San Francisco

My timeline is a little out of order her, but I just had to put up these pics anyway…

The weekend before Easter marked the beginning of Spring Break, and as teachers, Travis and I are lucky to be among the ranks of those who get a week off (paid too, for him!) to relax and vacation. Since we hadn’t seen my sister Ashley’s house since she moved to San Francisco in the fall to work for Jews for Jesus, we decided to take a little trip down there to visit. The super cute, big house (especially by San Fran standards) she rents with 3 other roommates is only minutes from the Zoo and beach, so after we arrived on Saturday that’s where we headed.

We spent several hours at the Zoo, and saw more animals up close and active than in many trips to the good ol’ zoo here at home.

Though we brought the stroller, I think Savannah ran for almost the entire time we were there. She loved looking at all the animals and talking to all of the other little kids (isn’t it amazing how kids somehow become instant friends just by standing next to each other!), and really loved the big petting zoo. Unlike this petting zoo experience when she was afraid to get too close to the animals, she wanted to pet every animal there and was super excited when we bought some food for her to feed them. She fed those fat goats like a pro and showed absolutely no fear when they pestered her for more.

The cute little mallard duck though was a different story… I don’t know what happened, maybe the ducks weren’t used to being fed by little hands, but when Savannah handed him a pellet he grabbed it and Savannah’s finger too. The huge frown on her face before the tears came was so sad; you could just see her thinking “why did you just do that to me?” and then she started wailing. I’m sure it hurt, but I think it was more the surprise. After feeding large goats and llamas, what child expects to be bitten by a duck?! Before she could develop an irrational fear of all water birds, we quickly explained that the duck didn’t mean to get her hand, it was an accident, and he was very, very sorry. Fortunately, the crying didn’t last long and apparently she forgave the duck since she wanted to pet some other ones we later saw swimming in a pond. “Those ones won’t bite me,” she said, and luckily we were too far away for her test that out.

I won’t bore you with pictures of the animals we saw, but here are a few cute ones of us humans.

After leaving the zoo, we walked down the street to the beach. And again, Savannah proved how much she’s changed in the last year. Unlike our last sandy beach experience, she had no problem with taking off her shoes and walking barefoot in the sand. She loved walking out to the water with Daddy and Auntie Ashley while I kept my shoes on and happily took pictures bundled up in my jacket far from the freezing water (yes, I was cold even though it was a sunny 63 degrees - a “nice” day for San Francisco!). It was too bad we didn’t have any beach toys or towels – Savannah could have stayed out there for a long time.

After an entire day of walking and playing, I was sure she’d conk out for a late nap, but no, the magic hour had apparently passed and so, after a short rest at Ashley’s house, we headed out to Chinatown for dinner. The food was great, but after a day of walking around the zoo, the walking several blocks to the underground Metro station and riding for a short time only to get off and walk to the bus stop just to ride for a short time and then walk some more to the restaurant (and then doing it all again on the way back after window shopping around Chinatown …) was a bit much on my pregnant body. I thought my hips were both going to break, and the next morning, after hardly sleeping, I almost fell over after getting out of bed. Those 20 extra pounds hanging off the front of me really take their toll!

That morning we went to church with Ashley and walked, oh yes, walked a couple of blocks to a lunch place afterwards. (How do pregnant women, especially those with a toddler who often insists on being carried, survive in that city? It is possible I’m just an out-of-shape wimp, but seriously, I thought I was going to die.) The rest of the day was pretty low key and after Savannah’s nap and an early dinner we headed for home.

I really did enjoy the trip and we’re actually going back on Friday/Saturday for a family Mother’s Day outing, but I seriously appreciate my car so much more now than I ever did before. And yes, I understand parking is expensive and horribly hard to find, but it just gives me yet another reason why I never want to live in a big walking city.