I still haven’t yet posted pictures and thoughts from our trip to the Bay Area in August. So I thought I would combine a brief trip report with the announcement that I, like my beloved (who beat me to the post!), have a flickr account. I have noticed other bloggers using flickr to post pictures this summer, such as Liz Lawley, and I think it was Steven Noels’ endorsement that was the final convincing I needed. Here is my flickr feed and here is a feed that combines both flickr and blog (thanks to Simon Brunning who commented about Feedburner on Ted’s blog.
Now onto a brief description of what can be seen on my flickr page for our Bay Area trip…(view as a slide show!)
Usually at home, but when he’s in San Francisco, he’s at the OSAF office on Howard Street. The building is beautiful and, in my opinion, is one of the most refreshing work environments my husband has had. Sunshine. Sofas. Art that you want to touch and feel beneath your fingers. A great kitchen. Fun people. An incredible aura of comfort and creativity. And, as Mitch Kapor pointed out in a recent post, a place where many dogs are happy during the days too. Our girls giggled while petting quite a few of them…
Since I was a young girl, I had wanted to see a koala. I finally got my wish when we went to the San Francisco Zoo. However, the one animal we saw looked dead, on display behind glass. A bit disappointing. The zoo was also the scariest experience on the trip for me as a mom: Abigail accidentally wandered ahead and became separated from us for at least a few minutes. When we lived in the Bay Area, I had heard that the SF Zoo was not a good one, but after our visit, I would disagree with this reputation. The girls had fun feeding the prairie dogs: this was extra-exciting since those rodents played a prominent part in the Lewis & Clark expedition we had been studying.
I got a bit lost trying to find Ghiradelli Square from Fisherman’s Wharf. Once we arrived I rushed through the store, girls in tow. I had promised the girls a treat and I had forgotten that free chocolate squares are distributed in the store! When I offered Elisabeth one, her first chocolate, she handed it back to me! Here’s the bittersweet part – the chocolate was sweet, but when we rushed back to the parking garage, only to find that we had stayed into the next hour by 3 minutes, then I felt a bit frustrated…
The girls and I rode two carousels during our trip. One at the San Francisco Zoo and one at Vasona Park, Los Gatos (yes, we rode the train too). At Vasona, I saw the Carousel Workshop, the pale horse stripped bare. The image somehow appealed to me: a spa! Life certainly goes round and round. If only it were as fun as a carousel! And if we had a carousel workshop where we could go for rest and rejuvenation…
At first it was a bit of a transition to adjust to our one week of Bay Area living. We’re not used to Ted commuting to work but the hotel life style – no dishes, cleaning or laundry – compensated for it. I had forgotten how the traffic was, and I had underestimated how much time I would be spending on the roads. Driving through San Francisco was driving me crazy. It took a while for this island girl to get used to the gray Gotham.
But then, our last day, the girls and I had the luxury of wandering around. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and looked out at the view of the islands. We rode a streetcar whose driver gave out transfers for free. We walked along Embarcadero and Bay. Strolling down to Fisherman’s Wharf was wonderful. Sunshine. Sea lions. Flowers. Little adventures. Lemonade. It was what we needed. It was also the first time I had spontaneously explored San Francisco. Perhaps I might fall in love with the city after all. I didn’t leave my whole heart, but I left at least a little piece of it in San Francisco.
2 responses so far ↓
1 Katherine // Sep 29, 2004 at 6:50 am
cool flickr rss feeds – I’ve added both to see which flavor I like best…and bookmarked your page in my browser as well 🙂
Never heard of flickr before you & Ted posted re it.
2 Katherine // Sep 30, 2004 at 7:36 am
now how about a flickr comment feed? 😉