San Francisco

Thank heavens we got those beautifully knitted hats because is was cooooold in San Francisco.  As the brilliant Mark Twain was falsely accused of saying, "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco."  Well whoever said it, I hear them.  But we made due.  We hit the Exploratorium one day and could have spent 3 days there.  Easy.

I was amazed at how interesting the various experiments were to people of all ages, but in different ways.  Here you see Anders enjoying the banging part of one exhibit and Ellis learning about perspectives in spinning -- the different feel with your head up and down.

I have no idea what this one was.  My memory is clouded by the millions of things we saw, but you can see that it entertained a 15 month old, 4.5 year old and a 40-something.

Bubbles!

Outside the Palace of Fine Arts, headed back to the bus.

And Ellis on the bus ride.  The kids were very flexible on this trip.  Handled the plane well and the time changes and the to-ing and fro-ing.  I took the chance to move Anders' sleep schedule back from 8pm-6am to 9pm-7am.  Much better.

Anders loves apples.  Be careful if you try to eat one because he will take it from you and consume the whole thing.

On the cable car, headed to dinner and to Ellis Street.

Back at the hotel, happy we.

Ellis with the robot she got at the Exploratorium.  She named her "Roosevelt."

The disappointing end to vacation.

We are waiting for Mike to pick us up at National Airport.  The kids helped me get our bags while Mike got the car in the furthest parking space in the furthest parking lot in long range parking.  Ellis told me she "needed to run" and circled a group of seats about 12 times.  Anders just explored.  Then we went outside to get our ride.  This is 11pm (but 8pm to them).  Still it is after a long, long day of travel, and they remained delightful.  We also slept until 10am the next day.  Actually Ellis had to be woken up at 11.  A glimpse into the teenage years to come.