As of yesterday, our "emergency" boxes had not arrive yet, and since we were going to have to stay
in a hotel regardless, we headed into SF for
the day, and are here now. Yesterday was
the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, driving around and taking lots of really bad car photos while
the kids napped.
Later in the afternoon, we hit Pier 39 (tourist trap, complete with lots of kitsche shops, and
a whole troupe of barking sea lions), had lunch looking out onto
the bay and Alcatraz island, and then headed to
the Aquarium
in the Bay - they have 2 long tunnels where you are walking around through
the inside of
the tank and
the fish are all around you (very cool even at $1 per minute which is what our admission worked out to).
Akira and Kieran were both raptly fascinated - having
a shark swim right next to you is pretty awesome. I think I was most taken by the anochovies swimming in schools - so many silver fish - it was dizzying.
Kieran loved the playground at the Golden Gate Park, although the merry-go-round was closed because it was not the weekend. He also had a go at the cardboard slides (big steep cement track just like we made for sledding in the snow, but on cardboard). I think it will be a little while before the thrill of that is enough, or the memory of snow far enough gone to make it thrilling to a child who's just come from snow...
And then there where the gophers in the grass. Brian and Kiwi were sitting and watching them pop their heads up. Amazing how used to people the were, and how oblivious the people were to them. In the 5 or so minutes I joined to watch, 3 different kids stepped directly on one of the wholes, and within 30-60 seconds, out popped another head.
As of yesterday, our "emergency" boxes had not arrive yet, and since we were going to have to stay in a hotel regardless, we headed into SF for the day, and are here now. Yesterday was the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, driving around and taking lots of really bad car photos while the kids napped.
Later in the afternoon, we hit Pier 39 (tourist trap, complete with lots of kitsche shops, and a whole troupe of barking sea lions), had lunch looking out onto the bay and Alcatraz island, and then headed to the Aquarium in the Bay - they have 2 long tunnels where you are walking around through the inside of the tank and the fish are all around you (very cool even at $1 per minute which is what our admission worked out to). 
Akira and Kieran were both raptly fascinated - having a shark swim right next to you is pretty awesome. I think I was most taken by the anochovies swimming in schools - so many silver fish - it was dizzying.
Kieran loved the playground at the Golden Gate Park, although the merry-go-round was closed because it was not the weekend. He also had a go at the cardboard slides (big steep cement track just like we made for sledding in the snow, but on cardboard). I think it will be a little while before the thrill of that is enough, or the memory of snow far enough gone to make it thrilling to a child who's just come from snow...
And then there where the gophers in the grass. Brian and Kiwi were sitting and watching them pop their heads up. Amazing how used to people the were, and how oblivious the people were to them. In the 5 or so minutes I joined to watch, 3 different kids stepped directly on one of the wholes, and within 30-60 seconds, out popped another head.
