The City by the Bay

For Labor Day, and David's birthday we went to one of my favorite places to visit one of my favorite people. My sister Cyndi lives in San Francisco. When I was a child we lived about a half an hour from San Francisco. We went there on school field trips and family outings. A lot of happy childhood memories were created there. When I was thirteen we moved about 2 1/2 hours away from the city and went less frequently. A couple of years ago my sister got a job and moved right into the city. I promised we would come and visit her, and she promised to show us a great time. Well, she kept her promise. It was a perfect weekend, incredible weather every single day, and lots of adventures to be had.

The drive down was long and slow, and all on David's birthday. But, we finally got to Cyndi's house. She had a Costco cake, decorations, hats, party blowers, and take out Chinese food waiting for us. Anna loved it. We ate that cake all week, until we were literally sick of it. Cyndi thought we could take a chunk of it to her neighbors who were moving and had recently had a baby, but when we went to cut a piece we discovered that every section had a distinct finger swipe in the frosting. Guess who did it?

On Saturday we got to ride the cable car down to Chinatown. Both Anna and David liked all the trinkets for sale in the stores. Anna got a purse, a mini basket, a lipstick holder, and some more umbrellas (this figures later in the story). We also bought some moon cakes at a bakery (Anna has seen moon cakes on Ni Hao Kai-lan) From there we took the bus down to the ferry building and walked through the craft fair. David found a cool quarter carved with the Denver Bronco. Inside the ferry building it is like a big unique mall, and behind it is a huge farmer's market. The best thing here was this iced hot cocoa that I bought. It literally tasted like drinking a melted chocolate bar. Cyndi's great friends picked us up from the ferry building and we all went for a picnic on the beach. Unfortunately Anna sat on this thing right before we left for the beach and left most of her Chinatown purchases just on the other side of it when we got in Roger and Hilary's car. There was much sadness. The beach was beautiful, and not too crowded. The picnic was delish. Anna ran in the waves so much she soaked her pants and rode home without them. Roger and Hilary have a three year old named Sarah and a baby named William. They were such great playmates for the weekend. After we got home I talked Cyndi into going down to the ferry building to see if Anna's things were still there (complete foolishness, seeing that it had been hours) We ran into Hilary on the way to the car and she offered to drive. When we didn't find the things she offered to swing by Chinatown to replace them for Anna. Is anyone thinking to themselves, "what a spoiled little girl!"? I was! Anna was thrilled.

On Sunday we walked to church. After church, a big meal and a little rest, we drove over to the Legion of Honer to take a picture with the Thinker and see the view of the Golden Gate. Anna loved walking around the railing here.Then we went to the Palace of Fine Arts to walk around the pond and feed the swans. Again, it was a beee-yuuu-ti-ful day in the city. We also drove to the top of the Lion Stairs to see the view and walk half way down and back again.

Monday was our big day at the museum. In Golden Gate Park there is a museum called the California Academy of Sciences. It is one cool place. I totally remember going there on field trips as a child. I remember the pendulum and the big dinosaur. It was recently entirely remodeled. There is a rain forest, the hall of Africa, an aquarium, a planetarium, and a living roof. In the hall of Africa there is a big penguin tank. We got to watch the biologist feed them. The rain forest is inside a large sphere. Inside the glass sphere there is a ramp that spirals up through the different levels of the rain forest. There are cool birds and butterflies everywhere. It is also hot and humid. I thought David was going to die. The roof is covered with plants and is called a living roof. My favorite part was the aquarium. There is a tropical reef and a California reef with these cards to help you identify the fish. There is also a "petting" tide pool where you can touch starfish, anemones and urchins. We had a picnic in the park, and then went over to the carousel and the concrete slides, both magical places from my childhood. They remind me of my Newell and Fuller cousins. Anna and Sarah loved the carousel, and as you can see, Anna and Aunt Cyndi loved the slides-Anna maybe a little more.It was a fantastic trip to see Cyndi. She really took care of us. David loved the 70 degree weather so much he looked up job opportunities in the area. I mentioned that the city was not known for its spectacular weather, but more for its lingering fog. We left SF around 8:30 that night and drove up to my parents in Auburn. That will be the next post.