Yeah, I’m behind….It’s been a long 2 weeks getting adjusted to being back and trying to get into the routine again. Not to mention Upper Respiratory Infections for both Ashleigh and myself, and well…you get the point!
San Francisco was amazing. I was so happy with how well Ashleigh did on the plane. We packed some snacks, a few days of school lessons, coloring books, plain paper, paper bags to make puppets, play-doh, markers, crayons, stickers, as well as a few books and 2 stuffed animals. Wes explained to her how the engine would get loud and we’d start to drive really fast, then we’d lean back and take off and her ears may hurt, but chew her gum, it will help. She did GREAT! We let her sit in the window seat, which means we were squished with me being quite pregnant and us just not being as skinny as we used to be 
Once we got into the sky we convinced Ash to sit between us, which made it easier to keep her entertained anyway. The first leg of the flight was from BWI to Phoenix. Four hours and 40 minutes. We were a bit worried about that aspect of it, but there was no “bored” time. We had a lot of fun, and planned on making her craft from school time on the second leg, but she passed out. The only issues we had on the flight was the fact that we started to descend, and Ashleigh was still asleep. It was about 10:45 PM Pacific time at this point, so 1:45 AM to her body and getting her to actually wake up was just not happening. We tried to get her to drink or chew her gum or something, but she was so tired she just wanted to sleep and was quite annoyed that her ears woke her up. So, she cried….and she cried….and she cried….Wes and I were both upset at the time and did our best to calm her down in any way possible, but well, it just wasn’t happening. Looking back on it, it really was minor, and considering it was her first time on an airplane and she flew from one coast to the other, she did amazing!
After we got our luggage we headed to the hotel. Ashleigh had to go to the bathroom, so while Wes was checking us in, the desk employee had the bell hop take Ashleigh and I upstairs to our room (with our luggage) so we could get her to the bathroom and bed. Once we got into the room, Ashleigh noticed the teal chaise lounger against the far wall. I looked at the bed, and since we were unsure how it was going to work with all 3 of us, and thought a cot might be necessary, I was thrilled to see the chaise. I figured either Ashleigh or Wes would be sleeping on it and we would be fine for space! Well, Ashleigh saw it and said, ‘Look Mom! My bed!’ I was certainly not going to discourage that one! Yup Ashleigh, a special bed just for you! She was sold. So, she had her princess blanket and her friends, and she was all ready to go to bed in “her bed.”
Thanks to the time difference Ash and I were able to get up, shower, eat breakfast, and get down the street to the museum of the day all before they opened! We were the second people in line to get in! Since I already talked about that visit, I won’t go back into it again! We ended the night with dinner at Chevy’s. We felt bad eating at a chain, but it was across the street from the hotel, and we were tired. We had yummy dinner and headed back to the room to call it a night.
Sunday and Monday a lot of the museums are closed in San Francisco, so we had to look at our list and see what we could do. I landed on Exploratorium for Sunday. Ashleigh and I got dressed and headed to the concierge desk to find out the best route. She gave us 2 options for bus routes, and we headed towards the bus stop. The bus we really wanted never showed up, so we had to take the other option. This meant a longer walk at the end, but I figured we’d be ok. Ash started to get a little car sick on the bus, not that I blame her. We were up hills and down hills, and sitting sideways, and stopping harshly every 100 yards it seemed. And, we headed stright across town. We literally got off at the last stop on the line. We had a 10 block walk to where we were headed, and it was cold and windy on the outskirts of town! Ashleigh was tired and not feeling great, so there I was, 29 weeks pregnant, carrying my 3 1/2 year old down the street, while trying to read the map to know exactly where I was going, without looking like a crazy tourist….Not sure I passed. But we did arrive at Exploratorium and headed inside. We just showed them our Maryland Science Center Membership card and they gave us our admission stickers and off we went!
Exploratorium was definately geared towards kids a little older, with a better concept of Science and how things work, but Ash had a blast just the same. We sat at a machine that you talked into, and then controlled the time lapse between speaking and hearing what you said through the headphones. We talked about how you need to hear yourself speak to speak properly. She just thought it was cool to turn the dial and hear her voice at different times. We spent a few hours there, checking things out, playing with water, bubbles, and sand, and then headed back to the hotel so that we could relax a bit before meeting our friends Jon & Sarah Joy from church for dinner! It was fun to get to hang out with them. We hadn’t had a chance in quite some time, and it was just strange luck that we all happened to be in San Francisco at the same time! We headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf and checked out the dinner options. We settled on Neptune’s Palace, a seafood place, and enjoyed a great dinner with friends overlooking the water. Of course, before dinner, we tried to sneak a peek at the Sea Lions, but they were hard to REALLY see in the dark. Boy could we smell and hear them though!!
Pictures from day 2 are here
Day Three/Monday was spent relaxing. I had been feeling a little iffy since we arrived, and Ashleigh was heading down the same road. So, we relaxed with some breakfast, watched a movie, had lunch with Wes, and hung out in the room. I needed a day to chill, and it was nice to just relax and hang out with Ashleigh with nothing else to do. For dinner we headed down to the concierge. We said we were looking for something close by that was not a chain, and would be good food, not too expensive. Well, a big thumbs up for Christian at the W. He told us about Piazza. Oh.My.Word!!! The food was amazing. When he called to make us a reservation Wes and I both thought he was being way overboard. I mean really, a little Italian Place on a Monday night? Who needs a reservation? Apparently we did. We walked into the smallest restaurant I had ever been in. They had the tables packed in to that place, there was not a wasted inch. As we approached we were greeted by Mossimo, the owner, and I let him know who we were and that Christian from the W had called, he basically finished my sentence and showed us to our table. The ONLY empty table in the place. We had a yummy salad, and then AMAZING dinners. Asleigh had the alfredo (as usual) and it was unreal. I have never had such good alfredo before. I had some dish with eggplant and chunks of mozzerella over pasta with a red sauce. Wes had the Chicken Marsala. A-MA-ZING! While we were eating we watched the staff. They were moving around tables and clearing and resetting tables in literally seconds. There was a line at the door, and people even chose to sit down and eat outside! It was about 50 and windy and people actually ate outside! The 2 servers, 2 bussers, and the owner were a well oiled machine taking care of every guest and making sure our water glasses never got empty. Ashleigh asked for some Ice Cream, and Wes and I decided to share the lemon cake. Of course, just after we ordered Ashleigh had to go to the bathroom, so Wes got first dibs. Remember how we said there wasn’t a wasted inch in this place? Yeah, that goes for the bathroom too. It was a small “closet” with a toilet, sink, and mirror, and a few decorations that was directly behind the appetizer prep area. Yup. In the kitchen. Trying to get her to the bathroom and trying to make sure we weren’t getting underfoot was a little easier said than done, but after surviving the airplane bathroom, we were up for the challenge! By the time we got back Wes had eaten his half of the cake and told me how he had to make himself stop. He said I should count myself lucky I was getting any. Once I took a bite I knew what he meant! Wow. The cake was amazing!! It was so good, we got a second slice to go. We enjoyed that Wednesday evening! If I could find the restaurant on google, I justmight order some of the cake to be shipped in! Yeah, that good…
Tuesday we headed to the Zoo. We had a great time! The San Francisco Zoo reminds me of a cross between The Philadelphia Zoo, and the Maryland Zoo. It was big, like my memories of the Philly Zoo, but it was run down/being fixed up, like the Maryland Zoo. With our Maryland Zoo membership we got in half price, so it was well worth the $1.50 muni fare and $7 admission! I decided to rent a stroller for the day because Ashleigh was going to get tired and was going to want to be carried at some point. It was $9 well spent. We actually bought an umbrella stroller for the zoo here because it is a really long day walking all over the zoo and the only stroller we had is the big travel system stroller, which is a pain to lug all over the place! Ashleigh and I saw Lemurs, monkeys, flamingos, Kangaroos, and all kinds of fun animals! While we were leaving the Primate area and heading to the rest of the zoo, one of the Peacocks decided that we were a lot of fun. He walked right along with us half way to the flamingos!! I got some great pictures of him. It was very cool. At the same time, a seagull went walking past the other direction. He got right up near us too so there are some photos of him as well.
Ashleigh had a blast being a ham for the camera. She insisted on a 15 minute photo shoot on the Grizzley bear statue! It was insane. I got some cute pictures of her and she had fun, so it was worth it, but man was I getting bored standing there watching her on the statue!! While we were looking at the Kangaroos & Walaroos a squirrel came up to us. He was right next to the stroller. I honestly thought for a minuted that he just might jump in with Ashleigh. He was up against the wheels and looking at us like we should be having a conversation. It was hilarious. Ashleigh enjoyed “chatting” with him, and eventually we started walking and he went away. It was really cute though!
We made it through the zoo and back to the hotel on the Muni. Ashleigh hasn’t napped for a few months now, but she enjoyed a nap on the bus/muni every afternoon in SF. I guess walking all over town wore her out. So, she napped on our way home from the zoo and we went back to meet Wes for dinner. Tuesday night was the department dinner at Farallon. It was an amazing restaurant, the food was wonderful, and I was VERY glad we didn’t have to pick up the tab! Wes and I shared the Scallops appetizer, I had some amazing fish, and Wes had a steak. Ashleigh enjoyed some buttered noodles, and she actually ate a ton! It was a great dinner and Ashleigh behaved amazingly well. towards the end of the meal she started to get restless, but seriously, we had been there for THREE hours at that point. I was uncomfortable and wanted to go for a walk too!
Zoo, etc pictures can be seen here -
I had made sure Ashleigh and I helped Wes get all packed up on Tuesday so that he would have all day Wednesday off. Wednesday was breakdown the booth day, but we got it done on Tuesday and were ready for Wes to get to see the city on Wednesday. We left no corner of the city unseen. We headed to the muni station and hopped on the muni. We headed out to Golden Gate Park where we spent some time at the California Academy of the Sciences. What a cool place! It opened in late September, so we were there a month in. It has an aquarium, a 4-story rainforest you can walk through, dessert animals, penguins, a kid’s play area, an IMAX, as well as other enviornmental exhibits. It was the only place we actually paid full price for, and I think it was worth it. All 3 of us enjoyed it and even learned a thing or two!
Our next stop was the Golden Gate Bridge. We headed out to the bus stop and took the bus down to the park under the bridge. Unfortunately it was cold, windy, and foggy on Wednesday, but we got to see the bridge and walk on it. Ashleigh was cold and tired (she had walked quite a bit already) so Wes got to carry her. I was very thankful I wasn’t alone with her for that one!! We were amazed at how high up we were and got some of the obligatory tourist shots. As soon as Ash put her head on Wes’s shoulder she closed her eyes. I thought she was asleep and started taking photos, but she started smiling and laughing at me. She wasn’t asleep! At least not yet….I’m not sure she saw much, by the time we got out to the first “spire” she was out cold. We decided to turn around and head back, Wes didn’t think he could make it accross and back carrying her. We hopped on the bus, and then had to switch busses and headed down to Pier 39 again. We got some photos of the Sea Lions in the daylight, and what we assume is Alcatraz. We ate at Bubba Gumps, and walked around before heading back to the hotel. We were going to take a street car back, but it was cold, we were tired, and it was just too far to walk. Besides, it was the same price to take a cab, so we took a cab. We packed our suit cases and enjoyed our left over piece of lemon cake. We were sad to be leaving San Francisco, but we were looking forward to getting home and getting back to “normal”. We had a great time. The city was super clean, everyone was friendly, the public transportation system was quite confusing because there are 3 seperate systems, but you can go to 511.org and type in your start and end locations and it tells you exactly how to get there! I never felt unsafe walking around with Ashleigh, and the food was great!
It was a great trip and we hope to get back some day!
Here’s the final set of photos -
We found a few options, and while I clearly had my favorite as far as look, it was a little bigger than the space we had set aside for it. So, we let Ashleigh choose. She was the one who gave away her toys to kids who needed them more than she did, we figured she deserved it.
