San Francisco’s Chinatown has always been a favorite destination on trips with our grandchildren over the years. For the twins this was a totally unique experience. The photo above is our intrepid travelers at the “Dragon Gate” on Grant Avenue.

This is a favorite bench of the “Three Wise Monkeys” near the entrance of Chinatown on Grant Avenue.

Flashback: Vaughan is on the same bench in 2014.

Grant Avenue was closed to cars on this day.

We head up the street.

Policemen next to Lion Dance costumes.

The explorers!

Colorful street mural.

I love the many unique buildings on Grant Avenue.

Stacy picked a nearby restaurant on Grant Avenue as everyone was starved. The upstairs “Hong Kong Clay Pot Restaurant” is totally unassuming and very easy to miss. This was an exciting and new experience for the girls.

They learned how to use chopsticks.

Stacy had her own jewelry business so we had to take a look at this store.

She had some jade bracelets made.

Something is going on!

We watched the “LionDanceMe Troupe” perform various Lion dances to a mesmerized audience.

This was such a wonderful day with the family. Everyone was a little stressed with Marla in the hospital so this was a fun diversion.

For our final evening in The City, I took the gang on a very steep and roundabout route to North Beach for dinner.

Owen, Kate, and Lauren thought it was a great idea to sprint up Mason Street to Nob Hill.

Crossing California Street near the InterContinentalMark Hopkins and the Fairmount Hotels.

We walked down Jackson Street past Ross Alley in Chinatown. We used to visit the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory on this alley.

And finally….we made it to Ideale Italian restaurant on Grant Avenue in North Beach. It was delish!

Everyone loved it!

Owen loved his profiterole!

Everyone was pretty tired after a long day and some of the group took Uber back to the hotel. Vaughan and I decided to walk back through Chinatown. The famous Condor nightclub is shown on the left.

We walked past “Jack Kerouac” alley named after the “Beat” writer who spent time in the San Francisco area. The famous Vesuvio Cafe is down the alley on Columbus Avenue.

Grant Avenue was fairly quite at this hour. We walked past the famous dive bar, Li Po. I took my sister and her future husband Vic here on his first U.S. visit many years ago!

I have so many amazing memories on this street and loved making new ones. Tomorrow would be long day with taking Stacy and her family to the airport and then driving up to check into a hotel in Santa Rosa near Marla’s hospital. She ended up spending six nights there. We were both ecstatic when she was allowed to fly home!

Photos: Dick Gentry. Not to be used without permission.