San Fran with the Fam, Part 2

I had to go back to my last post to even remember which day I had updated the blog through, the days on vacation so easily run together!!  So we are on to Wednesday in the update (currently it's Friday...oops!).  Wednesday morning Doug took the boys on an adventure out to the coast again.  (Check out Penn's gang signs?!?!)

The boys are just loving time at the beach, so they went exploring.  They found some more military bunkers overlooking the bay and a new beach to try out too.  It was a big hit and they spent most of their time there!  They have no sand toys, they just use sticks and their hands.  It's so simple, I just love that they are so happy with some plain old fun!

In the afternoon, we planned to all meet up together.  Doug took the boys up onto the hills in San Francisco to one of the top-rated playgrounds (and it totally delivered) and then we were set to meet to hike up to Coit Tower.  Since the car we have been so generously lent by my cousins doesn't fit us all, we are getting pretty creative on getting around the city here, there, everywhere, every which way!  This time I went on foot though.  I love a challenge and pushing Janse in a stroller up a big hill is no exception.  Here's a picture with curvy Lombard St. way in the background as I almost made it to my destination (almost 2.5 miles from our place).

This was satisfying...the view of the bay as I peeked up over the stroller (I was pretty much parallel to the road on the steep incline with my head down!).

For the final hike, we all did it together.  Coit Tower delivered some beautiful views and we were there on an exquisitely clear day (you would never know from these pictures this week that we've been in a foggy city, we've had the best weather!).  Tavin wanted to pose with the bridges in the background for his Kindergarten teacher.  They did a unit about building, bridges and steel back in the Fall and Tavin loved it.  He has been talking about bridge facts all week with the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge so often in view!  Golden Gate is over his shoulder, the sun glare made it just barely visible in my photo.

Tavin and the Bay Bridge on Telegraph Hill.

Strawberry snack overlooking the city.  So beautiful!!

Coit Tower and the crisp blue sky.  What a beautiful day to be up on top of the city!

Family photo opportunity.  A nice man offered to take it, so we went for it.  Jansen is actually looking (too bad I look so weird!).

After taking in the murals on the first floor of the tower and the vistas of the city from outside, we wound our way back down the hill to where the car was parked, switched out some gear and headed on foot once again to Little Italy a few blocks away for some pizza.  Well, that was the plan anyway.  Here we are waiting for our table (at this point happy).

We had been told the wait would be 15 minutes, but after almost 45 minutes we were all a bit fed up and uncertain we would ever get seated (maybe they didn't like the whining children??).  Janse was pretty patient from his perch on Doug's chest.  Here they are browsing the menu before we made the call to get out of there!

We did a quick google search for a pizza place in our area and ordered some for take out to enjoy back at the house.  Best call we could've made!  Got the kids in bed only a little later than regular bedtime and all with full, happy bellies (and a cheaper bill too!).  Phew! Near disaster averted (oh my goodness, you should've heard Tav ranting and raving about the restaurant NEVER seating us).

We decided Thursday would be zoo day!!  We have a membership to our zoo in Pittsburgh, and they have a reciprocal agreement with many zoos across the country including San Francisco.  That made it an economical outing in addition to a fun one!  We've had the chance to visit quite a few zoos in different cities and I think it's becoming a family tradition. The boys just love animals and Doug and I love watching them discover new things and the walk around the zoo is always so enjoyable, not to mention it's fun to compare their differences and similarities.  San Francisco's zoo was very nice.  The atmosphere was very Northern Cali with the vegetation, etc.  It was a pleasant walk through the different exhibits and they had some animals that we don't in Pittsburgh.  We of course had to visit the Polar Bears though.  They have a warmer climate to hang out in than our Polar Bears in Pittsburgh, look at this guy loving his spot in the grass!

The zoo had Indian and African (black) Rhinos.  The rhino behind Penn (doesn't look like he is wondering what is over his shoulder?) is an Indian Rhino.  I told Penn that he was missing his horn and he said, "so he can't go "beep, beep"?"  How cute!

Cute little penguins!  Koen got to see one dive into the water.  I only saw them on their little shore cave area.  

An anteater!!  I've never seen one in person before.  What a bizarre animal!  Kind of grossed me out to look at it.  That long snout is just weird!

Here's the hippo.  We don't have those in Pittsburgh.  This one just sat in the sun in his pool.  Quite a big animal!  Looks like they are pretty worried about his escape and the power he could exert...check out the fence!

Penn could care less about the real hippo in the pool.  He liked the statue much better! 

Probably the kids' favorite part of the zoo was the amazingly creative and huge playground area.  We parked there for lunch after getting through about 2/3 of the zoo.  Even Jansen got out to play (poor thing has spent a lot of time in the stroller and the Ergobaby this trip!).  In this pic, Jansen reminds me so much of Tav as a baby!

After lunch and playtime on the playground, we headed to finish the walk through the zoo.  The giraffe enclosure was really neat, they were very close up.  

After exiting the zoo, we decided that since we were so close to the beach, we should just go ahead and make a day of it and go there next.  I walked Jansen the almost 3 miles down to the particular beach spot so he could take a nap.  Look at the view I had!  It was crazy windy, so made for quite a workout pushing the stroller into the wind, but I loved it!

When I got back to the rest of the boys and Doug, they were kind of done on that part of the beach because of the intense wind (and resulting sand everywhere!).  Doug thought maybe going down the road another few miles beyond Land's End to the beach they discovered the day before might be more enjoyable if it was more protected from the wind.  We gave it a try.  It would've been quite a long hike with the stroller, so Koen and I ubered over there and Doug and the 3 younger guys drove over.  It was maybe slightly less windy, but still quite intense.  We stayed for a half hour or so.  The boys got right to work engineering (they are the ones with their bums in the air!!).

We left there about 4pm and went our separate ways.  I drove the car with Koen, Penn and Janse and Doug and Tav took a bus and a train back to our place.  The traffic wasn't supposed to be too bad getting back to our place, but there must have been an accident or something while we headed back because it was NOT moving as we got within a mile of our condo.  Poor Penn was in dire need of a bathroom and Jansen was overtired and hungry.  Doug and Tav beat us back to the condo, so then they started on foot to get to us in the car (that's how bad the traffic was!) so that I could jump out and walk J & P home with Tav to use the bathroom and get dinner started.  Poor babies!  Everyone was great about it and it actually became a highlight adventure of the day.  Tavin was so proud to come to our rescue and Koen was proud to stick with Doug and figure out the traffic situation.  Even when it's rough, I love a family adventure and how the boys can just rise to the occasion and show their strengths amidst difficulty and a change in plans!  The traffic continued to be bad, so after another 20 minutes of barely moving, Doug just parked the car and walked home too and went back out to get it after the boys were in bed!  Crazy!