Back from the city on the bay

We returned tonight from 5 busy and fun days in San Francisco. Grace was an amazing little traveler. She was close to perfect on the 5 hour flights, did much more walking each day than I am sure she ever has in her life, waited in many lines without complaint, and even tolerated a rainy day hike and adult fun (wine tasting) in Sonoma. We did so much that the pictures and story will take several days to post.

Our Sunday morning arrival landed us right in the middle of San Francisco's gay pride celebration. Apparently, the parade closed down a lot of streets and, combined with gorgeous weather and a Giants baseball game, brought many more people to the city than on a "typical" Sunday. I should have known we were in trouble when we told the cab driver we wanted to go to our hotel in Fisherman's Wharf and he was very unhappy. We flew into the city from the airport but after about 30 minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic along Embarcadero, we decided to get out and walk the last two miles along the water. It was a much better option than sitting in a hot cab watching everyone enjoy the sunshine. Our first view was of the Oakland-Bay bridge once we got all of our luggage onto the sidewalk. (I later learned that this bridge is 7 miles long - the Golden Gate is only 2 miles - and is mostly the same suspension construction as the Golden Gate. Makes you wonder why the Golden Gate is more famous...)

Not bad....even if we did look kind of silly wheeling two suitcases and pushing a stroller overloaded with carry-on items.

Grace was happy to get right into the hotel pool. In fact, she was in the pool at some point 4 out of the 5 days even during the chilly evenings. Luckily the pool was heated so as long as we wrapped her in towels when she got out, she was fine. On this trip she learned to do flips under the water. The kid is fearless!

Later that night we went to see the Cleveland Indians play the 2010 World Series Champs - the San Francisco Giants.Their stadium is right on the water and from one walkway in right field you can see people on small boats and kayaks waiting for a home run ball.

It was a sold out game so we only had "standing room" tickets. Grace couldn't understand why we weren't going to our seats. I think she was tired and wanted a place to sit down. Normally, she would be content wandering and exploring.

We kept her busy with ice cream, cotton candy, going down the Coca-Cola slide and hitting baseballs in a mini stadium for kids. She did a great job and was SO proud of herself!Forget soccer, maybe softball is going to be her game!