A day in San Francisco...

We spent a day in San Francisco by Pier 39 to take the kids to some place local and have some fun..

Turned out to be a great idea. So far our SFO trips have covered the usual Golden Gate bridge, Crooked street and end with Ice cream at Ghirardelli's..

There have been some deviations in the past to the tour guide routine but for once we decided to explore things we have walked or driven past. In other words get to smell the roses a bit, which was kind of a theme in the family over the last few days.

So off we went to visit the COIT tower..

The base of the tower has some amazing murals. Not posting the pictures of the murals here because they make some money selling prints. Guess that is why they have a sign that says "no flash or tripods"..

We had a nice home cooked packed lunch in our Van and went on towards Ghiardelli's, except this time we parked and went to the Maritime museum lobby and walked along the beach to see the different vessels docked at Hyde Street Pier.

The kids had fun getting on the various vessels. It was a world they had never been exposed to. It was so much fun watching their eyes widen as they read the displays and watched informational videos two levels below the deck of a cargo vessel..

There were great views of Alcatraz and Embarcadero from the ships.

The masts were majestic and we were simply awe struck by the fact that these ships with triple masts have survived the test of time and have been preserved for such a long time.

It was also fun watching the little one trying to steer the ship one handle at a time. The ship was just swaying a few feet and she wanted to control it!

It was also interesting to see how prices have changed over time!

Then we went on our walk to enjoy those things on the sidewalk and displays we usually rush past because we are on a deadline to head back to San Jose..

First we stopped at a window where a couple of bakers were doing a display..

What a display ! Truly magnificent piece of bread! They also had starfish, turtles and crab shaped bread pieces which were very impressive.

The little one had fun interacting with the guys painted in silver and dressed as robots.

We walked by the Hard Rock Cafe and past the Christmas tree at the end of the pier and went to see the Aquarium. The entry tickets were a bit steep but thanks to a AAA discount we decided to go for it. After all it was our "smell the roses" day!

The aquarium was actually worth it. Three levels of well maintained displays with more than 20,000 fishes and marine animals. It was like a compact version of the Monterey bay aquarium which also had two glass tunnels, one for shallow water fish and one for fish at deeper waters in the bay.

The last room was kind of weird. It wasn't exactly related to fishes but was about conservation and sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric.

They had hedgehogs and

turtles and

Chinchillas which apparently poop 200 times a day. They don't look much but their display cage had more poop than food which amused the kids..

Then it was time to return to Ghirardelli's to have some ice cream and hot chocolate before returning to San Jose...

We started and ended the routine the same way but the detour was wonderful.

Next time we go there are a whole bunch of Art galleries, a Wax museum, a Ripley's Believe it or Not show , etc. etc. and we might just do another one of these wander around trips about a place that we have grown to love over the years!

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History is cruel

History sometimes is cruel. It repeats itself as some say.. and you think back and go "wait a minute. Wasn't I supposed to learn something from the past and build on it in the future?"

Well, the little one is now at the same stage as Jr. from a few years ago and we are now watching the breakfast saga as though is a slow motion rerun of a bad Law and Order episode!

The only good news is that Jr. outgrew the custom of "chewing the cud" and behaving like a Camel after two years. The little one amazed me by doing something two weeks ago. She looked at me around lunch time and said "Can I spit this out?" to which I said "fine!"

She spit out something in the wash basin that pretty much was hard and simply would not wash down to the drain. I had to literally smash that stuff and push it into the drain.

Further interrogation revealed that the two hard objects she spit out where the breakfast cereal she had stuffed into her cheeks that morning. After having stored it in her mouth for almost 4 hours she spit it out because she needs the space to store parts of her lunch.

This kid is getting very good at shortening our lifespan significantly. Her sister was a saint by comparison. So we are creating new history here!

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Global Winter Wonderland

This year we have a new Christmas attraction that is local. A "Global Winter Wonderland" in the parking lot area of the Great America Park in Santa Clara.

Guess they bought all the props from the Beijing Olympics at garage sale prices and set it up in Santa Clara. The whole thing was like a Chinese Christmas celebration with "Chineseized" doll displays of American icons including Disney themes!

The "Global" was thanks to the following displays and they were all very impressive.

The ticket prices were a rip off considering there was separate tickets (3$ a ticket per kid per ride) and an entrance ticket of 9$/person on discount! There should have been no entrance tickets for the kids and that would have come close to being fair. Nevertheless, we had already promised the kids that we were going there and we had no choice in the matter once there.

We made the most of a very cold evening and spent a good 3 hours wandering around the light displays, taking photographs and having the kids go on a few rides and try some of the carnival type attractions.

The kids were happy and tired enough to eat a speedy dinner and go to bed fast. So from that stand point it was a good deal! Next year we will be back to Christmas in the park. For all we know, might still take the kids there one of these days.

Some snippets of the three hours caught on video..

Next year if this attraction is still there, might go only if there are some discounted tickets... then again the rest of the family thought it was okay for the price we paid.

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