Rain, rain go away... Dec 21, 2008

The kids suitcase arrived at 3 AM this morning and the idiot at the front desk actually called us. Don't they know we are sleeping? At least we have all of our clothes. Turnes out it was good thing because it rained today.
After breakfast in the hotel, we caught the electric trolley and rode to union sqare. We walked around and checked out some of the shop windows, took our picture in front of the Christmas tree. Our original reason for going there was to buy muni passes which is the best way to get around San Francisco if you don't have a car. It's good for the BART (subway), bus, electric trolleys and the cable cars. Of course we were there too early and the TIX place was closed. So we jumped on the Cable car where we bought our passes. If I had realized we could get them on the cable car we never would have gone to Union Square. So we rode the Cable car to the end of the line to catch the bus to Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. While we were in Union Square it started sprinkling and Scott says to me, "if it starts pouring down rain, we aren't going to go to the fort." Uh, if we don't do it now, we won't get to do it. But we keep pushing forward. We walked way more blocks than we needed to so we could get on the right bus. The kids were complaining, Scott was cranky. All of that was making me cranky too. I mean, I've been working on this for a year and have any of them (especially Scott) tried to help? NO! So there's all this pressure on me when things go wrong. GRRRRRR!
Eventually we get to the Golden Gate Bridge and the Fort which the kids were really happy about. We took the path from the parking lot to the Fort which looked like it was going to be muddy. I don't think Scott really wanted to do it. (Maybe I should let him put an entry up on his take on the day. :) ) But the kids were game because it meant we would get a passport stamp. So we arrived at the Fort and checked out the cannons and rooms in the Fort. It was pretty nice and I think it is so cool that they built the bridge right over it. After we toured it, we were so tired of walking and we needed to get up to the parking lot because we still needed to eat lunch and get to the Nutcracker at 2 PM. We didn't have a lot of time. The path back up wasn't bad because the rain stopped for a little while. The only exception to that statement was the 157 stairs which weren't that bad going down but on the way up, were like torture to already tired feet.
We caught the bus right as we reached the parking lot but were getting dangerously close to 2 PM. We brought individualized trail mix for everyone and the kids had been snacking on that throughout the day but they needed lunch. By the time we caught the 3 buses to get to the Opera House, it was 1:30 and we were not going to have time for lunch. Once again, the kids snacked on their trail mix (sometimes while the show was going on) to get them to the end of the show. It was a good performance. Ballerina's really are amazing.
After the show the kids were really hungry and we rode the bus straight to Ghirardelli Square. We ate at a place called Lori's Diner. The burgers and fries were good and Luke really enjoyed the fried shrimp. It wasn't fine San Francisco cuisine but it was dry and satisfying. After dinner we stopped in to Kara's Cupcakes. Cupcakes are mine and Lorelei's favorite dessert and these are fancy. Even the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting was heaven and the whole place is pink to boot. Next we stopped into the Ghirardelli store for a Hot Fudge Sundae and Hot Chocolate. I don't drink coffee and hot chocolate is my favortie cool weather drink. It was one of the best cups I have ever had. Scott and Lorelei shared the sundae and I had a bite. It was very good. Afterwards, we hopped back on the bus to the hotel to relax. The kids were full and happy to be resting and dry pajamas felt awesome.
Tomorrow we get our car and drive to Sacramento to see the State Capitol and Olde Sacramento. It's supposed to be raining. I have also been checking the weather for Yosemite since we head there on Tuesday and it is snowing, A LOT! We have to buy snow chains for the rental car which is actually a no no. We have been hoping not to have to use them but the weather doesn't look good.
Anyway, it was a good day despite the rain and we have 3 new passport stamps to show for it.