San Francisco

We've been doing a bit of traveling this spring which is why there are no posts in the last 2 months. It was actually Mr. 6's New Years resolution to travel more so we're doing our best to help him reach his goal. We spent a week in Florida during February vacation week (I'll try to eventually post a few pictures from that trip) and then spent 5 days in San Francisco last week. It was actually a joint work trip and the boys came along for the fun!

I flew out with all three boys on Tuesday evening by myself which was a bit of an adventure. The Dad met us at the airport (he had flown out on Sunday) and drove us to our home away from home. The boys had their own room and we took the living room of our little apartment (it actually about the same size as our first apartment in Boston). The hope was we would actually enjoy a bit of time together but we were so beat by the end of the day that it was really just a race to see who was asleep first. On Thursday I took the boys into San Francisco and introduced them to trolley cars, sourdough bread, sea lions, Ghiradelli Square, and Lombard Street. It was a great day.

It actually started about how most trips with 3 kids go. We dropped David off at work and headed up to the city. About 15 minutes in, Mr. 6 had to go to the bathroom. NOW. So I got off the highway and started looking for a place. We ended up at the oceanside beach area that was completely deserted (it was 9am on a Thursday and about 50 degrees - not prime beach weather even if you are from Boston). It turned out to be across a small bay from the airport and we ended up spending about a half hour watching the planes take off and land.

We finally arrived at our destination and bought tickets for the trolley. Mr. 6 was fascinated in how it worked. Was it mechanical or electrical? He loved to see them shift the gears as we went down hill. Mr. 1 loved the sea lions and barked at them, giggling as they knocked each other into the water. Despite the chilly day, the big brothers played on the shoreline while Mr. 1 and I sat on the sidelines and finished the hot chocolate (actually I didn't really have any). Mr. 8 said we had made it to the Ionian Sea and it was amazing to see all the places in Ancient Greece. We piled back in the car and drove down the crookedest street in the world. The boys were in love with the hills so we just drove up and down for about 20 minutes until I turned on Google Navigate to help us escape back to Mountain View to join David for dinner at Google and explore Liquid Earth - Google Earth projected all around you as you explore. The Google headquarters is as cool as advertised and the food is fantastic.

I did spend Friday and Saturday at a conference but we met up Saturday evening for a drive across the Golden Gate bridge before heading to the airport for our red eye flight. It wasn't enough sleep but at least everyone slept on the flight and much of the family napped a bit on Sunday.