The Beach

A short while back we had to take a lightening-fast trip to the beach. As in, Hubs wrapped up work early one day and we were back in time for him to get back to work after lunch the next day. All I hoped for was for my boys, all three of them, to see the sunset over the Pacific.

Mission accomplished.

Travel

THIS post, written  by Andrea forever ago, brought back back bad memories of our flight back from Heathrow almost two years ago. We had an 11 AM flight and checked in in a daze before racing to the terminal before breakfast assuming we'd grab something to eat near our departure gate. We arrived a half hour before boarding only to realize, it being Heathrow and all, there was nothing AT the gate. No restaurant, cafe or shop, just a few crappy vending machines. So, awesome parents that we are, we gave The Boy some chips(crisps) and chocolate hoping to tide him over until we were given lunch on the plane.

Fast forward an hour and we were sitting on the plane with a child screaming from hunger, smiling sheepishly and apologizing while the rest of the passengers shot us eye-daggers as they boarded.

It looked something like this

It sucked, and we learned our lesson.

Since then we've avoided plane-travel but have begun our annual trip to San Francisco and have added another baby to take with us, but we're trying to keep things as simple as we can - in life and travel. But this is a big year. The Little Boy is turning one and I'm turning forty, both occasions to be marked by travel and, when added to our regular trips turn '13 into a pricey year. And this is supposed to be a cheap year as we save for a trip to Europe next year. Blerg.

Still, it's all worth it. Our Little Boy birthday trip is booked and my turning old trip will be booked within the next two weeks. I'm excited to book our San Francisco trip and starting to daydream about our trip to Europe next year. The reason it's all worth it is because this is what I do. I travel, and think about travel, and plan travel. Even now, when I'm dealing with a tempermental three year old and a broken body, travel's as essential to me as breathing.

I can only hope at least one of boys inherits my wanderlust.

Whistle Stop San Francisco

We took The Little Boy to San Francisco for the first time a few weeks ago. Fearful of stopping every 10 miles for a feed or a cuddle, we set out at 10 am assuming the 6 hour drive would get us there around midnight, but it went really, really well. My two little travelers were rock stars and sat patiently in the back seat and we made it up in time for dinner.

 

 

But on the way we stopped at IHOP. The Little Boy was glad to be out of the car seat but unsure of what to make of the place.

 

 

 

We crossed over the Bay Bridge, a 10 minute drive that had always meant so much to me as I dreamed of moving from the So Cal suburbs to  SF, and then continued to make me whistful when I lived across the bay in Berkeley. It's just a bridge, butthat final approach to the city is loaded with symbolism to me.

 

So I tried not to be too disappointed when I exclaimed excitedly to The Boy, 'look! It's San Francisco!!!'

 

'Where?' Was his response.

 

'Up there where all the lights are. Do you see it?'

 

'I see the lights but I don't see San Francisco.'

 

Hmph.

 



 

After checking into the hotel we wandered down California Street to the Ferry Building for dinner. 

 

Back to the Ferry Building in the morning to look at the boats and the bay then it was off to shop for me with The Little Boy and some friends and off to the Cable Cars for Hubs and The Boy. Sadly there are no pictures of The Boy on the Cable Cars because Hubs is loathe to take a picture without being asked.

Then Hubs ordered some room service with the boys while I went to the Tadich Grill for dinner. It's one of the oldest, if not the oldest, restaurants in California and is famous for it's seafood. So, despite not being a fan of seafood I got a crab cake as a starter then whatever this is for my main. Both were fabulous.

 

 

Then the best part of the trip, my mom looked after the boys while Hubs and some friends and I drank at Vesuvio like we did in 1999. Then... my friends left.

 

PDA and my sweet Hubs took this pic.



A Legoland Photobomb

On Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, we went to Legoland before heading home. The Boy went on his first ride but refused his first face painting. He loved Duplo Village but was kind of afraid of the Lego Man. He loved the airplane ride but was still too little for the littlest of the car rides. Next time.

Requisite shot of The Boy stuffing his face with a croissant.

Road Trip - Part 3

Day 3 of our trip began with breakfast at The Buena Vista. It's cheesy and touristy, right across from the Cable Car turn-around and between Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Wharf, but it has a lot of history for me and my family. When I was very small my parents used to go there for Ramos Fizz's, my dad would lay his coat on the floor and I'd curl up and go to sleep on it, under the table, while my parents chatted with their friends and pretended they weren't hippies.

So off we went. In typical Boy fashion, The Boy loved the cable cars. He kept dragging Hubs out to look at them, and wanted a seat near the window so he could keep an eye on them while we were eating.

And then, much to the chagrin of my twenty-something self, we visited Ghirardelli Square. Here's The Boy on a bench made for him

And walking beside Ghirardelli Square with the Bay behind him

And with my beautiful mom in front of the Christmas tree.

I then decided that we had to pass through Fisherman's Wharf, something I haven't done since I was practically The Boy's age, so we could look at crabs. But first we saw an awesome, to everyone but Hubs, Christmas cable car

Then some crabs, although they were a bit more chilled out, or sad, than I remember.

We carried on to Pier 39 so we could look at sea lions

A walk around the Pier gave The Boy a chance to see Alcatraz - though we'll save an actual visit till he's older

While at Pier 39 my boys went on the merry-go-round, The Boy's first time

After we'd had our fill of the most touristy of tourist sights, we headed to North Beach - slightly less touristy but, like the Buena Vista, a place loaded with personal history. My dad became a fan of North Beach when he was in the Navy, which was shortly after North Beach's Kerouac/Ginsberg/Ferlinghetti heyday. He introduced me to Caffe Trieste when I was about The Boy's age, and I've been a devoted fan ever since,so we couldn't miss it when we were up there.

Sadly, they didn't have the fixin's for an egg cream, so we settled on cappuccino's for Hubs, me and Mom and a croissant for The Boy

I had to take a requisite pic of my boys in on Columbus, in front of City Lights Bookstore with the Transamerica building in the background.

Here's one of my boys in the alley behind City Lights, named after either Kerouac or Ginsberg - I can't remember

Here's The Boy working on his straw skills at a diner on Mason Hubs and I used to frequent when we lived on Post.

After dinner we went up to check out the ice skating on Union Square. It was really cold but The Boy seemed to enjoy watching. We watched for a bit more then returned to the warmth of the hotel, hoping to get a good nights sleep before the drive home in the morning.

The next morning we packed up and headed across the Bay Bridge for breakfast in Berkeley. It was lovely, and before we left my favorite part of the US during my favorite time of year I took one last(bad) picture of Christmas baubles on bare trees.

And then we hit the road. What an awesome trip! We're so lucky to have a good little traveller in The Boy, and to be able to get out and go on trips with him.

Road Trip - Part 2

The first night of the 3 of us sleeping in a king sized bed didn't go super well. We bed-shared until The Boy was 6 or 7 months old, but since then we've only all been in bed together for bedtime stories or morning cuddles. You'd think that with the vast expanses of real estate provided by a king sized bed that we'd have plenty of room, but the writhing, rotating and kicking of The Boy made it feel like we might as well have been in a twin.

Still, we woke up slightly bleary-eyed on Monday yet excited to start the day. The reason for our trip was so my mom and I could participate in a MS genetics study so we met Mom and my step-dad at the Ferry Building for breakfast before heading up to UCSF

We didn't have time to check out the shops in the Ferry Building(which resembled an aircraft hangar when I used to pass through there on my commute to Oakland 10 years ago), but The Boy did get the chance to run around in front for a few minutes.

After handing in our questionnaires and several viles of blood, we went to Union Square to look at the Christmas decorations and grab some lunch.

See the gate to Chinatown in the background?

We sent Mom and Step-dad back to their hotel while we wandered through the Financial District with me boring my boys by pointing out every building I worked in back in the day - there were many.

Then we stopped by Gumps to get The Boy a special Christmas ornament to commemorate his first trip to San Francisco before heading back to the hotel for nap time.

Then we had dinner in the Marina and contemplated what it would be like to be living in San Francisco - or at least the Bay Area - again.

mmmm... bread

Road Trip - Part 1

Full tank of gas: check.
Assorted CDs: check
Snacks: check.
Enough time allotted for the drive so that if The Boy flips out and needs to run around and blow off some steam we can pull off at a rest-stop: (hopefully) check.

The longest The Boy has ever spent in the car was the 4 hour journey between Hubs' parents house and his grandmother's when we visited England in May. There was also the 2 hour drive to San Diego when we went down to visit the zoo for The Boy's first birthday. Both drives went well, for the most part, but when they went badly they went reeaaaalllly badly. So it was with a certain amount of nervousness that we set about making the 6-7 hour drive up to the San Francisco Bay Area.

A bright and sunny Sunday morning, before we knew it we were on the Grapevine.

A lunch break halfway up the 5 gave The Boy the chance to try Denny's for the first time

Of course the reality of traveling with a toddler means that we had to run several laps around Denny's before getting back in the car.

And then, after a nice long nap, The Boy woke up in Berkeley - my alma mater, in case you missed the bajillion times I've mentioned it.

On campus, The Boy saw his first protest in the form of Occupy Berkeley, which seemed to have degenerated from a big student protest to 4 homeless guys and their dogs.

The Boy was curious nonetheless

We had to take a requisite shot under Sather Gate

And after a look at the Campanile

We drove over to Marin for dinner at my aunt and uncle's house.

We left my uncle's and headed to our hotel in the City. The Boy was asleep as we went over the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a verrryyy long day, but we were ready for a full day the next morning.