No Sweat

I've been planning on writing another whiny post for a few days, since my week hasn't been going so well. I've mostly recovered from my illness, and S-Boogie has had a great time at her first few days of kindergarten, but it's still been a less-than-stellar week. Thankfully our little mini-vacation today helped turn things around for me. So now we get a positive post instead.

My younger brother came out to San Francisco on Thursday for a quick little business trip. He had to leave today at noon, but I thought it would be fun to try and see him for a little while. By the time we drove down and met up with him, we really only had less than hour to hang out. It was still nice to see him and we took a few pictures to prove that our paths had crossed. We stopped by the famous Ferry Terminal farmer's market and got some tasty pastry (and over-priced orange juice). The market is heaven for food lovers like me, but the truth is I'd probably be just as happy with my local market and it's not quite so far away. After dropping my brother at his hotel we decided to check out Fisherman's Wharf, since neither of us had spent much time there.

For the record, Fisherman's Wharf is extremely crowded, smelly, and commercialized. There wasn't very much to impress me there. But we still found a few bright spots. First we found out that if you get there early enough you can find four-hour free parking at the far north end. Then we spent quite a bit of time exploring the San Francisco Maritime National Park. The boats were pretty neat, and in classic small-child fashion the thing both kids liked most was the wooden puzzle in the kids' area of the visitors center. That and the recording of sea chanteys that they could listen to on the headphones. We stopped by the Musee Mecanique, but were a little short on quarters so we didn't see many of the machines in action. After lunch we started heading back to our car when I decided to stop off for a loaf of authentic sourdough bread. It turns out that the Bakery has a short little tour with displays about making bread and a view of the process. I've discovered that the kids love watching machines in action, so we need to find more factory tours to go on while we here (we went to Jelly Belly two weeks ago). The tour admission was reasonable, especially since it ended at a "tasting room" where you can sample breads and olive oils. My favorite was the chocolate chip-raisin bread (not dipped in oil).

After buying some bread and walking back to our car, S-Boogie requested a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge on our way home, and it didn't take us too far out of our way to do it. Little Dude slept for at least an hour in the car and we were still home in time for dinner and post-dinner family bike ride. My favorite part of the trip was the fact that San Francisco is cold. I got to wear jeans and a sweater for the first time in a few months and it felt great. Now I'm home and sweating again and dreaming of cool fog and sea breezes.