short movie about the history of Alcatraz. We got a guided tour through the entire cell house. The great riot of Alcatraz was when five men attempted to escape. They stole guns and killed two officers. They battled US Marines for three days before they were defeated. No one ever escaped from Alcatraz alive. After the tour we went to Fisherman's Wharf and had lunch at Aliotos. We then tried to get a cable car back to the hotel for about 30 minutes but all the cars were full. We attempted to get a cab which we finally did after another 10-15 minutes. At night we drove to Golden Golden Gate park. It took us a while because a gay rally had the streets blocked throughout San Francisco. After we drove shortly through the park we went to have dinner in Sausalito which is across the Golden Gate bridge. The restaurant was called, Poggio and they had great Italian food. We went back to the hotel and went to bed.
GO GERMANY!

Day 3: San Francisco-Alcatraz

Day 2: Palo Alto

Friday, June 27, 2008

Today we drove to Palo Alto, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley. Google and Yahoo have their headquarters here. It was much warmer than it is in San Francisco. The weather in SF has been in the low 60s while Palo Alto was in the 80s. We visited SAP and dad had a meeting. The rest of the family stayed in a conference room and relaxed. For lunch I had a burger with very little fries. After lunch we found this great German bakery and had a laugenbroetchen. We were amazed about the real authentic German bakery goods they offered. We visited Stanford University campus which is huge. We actully got lost and had to ask for directions. We walked through the campus and visited the memorial church. We then drove to have dinner in the middle of Palo Alto. We ate at a New Orleans style restaurant. We returned to the hotel and fell asleep quickly.

Palo Alto

Day 1: Take Off

Thursday, June 26, 2008
We got up around five to catch our seven forty five flight. We arrived at the airport around 6:15 and got through security rather quickly. We had breakfast at the Olde Town Deli. I had eggs which later made me sick. We boarded our flight at 7:30 and sat in the plane for a while because many flights leave Philadelphia International Airport around eight. We were in the air for about four hours when I threw up. The eggs must have made me sick. Another woman at the back of the plane fainted at the same time, so my sickness wasn't the worst thing on the flight. Our US Airways flight landed in San Francisco at about 11:30 local time. We took the airport train to the rental car area where we had to wait a while because the line was long. We picked up our car, a white jeep, and drove to our hotel.We took a walk through San Francisco and had a small lunch.There we saw the final 30 minutes of Spain demolishing Russia. We visited a few stores after lunch and then walked back to the hotel. Our room is on the sixteenth floor. Later we walked into China Town for dinner. We ate at a great resturant called "Great Eastern". The food was great and after dinner we came back to the hotel and went to bed.

West Coast Trip Day 1