San Francisco

Before reading this you need to know that Dave and I have kept a journal of all our travel adventures.  Some are more detailed than others and we usually never finish the last day or two.  Instead of writing that journal this time I am writing it in this blog. 

The required picture of Alcatraz

The whole team went to San Francisco for 5 nights from Friday May 13 to Wednesday May 18.  This was Bodie's first trip to San Fran (obviously), Dave's and my second time to San Fran together, and my 5th time down here (crazy).  The first time was with my family when I was in grade 10.  Being here with Bodie is making me think of Dad a lot. I think he really liked San Fran (my dad) and used to drive a truck down here from Vancouver during the Korean war.  I will have to look at his slides again. 

My next time in San Fran was part of my great western US road trip when I was 19. 10,000 km and one month covering Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington State (in varying degrees).  The third time was a road trip with friends from Law School during spring break.  The fourth was with Dave when we came down to visit my friend Tawfiq and retrace Dave's parents' university days in Berkeley.

Bodie and me at a cold windy Fisherman's Wharf

This time the excuse is INTA (the international trade mark association convention) and Dave's firm has sent him down to make contacts and help support the local restaurant industry.  Bodie is again showing that he might just be cut out for being dragged around on our adventures.  The flight down was uneventful.  Bodie doesn't like being forced to sit in one place but it was only a two hour flight.  We took BART into the city so we did not need a car seat. On the way down we travelled with the Bennetts and they helped distract Bodie on the BART trip into the city.

We got to the Hilton Hotel in Union Square and settled Bodie into his crib and had him asleep by 8:30 ish (he was exhausted).  He slept for the entire night and woke up at 6.  Day two consisted of the three of us walking to Fisherman's Wharf.  We stopped for a bbq pork bun in china town (amazing), and a bear claw in North Beach (lovely).  After walking around fisherman's wharf we stopped for lunch.  It was Bodie's first white table cloth establishment.  They had a great high chair and Bodie sampled to local delicacies of sourdough bread and clam chowder (apparently not allergic to shellfish).  Dave pointed out after I had fed him the first spoonful of my soup that the US might not be the best place to deal with an anaphylactic shock reaction. 

Fine dining agrees with Bodie. He must be a Spratley.

Thanks to US food portions Dave thought the best way to get from Fisherman's Wharf to Union Square was to go up Taylor Street.  This took us up and over Russian Hill and Nob Hill.  The street was almost vertical in some parts (slight exaggeration).  Dave pushed Bodie up the hills and I walked behind him in case he had a heart attack and I needed to stop Bodie from rolling down the hill and into traffic.  On the way down the other side I walked first and was to act as a brake if Dave lost his grip on the stroller.  Bodie obviously felt secure because he fell asleep.

At the bottom of the hill.

I appreciate the sense of humour and it was a good excuse to stop half way up.

Coit Tower

To give you and idea about the grade.

View from the top

After sleeping in the room for a bit, Bodie and I wandered down to the convention centre to meet Dave.  Bodie and I then went to SFMOMA -- Bodie's first museum.  After I had walked through the whole museum I learned the audio tour was free.  It has piqued my interest in modern art.  There was a piece called "Smudge" that was a blue chalk smudge on the wall by an artist named Me Bochner.  It was originally done in 1968 so I quickly figured out this was likely not the original.  This website has a picture of the work http://nsavides.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/modest-thoughts-on-modern-art/.  I don't know if I agree with their take on the work but I was fascinated to learn that when you buy a concept piece you get detailed instructions on how to install the artwork and a certificate of authenticity.  So this one would read something like: using sky blue chalk create a chalk smudge on the wall in an arc that is X wide and Y tall using N number of strokes (or something like that).

Bodie enjoying the art gallery. 

Bodie crawling on the gallery's outdoor deck.

That night Bodie went to sleep relatively easily and Dave and I had delicious burritos from Chipotle. Bodie didn't sleep through the night.  He woke up around three; after attempts to comfort him we gave up, let him nurse and then sleep in the king sized bed with us.

This is the bed cave we created so we wouldn't have to walk around in the dark from 7pm until we went to sleep (we took the blankets off when we turned off the lights)

On Sunday, Dave had breakfast, as I attempted to get Bodie to nap by walking him around the pool.  It didn't work.  I decided to get BodieYerba Buena Garden.  It had a great monument to Martin Luther King Jr.  It also had a kids' playground with the great rubber ground cover.  Bodie tried to crawl around on it but it hurt his hands a bit.  He did take every opportunity to pull up pieces of rubber and chew them. 

We then went for lunch with this great group of lawyers from North Carolina that Dave and Chris meet up with ever year at INTA.  They enjoyed meeting Bodie and needless to say he was very well behaved and shamelessly flirted with everyone.  After lunch the three of us wandered around Union Square.  Bodie was cooperative and slept while Dave looked at jeans.  We then wandered by some art galleries including a Dr. Seuss Gallery.  Bodie got us out of a conversation with the curator by getting fussy at just the right time.

I was determined to take Bodie swimming in the outside pool.  Unfortunately when we got there the sun was off the pool and although the water was nice and warm the wind was cold so we only lasted for about 5 minutes.    Dave had drinks and a dinner, so Bodie and I went to Chipotle to pick up my dinner.  After putting Bodie to bed, I started writing this.

A crazy looking lizard.

On Monday, Chrissy and I went to Golden Gate Park to see the California Academy of Science.  There was rain forest dome in which you start on the ground floor, walk up a curving ramp that takes you all the way to the top of the canopy and then you take an elevator to the basement that is an aquarium.  In the rain forest section the humidity was about 95%.  It obviously agreed with Bodie because he slept through the whole thing including screaming macaws and school children. There was a great room made for toddlers and young children, so Bodie got to crawl around and explore (read bash things against other things).  We then went to a very nice restaurant (the Moss room) in the museum.  Bodie again behaved himself exceptionally well in the restaurant.  Our bus ride home took us through Haight Ashbury. 

Bodie enjoying crawling around

The top of the Academy of Science

We then met up with the husbands at the Cheese Cake Factory for dinner.  The food was nice, the beer was very refreshing, but the cheesecake we got to go was fabulous.  Bodie again did not sleep that well.

On Tuesday the weather was miserable.  I was determined to get to the Ferry Building and a yarn store and then to meet Dave for shopping in the afternoon.  Bodie actually napped in the morning.  Not in his crib (we have a very funny video that I will post).  We took off to the Ferry Building.  It had amazing food.  I got some cheese that I could basically drink with a straw. It was call Winnimere.  It is described on the Cowgirl Creamery's website as: 

You cannot help but be jealous of Jasper Hill Farm's cows. Free to roam about the lush greenery of Vermont's heartland in the spring, summer, and colorful New England autumns, the Kehler's Ayrshires are kept away from the biting temperatures and whipping winds in the winter. Cozy and warm in secure barns, the cows while away the frigid short days and long nights by listening to a selection of jazz and classical music.

Washed with lambic-style beer that is brewed from Jasper Hill Farm's own wild yeasts, Winnimere is a seasonally-produced cheese available from November to April. A strip of spruce bark cut from Jasper Hill's own trees is wrapped around the full-flavored, pleasantly aromatic cheese. Recalling the tradition of French Vacherin d'Abondance, the spruce strip permeates the cheese, giving it a gentle woodsy flavor.

I then had some amazing Japanese food at Delica and then headed to the yarn store, where I bought some fabulous yarn.

We went to the mall and had little to no success.  Bodie got really fussy really fast. He definitely ensures that I don't spend too much (or any money).  The most frustrating thing was that the book store that was still listed on the store's directory was closed down so I did not make it to a book store.  That evening Chrissy and I ordered a pizza in (with jalapeno poppers) and played with Bodie and put him to sleep.  He managed to sleep through the night, but fussed a few times. 

Our flight back to Vancouver was at 8:20 so the day started at 5am.  The BART trip consisted of Bodie flirting with a young woman who was starting off the beginning of her trip that was to take her to Kentucky, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and then Australia for a semester abroad.  (To me Kentucky sounded like the most exotic part).  When we got to the airport we found out that although we booked with Air Canada it was a United Flight which meant we had to go from the international terminal to the domestic terminal.  The United check in was overwhelmed.  As well, United apparently charges $26 dollars per check in bag and did not care that Air Canada doesn't.  We did manage to get checked in and through security (thanks to Bodie we got to go in the short family line).  We did not have time to get any food so we ate the remnants of the food we had collected for Bodie of the week, a banana and some blueberries, and the food that Dave was given with the S.W.A.G. from the convention. 

Bodie slept the first hour of the flight and flirted through the second.  He really is lovely.  People are drawn to him and his outgoing nature (this may be true of all children). Having him along on our trips definitely has its benefits.  It gets us to the front of lines, get us priority boarding, and gives us something else to focus on instead of bitching about lines and durations of flights and lack of services and having to take our belt off to go through security not to mention my shoes.