San Francisco Day Three Continued

We walked from the ferry drop off along the pier to Pier 39 where we found lunch. Chris and I had clam chowder and the girls branched out their repertoire and had....pizza. Whatever! After lunch, we braved the wind and walked along the touristy section of the pier. I was tempted to buy one of the cheap jackets, but I really didn't want one with San Francisco splashed all over it. Amy wore my fleece jacket, so I just braved the cold. The girls each picked out a logoed t-shirt and had a lot of fun when we found this store:


















I must admit, I cringed a lot at all the possible heads these hats have touched.

As we meandered down the pier, we found the sea lions. They weren't very active though my children did their darnedest sea lion impersonations to try and inspire some movement.





We took a street car down to Fisherman's Wharf. It was late afternoon and our energy was beginning to wane; however, the girls wanted to ride a trolley. We began an hour-long wait in line. Crazy! Surely there were other trolley cars around. Ghirardelli's Chocolate Factory was the obvious next choice. As we walked in the door, a lady handed us a piece of chocolate. I think, though cannot confirm, that my children walked through that particular door about three times. There wasn't much to see as far as it being a factory, but it inspired Chris to buy some chocolate.

We were all fading by this point and decided to find transportation back to the BART station. We walked a couple of blocks and lo and behold, a trolley. With no wait.

San Francisco Day 4

Rain. Not the happiest forecast either. We started out on another early day hoping to see a few sites before the rain started in earnest. Our first stop--Coit Tower. Unfortunately the tower didn't open until 10 am and we were there at 9 am. We happened on to another interesting event however, an Easter procession following Catholic priests carrying a cross. We decided to leave so as not to interrupt them.





We drove some of the crazy streets of San Francisco and were excited to find one of the most famous of them all--Lombard Street. My impression of it was similar to the yellow brick road. Except for this road was made of red bricks. But it was pretty cool and landscaped from top to bottom. We were surprised to see door fronts right up close and personal. I hopped out of the car to snap some pictures as Chris navigated the turns.




From Lombard Street, we found some "free" street parking and caught the trolley to downtown. My girls loved it.





When the trolley driver announce "China Town", Misha was quick to say, "Let's get off here." We walked a few streets in China Town toward the harbor. All the while, Kristen plugged her nose while singing, "Everybody was kung-fu fighting, da da fast as lightning". It was an interesting experience. We turned off the street shortly after a worker hefted half a butchered pig on to his shoulder from his truck full of more butchered pigs. I do have a picture. I won't post it.

It started to rain more and more the closer we got to the wharf. We decided it was time to make our way back to our car and move on. It took awhile since the power to the trolleys was shut off for about 15 to 20 minutes. It was still an adventure.



We drove north to the Golden Gate bridge and passed under its amazing structure toward Sausalito. We pulled out the umbrellas and made a run for a lunch spot of fish and chips. It would have been nice to have dryer weather for exploring, but the scenery was beautiful. We drove up in to the mountains toward Muir Woods where the redwoods grow. We didn't see any trees as huge as those in the Redwood Forest, but these were fairly large. Because of the rain, we opted just to drive. Once again, our tuckered girls fell asleep in the back seat. Chris had fun taking the turns. I am not one prone to car sickness, but I began to feel it here. After one particularly curvy spot in the road, the girls were shifted awake. Misha complained of not feeling so great. Knowing that she was probably feeling what I was feeling, I handed her a ziploc bag and said, "In case you need it." She needed it. Chris took the turns a little softer after that.

We made our way back to San Francisco and found the Galleria mall to hang out at for awhile. We opted for an early dinner at Olive Garden and then headed back to the hotel for, you guessed it, swimming.

San Francisco Day 5 Golden Gate Park

We were excited to have our good friend, Julie, drive up from Huntington Beach to join us for the day. The girls loved having her around. We started out on this beautiful sunshiny (though still somewhat brisk) day at the Golden Gate Park. It was recommended to us by friends who had visited previously, and we were immensely impressed. We took the girls to a park with playground equipment and let them play for awhile. We were surrounded by teams practicing baseball, youth soccer practices, and, of course, pigeons and seagulls which Kristen loved to chase and scatter. Parents get tired of parks after awhile, so we made the executive decision to move on.




The girls were drawn to the carousel. Chris went over to check the prices and found that they were reasonable. He handed Amy a $20 to pay for herself, Misha, and Kristen. The operator looked at the $20 and said, "Is that all that you have?" We replied in the affirmative. "Just get on and ride, I don't have change for a $20." He's not going to make any money that way, but his goodwill made all of us feel great. He encouraged all of us, adults included, to ride the carousel. And he took a picture for us before we left.



Our next stop was the Japanese Tea Garden. So amazing. They should come and work their magic in my back yard. I'd like that. The girls were pretty impressed and Kristen even named one of the Koi fish in the pond Shelly. I got to take a lot of fun pictures. Amy saw the statue of Buddha and said, "Hey look, it's that Japanese dude."









We took a quick break for lunch nearby and then returned to the park. We found a lake where people were having a competition with small sailing boats and the girls had fun feeding pigeons and seagulls alike.



Our next stop was the bison paddock. We only saw two bison, but the were big and impressive and bisony. Chris had visited the windmills as a child and wanted to return, so we visited one of the windmills surrounded by the Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Gardens.





One of the benefits of having Julie along for the day was that all of our children wanted to ride with her. We didn't argue. We're good parents that way.



Not too far from the garden was the beach and coastline. The two older girls wanted to play in the water so badly, but Chris nixed the idea. Still they had fun chasing the waves.

San Francisco Day 5 Continued

We happened on to the Palace of the Legion of Honor. The structure was beautiful, but we decided against going inside.







Since we were still close to the Golden Gate Bridge. We decided to walk part way across it. It is a magnificent structure. This is one of the signs that was posted on the bridge next to a phone:



We walked almost to the first tower and the girls had that "been there, done that" look.







What to do next? Not quite time for dinner, too early to return to the hotel--though they frequently reminded us that they were willing to go swimming. I suggested we go see the Oakland Temple on a day when the sun was shining since Sunday was supposed to be another rainy day. My suggestion was met with an approval all the way around, so off we headed to the Bay Bridge and Oakland.



As luck would have it, there was a chapel there that Chris was able to visit to watch the Priesthood Session of General Conference. His attire wasn't quite what he would normally wear, but he pulled on a sweater and called it good. While he was watching conference, us girls watch the Joseph Smith movie in the visitors center. Very poignant and moving. I appreciated the feeling of the spirit that permeated that building.



We finished around 6:30 but Chris still had another half an hour. We opted to find dinner and let him fend for himself. Didn't quite work out the way we planned though. While there are a plethora of ethnic restaurant options, Mexican wasn't one of them. Julie's GPS took us past Berkely and a host of interesting individuals. Chris called and, as luck would have it, we were still looking for a restaurant. With two GPSes and phones searching, we found a Chevy's not too far from us and both met up. The service was lacking, but the food great.

Another busy day in the great state of California!

San Francisco Day Six

Sunday was our last day in San Fran. We had made arrangements to postpone our check out until 4 pm. Our original intent was to watch General Conference and then head out for a day of exploring by car. Unfortunately, the rain just never let up. The girls weren't thrilled about spending the day in the car, so we just let them hang out watching movies and Conference.



By 3:30 pm, we were all more than ready to exit the building, but since our flight didn't leave until 7:45 pm, a car ride was our only option. It didn't take long for two little heads to nod off, and Misha enjoyed the beauty beyond the city as we drove out toward Half Moon Bay. You'd never really know that you were so close to a major metropolitan city when you ventured a short distance away. There were mountains and trees and beautiful scenery everywhere. Sadly, the rain continued to pour, and it just wasn't practical to get out and get soaked. Half Moon Bay had quaint little downtown shops--the kind I love to explore. We drove to the coast and watched angry, white-capped waves crash against the shore. On a nice day, it would be a fabulous place. If I ever have a chance to return to the San Francisco area, this is where I would want to come. We did much of the touristy stuff this trip; Half Moon Bay was out of the way and wonderful. As we drove back toward San Fran, we passed through other cool towns that make you want to buy a vacation home there, such as Pacifica. There were even crazy people surfing!

Needing to find a place to eat before heading to the airport, we stopped at a Sizzler. After a filling meal, we set our sites back toward SFO. It takes a bit of time once you drop off your rental car, ride the train to the terminal and get checked in. But as luck would have it, we had a short delay. At least it wasn't an hour and a half like an earlier flight was. We knew we would already be pushing midnight once we got home, so we felt lucky with only a 20 minute delay. Misha slept the whole flight home. Amy and Kristen got their second wind from their nap in the car and found ways to occupy themselves. Kristen was trying to find a comfy spot on my lap by the end though while still keeping her seat belt on.

Lucky for us, or not, the fire alarms were going off in the main terminal at the Denver airport when we arrived. At least it didn't slow us down at all. Chris went to retrieve our van from long-term parking and the girls and I pulled our luggage off the carousel. Our timing was pretty slick, and we were on our way home with three sleepy heads in no time.

Both Amy and Misha begged me to let them sleep in Monday morning, promising to practice their piano and violin after school. Kristen slept until 9:17 am. So unusual but nice.

Easter Surprises

My children have been quick to inform me that since we were going to San Francisco for Spring Break, we won't be home for Easter and needed to have our Easter Egg hunt early. I'm way ahead of them in the planning, but I didn't tell them that. I kept putting them off, saying that perhaps we could have a hunt the week AFTER Spring Break. That was always met with a round of groans and sad faces.

I decided to try something new this year after reading on Kris J's blog (thanks for the idea) from last year that they hid Easter baskets and their kids searched for those. We have always hid the little plastic Easter eggs--some years they are filled and some not. A basket hunt sounded like a lot of fun to me. I mentioned that we might be doing something different this year and, of course, more groans and sad faces. (They have since recanted on their complaints, for as in Kristen's words, "This is the best day ever!")

In the past couple of weeks, I have been assembling the baskets. I bought some cute baskets that would be functional and useful in their rooms and filled them with new swimming suits (to be used on vacation), sunglasses (which would come in handy on vacation), Disney shirts (for our next vacation), and some other fun, non-vacation related gifts.

In order to really surprise them, I came home from church during Sunday School, and played Easter Bunny. Each girl was given 18 eggs of one color to find--Misha's were blue, Amy's were green, and Kristen's were purple--and their note said that finding the eggs would give them the clue to finding their basket.



It took them a little bit of time to find all of their eggs, and Amy was first to realize that there was a clue in one of her eggs. It said, "You never know what's in store when you clean up this room." Store and room were underlined. Misha figured out Amy's clue in no time, but Amy didn't seem to believe her and kept saying, "Hmmm, what could it be?"



To her credit, Amy did look in the cupboard in the STOREROOM (storage area) where I had hidden her basket, but thought the basket there was just a basket that belonged there.

Kristen's clue read, "This place is too HOT to handle." She required some assistance from Chris to look in the right place.



Misha's note said, "Exercise good judgment." For some reason she latched on to the Wii idea in the family room and had to be persuaded to look elsewhere, such as the "Exercise" room. Can you say uber excited?



It was a lot of fun and agreed by all that we should do it again.

Easter Traditons Year Two

We had a successful second year of one of our new Easter traditions. Instead of dying hard-boiled eggs, which was always a huge mess, last year we started a new tradition of decorating sugar cookies. It was much more fun and the girls actually ate their creations--they rarely ate the eggs.





I made the cookie dough yesterday while they were trying to fly a kite in the horrendous wind. They were in and out of the house and walking past me, and fortunately, never asked what I was doing. Amy did ask this morning what was in the covered container in the fridge.





We baked the cookies after church. They cooled for about an hour, and the girls were raring to go. Granted the clean up afterward isn't likely any better than from hard-boiled eggs, but the spoils are definitely sweeter.

Chores

Kristen is getting more responsibilities with Saturday morning chores. Today she got to help Amy clean their bathroom. This is what I heard from Amy, "Come on Kristen. If you don't come now, you aren't going to get to clean the toilet. Hurry. Kristen, I'm going to clean the toilet and you won't get to." Obviously not a selling point for me, but Kristen seems to like certain chores.

Snow Day

I had visions of a repeat performance from last year where we had a snow day on Thursday and Friday before Spring Break. The kids loved it. Me? Not so much. Granted I probably would have canceled school Tuesday night as well with the snow falling in buckets and the wind blowing wildly.

Wednesday morning dawned quite beautifully with a blanket of snow inches deep. It took me an hour to shovel the driveway, and half way through I had to ask Chris to come help. It was quite a workout. From there, the day just got nicer and nicer. The sledding hill was PACKED and my girls spent half of the day outside. Fortunately, they were off to school Thursday morning to finish off the week.

Looking ahead, we have another snow storm moving in tonight with the potential to dump just as much snow, and then it is smooth sailing in to next week and Spring Break. The temperatures are supposed to be in the high 60s and 70. You'd think I'd be saying "woohoo", but we are heading to San Francisco where we'll see more of the 50s and clouds.

New Bike

This was Chris' Facebook post a couple of days ago: just picked up my new 29er bike. I'm new to clips so I see falling in my future.

He has been anxious to get out and ride and this just makes him even more excited, or maybe MADE (past tense) is what I should say. I was folding clothes in the laundry room. Chris and Misha had gone for a ride. He came in through the garage and said, "I think I'm going to need some bandages." Knowing what he had posted on his Facebook page, I thought maybe he was talking about himself. But I looked at him, and he looked fine so then I thought he was talking about Misha even though he wasn't urgently asking for help. Then he held up his arms, and I could see a little bit of blood on his elbows. Not a big deal. THEN, he turned around. It was SO SO SO fortunate that he was wearing his fleece vest and jeans! His entire ENTIRE backside was covered in goatheads--nasty, evil little things! I didn't have the heart to tell him to hold still while I got the camera to take a picture. You'll just have to imagine it and cringe at the thought. I helped pull out the slivers and goatheads from his bare forearms (luckily the rest of him was covered). He spent quite awhile removing the goatheads from his clothing.