Day 26, Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I wrote this on the 13th in MS Word, but we haven't had any internet until today, the 17th!

• We headed out to Pier 39 early in the morning.
  
• We stopped at a donut shop with mini donuts & got a bag for the kids. Of course, we had to try some---ooh, they were the best donuts I have EVER had! YUM!! Karry said they were just like the donuts he made when he was younger, at his parents’ store. Having that type of donut again had him talking about where we could fit a donut machine in our house. :)
  
• We stopped at the French creperie for our breakfast. We split a crepe with ham, eggs and cheese inside. It was very good!! We sat outside on the pier and ate w/the kids.
  
• We went to a few more shops along the pier, and then walked down to pier 33 to buy tickets to visit Alcatraz (on Wednesday).
  
• We had to check out of our hotel by 11 am, so we did that, and then drove to the Exploratorium (a science museum) where we got in free w/our Omsi membership.
• It was a fun place, but eventually (like 1:30) we were hungry for lunch and their café (along with half of the museum) was closed for an upcoming event. We drove back to Fisherman’s Wharf and had lunch at the Boudin sourdough place (the deli, not the full service restaurant…it was a difference of $6.99 or $14 for a sourdough bread bowl with clam chowder!!). The bread bowls were not nearly as good as Splash Café, where they had toasted the bread and it was SO good!!! This place was fun though. We picked up a small loaf of bread to go with the dinner we cooked. :)
• We left downtown and drove those crazy windy roads again (at least 20 minutes of crazy switchbacks) to get to our campground at Anthony Chabot. The kids fell asleep in the car and Karry hooked up the trailer. I read a book while the kids slept. :)
  
• We drove to our new campground, set up camp, and washed 6 loads of laundry (and I remembered later that I forgot our sweatshirts that were in the car and have been over-used…bummmmer!).
  
• Karry cooked up some t-bone steaks that I had packed in our freezer from home. I had a basic spice rub that I’d made at home & he used that + butter and cooked them in a skillet, YUM! He also boiled some small red potatoes that I picked up back in Chula Vista, and then I topped them with salt, pepper, spinach dip powder, parmesan cheese, and butter. Mmm! I SO can’t wait to get home and cook creatively again…I miss having the time, space, and ingredients to do that!!
  
• We cleaned up the trailer, put away laundry, and I scrubbed the bathroom again (oh it gets gross so quickly…I like not sharing a bathroom with the boys at home. :)…That was it for our day!!
  
  P.S. it’s nice to be back at the trailer again, the hotel felt like a huge mansion. I think we must have had a queen or king sized bed, we’re used to a full here and it’ll be strange going back to our king at home. It was weird just having to walk so far to put things away in the hotel room. Things are so close in the trailer—it always feels cluttered and messy, but when you want to put something away, it’s just an arm’s reach or a short walk away. We did love being right in the city. The sewers in San Francisco stink at night, fyi—if you’re ever walking around there at night and smell something, just go stand over one of the sewer plates and you’ll see where it’s coming from!! Icky…Praise God for the amazing weather lately. I’m not sure of the temps, but we were told San Francisco would be cold and we’d need coats—no such thing! It’s been sunny—warm enough (but cold in the shade) to wear jeans and a t-shirt with the sweatshirt ready just in case. :)

The boys loved all of the hands-on exhibits.

Isaac built a "camp" out of these little shapes that velcro to each other. He really wanted to go back there after lunch to finish his camp, but we just didn't have time to do that & make it to the new campground (and do laundry) before dark.