San Francisco 2016- Part 2

 

The past four days have been spent at the conference center during the day.  Gabe and I have learned  so much and are really enjoying all of the presenters at the National American Academy of Pediatrics annual conference.  The kids are spending their days playing with new friends, doing crafts and playing lots of games.  We are thankful that the kids enjoy the kids camp childcare so much.  

The weather has been great so we are trying to squeeze in some sightseeing fun in the late afternoon/evenings.  On Saturday night we took a cable car down to Pier 39.  Riding on a cable car was so neat with gorgeous views of the city.  We made it to the shore just in time to catch a bus to the Exploratorium where the AAP was holding an event.  This was an extremely cool, hands on science museum.  Things were a bit chaotic during the event so we will try and get back to see the exhibits better later in the week.  

Sunday, after the conference, we drove down to Pier 39 again to hop on a boat tour around San Francisco Bay.  We learned lots about the history of the bay and were able to ride under the Golden Gate Bridge.  We also got an up close look at Alcatraz, but didn't get off for the tour, much to the disappointment of Noah and James.  Trying not to miss an opportunity, we strolled down Pier 39.  There were so many neat shops and sights to see. James' favorite was the Left Handed Store where he met the cashier who was also the only "lefty" in his family, the second of four children, wore glasses and had a son named James.  Needless to say, James was thrilled to meet that man:)  

After Monday's conference we met up with some friends from residency for bowling. The kids thought it was neat to meet some new friends and bowl with the big balls.  By the end of this day everyone was exhausted!

By today it is safe to say that the kids are experts in riding public transportation.  They are doing so well being patient all around.  Tonight, for the first time since we arrived, we made it home before dark and in time to make dinner.  The kids were so relieved to just be here for a few hours without running off on the next adventure. We soaked in the hot tub and had a relaxing night in:)

San Francisco 2016- Part 1

On Wednesday we left Wilton and headed for Boston. After a short night of sleep we hopped on an airplane and flew across the country to San Francisco.  Everyone did so well on the flights with only a few moments of high anxiety when Audrey started to breakdown at the end. It felt like it took forever from the time we got off the plane to when we were driving away in our rental car.  All of our bags except one made it.  Unfortunately, the one bag contained most of our overnight things, but we made do.  We were extremely exhausted by the time night rolled around and were happy to be in our home for the next two weeks.

Friday morning we woke up feeling much better and had finished grocery shopping by 7:30am thanks to the time difference.  The fog rolled in that morning, so our first trip across the golden gate bridge was unexciting to say the least, it was completely engulfed in the fog.  The view from the scenic overlook was really quite impressive to see the fog in motion.  

Our next stop was Muir Woods. Noah got to use his 4th grade pass for the second time and all of the kids were excited to participate in another junior ranger program.  We learned SO much about costal redwoods! They are the tallest trees in the world, they can grow either from a single seed the size of a tomato seed OR from burls off the tree or root.  As a result they grow in "family circles" where you can identify the original "parent" tree. They are also one of the few trees that can continue to grow even after being burned in a forest fire.

We drove to the top of Mount Tamalpais for an expectedly gorgeous view of the bay below.  We had a picnic lunch and got sunburns in the 72 degree bright sun.  The fog had not yet "burned off" over the ocean or the Golden Gate Bridge, so it looked just like a blanket of snow covering the entire ocean.  We drove along the coast hoping to stop at a beach or two, but the fog was in full effect and we were able to see nothing. 

We got home in enough time to hop on the Muni (subway) to the conference center.  We registered and made it to Kids Camp.  There were so many things for the kids to do there.  We met the illustrator of the Ivy and Bean books, danced, competed in air guitar contests, made lego robots and got a caricature of all the kids.  Everyone was beyond exhausted by the time we finally made it home.  We are most excited that the public transportation is right by our house and so easy to take!

Bar Harbor 2016

Just in case we didn't have enough going on this month, this weekend we headed to Bar Harbor.  Gabe had a conference there, the hotel rooms were super pricey, we had to return the camper to Jon, so we camped for one more weekend.  It was chilly, but with a working furnace in the camper it was quite nice.  We didn't see much of Gabe since the kids and I went the afternoon before to get the camper set up in daylight and he was at the conference for most of the daylight hours on Saturday.

Saturday morning we got up and headed for the Acadia National Park visitor center.  Every fourth grader in the US gets a free national park pass and there are a few locations you can turn in your paper copy for a plastic, more durable one. Obviously, this was our first stop.  The coolest part was that the rangers all spoke directly to Noah about what the pass means and his responsibility in having it. Adults almost never directly speak to kids which drives me crazy. After getting the pass we watched a video and headed out to complete our Junior Ranger workbooks.

Our first stop was to hike up Beech Mountain and climb the fire tower to meet the Park Ranger.  The kids, true to form, had lots of questions that were mostly appropriate.  It was an amazing view and everyone did a great job hiking.  Nannie and her friend Trese joined us on this adventure which was a big help.  After that hike we were considering another short hike.  Since we had Noah's park pass that gets the whole car into the park for free we headed for the loop road.

I thought we might be able to explore Sand Beach, but it was just as busy as I remember it in the summer, so we kept driving.  My mom really wanted to hike Gorham Mountain which she remembered to be a good hike.  It was an awesome hike, but I think she realized halfway up that how we remember hikes from 20 years ago is not always accurate to how they actually were... I've made that mistake many times;) The kids loved climbing in around the rock formations, it was great exercise and there was another amazing view of another side of the island from the top.  The kids did so well for what turned out to be almost 5 miles of hiking! They also earned their Junior Ranger badges, so we had to get back to the visitor center for their oath.

We went back to Bar Harbor to meet Gabe and Grammy for what we thought would be dinner watching the sunset on Cadillac.  As it turned out, since it was a beautiful day and the MDI marathon was the next day, everyone else had the same idea.  Instead, we drove up Cadillac and right back down watching the sun the whole way.  Then, we ate our pizza back at the camper.  It could have been worse:)

In between all of these adventures, the kids have been enjoying soccer this fall.  Ben finished his soccer a few weeks ago and is now onto basketball. James finished soccer this week and Noah's team will still be playing when we leave for California!