San Francisco

Tuesday we headed to the science academy. It was really cool. We went to the aquarium first and it was really cool. The aquarium had prehistoric fish and sharks. Maddox loved laying on the floor and looking through the glass at the fish and sharks with all the other boys around his age. We then cut off the aquarium early because half the people went to a showing about earthquakes and the rest of us fed the babes. Then we switched, handed off the kids and went to a showing about planets. These shows wouldn't allowed kids under 4 so that's why we couldn't all go at once. After that we went to the rainforest part. The butterflies were very friendly and I saw one that kept landing on people heads. There were a few birds but they were more hidden away. There were also spiders with there webs out in the open, not in cages or behind glass. Well actually some of the spiders were behind glass.  My parents told me that right before I arrived at a certain part, a lady was taking a picture when I spider started coming down on her hand, ewwww!!!! How terrible and frightening is that. The even worse we saw a spider in its web on the hand rail. I didn't dare go bear the hand rails after that. When we left the rainforest they had a quickly check that nothing was trying to escape in our clothing or hair. The only exit made us go to the aquarium which was a lot bigger then I thought. The aquarium was definitely my favorite part. There would have been a little more competition between the two if the spiders didn't roam so freely in the rainforest. We quickly saw the penguins and stuffed dead animals before leaving.

Mason's picture

Brad's picture of Mason taking a picture

For a late lunch we went to a place called Crepevine. We decided to walk since it wasn't o far outside the park. It was chilly outside  and Ava was asleep so we put a blanket over her and the stroller. Well she woke up and so I move the blanket to be around just her legs so she could look around. When Ava is in a happy and playful mood she will play peek-a-boo. She likes it when people play peek-a-boo with her but she absolutely loves playing peek-a-boo with other people. So she started throwing up the blanket over her head and then throwing it down with a big grin on her face. It was so cute.

Crepevine was so good. Mason and I shared a savory crepe called California which had avocado, tomatoes, salsa, tomatillos, cheese, sour cream and chipotle sauce. It was so good! It was like an omelet but no eggs and wrapped up in a crepe. It also came with potatoes and a salad. We also shared a sweet crepe that had strawberries, bananas, and Nutella with ice cream and whipped cream. Michael was talking us into going to another place for lunch. But I'm glad we decided to go to this crepe place nearby. It was a hit with everyone else too.

Next we went to the children's playground.

Next we went to a high viewing area to see all of San Francisco. Ava had fallen asleep in the car so I stayed inside with her and Maddox and looked at the city from there. It was really windy and cold so I was find with not going out.

The next thing was to see the painted ladies. We drove past them twice and couldn't find a parking place. The other car did so we went on and let them take the pictures. We went to find a spot that wasn't so crazy with parking so Michael could change Maddox's diaper. After we started talking about what we wanted to do next, how we would met up with the other group, etc. Meanwhile a drunk guy came to Michael's open open door. Oh great! I had originally thought that this was going to be about money, but the guy just kept going on and on. Michael tried to stop the conversation and say we had kids to get home. Meanwhile Ava started screaming and Maddox wasn't to happy either and my mom called and I had no idea what to say to her about what was going on and why we hadn't met back up with them. Next the guy starts saying God bless and saying he was our angel and he went on then to bless our car. We finally got him to go off thank goodness.

We headed out of San Francisco and we decided to grab a quick bite to eat. I looked up restaurants and came across BJ's. Michael said that they had a really good dessert called the Pizookie (a cookie with ice cream on top). We headed into the restaurant. We had a bit of a wait to be seated, so we looked over the menu and quickly decided what we wanted. It was getting late and the other group was close to being home. We seated and it too forever see the waiter. After the waiter got our drink orders, my dad started to say that we were ready to order our food too, but the waiter ran off. It took forever to see the waiter again to order food. We didn't order much food because we were going to share and the waiter was super confused. The waiter also brought Maddox a root beer which we didn't order. We should have order the dessert then but we didn't. So it took forever with that. Next we wanted to pay the bill. My dad had the credit card ready forever, so when the waiter finally got the check which we had to ask for, my dad had it in the bill in a split second but off again went the waiter. Maddox had had it, so Michael took him outside. Then my dad sick of waiting handed the keys to me and told me to get the car started. We thought that it would be a quick meal, but it ended up being 2 hours!!! Can you say worse customer service ever!

The Triple Chocolate. It was really good, but I don't think worth the wait. Chili's now has these.

Eventually we got to the condo and everyone wondered what had taken us so long.

*Special thanks to Mason, Brad, Kim, and my Dad for letting me steal their pictures*