The City by the Bay

Lexi had spring break the week following Easter. Allen and Grandpa Bob had the Monday after Easter off, too. We'd given Grandpa Bob an annual family pass to the Bay Area Discovery Museum for Christmas and with everyone having a free day we planned a trip to Sausalito.

As many of you know, a day trip with three young kids might as well be a week long vacation. And, it's a good two hour drive for us to get through the city, across the Golden Gate and down into the cove where the museum is located. Grandpa Bob does play tour guide during the drive over the Bay Bridge (he worked on the lower level during construction), through downtown, along the warf, through the Marina (including his old apartments along the way), and over the Golden Gate. His enthusiasm and love for the city rubs off onto the kids and they are mesmerized by the sights.

As we head down the hill into the facility we all notice that the parking lot is pretty close to empty. Now, it was a Monday, but this is the Bay Area. Nothing is empty. Ever.

My stomach sank as I had the sad realization that the place might be closed on Mondays.

Fears confirmed. 

The city has a load of fun activities so we weren't too sad. We let the kids out to burn off some steam while we figured out what to do.

The view from the parking lot looking back toward San Francisco.

 We usually plan to spend some time at the beach when we make the trip so we did have all of the toys, towels, change of clothes, blankets, etc, etc. And, it was an unusually fog-less day for the city. We chose to capitalize on the weather and opportunity, piled back into the mama mobile, and made the short drive to the beach.

Last time we went to the beach, Addie screamed the entire time. Looks like she overcame that fear. 

Off to explore the caves.

Cheese!

Staring down the waves. I think she thought she had the power to control the seas.

Emmy took an accidental swim in the breakers. The child has NO fear. She was pissed about the whole thing, but went back in later!

The trip wasn't what we had originally planned, but we had a great time none-the-less.