So, vacation...
Like I said, it was pretty awesome. We arrived on Jason's birthday (what bad friends, I know, not bringing any gifts) and just chilled out for the afternoon and then we walked to Castro Street and had dinner. It was nice. Ann got to buy some girl scout cookies from a girl walking down the street with a wagon, so that made her pretty happy, too.
Sunday we went to the farmer's market which was cool. I wish our farmers markets were like that around here but...I have the
CSA so that's pretty cool too so I'm not too jealous. (sign up for the summer, it's that time of year and spots fill up fast!) We also took a train from Mountain View to Palo Alto, which almost blew Asher's mind. He thought it was the coolest, especially it was double decker style and we sat on the top.
On Presidents day we went to the
Exploratorium, a pretty cool museum right in the bay in San Fran. Seriously, our kids loved it, we aren't just imposing our own love of science and cool stuff onto them. Asher asked to go back to the museum for the rest of the trip, I kid you not. He also had a massive meltdown there over a cheese sandwich (welcome terrible twos...), but over all it was pretty awesome.
Tuesday we went to
Pinnacles National Monument and had a wonderful picnic lunch prepared by Ann, then we hiked up hill to some caves which were pretty cool. I'm pretty sure Athena ran the entire time, perilous cliff faces be darned. She is so daring...Asher made us carry him most all of the time. Athena touched coyote poop and immediately got her entire upper body disinfected, then we saw the coyote that pooped it out, which was cool (not the touching part and I'm assuming it was the actual coyote and not another, grant me some liberties here). On the way home we ate in the garlic capitol of the world, Gilroy, California. The fries weren't as garlicky as I'd like, which was a little disappointing since we were in the garlic capitol of the world, but you know, they weren't bad, either. Maybe they could tell we were out of towners and toned it down for us. Maybe they are just tired of garlic...maybe the garlic is just weak because it's out of season and not fresh.
Wednesday we played it a little more chill and went to
Happy Hollows Kiddy Park in San Jose. A good time was had by all, the place is kind of a mini zoo, a petting zoo and a kiddie amusement park all rolled into one. And, awesome news was....Cleveland Zoo pass got us in for free! Rock on, right? Awww yeah. Asher and daddy and Jason and Athena all rode the roller coaster. Did I mention it was like 72 degrees and beautiful? What a nice day. And we ended up going to a Japanese noodle house where I got to have the best Kitsune Udon I've had in years. Even if Asher threw another giganto-tantrum there, I don't care because the food was so good.
Thursday we chilled at the park in the morning and then the Morrisons delivered us to the airport. Then our flight got cancelled. Then we got rerouted to Pittsburgh instead of coming home (snow cancellations in Chicago) but that flight didn't leave for another 3 hours. So, Ann, being the awesome person she is, came back and got us and took us to San Bruno to a park so Asher could burn off some extra energy. What a hero, seriously. Ryan was freaking out massively, too, so getting out of the airport for a while and hanging out with Ann just a little bit more was really nice for everyone involved (I hope I'm not overestimating Ann's enjoyment levels here). Did I mention it was another beautiful sunny 72 degree day?
Finally we boarded our flight which was a direct flight so that was nice. And they put us in economy plus, so that was nice, too. Asher slept the entire time which was amazing and really really nice for both Ry and me, I watched
The Big Year in flight movie, which was okay but not great. We get to Pittsburgh at 12:42 am, get our rental car and discover our luggage has been lost...well, not lost but it went to Chicago anyway. So now we need to pick it up tomorrow at Akron-Canton. Yippie...well, at least we have to go there anyway to get our car, so it's not horrible. I drive us the whole way home. It was a little eerie, there were almost no other cars on the highway at 2 am, go figure.
We get home around 3 am, then get up at 8:30 so Ry can get ready for his interview (which went pretty well, considering how tired he was). I dropped Asher off at granny's house (where he immediately contracted pink eye from Katya) and Ry met up with me and we got an ultrasound (as I mentioned yesterday, a girl). Then we drove our car back, picked up our luggage and tried to relax for the rest of the weekend.
Overall, a pretty great trip.
