Visiting, and Eating, and Visiting, and Eating, and...

Friday we left San Francisco for the suburbs, and went to meet my sister-in-law. Apparently under the delusion we had somehow been underfed on the trip so far, she had determined to take us to all her favorite restaurants (her phrase was 'we're going to eat our way across Palo Alto'), with a break to see the Stanford campus.

Stanford campus was very pretty-with a classic quad:


...a famous collection of Rodin sculptures, including the Burghers of Calais.

(Okay, confession- I'd never heard of it, but my husband recognized it on sight, impressing me no end. It's his expensive liberal arts eduction showing.)

And the university chapel was also very striking:


After this, we split the party. My sister-in-law went off to retrieve her children from day care, my husband took a long walk around the Stanford Dish (with the camera):


..and I headed off for a visit with blog friend AlisonH- (of whom I have no picture since said husband had the camera). It was a lovely visit-I got to meet her potter friends Mel and Kris who were there dropping off some extremly lovely bowls. Delightful people- we had a nice chat over some of Alison's famous chocolate torte (truly amazing!). The time fairly flew, and then I had to rush off to meet family for Mexican food for dinner. (By this time, I could probably have skipped dinner, but hey, Mexican food!). The original plan had included a yarn store visit, but that wound up not happening...with the result I saw no yarn on the trip. Next time for sure.

And then we where whisked back to the family house, which for the last several weeks had been home to several large boxes for our nephews. My sister-in-law had planted them in the hall and then told the boys heartlessly, "We can't open these until Uncle Jonathan and Aunt Robin get here." By the time of our actual arrival, the excitement had reached a feverish pitch. Jack and Dash helped with the unpacking---of their first electric train set.




Jack was hugely excited when he realized he could make the trains go himself.



The boys took quite some time to settle down after that and go to bed, and the next morning they raced down and had to be persuaded to leave the trains alone while they had breakfast and we all went down to see the farmer's market and take a last walk in San Francisco. I thought the rocket ship was delightful, and even better was the 'travel poster' and 'departure schedule' posted next to it.


Dash led the charge off to see the giant fountain:


And I thought the expressions on these two faces were especially cute. (You'd look up dubiously too, if a bird was about to poop in your ear.)


And then after that, there was more playing with trains (the train layout gained a tunnel, and coaling and water towers. Giant robot coaling and water towers, according to Jack) and a trip to a local mystery bookstore, and pizza, and we all sprawled around the living room and watched Wall-E. Well, we sprawled. Dash bounced, wiggled, and attempted to scale furniture. But then he'd seen it before. Then it was time to say goodbye, as the boys went to bed and Jonathan and I headed off to catch our redeye home.



And for anyone who'd like to see even more photos of the trip- click here to visit the trip album.

Alcatraz and Muir Woods

Wednesday we'd made plans to go out to Alcatraz. The ferry goes out to the Island and the audio tour is included in the ticket price. Which we would likely have taken anyway. We did linger at the dock to hear the spiel of a National Park interpreter costumed in an Army uniform of the Civil War era, talking about the history of the island first as a fort, and then as a military prison. But of course the really famous history of the island is the years when it was a federal prison reserved for the most prominent and intractable prisoners.


The audio tour proved to be very good, in part because it was narrated by several men, including both guards who had worked at the prison, and men who had been imprisoned there. They gave a real feel for what the place must have been like. One of the more poignant accounts came from a man who talked about the proximity to San Francisco- at only a little over a mile away, the prisoners could see the city and sometimes even hear snatches of traffic and music on the wind--everything that was being denied them.


Riding away from the island, it was easy to see why it became such a legend.


This was followed by more walking around the city, dinner and a stop in Ghiradelli Square, for ice cream. Or, more accurately, for ice cream toppings. The ice cream itself is really only a substrate. (My sister-in-law says this is her favorite picture of the lot.)

(And yes, it was delicious!)

The next day, we headed out to Muir Woods. Because, to me, California will always mean redwoods. They were quite magnificent.



We saw several deer, quite close, and climbed up through the trees until we got to the ridgeline, which had a fabulous view out to the coast.


We finished the day with yet another excellent meal. (Despite all the walking and hiking, San Francisco is not good for one's waistline.)

From Sutro to the Golden Gate and Beyond

Sorry, I really hadn't intended to go this long without posting, but life has been being one of those things that happened while I was making other plans. But before I get into that, I should finish talking about the week in San Francisco.

Tuesday dawned a bit foggy, and we got a latish start so our first stop was lunch at Louie's, a diner with a view of the coast. From there we walked around the Sutro Baths.


It was amusing to note that these venerable ruins were actually the foundations of a building that burned down in my lifetime. We set out along the coast, taking a walking path that leads through the Sutro Heights State park. The trail was pleasant and quiet, and afforded many ocean views, as well as frequent glimpses of the Golden Gate Bridge.




The skies cleared as the day went on, becoming sunnier and more pleasant. We walked on, passing through a couple of parks and a brief area of city before returning the coast at the Presidio.



We were disappointed to find that the path that actually goes under the bridge was closed for construction, though there is a route slightly inland on sidewalk that lets you access the park area on the other side of the bridge.

Our hosts took us to see the Wave Organ, a curious art project that uses pipes in the surf to generate tones. Unfortunately the nearby dredging operations were so loud, we couldn't actually hear anything else, but just the look of the thing was pretty cool. It reminded me strongly of the computer game Myst.


We walked up into the city and found dinner, and then took a cable car back to the general vicinity of the car. En route, we stopped to admire the WPA murals at the Beach Chalet, one of a number of surviving WPA art projects in the Bay area. I was charmed to find a knitter there:


...as well as cool oceanic carvings:


It was quite dark as we walked along the beach back to where we'd left the car, and we could smell smoke from a handful of bonfires out on the beach. It was a marvelous day--one of the joys of vacation is being able to spend a lot of time outdoors, and this was excellent- gorgeous views, and terrific company. And we'd still most of the week left to go.