San Francisco!

Remember when we went to San Francisco in September? Neither does Hazel. But, I have pictures to prove we were there.

We had a fantastic time. The weather was absolutely fabulous, our hotel was ideally located right on Union Square (with a cable car stop right outside), the conference I was going for was not too bad and they kept us wined and dined.

Moving on.

When we first saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Hazel shrieked, "The bridge! I see the bridge!" It cracked up our entire (standing room-only) bus. So, we did a quick detour to see the bridge. It was sunny and clear and the bridge was awesome.

Hazel says that watching the ducks was her most favorite part of San Francisco, that and staying in a hotel. The ducks were right outside the Exploratorium, which was my favorite part (and Hazel and Geoff both loved it too, I think Hazel even liked it more than the ducks).
If you have not been to the Exploratorium, you should go. Right now. Turn off the computer and go there. We got there later than we would have liked to (see: GGB) and stayed until closing time. So many awesome, science-y exhibits.

This phone told jokes and you were supposed to talk while it talked to you, it had a science aspect to it, but mostly Hazel just like to listen to the jokes.
Box of mirrors.
This was quite entertaining to the Wilde clan. The box would drop a single drop of water and then you had to time when to take a picture. The original point was to try and take a picture of the drop hitting the water, but we liked getting the crazy reflection.
They had many other things but we were busy playing and didn't take so many pictures.

Jenni put it into Hazel's mind that she should get a bear bread at the Boudin Bakery. And once something is in Hazel's mind, it does not leave. Except for the things I would like her to remember. So, of course, we stopped at Boudin and bought Hazel a bear bread.
It was delicious. We ate it over the four days we were in SF. It was a bit stale towards the end, but still edible.
Our first cable car ride was packed and it was late and we had groceries and Hazel hated it. Which was highly disappointing to me, because I love the cable cars. Luckily, we had plenty more opportunities to ride and she learned to love them. We even went to the museum.
Tacky statues in Chinatown.
Another one.
Mmmm....crepes and egg waffles and tapioca drinks. We ate constantly in SF and everything was delicious. Cheap stuff, pricey stuff, even the hotel food.
Okay, so here is my story about the room service cookies and milk:

Hazel and/or Geoff have been going to this same conference with me for years. It is a smallish one and they know most of the attendees, and all of the kids. So, we see the lady in charge of booking everything on Sunday and she is asking us how we like the hotel and SF and we have been having a fabulous day (Geoff slept in and Hazel and I went for an early breakfast and roaming around the hotel). I assume that Hazel is going to relay how much fun we are having (ha!), instead she says, "Maybe next time you can pick a nice hotel, this one doesn't even have a pool." Luckily, the lady has children and knows that they only care about pools. But, to make it up to Hazel, she sent us room service cookies and milk. Which Hazel loved, and were pretty delicious. (because, I believe everything in SF is delicious and the sun always shines)
One day (ONE!) Geoff and Hazel ventured out on their own.
And they found a fancy toilet.
And drank some orange soda.
One day we went out as a family (and with Jim) and got some ice cream at the corner of Haight and Ashbury, because we are all counter-culture like that. There was a fabulous fabric store just down the block but Hazel was getting tired, by back was hurting and we had to go back for meetings (you know, the reason my work sent me there). I will be back, I vow!
More cable car love.
We wanted to go to Alcatraz, but not enough to plan ahead. Next time. This was the ONLY time we saw fog.
And sea lions.
Unfortunately, we saw this a lot. Way more than I would prefer. Why does she have to pout? We are in San Francisco, about to get a delicious sundae, having a fabulous time, why the pout??
kids.
Love.

The end.