bonnie & jason

New beds and a new farmer’s market

Alissa has been sleeping in her big girl bed the last few days. She actually made the transition with no fuss at all. As a matter of fact, she was quite excited to sleep in it. Funny thing was that she decided she wanted a new stuffed animal to go with her new bed. So Monkey has been cast aside in favor of Blueberry. Unfortunately, Blueberry has a rattle inside which is kinda annoying at 6:00 am when Alissa makes her own way out of her bed and into ours. Oh well… maybe we’ll be able to convince her to “upgrade.”

Ashley and Amanda will eventually end up in the cribs.

We also checked out farmer’s market #3 today. (#1 is the one off I-280 at Alemany and #2 is the one behind Target at Serramonte.) This one is behind Macy’s at Stonestown Mall and is probably our favorite due to the proximity and the variety of stuff. Alemany is still the king, but it’s harder to get to and too hard to park. In any case, we were happy with a lot of the food vendors at this new one. We tried some hard cheeses and ended up buying their vanilla bean cream cheese. I also tried some goat cheese from Healdsburg which was tasty but Bonnie wasn’t a big fan. There was also an olive guy who had some interesting stuff. I ended up with a small container of olives stuffed with cream cheese marinated in balsamic vinegar and fig reduction. Super tasty! We got Alissa kettle corn as we always do (she calls it copcorn) which she ate while walking around listening to the guitarist that was there. He even played her the rubber ducky song. And lastly, I ended up with a $1 Samosa (I thought it was fresh… it wasn’t, but for $1, can’t go wrong) while Bonnie got a really tasty Belgian waffle. Anyway, we were there for less than an hour, bought no produce, and yet somehow ended up spending nearly $20.

San Francisco Giants Picnic in the Park

Cousin Eddy took a bunch of people including Alissa and myself to the Giants Picnic in the Park yesterday. It was a great event actually. The weather was perfect. Free hot dogs, beer, soda, popcorn, tacos, ice cream sandwiches, etc. They had an inflatable jumper and obstacle course for the kids and even a petting zoo. And, of course, they had a bunch of players signing autographs and helping distribute beer and food as well. The coolest part was just the perspective of being on the field. Here are a couple things I noticed:

1. The grass is amazing! It’s so dense, you can’t see the dirt even if you try to look between the blades of grass.
2. The warning track is much longer than it looks on TV. Probably about 20 feet long.
3. The outfield wall is taller than it looks on TV. It’s about eight feet tall I guess.

Here’s the photo diary of the trip:
Sami and Shauna helping Alissa cross the busy streets:

Killing some time at Borders before the event started:

Enjoying a hot dog with Megan in left field:

Hanging out with pops:

Enjoying cup #2 of popcorn:

In the jumper:

Looking for something fun to do with Uncle Alan:

Enjoying some organic chocolate milk:

On the way back to the car:

California Academy of Sciences – trip #2

I took Alissa to the CAS again today. This time around, we went through the four story rainforest. There were lots of cool geckos and butterflies as well as fish and birds. Also, since I’m too cheap to pay for parking in the garage, Alissa got a good workout walking to and from the museum from 10th and Irving. Recently, she’s grown weary of my “Come on, hurry ups” but instead responds to “faster, faster.” She also says “two, three, GO!” Sometimes she says “one,” but more often not. (However, she does remember 8 and 12 now.)

Walking through the park:

Insisting on holding her jacket:

Raisin break underneath the rainforest pool:

One of the many cool frogs:

Time to go home:

Two, three, Go!

Running by Ebisu (which is closed for renovations by the way.)

California Academy of Sciences

We decided to try the California Academy of Sciences again today after our failed attempt on opening day. There were still tons of people there and traffic was a mess when we left. Still, we had a good if brief time there. We spent the bulk of our time in the aquarium as we figured Alissa would like that section the most. After about 30 minutes of “Look Alissa… fish!” I think she got a little bored. So we made our way up to the ground floor to check out the Planetarium but were told that little kids can’t go. Instead, we got tickets for the 3D bug show which was supposed to be kid friendly. It was borderline kid friendly, and in my opinion, not really toddler friendly. First of all, there was no way Alissa was going to wear the 3D glasses. Secondly, they had bug mating and killing going on. Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was quite a high quality production. But kid friendly, it is not.

Anyway, by the time the bug show was done, Bonnie was starving and Alissa’s nap time was looming. So we figured we’d take off and save the rest for another day. After all, we did get the annual membership so we’ll want to take advantage of that.

Here are a few crappy pictures… I should have brought a faster lens and Bonnie’s dad’s 5D. Oh well, next time!

Conservatory of Flowers

We tried to make it to the opening day of the California Academy of Sciences but it was amazingly packed. We even went 30 minutes before the doors opened and by the time we got there, the line was literally around the corner, probably about 1/2 mile long. Here’s a shot of the poor souls who probably waited in line only to be turned away.

Bonnie overheard someone say that she was there 2 hours before the doors opened and was told to come back at 4:00 for her entrance window. Crazy. Anyway, instead we had a nice morning with Calvin, Deeann, Abigail, and Deeann’s relatives visiting from Vancouver. We walked to the Conservatory of Flowers and endured the high humidity for a little while. Then we hit a playground for the kids to run around in for a while before heading to lunch at Cafe Bakery. Here are a few highlights:

Alemany Farmer’s Market

We went to the Alemany Farmer’s Market this morning with Connor, Jen, and Ken. We’ve driven by it a bunch of times before but never took the time to actually go. So today, we ended up going, looking, and buying. The tomatoes were really good and we picked up some grapes and kettle corn as well. Here are a few pics of the produce:

Totally off topic, but here are some pictures of Alissa making her self comfortable in Bonnie’s body pillow and boppy:

Sunday meanderings

We spent the first half of Sunday hitting some San Francisco “hot spots.” First, we picked up Jeff and Xiao Yi at the Legion of Honor to go to brunch at Ella’s. We tried out their corned beef hash with big chunks of lean corned beef, the pancakes which are about 8″ across and super fluffy and tasty, the folded egg omelet with sweet corn, roasted cherry tomatoes, and yummy cheese, and finally, the chicken hash which had a nice farm fresh taste with a thyme and sage herb treatment.

Since the wait was so long, however, we spent an hour walking around the pacific heights neighborhood. Man, there are some fantastic houses up there. From modern, to neo-classical, to roman, to cottage, they were all huge and had great views. One was a little strange as it had this statue standing guard out front:

After lunch, we drove to Fort Point and walked over to Sports Basement and back. Alissa was a bit grouchy as her sleep schedule was a little messed up from having some friends over last night, but she enjoyed the walk for the most part. Her highlights were the plethora of dogs out and about.

I also took a few pics of Jeff and Xiao Yi taking advantage of some of the background scenery:

All in all, a great day. Great friends, great food, great views, and even a little exercise. What else can you ask for? (All of the pictures here.)

Alissa explores the Exploratorium

Sunday was Family Day in San Francisco so a lot of the museums and other family oriented things to do were free admission. We took advantage by hitting the Exploratorium down by the Palace of Fine Arts. Neither Bonnie nor I had been in years and I took the chance to show off my inner dork. Bonnie was very impressed. Frankly, who wouldn’t be? Any guy who can explain how polarized light works and why cars have differentials must be one heck of a catch. Alissa, however, was less impressed. She did seem to like looking around at all the hands on displays and got to touch a few things. But she’s probably a few years away from being in awe of what a total nerd her dad is. When that time comes, she can reflect back on these pictures to see that her dad didn’t just become a nerd, he’s been a nerd for a long time.

Body Worlds 2 at The Tech Museum

We used part of my vacation day today to visit the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at The Tech Museum in San Jose. I was a little concerned that Alissa was going to freak out about the displays but she barely noticed anything. Actually, she was pretty well behaved for the whole thing as we kept her entertained with Cheerios whenever she got restless.

You’re not supposed to take pictures inside, but I sneaked a few here and there. Sorry for the funny angles and composition… not too bad for shooting blind.

Aside from the pictures I managed to take there were a bunch of other displays that were really cool. All these displays were made possible thanks to plastination, a technique of impregnating body parts with silicone rubber pioneered by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens. The technique itself is almost as interesting as the specimens themselves if you’re a geek like me. If you’re not a geek like me, there’s a good chance this whole idea is rather distasteful which is why I didn’t post too many pictures here. Instead, click here for those of you who are into this kinda thing.

After visiting this particular exhibit, we did a quick tour of the rest of The Tech. We didn’t stay long as it was getting late and Alissa is still too young to appreciate this kind of stuff. But I can definitely see us going back someday when Alissa is old enough to understand the plethora of interactive displays and activities.

Fleet Week San Francisco

We didn’t want to make the commitment of going to fleet week at Crissy Field so instead, we went to the top of Grand View Park and viewed the action from afar. Apparently, we weren’t the only people who thought this was a good idea as there were about 100 other people at the top of the stairs. I have to say, the action wasn’t nearly as spectacular as it is up close but then again, we got 30 minutes of a decent panoramic view without having to fight any crowds or parking or having to drive to the other side of own. Plus, I think Alissa may have freaked out at the noise from being so close to the action.

Alissa is not impressed:

“I guess they’re ok…”

They were pretty far away for most of it so we got broader views like this: