Another Thing Checked off the SF List

This week is Spring Break and efforts to save money plus a schedule that still needed Dave at church kept us from any mini-vacations, though I was certainly drooling over the Travelocity options! Instead we planned one special (and preferably free) thing to do each day. Today was the big day, a trip into San Francisco. This trip into the city was different for two reasons. One, we took the BART train there and, two, we explored another new area-- the Yerba Buena Gardens.

.

Yerba Buena is a kind of art and museum district. Its "crown jewel" is the SF Museum of Modern Art (that's the crazy looking black and white building in the background of the picture). All around the MoMA are galleries, gardens and celebrations of art in the form of fountains and sculptures. We found a great spot by this wall of water to eat our picnic lunch.

In February, Ella learned all about Martin Luther King Jr. This fountain memorial was really neat to see. The theme of the fountain is a favorite verse from Amos, one MLK quoted in a speech. We dance to "the Justice Song" almost every day so this was fun to find.

You can actually walk behind and under the water fall to see pictures of civil rights rallies and read other quotes from Dr. King. It was a very cool memorial.

Next we went to the park located on the rooftop of a performing arts center! The playground was super modern and had all sorts of interesting things to play on-- like these looong tube slides (see Ella way up at the top?). The girls didn't hesitate a second to race up all those steps and come screaming down the slides. There was also a giant sand area, water play area, music area and climbing area, but these slides are what they returned to a dozen times!

The best part of my day was hearing Delia coming down the slide. Her "Weeeee!" would echo in the tube and she'd come shooting out like a bullet with her hands raised. Fearless!

We watched some real figure skaters practicing jumps on the ice rink and then found yet another historical carousel, housed in a glass gazebo on the Rooftop Gardens. For the first time ever, Delia decided she was not too scared to try it out (must have gotten all her fears out on that slide!). She couldn't contain her glee as she not only conquered this fear of rides, but also realized what fun the merry-go-round is.

We were just blocks away from Union Square, so we had to head over there to peek in mega versions of our favorite stores. (Yay for three stories of Old Navy!) A walk up Powell St. let us watch the cable cars rumble by. We observed them turning around on the turn table too, which is always a fun thing to see.

Having lived the country life for 7 years now, it's always nice to rediscover my love for the city as soon as I ascend those subway steps. The buildings, the people, the hustle and bustle, the variety of transportation crawling by, even the street performers and protesters-- there is just an exciting feeling that I'm not overwhelmed or anxious about. I hope to keep teaching the girls that this big city world, so different than the one they know, exists and it's not too far away.

The journey on the train was its own highlight of the day, though the ride home left us with some pretty tuckered out kiddos!