On My Own In The City...With Two Rascals

Summer Edition, Day 32

David had to go to work today. Nah! He just had this work morale event, sailing around on the bay. I was on my own with the kiddos. To tell you the truth, for being someone who loves San Francisco, and prided herself on kind of knowing her way around for a visitor, I sucked today.

First of all, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with them. My first plan was to take them the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. Then, I thought that might be too long of a bus trip to get to, and settled on the Exploratorium at the Palace of Fine Arts. And, I had a bus route figured out for that, too. The weather had been decent the first two days, so I thought maybe I'll just take them to explore the city a bit, but when we got up this morning, it was gross out. Lots of fog, and cold.

We had breakfast at Darren's Cafe a couple blocks from our hotel. It had good reviews. Pancakes, and pho! Go figure. I loved watching Tyler eat his eggs.

Finally, I decided on the Exploratorium.

Our bus ride down there was super easy. But, it was super crowded there, of course. All was going pretty well, though. We got in for free because of our membership to Kids Quest in Washington. I gave them the low down about having to stick together because of the crowd. They enjoyed exploring the exhibits, especially the magnetic black sand. 

Then, came the next step. I had no plan. It was getting to be lunch time, which meant naps were just around the corner, too. I thought about trying Golden Gate Park, too, and even found the bus to get us there. The tricky part was getting to the bus stop. I was so turned around. We made it to the bus stop, but it turned out to be taking us back to the wharf, where our hotel is.

Since I messed that up, I thought we'd just head back, and forget the park. Unfortunately, once on the bus, I didn't exactly know where it's final destination would be before heading back in the other direction. We got to the Marina District, and everyone but us got off the bus. Huh? At the next stop, I thought that I'd better get off, and we could make the rest of the trip back on foot.

Wrong. 

It was cold. The kids were cold. They didn't have hats or hoodies, which they've become accustomed to in Seattle for cold days. The walk wouldn't have been too bad, but we somehow ended up walking next to 3 transients. I figured I'd let them walk ahead of us, but they were walking so slow, they were in pace with us. I needed another plan. 

I was able to get us on another bus, which ended up having half the people who had gotten off the previous bus on it. Oh, I see now. It took us back towards the wharf, but at Ghiradelli Square, I panicked about the kids needing lunch, so I got us off. We ended up at some greasy spoon cafe that none of us really liked. And, we were still about half a mile from our hotel. Geez.

The kids were troopers and walked the rest of the way to the hotel. We all rested. Tyler and I even took naps, while Vincent colored and played with the iPad.

After resting, I still had the rest of the day to get us through. I was optimistic and thought I'd try taking them out to Pier 39, again. I just couldn't bare to keep us cooped up in the hotel room.

First stop, hats. The boys picked out these wannabe Angry Birds hats. Matching.

Then, I took them to the arcade and for a ride on the carousel. The arcade was not very good, by the way.

We walked on the pier a little bit more, but the crowd was so overwhelming for me. It was getting close to when David would be back at his building, so I decided to head down there. We hopped on a street car, but after 2 stops, we had to get off and get on a different one. Oops.

We got down to the Embarcadero/Ferry building area, but heard from David that we'll have to get dinner on our own, as he was running late.

After a couple attempts at finding us a hip, delicious place for dinner, and not having much luck, I landed us a few seats at the food bar of La Mar. Not a quick, cheap bite, but definitely delicious and hip. David joined us some time later, and said he looked so cool sitting there eating our dinner.

 

It was a long, kind of stressful day, but I'm proud of myself for getting those boys around town, and not losing them.