Red Chuck

San Francisco

2 reasons why this picture best sums up our day in the city:

1) We had a great time (big smile, wave hello to everyone back home).

2) Katherine and I carried the kids everywhere we went today.

What a day. Golden Gate Park, Haight Ashbury, then Chinatown, North Beach, and Nob Hill on foot. We got into the city around 12 and immediately drove to Golden Gate Park. Once again Helen fell asleep in the van, so Harrison and I went to the children's playground behind Kezar Stadium for an hour. After that we drove to Haight Street and walked around for 30 minutes in search of a burrito restaurant Christina recommended to us called Bob's Burritos. (If you haven't noticed yet, we like burritos). The restaurant was nowhere to be found but we did stumble upon a Taqueria with a "Bob's Burrito" on the menu, so we ate there. Rather we ordered food there and then got it to go because Helen stared to have a major meltdown. So after getting back in the van, we headed to our hotel for our 3pm check in.

Out of all the hotels we have stayed in this trip, this hotel is the worst. Our room at the Ramada on Market Street looks out on a brick wall. The beds are uncomfortable, the plumbing stinks (literally), and the only amenity is wireless internet in the rooms. The only reason I bother complaining is becasue this is Expedia's number 1 choice for reasonable accomodations in San Francisco. Blech. Next time we'll stay at the Hotel Triton.

Once we got settled in our room, the bed jumping began, so we decided to get everyone suited up for a trip to Chinatown. By the way, the "I'm tired, I wanna go back to the hotel" whining thing that strangely turns into "Lets spazz out in the new hotel room" is an interesting and frustrating part of traveling with young children. As of yet, I can think of no way to counter this phenomena.

Anyway, our plan was to walk three blocks down Market to the Powell St. cable car turnaround and then ride a cable car to Nob Hill and Chinatown. When we got to Powell the cable car line was a block long so we decided to hoof it. This was when both Harrison and Helen got tired so we carried them up to Union Square. Pant pant. At Union Square, we all sat down for a breather, grabbed a pretzel for a snack and then cut over to Grant street and the green gates that mark the south entrance to Chinatown. I should also pause to note that there was a lot of whining about going to Chinatown by Harrison. This all ended once we got there. Harrison was in heaven. We went into about 5 different shops in the first block. Harrison couldn't believe all the stuff. Then, out of nowhere, a dragon parade came down the street. Harrison and Helen couldn't believe their eyes. A white dragon came right down the sidewalk past us. The parade actually consisted of 2 dragons and a small procession of teenagers in red t-shirts clanging cymbals and beating drums. It was all very loud and exciting. My camera's memory card was full so in trying to make room for a couple more shots, I missed the beginning of the parade. I did get this shot of Harrison and Helen as the noisy tail end of the parade passed us.

After the dragon parade we ducked into another store where Harrison found some glow in the dark dinosaurs and Helen picked out a Hello Kitty clock. After checking out, we faced a new challenge. Both kids needed a bathroom. I thought we were getting close to North Beach so I suggested we high tail it that way and try to find a pizzeria. We went down 1 block, up 2 more (lots of whining at this point) and walked straight into Café Niebaum~Coppola at the corner of Kearny and Columbus. Halleluia. We all sat down in a corner booth and shared a small pizza. After dinner we walked up Columbus to City Lights Bookstore and then kept walking to the Gellato stand on the corner for desert. We considered walking over to Telegraph Hill to watch the sunset but wisely decided to head back to the hotel.

Once again our intention was to ride a cable car! We walked down Broadway to Powell. When we finally found a cable car, it was packed. We kept walking the cable car route (basically Powell) in the hopes we might find a less busy car. No dice. So with the kids on our shoulders we hoofed and huffed it up and down Nob Hill all the way to Market and back to our beloved Ramada. What a day.

And what a trip. Tomorrow we get up early and head for the airport. On our walk down Powell this evening, Harrison said, "Dad, I don't want our vacation to be over." That felt good. Its been quite an adventure. Though I have complained some, Harrison and Helen really have been great little travellers. We've been on the move a lot and they've stuck right with us.

Also of all the places we've been this week, I think we all liked San Francisco the best. What an incredible city. The people, the food, the parks, the culture, the geography! We could see the bay from Nob Hill today — a sailboat in the distance framed by the houses and buildings that line the street. What other city in the world offers such surprising views? I am always inspird by this place. Maybe some day soon we'll all come back.

Posted by Red Chuck at August 4, 2005 12:12 AM