3 hour flight delay, then an "incident with the BART police" stopped us between our destination and the subway stop before it. Eventually te train backed up to Powell and we were able to get off just one stop early. Our hotel is super nice with a city view!

Now I must attend to my rumbling tummy. Good night!

A bowl of roasted garlic.

Our first pedi can experience. Our late plane kind of screwed out plan to have bus passes this morning. When Ben pointed out it was already 11 as we left the farmers market, and we weren't able to board a fully packed trolley We decided it was worth it to be biked along the pier. City pass and muni pass in hand now, we are ready to explore.

Daily homemade noodles-Ben is in heaven.

On our way out of the Japantown mall I had to backtrack to the booth selling mochi ice cream. Yes, I was stuffed from snacking all day and our dinner reservations are in just four hours. But I've always wanted to try mochi ice cream! It did not disappoint. I wonder if it's sold anywhere in Denver.

We go shopping deep in the city, where we find a unicorn ($4000), I get netted by a booby-trap at the pirate supply store, we pass a man shopping while completely naked, and we sit in a three chair movie theater with a fish tank in place of a screen.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

Discovering a cool museum in our own town made us feel like tourists in our own city.  We decided on a restaurant in LoDo near the ballpark called Biker Jim's Dogs.  Of course Ben chose an exotic dog made of rattlesnake and pheasant topped with cactus and a Malaysian jam.  I chose a much more boring all beef dog, Jim's Classic style with cream cheese and grilled onions.  Their baked beans were really good, and probably the best fried mac and cheese I've ever ordered.  I was really excited to see a Boylan's soda fountain too. 

After lunch we walked a few blocks to Sakura Square.  On the way we saw a strange group bicycle:
And some funny street art:

I also found some goodies:

I wonder if these will be any good.  The one I tried in San Francisco came out of a box too.  Next week we have plans to visit Boulder.  I have my sights set on Smooch.  Their mochi ice cream looks heavenly and I can't wait to try several. 

It was so fun to play in Denver today!  I learned some cool things (did you know Denver had three cable car lines in the 1880s?  We saw a cable car at the museum from Denver), and it reminded me that there's a lot to explore in our own town still.  It's even possible to sight see with a toddler.  (Jack was angelic for the outing, even putting his hands in pockets while wandering the museum.  He only needed occasional reminders to behave.)  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a mochi ball calling my name.

 Jack loves to help me bake.  Today I was making pizza for dinner, so I invited him to help assemble the pies.  What a helper!  He stretched, squashed, rolled, and smushed the dough.  He spread the sauce and licked the spoon.  He sprinkled cheese and herbs.  He placed pepperoni perfectly.  The only problem was when we were done he cried because he wanted to make more!  Don't get between this boy and an apron. 



Accidental sideways camera by Ben.  But I like it, it's kind of artsy.

The safety glasses came for this project.  Ben was at Lowes and they were having a free kids project.  Jack was a little wary and close to his naptime, but the store let him take home all this gear for free!  Today Ben and Jack built the truck:

Oh, this is fantastic. Ben's steaming UK set up is working wonderfully. I love watching this show on its proper schedule. It's even fun watching the british "adverts."

This mom thing is pretty nice.