Last Day, Kids' Choice

By our last day in San Fran, we were all feeling a little worn out, but in a good way.  Instead of tackling the last big thing on my list, a hike in John Muir Woods in Sausalito, we decided to let the kids choose what to do.  They knew and remembered enough about the city to say, "We haven't been to that huge park yet, let's go there!"  A morning at Golden Gate Park it was!

Ella was brave enough to ascend all the way up the giant rope climb. (See her way at the top?)

Delia took a cardboard box down the concrete slides about a dozen times.

And no trip to Golden Gate Park's playground is complete without a spin on the merry-go-round.  Of course, Delia chose a kitty to ride on.

 We stopped at Stow Lake to feed the ducks the bread we had left over from a week of picnic sandwiches.

And then we made one last trip to the wharf for the lunch Dave had been craving all week long-- Boudin's butternut squash soup in a sourdough bread bowl.  I think it may be a rule that you have to eat at Boudin's when visiting SF.  The flagship restaurant on the wharf has a demonstration bakery, so while we ate, we watched the bakers turning dough into loaves of bread shaped like crabs and turtles.  The girls got their crabby hats and faces on in the gift shop.

It was just too perfect that as we made our way toward the Bay Bridge to head back home, we saw one last thing from our Larry Gets Lost in San Francisco book-- the giant bow and arrow sculpture.  Thanksgiving Week in the city was wonderful.  It was full of great sights, great food, great outings, but most of all, great time spent as a family. 

The Educational Part of Vacation

On our only cold and rainy day, we headed over to San Francisco's Palace of the Fine Arts to do some exploring at the indoor Exploratorium.  This is an acclaimed hands-on science museum, where the goal of the visit is to ask questions and learn, but mostly TOUCH!  Delia is our tactile child, always handling everything she's not supposed to, so a day to be set free and told, "Go ahead and play with it!" was bliss for her.  There are over a hundred exhibits and we did walk away with some new knowledge.  Here are some of the experiments and lessons that are most memorable:

Listening with your teeth. (Dave's favorite!)

Identifying where sound comes from.

Testing air flow.

Creating giant bubbles.

Messing around with light and reflection. (Can you see half of Ella and half of Dave? I think it's kinda creepy.)

Tricking your senses.

Dancing with and mixing color.

Trying to find centrifugal force.

Adjusting a vortex.

And trapping steam.

It was also memorable to leave our shadows and a radio show we recorded using unusual sound effects behind in the Exploratorium.  We spent several hours touching, learning and exploring on this day.  What a well-rounded vacation we planned!

More SF Stuff

On Friday we crossed the BIG thing off the list.  The thing the girls had been talking about non-stop and the thing that they say was their very favorite now that vacation is over-- a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Technically, we didn't make it all the way across and technically the girls were carried and walked very little of it, but it was thrilling to them no less.

First they had to inspect the sample of cable.

Then pose for a picture.

Next we made our way to the first tower.

"C'mon, Ella!"

At the first tower.

We felt the vibrations in the cables.  Surprisingly, the car traffic flying by and wind and slight sway you always experience on the bridge only freaked out Dave!

After the bridge, we did one of my favorite things from the week-- a picnic in Alamo Square.  This line of Victorian houses on the hill with the city behind them is called the Painted Ladies (Ella loved this name!) or Postcard Row. It's also famous for being the Full House opening.  As we spread our blanket and ran around the grass, I was humming the "Everywhere You Look..." theme song! :)

After our picnic lunch in front of the Painted Ladies, we had to try out the playground.  I thought it was super cool to watch the kids play with that great view of the city behind them!

Thanksgiving in the City

We'll easily remember the Thanksgiving of 2010 because it was a pretty unique one!  We thought the holiday might be the perfect time to hit the tourist traps that normally attract insane amounts of people.  We were right!  As a special Thanksgiving treat, we enjoyed all the perks of SF without waiting in lines, battling crowds or even paying for parking!

Pier 39 was pretty deserted.  Strangely absent were the seals!  We had read that they recently took off, but it was still a sight to see all those floating boxes with just a few lazy seals on them.  We joked that they, like the rest of the city, were gone visiting the relatives for some turkey and stuffing.

Things were starting to look kinda Christmasy on Pier 39.

Fisherman's Wharf made a huge impression on Ella with all the restaurants and street-side stands selling their fresh Dungeness Crabs.  She would tentatively peek into each crate and jump back when she saw them still moving!
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A highlight of this day in the city was taking a ride on the historic cable cars.  Again, no lines and plenty of space on board-- definitely not the norm when you catch it from the wharf!
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The girls were thrilled to be along for the ride: holding on tight as we zoomed down the big hills, watching the grip work the levers with big eyes and exclaiming over Daddy who was standing up and hanging off the side.  We rode the cable car to Union Square, where we peeked in just one crazy busy store before catching a ride back.

As Larry (from the book) found his way around the city, he stopped at Coit Tower and Lombard Street.  So, we had to as well.  Coit Tower gave more great views of the city.

And Lombard Street was just as fun to drive down as you would imagine.  More striking to me than the twists and turns of this famous street, is the constant stream of tourists driving and walking down and taking pictures.  I think I counted at least 3 people taking a picture of our family in our van zig-zagging our way down the street. (Hmm, maybe the guy behind us thought the same thing as I snapped the above picture!) 

Last thing on Thursday's list was Thanksgiving dinner at Buca di Beppo, a favorite restaurant.  We had their version of the traditional meal and it was fabulous.

Holy (pumpkin) Cannoli-- the dessert was to die for! :)

First Up, The Zoo

The first full day of vacation had us at the San Francisco Zoo, one we've never been to, but always wanted to visit.  This was a really cool zoo with all the big animals, some of the more rare animals (like koala bears) and some neat interactive stuff.  It's located right on the coast too, so every now and then we got a peek of the ocean.

The turkey vulture was showing us his wing span while he warmed up in the sun.

We were cracking up at the prairie dogs.  I had a cold on this vacation and when I would blow my nose here, the prairie dog sentry would sound the danger alarm and they would all dive into the nearest hole!  Probably something you had to be there for, but SO FUNNY!

There are 3 monkeys in this picture. :)

Delia shows us how she gapes at the apes.

The bear enclosures reminded us a lot of Brookfield Zoo.

The best part of the zoo trip was the perfectly timed stop in the exotic insect house.  We saw a monarch butterfly actually emerging from his chrysalis!  Even with caterpillars and butterflies in our own house, we've never seen them actually come out.  SO COOL!