San Francisco Part 1

Vacationing while you are on a self inflicted spending fast can be pretty tricky. Nay. Impossible. I broke down and spent $20 at the dollar store on entertainment for the kids for the dreaded 11 hours in the car.

"You got two of everything, right?" Jeff asked as I started pulling goodies out for the boys. "Yes! Of course I did!"

As I gave Eli his blue whiteboard for coloring (his favorite color), and Carson a red one, the first of many car battles ensued. "But I wanted the Lightning McQueen one!" Eli whined.

"Eli, I got you the blue one because blue is your favorite color." I tried to convince him his was better while Jeff muttered under his breath, "Lightning McQueen ALWAYS trumps blue."

Note to self -- get the boys IDENTICALLY the same everything to prevent jealous rages on future road trips.

A few cups of Gatorade into our drive and one little boy had a full bladder in the middle of the desert. He found the method of emptying said bladder to be pretty hysterical.

We stopped in Reno to stay the night at a "home-tel" as Eli called it. On the trip, I learned that Eli's firing of "Why" questions is directly related to his excitement level. The ENTIRE way to Reno, Eli was spitting off questions at an incredible rate. Such as, "Mom. But what is a hometel like?" "Are there dance parties at hometels?" "Why do people dance at hometels, Mom?" "Is the hometel our new home, that's why it's called a home-tel?" It went on. And on. And on.

Needless to say, we were all excited about the refuge the hometel provided. And Eli instigated his own dance party filled with lots of jumping on the beds as soon as we walked into our room.

Before long, we were back in the car on our way to "Franchesco's." Eli kept calling San Francisco Franchesco's. One of the two movies we own is Cars 2 and Eli has seen that movie about 12,000 times. Franchesco is Lightning McQueen's nemesis in the movie, so there's where that reference comes from.

Just like that we were in the buzz of the city, slightly overwhelmed by the lack of parking and supply of pigeons.

Thankfully we had some time to warm up to the San Francisco lifestyle with Abe and Klarissa showing us the ropes, because I was a nervous wreck my kids were going to dart into the road or run away from us amid their pigeon chasing or get attacked by a homeless person.

We stopped with Abe and Klarissa to get some ice cream cones. It's true what they say. Everything tastes better in San Francisco. Do they say that? They should.

The cousins got acquainted as we indulged.

Then we walked over to an awesome park just down the road.

This was just the start of our park hopping. It's true what they say about San Francisco. The parks are like amusement parks. Oh, do they not say that either? They do now.

Pigeon chasing is a sport in San Francisco. At least amongst the two-year olds.

I've dreamed of going to San Francisco ever since Abe moved out there. My perception of San Francisco was limited to the background noises I heard on my phone calls with Abe over the last 7-ish years as he walked the streets on his commute to and from work. It was fun to walk those streets for myself and put a visual with the background noises I've grown accustom to.

For a slide that steep and slick looking, it was deceivingly slow.

The kids resorted to sliding down on sand to get extra speed. I however, did not, and may have made a new record for the world's slowest decent down a slide.

Pretty sure this is when I was laughing mercilessly at Carson right after he fell. His feet slicked right out from underneath him and his head hit the ground (which is soft and has a little spring to it), his head bounced off the ground and I caught a glimpse of his facial expression right after his head bounced. It was one of my favorite Carson falls. Especially because he just walked up from it without shedding a tear, like it was something that happens every day. Oh yeah. Because it does happen every day. That kid has learned the art of falling with snazz.

Eli was here, there and everywhere. He had so much fun at the park.

Maybe going to the park was a way to get our soon-to-be third son to warm up to us a little bit before he was completely stuck with us. I think our efforts worked.

Abe made the terrible mistake of buying some root beer with dinner. Little did Abe know, Eli becomes a maniac when "spikey juice" (carbonated drinks) is nearby. Eli immediately claimed an entire root beer as his own and guzzled the whole thing down before anyone could say otherwise. Granted, the root beer did have his name on it, so I guess he had a right to feel so entitled.

Newland and Carson discussed the inner secrets of city life over their pizza.

With a little extra time to kill after dinner, we crossed one of our to-dos off the list and visited The Painted Ladies. Bummer -- two of the houses were being worked on, and the lighting was horrible while we were there.

But, you know what they say, San Francisco has awesome parks, and there happened to be one just across the street. We hung out at the park for a good hour or so as we waited for the perfect lighting to descend upon the ladies. Our husbands may have rolled their eyes at our efforts to create the perfect picture background, but I think they'll agree it was worth the wait.

To be continued...