Jared + Paige

Ah, yes, there are moments where we can focus on each other and ourselves and not just the children, although they do seem to be few and far between. Here we are with a great view of the northern San Francisco Bay, heading down the hill after our walk in Muir Woods and getting ready to hit the road to Gold Country--Part Two of our vacation, coming up.

Muir Woods

We were so close to Muir Woods that we just had to stop by for a walk on our way out of the San Francisco area. The rain had stopped, but it had made for a beautifully damp and fresh forest. Parker wasn't much in the mood for walking, so we struggled a bit to get past that and still enjoy ourselves; he did shake the grumpies off a bit, though, when we got to a few "novelty" trees that he could climb inside--and the gift shop at the end, of course, also perked him right up. 

A Submarine Expedition

Parker and I toured a submarine in the bay while Jared and Levi took a little break. I don't think I've ever been on a submarine before, so it was really interesting to see--the officers' quarters, with their own private bunks, dining room, bathrooms, and food prep area, were particularly interesting. You can tell that Parker was pretty excited about the whole experience by his willingness to pose for photos throughout our adventure--he's pretty in to blasters and such. I was a little worried that I would get claustrophobic down there, but it wasn't too bad--although Parker got pretty freaked out about halfway through when we got to a dark room with only a red light on that we had to pass through in order to make it to the exit. He kept insisting on turning around and heading back out the in door to find Jared, but we persevered and made it out the other end. It was especially worth it since Parker got to pose with the cool torpedoes at the end.

Chinatown

Jared really wanted to stop in Chinatown on this trip, since we had a really great experience wandering around there together years ago. We thought it might be an interesting time for Parker, with all of the strange wares and foods (and animals...) sitting out for sale on the sidewalks. He was pretty tired by this time, though, so I think he kind of shut down a bit. He did light up, though, when I gave him a five dollar bill to use to buy any souvenirs that he wanted (he became very obsessed with souvenir shopping on this trip--oops). He eventually chose a small frog statue and dragon statue and then a little box of knock-off Chinese Legos, which he soon discovered do not follow the same logic or quality control standards of the Legos he is used to... We also stopped for some pastries for a snack, and discovered that what looks like chocolate filling may very well end up being black bean curd.

Golden Gate Park

We've never been to Golden Gate Park, and we were just able to scratch the surface on this trip. I'd love to go back sometime and explore much more. We made it to the childrens' play area in the park, and since it was raining and a weekday we were the only people there. There are great play structures and play areas there, including a carousel (which unfortunately wasn't running that day). Luckily there was a Babies-R-Us right by our hotel, where I ran in and bought a giant plastic cover for Levi's stroller so that he could stay dry in case we ended up doing a lot of walking in the rain in the city (Dee and Niki have been holding an awesome stroller for us since Levi was born that has a full plastic enclosure--oh how I wished we had it on this trip! I always forget to bring it home with us!) I also bought us an umbrella--we didn't even own one! I will be shocked if we ever use the plastic stroller cover again--hopefully it will get some more use somehow. We had fun despite the rain!

Ferry to San Francisco

The ferry was such an easy way to get over to the city, and it added a little element of adventure to the trip; plus, it's always amazing to be out on the water in the San Francisco Bay. The weather was grey and rainy, but we had great views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

Fisherman's Wharf

For months now, Parker has been obsessed with going to San Francisco so he could get a pearl at a store on Fisherman's Wharf; I remembered going there when I was eight years old on my school trip to Northern California, and told him about it when he started getting really into "treasure." I think that he's been intrigued by all of the treasures in the Lego sets that he has--it seems like in almost every set, "good guys" and "bad guys" are fighting each other over some kind of treasure. There's also a lot of treasure to be found in pirate stories and toys. So, I promised him a long time ago that if we ever went to San Francisco, I'd take him to Fisherman's Wharf and he could choose an oyster and discover a pearl inside. Well, you'd think that this was the only reason we went on vacation for him! Every day, he'd ask when we were going to get his pearl. So, on our first full day, we took the ferry over to the city from Sausalito and headed right for the Pearl Factory. He was pretty amazed and excited by the whole thing--which you could tell by his dead serious face--and was really happy to get a "silverish blue" colored pearl in the oyster he chose. He keeps it in a special little pouch, and, amazingly, he hasn't even lost it yet.

Golden Gate Bridge

We found ourselves so close to the Golden Gate Bridge in the late afternoon of our first day in Mill Valley that we figured we might as well take the opportunity to park the car and walk out on the bridge. I thought Parker would think it was really cool, but the timing just didn't seem to be right for him and bridges that day. He wanted nothing to do with having his photo taken, he accidentally dropped his Lego guy over the side of the bridge and broke down into tears, and then proceeded to walk face-first right into a metal pole when he wasn't watching where he was going. Poor kid. It was an afternoon of many small tragedies for him. But his troubles were soon forgotten once we returned to the hotel and he and daddy went swimming.