We’ve been to San Francisco quite a few times — the last time being en route to Asia when E was still a baby. Boy, that was a tough trip. Happy to be where he can really enjoy vacations.

Traveling is his jam now!

He knows the drill.

Game break while Mommy got the rental car. We rolled into our AirBnb pretty late in the evening, washed up and called it a night.

For breakfast, Home cafe had the perfect matcha and coffee lattes and condensed milk and butter toast that reminded Y of, well, (childhood) home.

E claimed he was still hungry so we walked across the street to Twisted Donuts.

Then we headed to the Children’s Creativity Museum. It was close to where Daddy would be picking up his passport so he walked to the consulate while Mommy and son stayed to play.

3D map, similar to the one at the Mid-America Museum in AR — something about the sand and moving colors is therapeutic.

One-man personal puppet show for Mommy!

Then we went over to the Animation Studio. You first mold your characters with clay.

Followed by making a short clip with stop motion. They offered to e-mail us the video but E was in a hurry to move on.

Legos on the wall.

E took a Mystery Box Challenge in the Innovation Lab — come up with a themed creation using only the materials given.

And Daddy got back just in time to join us in the Tech Lab.

Then moved on to the Music Lab.

Green screen!

There was a nice playground right outside that E had been eyeing so we let him have at it. It was recess time for some school kids.

Chinatown for a late lunch… Jellyfish + clay pots. Too hangry were we to snap photos of the rest of the meal!

Stopped by a bakery for egg tarts and bread. Batman’s guarding them. :)

Elias, Mommy’s fam once owned a Swensen’s and Mommy worked there for years and ate gallons and gallons of ice cream. His eyes got HUGE.

We all napped and then by the time everyone was up, it was late… Perfect for a stroll along the beach for sunset. We were staying within walking distance to Ocean Beach. That view!

It was windy and cold, though.

Then we went to a little neighborhood Taiwanese joint for dinner. Spricy = Spicy + Pricey? Hahaha. Gotta love Chinglish!

We all shared a “bubble pot”.

And some “xiao chi”.

The desserts were killer. We ordered, um, quite a lot of those. :P

The grin says it all.

Sweet and salty at once and less time to finish! :))

The next morning, we boarded the ferry for Alcatraz.

Brunched on Chinese bread we bought the day before, along with some snacks we picked up at a local grocery store.

Initial briefing by a park ranger as it’s considered part of the national park service.

It was a steep walk to just the entrance of the tour.

Then we waited in this large room where the inmates formerly showered to get our headsets for the audio tour.

Rows and rows of cells.

We didn’t think E would want to listen but one of the staff said just let him try. Turned out he was captivated by the narration and stories!

After the tour portion, we were free to explore the rest of the island.

The flora was very pretty — contrasting the beauty of the grounds to the criminals once within.

Wildlife also roamed freely… Another irony.

The rec yard was of special interest by many…

We had to walk up a one-way narrow flight of stairs.

Inmates were allowed to play sports and games here.

Since we were in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, we walked over to Pier 39 to see the seals.

Elias watched for what seemed like hours — completely enthralled!

We went back for siesta time and then tried a Chinese/Fusion resto for dinner. The place was packed! We had to wait a bit but the food was pretty unique…

Morning jogs through Golden Gate Park were glorious. And it was only a mile away from our house for the week.

In the AM, we went to check out the Ferry Plaza and its Saturday Farmers Market.

Daddy and son sneaked out a bit early to play at the nearby park while Mommy bought some fresh fruit and other goodies.

A Taiwanese festival happened to be going on that weekend… Y wanted to try some of the food but the lines were ridonculous!

Though we’ve ridden it as a couple, we just had to do the cable car thing with him. Queued up at a Union Square and made it up to the top of the hill!

Disembarked and took a roundabout hilly route back so we could catch Coit Tower, Russian/Telegraph Hill and grab some more provisions in Chinatown, at Daddy’s request.

We walked the “dim sum district” side of C-town and Daddy popped into a few stores for to-go items.

Last stop before heading to our car at the Embarcadero. Steap was highly rated and we could see why!

G chose hot pot for an early Mother’s Day dinner. Happy to consume many of these little critters. :D

What did the little boy order here? Sweet potato fries! Lol.

Sunday was bike THE bridge day… We rented from a shop in Haight-Ashbury which was fairly close to us.

After crossing the bridge, we got off our saddles and walked the underpass to the other side.

Picnic’d and soaked in the iconic views.

Those ‘brows, bruh!

The ride back was a challenging one, sayeth the flatlanders.

Discovered an old fort.

We rode to the Palace of Fine Arts, which was new to us, a historical structure originally constructed to exhibit art.

Photo shoots were going on all around us.

He just wanted to run around after being cooped up in a bike seat. Hehe.

We cycled a little through GG Park and he had a ball at Koret Children’s Quarter.

Returned our bikes and went back to rest.

Daddy’s kinda SE Asian meal on Mother’s Day itself.

Roti, popiah, gado gado.

Sambal! Also had chicken rice…

E sampled pulut hitam.

Spotted bison on another morning run.

We drove across the bridge the next day to Sausalito. Originally, we had planned to go the Bay Area Discovery Museum but while we were plotting out directions, Google informed us that it may be closed. Sure enough, closed on Monday. :(

We had to quickly come up with a Plan B. What did people ever do without smart phones? (Save a lot of time, probably!) But we were able to drive the Marin Headlands for a bit. Funny thing was Y had commented when we biked the bridge that it’d be nice to see the views from “up there” and lo and behold, we got to do it!

Then we visited the Marine Mammal Center, a non-profit that rescues seals and sea lions.

We saw many of the patients in their care recuperating in their pens.

E was really serious about viewing them through the binocs they provided.

We drove by two military forts and took a step out to see Rodeo Beach — known for their red and green pebbles. I guess looking brown-ish from far away?

Further down the road, we pulled over to see the Point Bonita Lighthouse which is actually still active today.

It was a bit of a trail (especially for E) to get there.

But oh, the vistas!

Took breaks and “‘laxed” when he needed to.

He was excited to crawl into the tunnel.

The bridge was a little intimidating. You can’t tell but it was also crazy windy so it heightened the swaying feeling.

But we made it across for more beautiful scenes. AND what made it really worthwhile was seeing many whales breaching and swimming in the distance.

We couldn’t be in the area and NOT bring E to our beloved Muir Woods.

You lead the way, Elias?

Daddy always has lots to say about nature!

“On no subject are our ideas more warped and pitiable than on death… Let children walk with nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life, and that the grave has no victory, for it never fights.”
― John Muir, A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf

“Another glorious Sierra day in which one seems to be dissolved and absorbed and sent pulsing onward we know not where. Life seems neither long nor short, and we take no more heed to save time or make haste than do the trees and stars. This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.”
― John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra

So many good quotes of his!

Trees, we shan’t be gone for long. And you will surely be here when we return.

E knocked out before we even crossed back over the bridge. Since it was a longer drive, we let him nap and Daddy pulled over to see Land’s End and the Cliff House which were actually just down the street from our place.

That night, we had our minds blown away at this tiny hole in the wall with durian sticky rice and taro tofu pudding. Haha. The food which was homemade and mostly local/organic was good, too!

Daddy couldn’t stop raving about this stinky mound.

On the day we were leaving, we had just before noon to hang around before going to the airport. It was a toss up between trying to go to Bay Area Discovery again or stay in town. We decided to not run the risk of being stuck in traffic and settled on Alamo Square to see the Painted Ladies (from Full House!) and let E hit up the playground there. Unfortunately, the park was under construction so the play area was closed. Thus, the frown from E. :(

Admittedly, the houses weren’t as “lovely” in person as the show makes it. It’s always so highly stylized on TV! We would’ve passed off this neighborhood as just another one in SF. Plus, this ‘hood apparently is prone to break-ins — even in broad daylight. We read about it and a kind passerby also warned us while we were getting out of the car. We made sure to lock everything in the trunk.

We promised E another playground and since Daddy was curious about Haight street (since we didn’t get to see much of it after returning our bike rentals the other day), we got coffee/tea in the area and then Mommy walked E down to Koret again.

He didn’t get to do the slide last time because it was too crowded so that was a novelty.

Vacay-ending-blues?… He told us, “I don’t want the trip to be over — I want it to be longer!” :))

There’s always the next one to look forward to!