I realized that we had never gone on a “real” family trip that didn’t involve visiting relatives (mostly my parents in Seattle). So we decided to go on a road trip to San Francisco for the long Memorial day holiday weekend. I lived in SF from 99-2001, and it is still my favorite city. Our last trip was 5 years ago so we were definitely due for a visit!
Of course it didn’t take long to realize that SF is a very different experience when you have kids. It’s still an awesome city but not very practical to eat at all our favorite restaurants. Instead of dining on shaking beef at Slanted Door, we ate at whatever was closest and most convenient to our hotel. Of course, going to our favorite bars and checking out any new ones was out of the question. We were in our hotel room every night by 8pm so we could get Tyler prepped and ready for bed. Speaking of bed, Tyler fell off the bed the first morning and put a half inch cut in his forehead. Blood was pouring out of the cut and we were freaking out. Luckily the blood stopped fairly quickly and no stitches were needed. The next day we requested a crib for him to sleep in and no further accidents ensued, however the bandaid on his forehead in all our pictures is a constant reminder of the horror.

Besides the head injury, the rest of the trip went really well. On Friday we went to a science museum called the Exploratorium, at the Palace of Fine Arts. Of course Tyler fell asleep as soon as we arrived, so Tom and I spent the first hour exploring the museum and wading through the massive groups of school children. Finally Tyler woke up and was ready to play…
He loved the gigantic bubbles.

he loved trying to stack blocks on the vibrating table…

most of the exhibits were for older kids, so he spent quite a bit time in the toddler area too.

afterwards, we spent some time roaming the area outside and admiring the architecture.


Another highlight of the trip was having dinner with our friends David & Linda. They conveniently lived a block from our hotel in SOMA, and have a 2 year old son as well, Dillon. Dillon is only 2 months younger than Tyler and it was great to see them play together. Dillon very graciously let Tyler rampage through his room and play with all his toys.

Linda made a great home-cooked meal for us that Tyler clearly enjoyed…

The next day was brunch at Pier 30/Fisherman’s Wharf with the Hongs again and the two buddies had fun hanging on the pier…



we had a great time! Tyler did very well on the 5 hour drive, with 1000% thanks to the portable DVD player and his new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD. who know he would love Mickey Mouse so much?
Adjusting back to home life has been somewhat of a challenge in the sleep area. For the past 3 nights he’s been going to sleep fine at 9:30, but waking up crying anywhere from midnight – 2am. The only thing that will console him is bringing him in to sleep with us. The second his head hits our bed he is sound asleep again. For the first couple of nights we would put him back in his room after he fell asleep, but he would only wake up again shortly after, crying to come back to our room. I’m hoping this is just another weird 2-and-a-half-year- sleep-separation-anxiety phase he’s going through or maybe it’s bad dreams? he’s cried out a few times in his sleep “NO!! NO!!!” which makes me wonder what he’s dreaming about
A king-size bed would come in handy as our queen is feeling a bit cramped these days…a full-night’s sleep would come in handy too.