Fun Saturday

Having to postpone my last chemo treatment, this week was pretty good as I got an extra week to feel good!  We took advantage of that and ventured out on Saturday to two places we’ve never been, and two places we have been. And we had Grandma Bingham visiting us that we were glad to take along!

The first was the “Nike Missile SF-88 Site” just to the north of the Golden Gate Bridge.  During the cold war (1953-1979) the US Army built 280 Nike Missile sites in the US to protect us from Soviet bombers.  There is only one site that has been restored and you guessed it, this is it.

Here is one of the control booths that was manned 24/7 365 days a year.  At any given time, they had to be able to launch within 2 minutes when they were “on duty”.  Today’s digital watches have more computing power then they did with these missiles!

When launched, these Nike Missiles would break the speed barrier within the first 4 seconds of flight.  They lifted off with 27 G’s.  They were all controlled with “tubes” and no electronics that we are used to today.

We got to go down the missile elevator into the shaft and storage area where they would have 4 missiles underground ready to go.

It was very cool!  NOTE: These missiles have nothing to do with Nike shoes!

Next, we went to the Point Bonita Lighthouse, which was only a mile away from the missile site. 

We had to drive through a fairly long one lane tunnel, and then hike 1/2 mile to the lighthouse.  Along the hike we had to go through another hand made tunnel through solid rock to the lighthouse, and then across a suspension bridge to get to the every edge and the actual lighthouse. The lighthouse was built in 1855 built on a rock ledge 300 feet above the water.  The light from the lens travelled up to 18 miles out into sea, at which point the curvature of the earth made it impossible to see.

Here we are driving through the tunnel:

And hiking down to the lighthouse:

This lighthouse is unique, because they call the suspension bridge to the lighthouse,  the Golden Gate #2 because it’s similar in looks, and you can see the actual Golden Gate from it! The light house still functions today!

Notice the intricate details of the sculptures on the top of the lighthouse. They are actually where the rain water drips out of!

Inside the lighthouse:

Looking out to sea:

As we were driving back, we saw an old abandoned “battery” which at one time had cannons that could shoot 8 miles out into sea.  It’s now a huge graffittied structure that the kids loved running around on.

On our way home, we passed one of our favorite stomping grounds, Six Flags, and the car practically turned right in, and we didn’t fight it.  We had our passes in the car, and a coupon for Grandma to get in free, so why not?  We were a little cold, but we had fun!

Here is Hannah’s favorite ride: Actually a favorite of everyone!

Smile!

The dolphins didn’t seem to mind the cold weather!

Jacob and Hannah went down the “sledding hill”, not very big, but for the bay area it was huge! ha ha.

 

This is kinda hard to see, but it looked funny at the time. It’s two camels just sitting in the dark and cold, and the light would hit their breath and because it was so cold out, it looked like they were smoking!

Jacob went on a “baby ride” because he is able to spin it really fast and he loves that.

Jacob and Hannah laughed and laughed on this ride several times!

Here is some weird mouse and a gingerbread man….

And here is “Mr. Six” the guy in the Six Flags commercials…

On our way home, we had to stop at Leatherby’s for a treat. 

Hannah was patiently waiting for her food to come

…we got our regular which is plenty for all of us to share:

Daddy Dave’s Banana Split, with Vanilla and Swiss Milk Chocolate Ice Cream, no banana, chocolate whipped cream, all caramel (they have the best homemade caramel there!), nuts on the side, and a side of hot fudge.

Which very quickly looked like this:

Grandma got a Chocolate Ice Cream Soda.

 

So it was a fun Saturday for all!