Fish & Thirty Nine

San Francisco.  You may not realize this, but it's a big city.  And until recently, I'd never been, although I'd always wanted to go. It just seemed like the sort of city I'd love.  Ocean view.  Beautiful architecture.  Maybe a fabulous bridge.  Lots to see.  Lots to do.  A city rich in history, diversity, and culture.  Streets lined in beautiful old houses with Victorian flair.  An open-minded reputation.  A ban on plastic bags.  And it was even featured in Full House.  What more do you want?!


In fact, just last year I was thinking, are we ever going to get to San Francisco as a family?  I may have even said it aloud.  I do that.  Even to myself.  All the time, actually.



And then before I could catch my breath, we were living an hour and a half away.  And yet still hadn't really been.  As sad as that was, we still had not visited San Francisco.  The closest I came was waving as we drove to Stinson Beach.




And then in January we finally went.  To Chinatown.  It was a good time, a splendid time, and it had us thinking, we needed a list.  Of all those marvelous things we need to do in the wonderful city of San Francisco.  Places worthy of leaving your heart at.  Things we just had to do.  And after today, we can cross something else off the list.



A couple of things actually.



We have now officially been to the Aquarium of the Bay and Pier 39.  As well as Fishermen's Wharf.  And we had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  It was a busy day, but it was ours.  It was our day.  It was The Redhead's day.  And she loved it.  We loved it.  And although parking cost us $40 (yeah, I'm serious), it was awesome walking the area.  Usually we wouldn't even consider to eat somewhere like The Rainforest Cafe, we knew The Redhead wouldn't possibly remember eating there as a wee tot, and we were right.  And although it's high-priced, she really enjoyed the ambiance.  And we still like seeing that twinkle in her eyes.  That one she had while touching skates and sting rays today.  The one she had while laughing at sea lions.  That look she had while seeing an octopus.  The look she had when she realized we were going to the aquarium.

(By the way, our pal, Entertainment Book, had a nifty buy one, get one free coupon for the aquarium.  It's worth it.  Otherwise, you'll pay $21.95 for adults, and $12.95 for kids.)




And maybe I took some photos.  Because occasionally, I do that.

We may have eaten high priced, slightly mediocre food all for the love of The Redhead.  We may have even had to pay $40 for parking.  But we lucked out with the weather.  It rained our whole drive in, but was beautifully sunny once we arrived.  It didn't get cloudy until halfway during our day, and it didn't start sprinkling until we were leaving.  It rained again most of our drive home.  We were meant to spend the day at Pier 39 in gorgeous weather.  And yet, we still received rain during this drought.  What a blessing of a day.