We had such a great time today with Clark, Swathi and their kids Soren annd Meera. Clark and Swathi left in the early afternoon to catch a flight for their wedding. But before they left, we chatted with them, I worked out with Clark, and we ate and admired the bread and potato leak soup that Clark made. We also were grateful for Joanna who helps them around the house and helped take care of the kids as well (enabling me to nap in the afternoon).
The kids had so much fun at the Foosball table!
They also had so much fun playing, “the floor is lava!”
After a pasta dinner (already prepared for us, thank you!), we went to Bliss ice-cream. It was incredibly tasty.
Today we left by around 7:00 from Jere’s place in San Francisco. It was so nice of him to host us, and we so enjoyed staying with him! He’s still working for Dexterity doing exciting things with robots.
We were driving all the way to Tacoma which is a 12.5 hour drive. Lily was an absolute warrior. She drank two coffees and then drove for 10.5 hours!! She was on such a role and just didn’t want to stop. She didn’t even want to stop for lunch (which we didn’t), but I went with it because of the incredible time and effort she was making to get us to Portland. Lily said it really helped that we had an awesome book to listen to which was Where Did You Go Bernadette. It was an outstanding book, and very gripping. We finished the book before the night was over.
We did stop for food in Portland. We went to a Lebanese place which was disappointing (Nicholas), but we had great ice-cream afterwards and a trip to Powell’s books. I read to Ammon and Clarissa (and played an eye-spy Dark Crystal book with them) while Lily and the girls browsed for and bought books. Lily especially is in love with that store and cherished her time there. She loves how curated the book suggestions are and also felt happy that every shelf of staff picks had at least one book on it she had already read. She’s such a reader!
After Powell’s I took the wheel and drove to Tacoma where we put our kids to bed and hung out with Clark and Swathi until it was past midnight. It was so fun talking to them!
Today, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and headed North to Point Reyes National Seashore. On the way, we read about the Golden Gate Bridge and learned its construction was controversial and many groups were against it.
The drive to Point Reyes National Sea Shore was so pretty.
Once we arrived at the Point Reyes visitors center, we watched a very interesting movie about the area and then ate a togo lunch we purchased at a picnic table.
Then we did the most wonderful nature trail. What made it so great was there was a booklet that taught us things at different places along the trail. Lily read the information to us and it made the whole hike so interesting. It was one mile which was perfect given our time constraints.
These Bay Laurel trees bend and bend and bend to get to where the sunlight is.
Lydia bends and bends too!!Sometimes the Bay Laurel trees bend too much and large branches fall down. Then new branches sprout out of the fallen branches and start growing!
We then drove to the lightouse, but we didn’t walk to it because we were very short on time. Our parking reservation was 4:30 – 5:00 and we were meeting Liem there. Still, the drive there was gorgeous and we walked to an overlook and had an incredible view of the ocean and surrounding landscape. We weren’t feeling too bad about not doing the longer walk to the lighthouse because Clarissa was asleep and it was so cold and windy! Also, the views we did see were amazing!
My sweetheart!I really loved the read on the rocks. Is that red moss?
After seeing the view near the lighthouse, we drove to Muir Woods. Again, the drive was gorgeous (including this awesome tree-flanked road below), but it was also so winding. Mary got so car-sick, but fortunately she didn’t throw up.
It was so fun to meet Liem and Luan at Muir woods. It was great catching up on each other’s lives. We also were so happy with the weather and the fact that we had the park almost to ourselves because it was late in the day on a weekday. By the end, I think we were the only ones in the park.
Liem’s job is stressful, but going well enough and he’s hoping for a promotion soon. Phuong is working with messenger applications for businesses at Facebook. Her parents recently left after staying for a long time. Also, Liem reports that Luan is a great baby, and he and Phuong have still been able to do the things they want (often with him) like cross-country ski, travel, run etc. We love Liem!
We then went home and got some much needed rest after our big day!
In the morning we went to delicious cafe called Zazie. We ate every morsel and completely filled us up. Lily and I especially loved the gingerbread pancakes.
After breakfast, we walked through a small park and found ourselves in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Lily read up on it and shared education with the family about the significance of the neighborhood. In short, it was the focal point and starting place of the international Hippie movement.
We LOVED the houses in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. They were Victorian row homes.
The corner of Haight and AshburyJanis Joplin lived here!
After spending time walking around Haight-Ashbury, we finished listening to Mr. Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore (amazing book) and then I put on some Janice Joplin to commemorate Haight-Ashbury. I’m pretty sure I was the only one in the car into her music. I discovered her around 6th grade and loved her so much I bought an album that I listened to growing up. I still love her music and get excited when it comes on. That raspy rock-n-roll voice is so great!
I have no idea what these trees are, but I loved them and asked Lily to take a picture as we exited Haight-Ashbury.
We then went to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. The first noteworthy thing was their monochromatic bathrooms.
After all going to the bathroom, we started our tour outside.
The kids worked on their activity books
This bead entrance was a hit with Clarissa and she wanted to go through multiple times.Ammon working on his activity book
We loved the colorful tunnel.
We really enjoyed learning about German modern artists like Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.
I loved what could be conveyed with such broad strokes in this one
Here is art from Elizabeth Murray and Morris Louis, two great American modern artists.
My personal favorite piece
I really enjoyed Ellsworth Kelly. He was one of my favorite artists in the museum.
Diego Rivera
After the art museum we went to the Presidio where Mary and Ammon played while Lily sat in the car with napping Clarissa. Lydia played a little and hung out by me a little.
The Presidio
We them met up with Jon and Shirley again at their house. It was so fun to see them again and the kids had so much fun playing with each other. We traversed both fun topics and deep topics like racism, security and neighborhood dynamics. All in all it was both fun and very meaningful to spend time with them!
I snapped this as clean-up started to give a sense for how much fun the kids had while the grown-ups talked.
Today had a lot of pictures, so brace yourself. In the morning, we watched The Princess Diaries because it features San Francisco. It was a hit for kids and grown-ups alike.
Then we went to a delicious breakfast Jere picked out at a place called, “The Grove”. On the way, Jere and I had fun launching Ammon and Clarissa.
Breakfast was superb, and the great weather made eating outside really pleasant.
I had a leaf bug in my salad!
Then we went to Alcatraz. Jere was excited to go too because he has never been. He almost went on a date their, but when his date tried to buy tickets she accidentally didn’t press the button to purchase them, so he hasn’t gone yet.
Alcatraz was amazing. Everyone except Clarissa had a audio-tour with a handheld device. We learned about famous prisoners, sad stories (one prison went to Alcatraz for stealing $16 when he was broke and hungry, and also there were segregation and racism issues), crazy stories (the time prisoners caused a ruckus over declining spaghetti quality, and people who had escaped their cells), living situations of the prisoners (cell was about 5’X9′, there was a field for sports, prisoners often had hobbies) and more.
field for sportsOne prison was an artistIt was crazy how small the cells were. These particular cells had an extra door for extra security and there was a wall blocking most of their view out of their cell.Ammon’s favorite part of the tour was the audio-tourThere were some prisoners who escaped and made paper mache replicas of their heads which they left in their beds to make the guards think they were still in their cells. People aren’t sure how they got out, but some think they used spoons to carve the vent holes to their room to be big enough to fit through (if I understood the story correctly).Visiting boothExample menu at Alcatraz. The dining hall was the most dangerous place since so many dangerous people are all in a room together with kitchen utensils. The knives in the kitchen had carved out silhouettes behinds them so employees of the prison could instantly tell if a knife was missing (more than one went missing). The dining room was equipped with toxic gas that could be deployed if needed, but it never was. Even with the near revolt over the declining food quality, the warden was able to get people to behave by smashing in windows and brandishing a pistol.
We saw a lot of seagulls on the island. Here are a few shots.
Right after the prison was decommissioned around 1964 (due to deterioration from the harsh elements on the island and the great costs associated with keeping everything in good repair), Native Americans occupied the island to assert the rights of Native Americans. They painted the message above on the water tower. The occupation eventually ended and the writing on the water tower was removed, but the National Parks Service recently had family from the originally occupying tribes write the message a new so people can remember the occupation of the Native Americans on Alcatraz.
So now for my favorite part of the entire trip to Alcatraz, and I apologize I went overboard on the photos. I LOVED the brick and rock walls at Alcatraz. The colors and textures were all so fascinating. I went to a Modern Art museum the day after and commented to Lily that as amazing as the museum was, no modern art there was as impressive to me as the amazing art I saw in the walls at Alcatraz. See below for what I’m talking about.
Lily was our tour guide outside and used her map/guide to help us all learn.
View from Alcatraz
After Alcatraz, we got to experience the hills of San Francisco first hand as we walked almost a mile to lunch. Clarissa fell asleep I ended up carrying her up a super steep hill.
We ate at Tony’s and it was incredibly good. That restaurant has won awards for pizza even in Italy. Clarissa slept through the whole thing and has no idea we even stopped for lunch.
After a late lunch, we drove down Lombard street, a crazy steep street that zig-zags all the way down (and has a Bill Cosby bit about it), and then drove to another delicious restaurant to have dinner with our friends Jon and Shirley (and their two kids). We were pretty full from our late lunch, but still the food was super enjoyable and it was so fun to catch up with our friends. We love them so much. I talked with Jon about our jobs among other things and Shirley and Lily also caught up. Also, the kids (especially Ammon) had a lot of fun playing with their adorable girls.
Drove to Lake Tahoe last night and got in late. In the morning everyone woke up early, except for Clarissa, who was dead to the world for a full hour after everyone was awake and active (Ok, I was in bed and not active).
We rallied (especially Lily who did the lionshare getting the kids ready), packed, and headed out the door and we were off shortly after 8:15.
We then explored Lake Tahoe. I’ve wanted to see Lake Tahoe for a long time just because I hear about it so much. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it definitely over-delivered. After driving around where the State Parks are on the Lake, we stopped and hiked Eagle Falls. It was a perfect 1-mile loop. It it was a little tricky with some of the snow still there, but all-in-all it was the perfect pace and length for everyone. It was so beautiful!! It was hard to know what pictures to cut, and I know I left way to many. Sorry reader!
Lily loved the red wood of this treeAmmon is smack dab in the middle of a ninja phase. This is his meditative, ninja-warrior hero pose I’m guessing.We loved the huge pine-cones!We got to stand on a bridge right over the falls!
Lily and I loved this tree so much.Lydia is still doing the splits a lot!
Everyone did a really good job walking and when Clarissa got cranky, she was cheered up enough by her walking stick and stepping in puddles with her puddle jumpers that she was able to pull through to the end.
After the amazing hike (my personal favorite part of the day), we saw an incredible overlook (Inspiration viewpoint) nearby.
It was amazing driving around Lake Tahoe and seeing all the damage from the fires from last year as well. Enough was untouched by the fires that we got to see really gorgeous scenery. But we also saw a ton of dead burnt trees that told the story of last year’s fires. It was very dramatic to see.
We then left Lake Tahoe and drove to San Francisco (eating delicious Chipotle on the way.
Once in San Francisco, we went straight to see the sea lions at Fisherman’s Warf. Mary had a stomach ache (we think from the car ride) so she missed the first 15 minutes of watching as she relaxed with Lily, but then she got feeling better and still got to see a lot. It was so hilarious to see one super lazy doc with a bunch of lounging sea lions and then another doc where there was a lot of fighting action. Pictures and videos below!
This big fat black sea lion was quite a site to sea and also had an impressive bark
the lazy dockBeautiful Lydia and the dock on the left is the “fighting dock”
After seeing sea lions, we went to the carousel which, of course, Clarissa was dying to do.
Lydia expressed how ridiculous she thought it was that I made her wear her seatbelt
After the carousel, I took Mary to “Lefty’s” the store for left handed people and she picked something out. Then we got some yummy mini-donuts and went to Boudin Bakery Restaurant (famous for sourdough bread). Mary got noodles, but everyone else got delicious soup in a breadbowl. The whole experience was so nice and a good rest from all the walking and activity.
Here Lily is playing a game with Ammon to help pass the time before dinner.
After dinner we went to the Ghiradelli chocolate square to get desert. Clarissa was having a hard time walking there especially when we got to the grassy hill just before our destination (the grassy hill is in the picture below). I threatened that she would not get her chocolate desert if she did not walk, and then she pointed her arm straight ahead, salute style, and said, “chocolate” and commenced walking. It was so funny.
We learned how chocolate is made while we waited for our desert to be served.
Mary drawing a pig in her new notebook.
After Ghiradelli’s the kids did an amazing job walking all the way back to our car. It was so fun looking into all the shops along the street in the wharf area on the way to our. One store was a candy store, and we all got a kick out boxes of candy they were (jokingly) advertising as breakfast cereal.
Ammon got very excited by this giant transformer we saw at the entry of Ripley’s Believe it or Not
Then we drove to my brother Jere’s house. On the way, we listened to Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore which Lily and I are absolutely loving, and especially like because it is about San Francisco. We are almost done. When we arrived at Jere’s we put the kids down and then chatted with Jere for a solid hour about Utah Lake, the Great Salt Lake, Cromwell (who he’s reading about), books Lily is reading and other topics. I was reading Jere’s Far Side (Gary Larson) book in the back ground, and I got a great laugh from everyone when I shared the comic showing two mosquitos with one of them being puffed up like a balloon and attached to a human and the other one saying, “pull out Betsy, pull out you’ve hit an artery!” I also chilled in Jere’s room while blogging and we chit chatted. It is so fun to spend time with my brother.
Today was completely magical and I loved every second. More adventures tomorrow!
