San Francisco, Days Three and Four

On Thanksgiving Day, I took one picture. I don't know what my problem is. One picture. Gavin and Jonas were watching TV in the morning. Gavin went over to the chair where Jonas was and said, "sit," so I happily hoisted him up to share the chair with Jonas.

Letha spent most of the morning and early afternoon cooking--dressing, roasted carrots and parsnips, cranberry salad, green bean casserole. Mike smoked the turkey in his Big Green Egg and made a pumpkin pie cheese cake. Everything was yummy. After dinner, we left the boys with Grandma and GrandBob while we went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1.

Friday morning, we headed south for breakfast. Judy had a gigantic cinnamon roll; we were shocked that it only cost $3.25. Pancakes, apricot French toast, crabcakes benedict, tasty season potatoes, and a huge breakfast sandwich fed the rest of the crew.

With full tummies, we headed north into the city via Oakland and the Bay Bridge for a ride on the trolley cars.

We arrived at the Fisherman's Wharf and a trolley car stop.

While waiting our turn for the next trolley, we took in the sights.

We were amazed at the manual turn around at the end of the line.

A view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Fisherman's Wharf.

Finally, we were on the trolley car.

Looking out the back and down the hill.

We got off in Chinatown, walked across the street and around the block to catch a trolley going back to Fisherman's Wharf. The line ended a bit sooner than we anticipated, but we had a great ride and a brisk walk back to the car. We still had to get back to the house to finish packing our bags and then get to the airport. Had we planned a bit better, we could have taken our bags with us and had more time to play. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to go back.

Hopefully, Mike and Letha will have us back. :) Gavin ended up with a runny nose and cough while we were there. I think as of Saturday, he had shared it with everyone, except Dave and me. Gavin wasn't always on his best behavior, but he wasn't getting naps, had a runny nose, and was just not in his normal surroundings. I hope this doesn't forbode things to come with our future travels.

San Francisco, Wednesday

Wednesday, we headed downtown to the Golden Gate Bridge. I won't say a lot; the pictures speak for themselves.

My favorite picture with the purple flowers in the foreground. (It's late; I'm not researching what these are. Maybe later.)

It was another breezy day. Jonas ended up wrapped up in Mike's jacket, in addition to his own jacket. Gavin's coat got the lining added to it before heading out for the day.

The Metlife Blimp was out and about.

Alcatraz

My next favorite shot. I love the contrast of the blue sky and the red metal.

View of downtown from the bridge:

You can see the Bay Bridge in the distance.

Lombard Street :"The Crookedest Street" in America.

It was zig-zagging fun.

We had lunch at Gott's. Then, two tired little boys needed naps. So, we headed back to the car and to the house.

Around 4:30, Dave and I decided to go for a walk. Mike and Letha went with us. Our destination a view of the bay. Mike said he knew a place. We walked up the street, through a park, then through a green belt of sorts. We wondered who owned the land. We had to maneuver through a wet, squishy place. Then we got to the end and the gate was closed. I should have taken a picture of each of us scaling the fence. It was an adventure. Everyone else faired better than I. My khaki pants ended up with a little red stain residue, but it washed right out.

Letha knew a better place. So we went back to the house, took a 5 minute drive to Edgewood Road park. It was a bit after five, so the sun would be setting soon. We were advised by two other hikers that to get to the summit quickly, we needed to go up the "road to hell." Hmm. I always thought hell was down. Turns out, it can be up. We went up a 45 degree incline, then turned and went up some more. My ears popped along the way. I breathed heavily. My mouth filled with lactic acid.

But, we were rewarded with this view at sunset.

Love this picture of Mike and Letha. I wish we'd had them take one of Dave and me. Oh well. We'll have to go back.

Mike is king of the hill.

San Francisco, Day One

Last year between Christmas and New Year, Mike, Letha, and Jonas moved to a southern suburb of San Francisco. With Gavin, work, and just life, it took us until Thanksgiving week to finally go see them. It was our first visit to California, and my first sight of the Pacific Ocean. We arrived after dark Monday night; it was interesting to approach the airport over the bay. We kept sinking lower and lower to the water. I was comforted when I finally saw runway lights and land ahead--even though I knew it had to be there. Gavin was a champ on the flight; he snacked, played with my iPod, and napped. We think that he is beginning to make the connection between airplanes and being in the sky. When we took off this time, he left my lap at the window to go to the safety of Dave's arms closer to the center of the plane.

Jonas was very excited to see Gavin. (Jonas turned 3 in July, so he's about 19 months older than Gavin.) The time change messed with Gavin (or maybe it he didn't mess with it). He was up around 5 or 5:30 each morning. We tried to play quietly until everyone else got up. Bob and Judy were on Eastern time, so they were awake around the same time as Gavin each morning.

The boys enjoyed playing with "choo choo trains" when they had the opportunity. Gavin loved the choo choo's. He purses his lips out extra far when saying "choo." And, on occassion, he got so enamoured with saying it that he might say "choo" seven times before finally saying train. Tuesday, Letha had to go into work. Dave had brought his laptop and work to do, so he opted to go to her office so that he would have no distractions and could get his work completed. The rest of us loaded up and headed to the Pacific Coast. It was in the low 50s and very windy-25 mphs or so. Bob has the wind to his back as he poses along the beach at Pacifica. Judy, Gavin, and I stood at the back of the car so that the wind was broken a bit. Pacifica is home to a Taco Bell just a few yards south of where Bob is standing. It overlooks the ocean, has outdoor restrooms for those on the beach, and a walk up window for beach goers. I took a picture, but I was holding Gavin, so it was blurry. Oh well.
And as cold as it was, there were guys out there surfing.

After touring Pacifica, we headed south to Pescadora to Duarte's Tavern for a delicious lunch of crab melt sandwiches and cream of artichoke soup. Mike picked up an olallieberry pie to take home for dessert that night. (The olallieberry is a cross between a blackberry and another berry.)

After lunch, we went to Pigeon Point Lighthouse to stretch our legs. It didn't seem to be nearly as cold there as it was at Pacifica. However, it was still brisk.

We watched seals in this cove.

Gavin was ready to run off some energy.

Looking back at the coast:

This succulent grows everywhere along the coast. When you look at these pictures, you think you see grass growing, but it's this plant, a type of ice plant that is the kudzu of the west coast, evidently, (I made this discovery in trying to find out what the plant is).

This is the view out past the lighthouse.

We tried to get a picture of GrandBob with the boys; it was funny, to say the least. This is the best picture I was able to get.

Looking back along the coast:

We took a different route home along a winding road through La Honda and Woodside. Just a few miles before we were through the twists and turns, Gavin started wailing. I was getting a bit woozy; Gavin's screams only intensified the feeling. I had to ask Mike to pull over. When I got Gavin out of the carseat he was hot. I think he had just warmed up too much after being outside. Add a twisty road, and we had one unhappy little guy. After a few minutes outside of the car in the cool air, we both felt better for the drive through Woodside. We picked Dave up and headed home.

Back at the house, the boys had a blast playing with the Busy Ball Popper.

And, they played with trains.

Dinner was a delicious stew of Cioppino with fish and mussels. It was tasty to say the least. Mike at lots of mussels.

As did Dave:

Having access to climb on the stairs was a novelty for Gavin, so we had to keep our eyes on him. Gavin kept his eyes on Jonas. When Jonas likes you, he sniffs your head. Gavin got lots of sniffs. I think it's sweet that Jonas was so excited to see Gavin. Jonas made it his mission to be a host with the most. Whenever Gavin began to pout, Jonas would say, "Don't worry, Gavin. I'll get your monkey." Off Jonas would go to find Gavin's monkey (that we enlisted for this trip). Sometimes the monkey did make things better. Jonas says, "Oh my goodness," so Gavin has been saying it since we got back home. And once or twice today, Gavin said Jonas' name. Sweet boys.