A Day in the Bay

Now that the girls are truly good traveling buddies, it seems only appropriate to go beyond Sacramento and explore more of northern California when we have the opportunity. They have always been good travelers, but now they are both old enough to appreciate the actual places we travel to. So while we were in California this time around, we drove west, hopped on the BART, and prepared for a day in San Francisco.

Of course this was all coordinated to synch up with the Perrones, who were also in northern California for the holidays. We timed our BART arrivals within 15 minutes of each other and got ready to hit the town. We were a little nervous about the weather, but for San Francisco in November, it was extremely nice. Callie and Reese were excited to see Kate and Ashlyn, so the weather was the least of their concerns.

Our first stop was the Ferry Building, where we checked out some shops and got fancy coffees. As you can see, we also took advantage of the scenery to snap a couple of pictures of friends of both generations.

After the Ferry Building we popped over to the San Francisco Aquarium on our way to Fisherman's Wharf. Both stops had the girls running from shiny object to shiny object, which was perfect because it allowed us to trail behind and catch up on numerous topics.

We then popped over to Ghirardelli Square and hit a brewery for lunch. It's a great time of life when you can just put the kids at another table and just pretend that you don't even know them.

You can't go to Ghirardelli Square without indulging in the sweets that give it its name. We managed to buy a few chocolates to tide us over for a month or so. Although we wanted to take advantage of their ice cream shop, we were trying to hold out for our next destination.

While John and JP grabbed another beer or two, Sarah headed with Lauren and the girls to the new exciting pop-up Ice Cream Museum. It was about a 45 minute self guided tour through various rooms all centered around ice cream and the paraphernalia that goes with it. The extra special twist of this museum is that there are four designated treat spots where you get a mini ice cream cone, an ice cream sandwich, or other delights.

The final room is a playground built over a pit filled with big plastic sprinkles. The girls had a blast trying to cover themselves with it like they were on a sandy beach. Overall it was a great day and we managed to pack the relatively short amount of time that we had with each other. Someday soon we will be able to schedule a longer visit with this gang.