San Francisco Parks

  We went to San Francisco. At least 15 things probably just popped into your head as you wonder what we could have done in such a historic, interesting city. Did we tour Alcatrez? Cross the Golden Gate Bridge? Walk the famous Lombard Street?

  We saw the city in terms of children's parks. We went to a park at Yerba Buena Gardens, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, Nob Hill, and The Presidio. We even spent a huge chunk of our time at the San Francisco Zoo playing at the playground. Some parks were old and out-dated, some were extremely cool. One even had a 20-foot slide that Alexis bravely went down. There were wood, plastic, and metal playsets. There were mostly sand bases, however one of the parks had that spongy blue base. We found swings, teeter-totters, diggers, and bridges. Alexis even tried a tire swing at one of the playgrounds

  Nick and I are already envisioning our next trip to San Francisco. It will include Alcatraz, Coit Tower, the Muir Woods, the Saturday Farmer's Market, and a trip to Wine Country. We may be empty-nesters when we get back, but we will have to do the city sans children!

  A few pics from San Francisco...from the parks of course! No scenic predictable shots here.

  We had a wonderful trip and it was a terrific week of quality family time. But I think we could have had the same fun in Omaha, NE. Maybe we will go there next year.

Hotel Housekeeping

  The best part of staying at a hotel on vacation is the fact that no matter what you do to your living space, someone else cleans it up. Genius. However, now that we travel with a child, we need to prioritize our Housekeeping time. After all, not disrupting Alexis during nap is a common goal. So we ask ourselves, how few times in one week can we have the garbage taken out to avoid things growing in the trash can? Do we really need someone to change the sheets on the bed? Do we vacuum our own carpets in a week's time? There is much strategy and thought that goes into vacations with a toddler and managing hotel in-room service is one of them.

  You know those signs you hang outside your hotel door that say "Please Do Not Disturb"? Yep, I hung it on our door this morning so Alexis could nap today without Housekeeping coming in to disturb us. After all, yesterday was a very long travel day for all of us and included no quiet time whatsoever. Today is a day for restoring our energy and sanity. Hooray for naptime! Do. Not. Disturb.

  So what does Housekeeping do? They call our room to double-check that we meant to hang the sign on our door.

  Sigh.