Micah and Christine

Saturday (the 3rd) was a big sightseeing day for us. We rode the bus down to the Marina District, stopping on Chestnut Street. When we first got there, we purchased a couple of donuts for the journey ahead.

We spent a nice, leisurely couple of hours windowshopping. There was a Janie and Jack retailer with a huge amount of clearance, but I kept my cool and didn’t buy anything. $9 a piece is still a lot! The whole street was lined with boutique after boutique, with all kinds of unique clothing and jewelry. 

We stopped for lunch at Marina & Kebab along the way. Lots of the restaurants in San Francisco are small. It is kind of rare to find high chairs in these joints, so we just make do. Charlotte and Daddy looked really cute sitting together, and I enjoyed a KILLER greek salad. No really, it was amazing. That chicken was SO good.

Then we walked and walked and walked. We chose not to bring the stroller, so both Micah and I carried heavy burdens on the long trek. I carried Charlotte in the Ergo, and Micah had a heavy backpack full of all of our trip necessities, including diapering stuff, emergency snacks, cameras... you get the picture. 

Finally, after walking what seemed like forever, we were rewarded with a gorgeous sight. We had seen a few pictures, so we knew a little of what to expect, but reading about it doesn’t compare to the experience. We had been walking through manicured neighborhoods for blocks, then suddenly this gorgeous scene was before us:

The Palace of Fine Arts. Wow.

Then we walked around the pretty grounds and made our way to our destination, the Exploratorium. This is one of those museums that I mentioned we have free access to due to a reciprocal agreement with our science museum back home. 

It was huge. There were so many exhibits, and so many things to play with and explore. 

There was also a special exhibit when we were visiting about the art of lacemaking, which I thought was extra cool.

After a long, fun few hours at the museum, we were bone tired. Still, I had heard about this thing called a wave organ not far from us, so we decided to walk and have a look. From the Exploratorium website: “The Wave Organ is a wave-activated acoustic sculpture located on a jetty in the San Francisco Bay.”

We walked out to the furthest point of a small jetty and came across this strange sculpture. The seating area is built from granite and marble from a demolished cemetery, so there are some really pretty pieces. The wave organ is built from PVC pipes and concrete. We were not there during high tide, which is when the sounds are supposed to be at their best. Still, I enjoyed cuddling with Charlotte as we looked at the gorgeous view, listening to the waves lapping the jetty and hearing the gentle gurgling from the wave organ.

Where was Micah? Taking pictures, of course. : ) Then we began the long walk to the bus stop. We needed to get home and rest up, because the next day was the Fourth of July!

Next up: 4th of July part 2!

Christine and I haven't been posting about all the things we're doing here, so over the next couple days, we will try to catch up.

Back in June we went to Zeum, a hands-on arts/technology museum. A MUSEUM OF THE FUTURE!

Christine has already posted some pictures from that adventure, but here are more.

The museum is downtown, so we got to see all the tall buildings from the bottom up. It wasn’t that great. Kinda like being in a canyon of really tall brick trees. We also saw some trolley cars. They weren't so awesome either. Kinda like buses on tracks that are really slow and don’t have air conditioning.

For lunch we wanted to go to an Indian place, Little Delhi‎, but we couldn’t find it, so we had Blondie’s Pizza for lunch. The prices were low and the food was fine, and we were just happy to take a break and eat something. Later as we wandered around, we saw the Indian restaurant, so we might try it next time we're in the area. Both of these places were recommended by highly reputable people that we found on the street.

After lunch, we went to the museum. It was pretty weird; many of the exhibits were very hands on and media rich. There was a place to make music videos, do clay-mation, warp images, cameras with green screen, legos, and more. It was really pretty hip and modern- very different from any museum I had been to before.

Unfortunately, most of the the exhibits were for kids older than Charlotte. There was a play place for younger kids and she liked that. She also played with the legos and puppets; we’re trying to give her a balance of arts and sciences.

After the museum, we walked around the grounds. Charlotte loved this, since walking is her favorite thing. Christine and I are both getting a little tired of walking her around, but she can’t get enough. Here’s a close up of a picture Christine posted already.

Tomorrow: 4th of July weekend!