Trip to San Francisco - Part 2 - The City

Day 4 of our vacation was spent in SF. The photo above was taken from the car (I wasn't driving!) as we entered the city at sunset the night before. I'm pretty happy with it.

Our first day we walked up, up, up from our hotel to the famous Lombard Street. If you walk in SF, you get a serious workout.

You know, that power line kind of wrecks the picture, doesn't it? I think they should fix that.
C loved this spy shop which I read about before our trip.

We saw the cable cars but didn't actually ride one since we saw a big lineup.

We had the most amazing chocolate fudge sundae at Ghirardelli Square.

We went to Boudin bread - home of the original sourdough bread.

At Fisherman's Wharf, I had fresh crab cocktail for lunch from a street vendor.

C and I explored Musee Mechanique which is a very unique place with working antique arcade games as well as modern ones.

Pier 39 was very busy. Lots of interesting shops including a store for lefties like C. 

The sea lions hang out here but I was hoping to see more.

There was a great view of Alcatraz from Pier 39.

In the afternoon we drove to see the most famous image of SF - the Painted Ladies.

We had supper at the Organic Plant Cafe. I think this was the first time my kids had vegetables on the trip, other than french fries. :) My oldest son asked if we could come back the next night!

Day 5 - San Francisco

In the morning we went to Golden Gate Park which is SF's Central park. This park has so many things in it that you could spend several days there. J and the boys went to the Academy of Sciences. Here's J's report:

From A's quick review of the map, it seemed we wanted to focus on the rainforest and aquarium sections. We skipped the planetarium and 'natural history' (aka, Darwinist propaganda) sections. The museum is highlighted by two large spheres or domes: one for the rain forest enclosure, the other for the planetarium. We got in line for the rainforest one. I was concerned we would be standing in line for a while, but it soon became clear this line was moving very quickly. The enclosure is divided up into 4 'floors': each one represents a 'stratum' of the rainforest ecosystem, and is associated with a particular country: you begin in the Borneo (the understory layer), and get to see some reptiles and amphibians, though the main focus is the butterflies fluttering and landing freely all around you; there are some birds also. Then we wound our way out the spiral ramp to the canopy layer, represented by Madagascar. This area contained many cool amphibians and reptiles, plus some spiders: geckos, chameleons, snakes, etc. Then it was up to the top 'emergent' layer, represented by Costa Rica.

I was particularly pleased that in nearly every single case the exhibits had the actual animals in them, and we were able to see the animals. Though we may have been better at this than others; the couple behind us made a friendly joke about our almost 100% record in locating the incredibly well camouflaged animals.

When we were done with that we took a glass elevator down to the bottom floor, going through a part of the aquarium and bringing us 'face-to-face' with some fish. The bottom layer was the 'flooded Amazon' and includes the aquarium section.The aquarium included several beautiful jellyfish, and many other exhibits that were well spaced out. We managed to spend a lot of time there and felt like we were able to see many interesting sea animals. There was even a hole you can put your arm in to see what it feels like to be gripped by an anaconda -- for 11 seconds -- and a couple of electrodes to see what a greeting from an electric eel feels like. Naturally C did both of these, but apparently they made quite an impression, because he was second-guessing himself afterwards.

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I went to the Conservatory of Flowers (a beautiful building and so peaceful inside).

In the afternoon, J and the boys returned to the Academy of Sciences while I explored SF some more. I drove to the west edge, saw the beach, and also got a closer look at the Golden Gate from Fort Point. I wanted to see the shore level view of the Golden Gate Bridge as seen in the movie Vertigo.

We met up at 3:30 pm and decided to leave town. Unfortunately, it was Friday rush hour traffic so it took us quite a while to drive to Petaluma. We ate at Zazzle Cafe in Petaluma. The beef salad that I ordered was delicious. Here's a quote from the menu:

Grilled tri-tip, fresh baby spinach leaves, spring mix, cilantro, carrots, green onions, red bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, snow peas & bean sprouts tossed with our spicy Ponzu-chipotle dressing!

We stayed at the Best Western in Petaluma. The room was HUGE with 2 King size beds. It even had 2 TVs which was ridiculous.

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Trip to San Francisco - Part 1 - Redwoods

I love this photo. My parents took lots of photos of me by state/province markers. The tradition continues. :)

So, this year our vacation destination was San Francisco and the Redwoods. I've wanted to go to SF for a few years and the Redwoods seemed like a place my boys would enjoy. It was a good trip overall but I think I'm done with big road trips. This ol body can't take that much time in the car. :( I'd like to go back to SF but next time I'll fly.

Day 1 - June 18th - Home to Grants Pass, Oregon. Not much to report from this day but we stopped in Portland for some yummy sandwiches at Bunk. We had supper at Taprock Northwest Grill in Grants Pass. Beautiful building. It was sunny and we ate outside at the edge of the Rogue River. We stayed at the Travelodge. Very small room. Decent breakfast.


Day 2 - June 19th - Grants Pass, OR to Arcata, CA. This day's goal was to see the Redwoods. We stopped at the National Park visitor center and got some good advice.  We went to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. This was my favourite tree spot. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was filmed here. My boys just recently watched it so this meant something to them.

It was fun driving so close to these big giants.

We went on a short walk through Stout Memorial Grove.

We had lunch in Crescent City where it was super windy. 
We drove up Highway 101 which had some amazing views.

The beach below is near Lagoon Creek. I just jumped out of the car to take this shot.

J & I saw some whales from this high vista. 
The boys had trouble spotting them without binoculars.

We paid $5 and drove through the politically incorrect Drive Thru Tree at Klamath.

We ate in McKinleyville. Unfortunately, the place was incredibly loud with conversation and later, a live band. In Arcata we had some trouble finding our motel - the Arcata Redwoods Inn. They had a pool and hot tub which we happily used.

Day 3 - June 20th - Arcata to San Francisco. Today's goal was to see a bit more of the Redwoods and to get to San Francisco. In Eureka we stopped to see a few Victorian mansions.

The mansion on the the left is "Pink Lady" and the one on the right is Carson Mansion. Carson Mansion reminded me of the haunted mansion in Disneyland.

We drove on the Avenue of the Giants. It runs parallel (more or less) to Highway 101 but allows you to stop and see the trees up close.

We stopped for drinks and bathroom break by One Log House. 

Christopher got a cross bow!

Founders Grove hike/walk was beautiful. One thing that bugged me was the preachy signs telling you not to climb on the fallen trees which my boys love. The people who carved their names in the trees are more damaging, imho. 

This is the location of the Dyerville Giant. 

When we got off the Ave of the Giants at Garberville we had some trouble finding a place to have a picnic lunch and to find bathrooms. I did have a taco salad from Nacho Mama. My boys complained about the 80 degree weather. :)

This day's highest temperature was 97 while driving near Ukiah but we were in the car at the time.

We had supper at Panera Bread in Santa Rosa (an hour away from San Francisco). We arrived safely in SF and found our hotel easily. We stayed at the Marina Inn.

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Secret agents/spies birthday party

Guest blogger - my hubby who was the mastermind behind the party!

Yesterday, our 7yo had a "Secret Agent" themed birthday party. We had some fun creating activities for them. Before the party I created "C..... Spy Agency" official secret agent id badges for each of the kids. We grabbed/requested photos of the kids and I "photoshopped" (actually, GIMP-ed) a black fedora and black sunglasses on them, and then put these photos on badges made up with Visio, which also included their names, and specialty (e.g., "Weapons). They were given these to wear in pin-on badge holders as they arrived.

Once every boy had their "C....... (my son's name) Spy Agency" official secret agent id badge, the party started with announcing to the boys that we had received a video message from a notorious ruffian known as "The Squeakster". I showed them a video on the laptop that featured a closeup of C's favourite mouse puppet announcing that he, The Squeakster, the archenemy of the C..... Spy Agency, had deployed one of his top agents to ruin C's birthday party by stealing all his presents, punctuated with much evil, menacing laughter.

I then explained that it was up to them, our duly constituted band of recently deputized secret agents, to recover the lost merchandise and save the party. The only clue we had to go on was a confusing photograph that one of our agents had sent us over a secure channel. I then handed them the first in a serious of laminated 5x7 photos I had taken. 

The photos are extreme closeups of something in the backyard or neighbourhood for them to identify and find. At each location they'd find a "dropbox" with another such photo, as well as some additional items that they would need to keep for subsequent sleuthing tasks.

Once they found the fifth and final location from the photos (and getting some good exercise running back and forth up and down the street), they arranged all their findings on a table. They now had in their possession:

·        Brush, powder, specimen paper, and tape for a fingerprinting kit;

·        Blank piece of paper (!);

·        A coded message;

·        A codewheel decoder;

·        Walkie-talkies;

·        Little bags of BBs/ammo (1 bag per child);

·        Small notebook and pencil.

They took the coded message and the decoder wheel, and using the pencil and they took the coded message and the decoder wheel, and using the pencil and notebook, they decoded the message letter by letter. The decoded message said: "Cook the blank paper".

So they took the blank sheet of paper, which at least 1 young sleuth had by now concluded may contain a message in invisible ink, and with some adult help, went to the toaster oven that was conveniently preheated to 500F, and put the 'blank paper' inside. 

30 seconds later we pulled it out and there was now a message clearly visible: "Go to the top of the stairs! Avoid the lasers!"

On the second floor of our house, Sheila had created a "laser trip wire" corridor using red yarn that the boys had to traverse. 

At the other end were some drinking glasses on a table (evidence) and a box labelled "Secret Weapon". Crawling on their stomachs, or gingerly stepping, the boys tried to avoid the 'lasers' 

and were allowed to retrieve just one item.

Once they were done, they reassembled downstairs at the dining room table with the evidence and the fingerprinting supplies and I instructed them in how to dust the glasses for bad guy fingerprints with the brushes, the powder (which was actually just pencil graphite I had shaved), and then use transparent tape to 'lift' the print and then tape it down to a white piece of paper (we had a set of "fingerprint specimen cards" from a kit). 

After all the kids had a chance to try their hand at that, we went over with their lifted prints to the 'criminal database' to identify the culprit.

I had taken photos of 4 of C's stuffed animals, and created slides on the laptop for each one of "crooks". Each slide included:

·        their (mugshot) photo,

·        a criminal name ("Horrible Hammy", "The Squeakster", "Chippy the Chopper", and "Lamby aka Baaaad Beth"),

·        a "fingerprint", and

·        "last known whereabouts".

I had used a real thumbprint of my own for "Lamby" and put a series of very greasy fingerprints on the glassware that the kids had recovered from upstairs. One of the boys declared a clear fingerprint match (fortunately they weren't too picky about what constituted a clear match, since their evidence handling procedures were a bit sloppy!) and proceeded to Lamby's last known whereabouts: The Gazebo.

So off to the gazebo they ran where they encountered a 'blockade' of stacked plastic cups that would need to be dealt with using the "Secret Weapon" which they now opened.

It was an AirSoft automatic Uzi submachine gun! I supervised the use of this as each child had a chance to use up their 50 BB's (from the ammo pouches they had accumulated earlier from the dropboxes) to knock down the cups. 

As you can imagine, they loved this! (We made sure safety glasses were worn by the shooters.) At this point the birthday presents were recovered, and "Lamby" was taken into custody!!!

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Other information about the party:

The very cool bomb cake was made by Sherri Feldman. I found the idea for the cake on Pinterest.

The goody bags contained:

- fake moustache (to wear)

- candy moustache

- spy decoder kit (from the dollar store)

- fake money

I forgot to take a photo but I labelled the bags with TOP SECRET. 


The birthday boy and some of his friends:

I can't believe that It is only 2 1/2 months until my other son's birthday!

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{this moment}

C pretending the log is a cannon - at Wallace Falls on our hike last Sunday.

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One Thousand Gifts #222 to #230

I've missed a few weeks of these. A significant event (or non-event) last week has me feeling VERY grateful just to be alive and well. More about that later. I have so much to thank God for that I need to keep counting my gifts.

#222. Making stepping stones with my boys.

#223. A long weekend.

#224. Going to a talk by Ciscoe Morris, our local gardening rock star. He was so funny and I left with lots of ideas and even some free seeds.

#225. School is almost over for the year.

#226. Having a blast spraying kids with water at the school walk-a-thon.

#227. Finding a peony plant for only $7 at Costco.

#228. Finding dahlia tubers for 50% off at the nursery.

#229. Enjoying God's creation in the woods - our family went hiking at Wallace Falls yesterday

#230. God's protection. Last Wednesday, I was mere minutes away from witnessing the terrible massacre in Seattle. My physical therapist's office is across the street from the cafe and (I found out later that) I drove away two or three minutes before the murderer entered the cafe. I'm so thankful not to have been a witness or worse!Pin It