Family Vacation -- Days 2 and 3

On Monday, MacTroll went to work.

X-man and I went out for breakfast at Café Bellini where we both consumed fruit bowls. Then we jumped aboard the trolley car and headed down to the waterfront at Fisherman's Wharf.

One of the brighter things I did for this trip was purchase a "City Pass." City Pass is a tourism group that goes into major cities and gets major tourist attractions to invest in selling more tickets at a discounted rate. In this case, I bought myself unlimited free trolley rides ($5 each way for adults), unlimited bus fare $1-2 each ride, and free tickets for myself to SF MoMa, The Aquarium by the Bay, the Blue and Gold Boat Tours, the California Academy of Sciences Museum and the Exploratorium Children's Science Museum (you could also choose the DeYoung Museum) for $59. All of these purchased separately would have been over $115. They also have kid options, but most of the museums are free for kids under 5. The only exception in this group was the Aquarium.

Once we arrived at the Wharf, X-man and I wandered down and got our tickets for our boat ride. The large boat takes passengers out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge (or Superman's Bridge -- if you're X-man and love the 1978 movies). Then it comes back toward the city around the back of Alcatraz.

X-man loved the boat. He also appeared to enjoy the 100 or so French Grandparents that were on a tour and snapping photos every 2 seconds while speaking rapidly in their native tongue. He, of course, being Mr. Social tried to communicate with them in their special language -- Spanish -- Dora and Diego style.

After the boat ride, we went to the Aquarium, which had only one thing going for it -- you got to walk in two tunnels that were under the large tanks. X-man really loved walking through the rays and sharks, but it's not worth the usual price of admission $15.95 for adults and $8.00 for kids 3 and over. (This will be a reoccurring theme, which made me happy I had a City Pass).

After the aquarium, I tried to get X-man to walk back to the Cannery where the Ghiradelli chocolate store is. But when we got there, he declared himself too tired to go on, and we got back on the trolley and rode it back to the hotel. When we got to our stop, X-man was fast asleep in my lap. He stayed asleep for the 1 block I carried him, the elevator ride up to the 9th floor and then he slept for 3 hours on his bed.

On Tuesday, X-man and I went to the Exploratorium to play. Kids 5 and under are free there, but they should raise that number to 7 and under. If your child does not have a firm grasp of reading, it would be difficult to participate in any of the experiments. The one exception was the light and motor areas. X-man was particularly good at playing with light exhibits that required you to use mirrors and prisms. He also naturally put together the electronic connectors to make a battery light up. But there were a lot of older kid school groups there that did not have patience for a 3 year old and pushed him aside, tried to steal his chair out from under him or tried to tattle on him to me.

The pre-school/toddler/baby area was terrible. IT consisted of two couches, a puppet theater with 2 puppets, some waffle blocks and a bead table. If I were traveling with multiple kids, there would not be enough there to keep little kids busy. However, as your child gets older they'll go nuts over the experiments.

After the museum, I drove X-man across the Golden Gate Bridge. We were going to go to Muir Woods for a visit, but in the middle of the bridge I feel little hands reach around my face and announce, "Surprise, Mommy!"

I nearly crapped my pants. Since we rented the car seat from Hertz, we had to choose between a convertible baby seat that maxed out at 40 lbs and 40 inches or upgrade to a booster for kids over 40 lbs and 40 inches. Since X-man is exactly 40 lbs and 40 inches... we had to make a decision. So, we chose the booster. And guess who managed to undo the seatbelt and crawl out of his seat in the middle of the bridge. The first exit on the other side of the bridge is Vista Point. Other families were there to take photos of the city. Me, I was explaining to my kid what would happen if we were in an accident and he wasn't buckled in. If the trip to the hospital didn't scare him, the idea of Mommy going to jail and leaving him unattended appeared to do the trick. We haven't had a problem since. Still, it was enough of a scare that I didn't want to drive any more, so I turned around and took us back to the hotel.

That night we ate out at Chevy's. Where they conveniently have the caloric content of their meals on the menu. Nothing there is really under 1,000 calories. There is, however, a new chicken avocado salad (for 510 calories) that they claim to mix at your table. Yeah -- no. It comes in a bag in the back and the only mixing they do is of the guacamole. No way to separate the chicken and cheese or dressing. When I asked the guy if they could basically bring me a bowl of lettuce the reply was no. So I just shrugged, handed him the menu and said, then I'm not eating anything. It was annoying and stupid. Chevy's now had the honor of being the first place that couldn't help me out with my health needs. So they suck.

Tomorrow: Day 4 -- Hitting the Children's Playground and the San Francisco Zoo before Loosey finally gets time to herself to go shopping and have drinks with an old friend.