Last Friday Jay and I met my Mom in San Francisco. We rode the BART from Oakland together and then walked to Pier 39. There we went to a really neat aquarium. The upstairs was less impressive, but the down stairs had some really cool lit jelly fish tanks, and then huge tunnel tubes of fish to walk through. Some fish seemed to get a kick out of swimming right over the top of us, close in. Or maybe they just associate people forms with food since the aquarium sends in divers to feed them. They wanted a snack. We also saw schools of fish in there and rock fish and others.
In a smaller tank Jay crawled under. They had a "bubble" you could put your head in and so a passing little girl said, "There's a man in that tank!" seeing Jay's head. There was also an octopus eating a mollusk.
The other tube tank had different sizes of sharks in them.
Outside was the water and lots of sea lions sunning themselves. That attraction was fun and free. We had been wandering around a bunch of fun shops but it was also nice to sit down awhile. From there we took a bus to Japan Town. It was really some strip malls with some neat Japanese shops. The coolest thing was the Japanese rice balls. Jay likes to make rice balls, but these were more authentic and bigger. Most of the restaurants around were either really expensive (which I wasn't in the mood for) or featured sweet things--we passed a shop selling crepes. They were rolled up in a paper cone like a giant snow cone cup and filled with ice cream or strawberries and whipped cream or other treats. They looked good, but we'd already had ice cream, so I was glad to find the rice balls. I got chicken teriyaki ones wrapped in sea weed paper. Mom had a bite before I wrapped it in the sea weed and she appreciated it too. She never had roommates like mine to teach her to like sea weed.
That night Dad's plane got in late--I'm afraid I didn't wait up for him. We saw each other Saturday morning. Because it was Mom and Dad's anniversary, they paid for us to stay in the Hilton. Since we got in so late the night before, we stayed there until 10:30 am enjoying the nice rooms. After that we took the shuttle to the BART and then the bus to the park. It was cooler and windy, not so cold that my sweater was too little, except that the wind made me wish it wasn't crocheted. We decided to do s few more things we'd been waiting for Dad to come along to do. The De Young museum was nice, and we had a good lunch at a hamburger place. Then we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was kind of cold and unpleasant, but once we actually got on the bridge, going part way across, I started having more fun. Then we rode a number of buses to see the cable car museum. The last leg was supposed to be on cable car, but 3 passed us without picking us up--2 were too full and 1 said he was broken. So we walked.
The cable car museum actually had the cables that were now pulling all the cars around the city, being pulled along on giant wheels.
After that we called it a day, since we still had to take BART and then the shuttle back to the hotel, and then drive home. We got in around 8. By that time it was only just getting dark. Mom and Dad picked up a rental car at the airport and came on their own--unfortunately our truck is our only vehicle and it seats just 2.
Advertising do its job on the way home. After passing so many IHOP signs, we got home and I ran to the store. It was Saturday night and we were out of milk, but I also wanted to make pancakes and have strawberries and whipped cream on them, just like the bill boards suggested. Mom texted me that she and Dad stopped and ate out on the way home, so I made more pancakes the next day for Father's Day since they didn't want any when they first arrived.
In a smaller tank Jay crawled under. They had a "bubble" you could put your head in and so a passing little girl said, "There's a man in that tank!" seeing Jay's head. There was also an octopus eating a mollusk.
The other tube tank had different sizes of sharks in them.
Outside was the water and lots of sea lions sunning themselves. That attraction was fun and free. We had been wandering around a bunch of fun shops but it was also nice to sit down awhile. From there we took a bus to Japan Town. It was really some strip malls with some neat Japanese shops. The coolest thing was the Japanese rice balls. Jay likes to make rice balls, but these were more authentic and bigger. Most of the restaurants around were either really expensive (which I wasn't in the mood for) or featured sweet things--we passed a shop selling crepes. They were rolled up in a paper cone like a giant snow cone cup and filled with ice cream or strawberries and whipped cream or other treats. They looked good, but we'd already had ice cream, so I was glad to find the rice balls. I got chicken teriyaki ones wrapped in sea weed paper. Mom had a bite before I wrapped it in the sea weed and she appreciated it too. She never had roommates like mine to teach her to like sea weed.
That night Dad's plane got in late--I'm afraid I didn't wait up for him. We saw each other Saturday morning. Because it was Mom and Dad's anniversary, they paid for us to stay in the Hilton. Since we got in so late the night before, we stayed there until 10:30 am enjoying the nice rooms. After that we took the shuttle to the BART and then the bus to the park. It was cooler and windy, not so cold that my sweater was too little, except that the wind made me wish it wasn't crocheted. We decided to do s few more things we'd been waiting for Dad to come along to do. The De Young museum was nice, and we had a good lunch at a hamburger place. Then we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was kind of cold and unpleasant, but once we actually got on the bridge, going part way across, I started having more fun. Then we rode a number of buses to see the cable car museum. The last leg was supposed to be on cable car, but 3 passed us without picking us up--2 were too full and 1 said he was broken. So we walked.
The cable car museum actually had the cables that were now pulling all the cars around the city, being pulled along on giant wheels.
After that we called it a day, since we still had to take BART and then the shuttle back to the hotel, and then drive home. We got in around 8. By that time it was only just getting dark. Mom and Dad picked up a rental car at the airport and came on their own--unfortunately our truck is our only vehicle and it seats just 2.
Advertising do its job on the way home. After passing so many IHOP signs, we got home and I ran to the store. It was Saturday night and we were out of milk, but I also wanted to make pancakes and have strawberries and whipped cream on them, just like the bill boards suggested. Mom texted me that she and Dad stopped and ate out on the way home, so I made more pancakes the next day for Father's Day since they didn't want any when they first arrived.
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| Pier 39 |
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| We went to the aquarium at Pier 39. |
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| The best part were these tunnels in huge fish tanks. Some of the enormous fish seemed to enjoy swimming over us. I didn't get a picture of the biggest fish, though. |
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| Rice balls in Japan town! So good! Chad is jealous. |
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| The best part is the bird perched on top, unconcerned as the lioness and snake wrestle to the death. |
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| We didn't actually get a good picture of me on the Golden Gate Bridge, so here's this one with my hair in my face :) Jay of course looks great. |
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