We started! We are on the road… we managed the 11h flight, we are over the jetlag and we are having so much fun… sometimes I still have to pinch myself that this is actually real.
It is!
We arrived on Monday (nearly 2 weeks ago) in the afternoon local time which was midnight for us and meant: 2 kids fell asleep just before landing and the rest could barely keep their eyes open. Taxi to the hotel…. quick refreshment and off to bed… and yay… first movements at around 1am (night!!!)…. we managed to keep things low till around 2am… and after 2h in the hotel room we just needed to get out…. walking the streets of San Francisco with four kids at 4am… well…nothing I need to do again but lets just call it a part of the whole adventure… (and lots of stops at Starbucks).
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The first day we ended up walking over 18km, found Hayes Valley by accident and loved it (lots of French restaurants and delis)… did one bit of Golden Gate Park (super playground and carousel close to the main entrance!), had our first pick nick and walked and walked and walked… a new city just keeps you going right?! (when we were back in the hotel, the kids were asleep and we had a little retrospect of the day and realised how amazing the kids are…. walked and walked and walked… )
On Wednesday we took the cable car! We went back to Hayes Valley for breakfast, walked over to the cable cars and had so much fun. The kids totally loved it. Even Joséphine was giggling all the time…
We ended in Fisherman’s Wharf – very touristic and not really our thing. Too many people, too many shops with souvenirs nobody needs, too many bad restaurants and so on… we walked along the piers, stopped at a playground, had ice cream and walked back to the hotel… another 16km on the clock (you may wonder why I know but after hubby wondered how much we walked and I told him he could check on my phone… we checked every day when we got back…)
On Thursday we went to the Exploratorium – a lot of people recommended it and the forecast was grey and a little rain (in the end it turned out very sunny and hot). An awesome experience! So much to do, try, play, think, see and and and…
After that we had a little stroll through the Ferry Building which is full of food stalls and shops (very close to the Museum), playground time and a stop at Yerba Buena Gardens – a place where we want to return before heading home. Beautiful oasis in the city! (we will spend the last two nights in SF before coming back to Sweden)
Friday we did the bridge! T H E B R I D G E! The bridge we showed the kids before the trip, we talked about, they even did a little research on it and so on… finally we saw it with our own eyes and crossed it with our feet.
(yay…. that was another 18km day)
I loved that they kept the park around the bridge very natural with plants and trees from the region. Once over the bridge we went to Sausalito, had lunch, strolled around a bit and took the ferry back to SF.
A few things:
We are using UBER (which is banned in a lot of cities in Europe) and love it. So convenient. Especially with kids and when in need of a mini van. Everything on your phone. Perfect!
Plates of food are giant. Some days we did not even have diner or just a little snack because we were still full from breakfast and lunch.
People talk to us! All the time! And it is so much fun. The first day we were sitting on a bench and enjoyed the sun that finally showed up (remember we started our tour when it was pitch dark and the city asleep). And we saw all these people walking their dogs… and started talking and the kids started to walk dogs too or this guy that showed Antoine how to play table tennis… and the baby of course… flirting with everyone… but yes, after 3 years in Sweden you nearly forget how that is when people socialise with you…
Next post: Our trip with the RV!
(all images by Paul & Paula)
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