Since we've all been working hard and all looking forward to a break, the big idea for this Spring Break was to let each member of our family pick one special thing they wanted to do during the week off. After approving the ideas, checking the map and doing a little research, we decided to cross Delia's, Ella's and my ideas off the list over a two day getaway to San Francisco.
Delia wanted nothing more than to go to a zoo with koala bears, which is either San Diego or San Francisco. We realized that we haven't been to a zoo in a few years and now that Delia is old enough to be mobile and independent, her enjoyment of them is greatly enhanced. What fun we had watching her run ahead of us to each new animal exhibit, squealing with joy and enthusiasm. She was happy and lit up all day, clearly in her animal-loving element. We saw the koalas right away and checked on them multiple times throughout the day, but these guys were sleepy and spent the whole day napping. Still exciting to see!
After seeing the bald eagles on Eagle Island, which was cool, but not as cool as seeing them in the wild in Washington this summer, we had to compare our wing span to theirs. Seeing how close Dave comes makes me even more impressed by these majestic birds!
A giraffe got real close to say hello and a peacock opened his feathers for us-- other neat highlights from our trip to the zoo.
Ella could not decide for her choice. She was torn between an art museum and a children's museum. When I saw that the De Young Art Museum was right next door to the zoo and offering its First Tuesday of the Month Free Day, we knew we had to quick stop in so Ella could experience fine art for the first time.
This was not Delia's thing. She did not light up the way she did at the zoo. Mostly she looked for benches to climb on. But Ella, who fancies herself an artist, could have spent all day here. She studied each picture, asked great questions and couldn't decide if the gallery full of colorful modern art or the wing full of delicate glass sculptures was her favorite. I'm excited to take her (just her) back some day.
Then we checked into our hotel, our favorite "E Hotel", where we spent the night swimming.
Ella got her children's museum choice too when I discovered that they offered their free day on the first WEDNESDAY of the month. (Sidenote, with the two free museums and by using our AAA card at the zoo to get two free children's admissions, we spent a total of $30 for 3 great outings! Pretty good, huh?) We got to the Bay Area Discovery Museum that she picked first thing in the morning (the perk of having a nearby hotel) and had a good hour of having the place pretty much to ourselves. When we left about 3 hours later, the place was absolutely nuts, which we expected on the free day.
This was the museum at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge that we found over Spring Break last year. Hauling crabs into nets, selling them at the wharf and drilling rivets into the bridge were all just as fun as the girls remembered.
They added a new Exploring Fairytales exhibit which was super fun. As a student of early childhood education, I could have watched the kids interact with this environment all day and written an extensive paper about the value of learning through play. We worked on our own literacy, language, creative and social skills as Dave read the fairytales and the girls then made them come to life by playing them.
After our few morning hours at the children's museum, we crossed my Spring Break choice off the list: a bike ride across the Golden Gate bridge. I've been wanting to do this for years, but we just weren't in a good place until now. Though Delia is getting really strong on the two-wheel bike, she's not quite ready for the traffic and wind of the bridge. Yet again we got great use out of the tandem bike while Ella did wonderful on her own.
I'm so happy about my choice! We easily made it all the way across the bridge and back and loved each inch of it. Riding bikes across the Golden Gate with the family is probably the coolest thing I've ever done in the city. We also realized that it was exactly 10 years ago, during the Spring Break of 2003, that we first put our feet on this now-familiar landmark when we spent a little time in SF before interviewing at the church we've been serving at now for nearly a decade. How our lives have changed!
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