Opa came over first thing this morning and all four of us drove to San Francisco. I'm off call!!!
We arrived in Chinatown just in time to see lion dancers and fireworks right in front of us, which was kind of cool but Olivia was not impressed. We walked down Grant Avenue, taking in all the sights and smells. Olivia's favorite store had a display in the window of crystal and rhinestone animals and a collection of tiaras. I had hoped to buy her a purse to replace the one that got stolen, but I couldn't find any with handles and a zipper. Oh well.
We walked around North Beach, then got back in the car and drove to the wharf. Because we had an old man and little kid with us, we parked super close and paid a small fortune. We walked down to Pier 39 and had lunch and dessert and visited the sea lions twice.
On our second visit to the sea lions, Olivia climbed up onto the bottom step of the railing and I heard her say, "uh-oh shoe" and by the time I looked down, her shoe was floating in the bay. It was pretty hilarious for a moment as Louis correctly predicted that his dad would suggest scooping it out with a big net. Unfortunately, we couldn't climb down the dock to get close enough to grab it. The shoes were her dirtiest and a tad small, so I'm more upset about adding landfill to the bay than I am about losing the shoe. Poor Olivia didn't know what to think and kept saying "shoe boom boom splash bye-bye" for the rest of the day. We can all laugh about it now, now that we're no longer carrying a heavy toddler all around the city.
On our way back to the car, we spotted a life size Elmo! For a donation, we took a picture with him, with Olivia on the verge of tears. Elmo *was* a little shady looking, so I don't blame her for being a little scared. Elmo talked with a man's voice and had a big purse around his neck where he was collecting "donations for Dorothy" (Elmo's goldfish). Mm-hmm.
After Pier 39, we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to Tiburon so Louis and his dad could see where they used to fish years ago. Olivia fell asleep in the car and I stayed to rest with her while the guys walked along the beach trail and shared memories.
Finally, we ended up at our favorite Indonesian restaurant (of course), where we had a proper birthday dinner as a family.
Everybody was in a such a good mood today and the weather was perfect. Louis says he had a great birthday and it was really enjoyable. Hope we can do more family trips like this soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment