San Francisco

We spent our spring break in beautiful, sunny! San Francisco. We planned the trip because Ryan had some extra travel credits from work .. sadly, those fell through after all the plans were made. That dampened my enthusiasm for the trip quite a bit and perhaps that lowered my expectations. It was sunny every day we were there which made the trip worth it regardless of the activities. I learned SF is a great city for kids. We visited Golden Gate Park -- home of the lovely Koret's Children's Quarter and the California Academy of Science. We could have spent days in each of these places.  We purchased a CityPass (highly recommended) so we had tickets to 4 museums and the buses and cable cars for a week. We took a cruise on the Bay, visited the aquarium, hiked up to Coit Tower, around Lombard street and hung out at Aquatic park on by Ghiredelli square. We explored the newly rebuilt Exploratorium. We visited Yerba Buena Gardens where there is a great playground and the Children's Creativity Museum.

My mom visited for 4 days which made our outings a little more special.  We ate some great food -- gelato at Naia's, pizza at Tony's, italian at Vicotello's (all in North Beach where we stayed). One of the great parts of the trip is that the kids were great.  Jack, especially, walked everywhere. When we went to Vicotello's, there was no kids menu. Both kids ate the relatively taste-complicated food they were served.  They are good travelers. They rarely complained and were always up for our daily adventures. It makes me want to travel more.

Golden Gate Park Conservatory

Watching the fish at the very diverse California Academy of Science

Paddling on Stowe Lake / Golden Gate Park

Koret's children's playground / Golden Gate Park

View from Coit Tower

Blowing bubbles at the Exploratorium

Yerba Buena Gardens / best shot of many