Forney museum of transport 1

We wanted to do something fun this weekend, and Ben found the Forney museum. They have antique trains, cars, bikes, carriages, and all sorts of strange things. Jack seemed to think it was really cool, and I was surprised at how interesting the museum was.

Trying to stay afloat

Work has been trampling me down hard since our vacation ended.

 I tried to have fun tonight.   There was this: (sorry for the vertical frame)

and then this:

But then I got some work info that put me back in a funk.   My actual job is pretty good.  When I'm there with a patient, doing my thing, I think: what a great nursing gig I have.  But the call stress and the hours and the drama and the regulations and all the other crap is getting harder and harder to bear. What's wrong with this summer?  So many people I've talked to are depressed too.  When will it get better?

I thought only rich people had nannies

Wow, child care problem solved! Thanks to SitterCity we found a girl we are very excited to hire. Actually, we found FOUR girls who we were excited about, but had to nit-pick to narrow it down to one.  I can't believe how quickly we got ourselves a nanny.  Ben posted our ad on Friday night.  We had 9 applicants by Monday morning.  We interviewed four of the best Monday and today.  Tonight we made her an offer and she said yes on the phone.  We're just waiting for her reply to our emailed, formal job offer before we sadly tell the other girls they didn't get the job.  I HIGHLY recommend SitterCity if you need sitters.  It costs to join but it's completely worth it. 

zing!

We have wonderful news! Before his diploma was even printed Ben landed an amazing job with Zing Studios. We are so excited and thrilled with it. He has two weeks to find a nanny for Jack. That's a challenge in itself, but we will take that one step at a time.

Final journey

We took a cable car from union square to Ghirardelli square. No SF trip would be complete without those, right? Then we skipped the long line for a cable car back in favor of a taxi (only 30 cents more plus tip--totally worth it). I finishes my ice cream on my fluffy bed and then we quickly collapsed into a wake-less sleep.

We are both very sore this morning and trudging through the crowds to get back to our little boy. It sounds like he is having an absolute blast with the grands. I'm writing this from my plane home, they just closed cabin doors so I will sign off now!

Dinner at Grand Cafe

We came off the island voyage thoroughly wind blown. I wanted to squeeze in the MOMA or a yarn shop, but the MUNI buses thwarted us. They've been terrible this weekend. In 2.25 days we were passed by 8 buses for being too full, and 2 buses we were on didn't make it to our destinations, despite correct schedule matching on our end.

So both other places closed and we made it back to the hotel just in time to change for dinner.

Once refreshed we said "F the F train" and took a cab to the theater district.

The Grand Cafe is attached to the hotel Monaco in their ballroom. Apparently it was one of the few art deco ballrooms to survive the 1906 earthquake. It was beautiful and the food delicious-French contemporary.

Fried squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese with fennel and lemon.

Black kale salad and watermelon/ heirloom tomato gazpacho.

Seafood cassoulet and marrow and fig flatbread.

Alcatrez #4

Alcatrez #3

Alcatrez #2

Alcatraz cruise batch #1

Lunch at Chow

A quick walk toward our train yielded a table at Chow, a local favorite with a few places around the city. We got a pleasant patio table. Ben ordered a Boston Cooler, which was a ginger ale float with candied almonds. Then I found a farmers market in Sunset, right next to the trolley stop.

Museum #2

We crossed the park to the Academy of Sciences next. We skimmed through, doing the rainforest dome and the aquarium. I sent fish and butterfly texts to Jack (via mom). The baby ostriches were super cute- they darted around just like they do in Joust.

Museum #1

The De Young museum in Golden Gate park. I was very disappointed that the Nureyev costume exhibit wasn't open yet--and the textiles wing was closed to prepare for it! Bummer. But the American paintings were a nice collection. "hey, it's us at night at home." Ben said regarding the spinner painting. :-). The observation tower was also really cool.

Breakfast at Boudin

Mmm, hot chocolate, chocolate croissant and Ben's un-clammified sourdough bread leftovers. If there was any doubt, you now see that the summer dieting also took a vacation.

Ice cream

In a change from our usual Ghiradelli's visit, we had Bi Rite ice cream after dinner. The lines were long but moved fast. I has mint chip and balsamic strawberry. Ben had white chocolate raspberry and honey lavender. We thought it was quite good. Flavorful and creamy. On a US World and Report survey Bi Rite is #3 and Sweet Action is #7. But I prefer Sweet Action for its flavor variety and ample seating.