San Francisco

Mom and Dad arrived safely and it was great fun to see them "on the road". Mom and I did pretty well only chatting for a short bit when they got here even though we were excited to see each other. It may have had something to do with the fact that it was 3am for Mom, but we'll credit our self control and wisdom to conserve our energy. We planned a short day in the city for our first day and it was a good thing we did because our "short day" took us till 8pm to get back home. Figuring out public transportation takes a little while when you're used to being able to drive everywhere. We rode lots of buses and tram-thingys and a cable car though. The cable car was a roller coaster for the kids. Those roads are crazy. I think that will probably be my main impression of San Fran. "those roads are crazy". We visited Fisherman's Warf and Pier 39, spent some time in an old arcade. We ate at Fisherman's Grotto for lunch and it was delicious. We also went to the Ghirardelli Square where we got ice cream sundaes made with the world's best hot fudge. That was pretty much dinner.

Today we were a little better prepared thanks to Mike who had spent the evening figuring out bus routes and BART routes. We adjusted a little on the fly today, and definitely had a better grasp on what we were doing thanks to his research.

Crazy story of the day: We were downtown waiting for a bus when a van pulled up and a lady and her son jumped out. It was Missi Kershner, a mom I know from my Strategies group. We laughed at the odds that we would manage to run into each other, she snapped a pic and they ran off to buy her son pants at Old Navy because he forgot to pack any and it turns out that San Francisco is really stinking cold.

We hopped our bus and went to the Golden Gate Park and played at the children's playground. It was really cool and the kids had a blast running around and being free to be regular kids for a while, not tourist-y kids. they had a carousel in the park and we rode on it too. Alyssa made a friend. She is amazing at that. Give that girl 5 minutes on her own and she'll find a new friend.

 After that we went to find some lunch because it was like 1:30. Time is flying here. We ate at a little place called the Irving Street Cafe. We couldn't have had a better lunch. They were so nice. The 4 girls ate at the counter and the waitress took care of them like a mother, so we could eat peacefully at the table behind them. And the food was delicious! Simple easy food with fantastic prices. 8 of us ate our fill for under $50 and that included drinks. If we lived here, we would be regulars.

After lunch we hopped a bus back into town and headed to Lombard Street. It was crazy to see the tiny garages and driveways of the people who actually live on that street. they must all drive tiny cars or Vespas. We took the bus through Chinatown and then headed back to the BART station.

 I could definitely do the subway/train thing into downtown if they had it in Cincinnati. The buses were a little crowded sometimes in downtown, but almost everyone we spoke to was very kind.

 about 1/8 of the people smell like weed. some of them were smoking it right in the street. Veronica said at one point "why does it smell like poop" what has she been eating? why does my 4 year old's poop smell like weed? we're going to go with the general idea that she meant to convey it stinks and we can all get on board with that idea.