bonnie & jason

Staycation part 1

I took this week off for a little staycation after the long weekend. Over the last couple days, we’ve gone to the Randall Museum (always free) and the SF Zoo (free to SF residents the first Wednesday of the month). Here are a few pics:

I had never heard of the Randall Museum but Bonnie found it while looking for activities for the week. It’s tucked near Buena Vista park nearly dead center of the city and is actually run by the Park and Rec department. It’s not a big facility, but it was big enough to occupy us for about 90 minutes or so which is about as long as we like to stay out given both Alissa’s attention span and the twins’ patience.

Downstairs, there’s a section dedicated to trains. Here’s a model caboose:

They also have a little Thomas the Train-like track setup where you can rent battery operated trains to play with. If you have a little boy into trains, this would be a good thing to do.

Afterward, we went to Polly Ann’s for ice cream.

I wonder if this is something that Alissa will remember when she’s older.

The zoo was fun as well since we finally made it to the Children’s Zoo section for the first time. The prairie dogs and meerkats were a big hit.

And the birds of prey were pretty cool too.

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!

We visit the Pumpkin Patch on 19th Ave at Sloat

We had originally planned on making a trip to the Half Moon Bay pumpkin patch but it seemed like a big production for just a pumpkin. There’s the cost of gas, having to deal with traffic, twisty roads (with a nauseous pregnant wife), and finally, the time commitment. So instead, we thought we’d check out the corner of 19th and Sloat which is the “seasonal” corner. You know what I mean… in October, it’s pumpkins. In December, it’s Christmas trees. In February, it’s roses. Anyway, it turned out to be perfect. They had everything decorated all nice and Alissa had a fun time picking out the perfect pumpkin. With the exception of some traffic in the background, you would practically think we were in Half Moon Bay. Here are some of the pictures.

So many to choose from!

This pumpkin is too big!

This pumpkin is too small!

This one looks about right…

I’m ready to go pay now.

I wonder how far I can throw it.

It didn’t break… must be a keeper. I guess we’ll bring it home then.

Nicholas’ red egg and ginger party

Another weekend chock full of fun. The first order of the day was for Alissa to wear a dress that Bonnie made her for the first time:

What’s the occasion? Nicholas’ red egg and ginger party. It seems like we go to one of these every month these days. I guess we’re just in that phase of our lives. If it’s not a red egg and ginger party, it’s a kiddie birthday party. Soon enough it will be recitals and plays and soccer games. I’m starting to see the genesis of the mid-life crisis! =)

Before I get too far ahead of myself, here are a couple more pictures from the party.



This last one is a 2/3 preview of what I have in store for me. The other preview I got was watching Alissa spend about an hour chasing after all the little boys. Andrew seemed to be particularly fun to chase, probably because he’s closest in age to her. He was also the first boy to kiss her so that might have something to do with it. Of course, he was like 8 months and she was about 4 months or something like that at the time so I’m not sure if that really counts. Regardless, will be interesting to see how all these kids grow up together.

So after a brief rest at home, we made our way down to Deeann and Calvin’s place for a feast of a dinner prepared by Deeann’s aunt and uncle.

Man, such great food! It was like going to a fancy wedding banquet except the food was tastier! After stuffing ourselves while watching the Eagles lose a close game to the Bears (Boo!), we observed Alissa and Abigail play sort of together.

Alissa was really into the pretend tea party. Abigail was amazing with her letters. And otherwise, the two kinda played in parallel. Again, it will be fun watching them grow up together. It’s going to just get more hectic once we throw the twins in the mix along with whomever else happens to be born over the next few years. Remember that game, “Life?” I guess it’s not a game anymore!

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.)