We were all ready to be done with vacation by the time Sunday rolled around. I'm glad we went on the trip (our first trip out of state with all four of us), but traveling is hard and it's nice to come home to familiar routines and our own space that has everything we need.
Two more photos from the trip that I wanted to share:
Bjorn & Amy at Crepevine (stopped for lunch on the way to Ocean Beach)
The highlight of the trip was meeting up with Annie's family at Ocean Beach (west of Golden Gate Park) on Saturday afternoon. We had been envisioning sunny and 70, and it turned out to be foggy, windy, and maybe 60; nevertheless, the kids had a great time running around and digging their toes -- or as the case may be, their brothers -- into the sand. It was Leif and Bjorn's first time seeing the ocean, and it was our first time meeting Annie and Jeff's younger daughter, Josephine (Jojo), who was born right at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic.
On Saturday we went to the Exploratorium, which is now in a different location than the last time I was there (during college, circa 1995). The previous location was in a nifty historic building, which was nice, but the current location is right on the bay at Pier 15, meaning that the back end of the museum offers spectacular views of the water. Bjorn seemed pretty interested in the exhibits; Leif, less so. Leif and I enjoyed the rocking chairs with the expansive view of San Francisco Bay and got a snack in the museum cafe while Aaron and Bjorn finished getting their science fix.
Bjorn and I spent quite a bit of time at Pier 39, first on Thursday after Ghirardelli Square and then again on Friday. Bjorn had told me with great confidence that they had "rides" there, and I thought he must be confusing it with some other location, but it turned out he was mainly referring to virtual reality rides, which did indeed exist. Bjorn also really liked the Houdini magic shop, which we went back to multiple times to see various tricks performed. After much deliberation, he did finally decide to purchase one of the beginner magic tricks. Time to start working on his sleight of hand skills!
Our first destination after checking into the hotel in San Francisco was Ghirardelli Square, which was the only tourist attraction on our list that all four family members were enthusiastically looking forward to visiting. We splurged on three ridiculously large ice cream concoctions and passed them around the table until they were gone. Leif declared himself full; Bjorn, on the other hand, walked right up to the counter as soon as the ice cream was gone and asked if he could have a chocolate sample (they obliged)!
In San Francisco, we stayed at the Hotel Nikko, which we had chosen for the location (near Union Square) plus the fact that they have a swimming pool (which is apparently not super common for hotels right in the city). We were pleasantly surprised to find when we got there that it also marketed itself as a very pet friendly hotel, meaning that there were plenty of cute doggie photos on signs inside and outside the hotel, not to mention a doggie balcony equipped with fake grass and a mini cable car for pups to play in.
(Number of actual dogs we saw in the hotel while staying there: 0.)
