San Fran Days 3 and 4

By Sunday afternoon we’d had enough Maker Faire – well Matt and I might’ve been able to stay a bit longer, but the sun was hot and the kids were exhausted – Ben in fact fell asleep on Matt’s shoulders walking back from the fair – and so we went back to the hotel and had naps. Immediately following naps, we loaded in the car and headed south to Campbell, CA where we visited my Uncle Ted and Aunt Susan. They have a lovely home in Campbell. Ted is an amazing crafsperson and has restored a number of Model A automobiles. He currently has three: a sedan, a coupe and a pickup. They are all in amazing condition and we were all treated to a ride in the sedan. It was the first time a carseat had been in there!!

After the car rides, the kids went crazy running around their backyard. They were loving having room to move and they loved their gardens (things were very well watered) and their tangerine tree. It was quite a disappointment to hear that they wouldn’t be able to grow one back in CO. Then we were treated to a lovely dinner and of course wonderful company. After dinner the kids conned Aunt Susan into reading them a dozen books or so (I have a suspicion she wasn’t too hard to convince) and Matt and Ted talked shop. Once the kids were entirely exhausted we headed back to the hotel.

The next morning we drove into SF to meet up with our friends, Donna and Ed at the California Academy of sciences. It’s a beautifully built building with some really wonderful exhibits. We got to see a planetarium show that talked about the eclipse of the sun (which had been the day before) and the Transit of Venus, a truly once-in-a-lifetime event that will be happening on June 5. We also loved the amazing rainforest exhibit and the beautiful aquariums.

But perhaps our favorite exhibit was the penguins. These African Penguins who reside at the California Academy of sciences include in their number one male penguin over 29 yrs old (about double the normal life span of one of these guys) named Pierre. A few years ago, he molted but didn’t grow any of his feathers back. He couldn’t swim much because it was too cold and the other penguins started to shun him because of his appearance. Eventually, his keeper decided to see if she couldn’t help him out with a wetsuit. Not only did it get him back to normal penguin life, but it also allowed him to grow back his feathers. It was a really cute story and we got to see the penguins be fed. The kids brought home a book about him which has been well loved already.

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and went to downtown San Mateo which is a nice little area. We had lunch at a funky pizza shop with TVs installed at the ends of the booths (the kids watched Sponge Bob) and checked out a giant toy store. And after the longest wait in a security line ever, we flew back to Denver.

Just about every trip we go on with the kids is easier. This time we only had one carseat on the plane since Tabby is in a booster now and they cannot be used on a plane. We also had no diapers and that was a big big deal. Even little things like the fact that I packed only one sippy cup for each of them and they can each carry their own backpacks is a pretty good deal.  It is really great to be able to show them the world.