Beach Time!

Nigel striking a beach pose 

Summer in San Francisco can be cold and foggy.  It is not unusual for an August day to start out 52 degrees and the sun doesn't like to peak its head out until around noon.  I have been told that September is when summer really starts here and it looks like that is going to be the case.  This last week of August  is bringing more beach days than we have had since we got here in July.  As I laid on the beach after picking the boys up from school yesterday I began looking through all the beach pics I have taken since we got here and decided to share them.

Basil and Xaviar playing in the sand at Crissy Field

The two pictures above and the three next ones were taken on our first beach trip since we moved here.  It was a beautiful sunny day but probably only 60 degrees out.  We decided to go to Crissy Field which has a beautiful beach near the Golden Gate Bridge.  It is a decent walk or a quick bus ride from our apartment.  We packed up some sand toys, a blanket and some food and headed out.  As beautiful as it was, I was in my jacket on the blanket FREEZING while my boys swam and played in the sand.  It started to get to cold for them as well and they began asking to be buried in the sand because it was so warm.

Nigel in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

Nigel buried up to his ears

Xaviar skipping away after he buried Basil

These next two are from a day when Nigel and Xaviar found a couch someone had built out of sand.  Of course they had to sit down and get comfortable.  It was an amazing piece of sand art.  I am always impressed that people will spend so much time on a piece of art when it is going to be washed away.  A true testament to it being all about the journey and not the destination.  We went back the next day and of course the tide had removed all traces of it.

And finally these pictures are from this week.  We have been walking down to the beach by Ghirardelli Square after school.  It is maybe a ten minute walk and that gives us plenty of time to swim and play before dinner.   It has been warm enough for me to lay on the beach in a beach dress and feel good!  I am excited for this month of warm weather and beaches galore!

Nigel found this piece of blue foam and to him it was a treasure!

Basil found some sea glass and it started a hunt

Our sea glass haul

The boys built this village out of random junk they found on the beach

Yesterday at the beach Nigel decided to throw his apple core to the seagulls.  He should have known better after his years in Duluth.  Of course we got swarmed with seagulls looking for a free meal and fighting over the apple core.  This started a fun game of chase-the-seagulls.  At one point when I was walking around looking for more sea glass, a seagull got brave enough to actually go onto our blanket and grab Xaviar's chips.  When Xaviar noticed he chased the gull yelling, "Give me back my chips!"  The tourists that were watching started laughing and taking pictures of the scene.  

As soon as I finish this post I am going to pack up some food, swim suits and toys so that we can head to the beach again after school.  Crissy Fields again today since they have a shower for us to rinse off with afterwards.  The boys walked home covered in sand yesterday and I decided it is worth the bus ride to keep ten pounds of sand out of our bathroom :)

Coit Tower

Last Friday night the boys and I went to Coit Tower with the family pass we scored at the library earlier in the day.  Coit tower is up the street from us and we have a lovely view of it from out bathroom window.  We are located halfway up Russian Hill and Coit Tower is atop Telegraph Hill so the walk is a short one, but it is up hill both ways.  We set with some baked goods from Victoria Pastry Co which was kind enough to relocate to our street this week.  With cake, brownies and a chocolate eclair in hand we began the hike up hill.

Coit Tower

Coit Tower is a well known San Francisco landmark.  Built in 1933 with funds donated by Lillie Hitchcock Coit, it is thought to represent a giant fire nozzle.  According to the SF Rec and Park website, however, this is a myth.  Coit donated a substantial sum to the city upon her death in 1929 "for the purpose of adding beauty to the city I always loved." The city decided to use the sum to build Coit Tower and a statue of the San Francisco Firefighters that is located in Washington Square.

Firefighter Statue in Washington Square

Coit Tower is 21 stories high and tickets can be purchased to ride the elevator to the top.  It is free to walk around the base of the tower inside and out.  In 1934, a group of artists commissioned by the Public Works of Art Projects painted amazing frescoes inside the tower on the ground floor.  The murals depict life in California during the Depression.  Scenes include people panning for gold, picking oranges and grapes, butchering pigs, and many nuances of city life.  They are amazing and there are so many small details that every time I go look at one I find something new.  At night, when the tower is locked, we walk around the base and look out at the beautiful city lights.  Friday night we had our family pass so we actually rode the elevator to the top.

View of Treasure Island from the top of Coit Tower

The top of the tower is a circular room with windows allowing viewers to look in all directions.  Considering the tower is 210 feet high and is on top of an already high hill the views are breath-taking. Visitors can look across the bay towards Oakland and Berkley then move to the next window grouping and see the fabulous Bay Bridge.  The next six windows have fabulous views of the downtown high rises.  Then to the west is the view of our lovely apartment as well as many, many other residential buildings.  Normally the next windows would show the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito, but last Friday night they were covered in fog.  We could barely make out Alcatraz Island.  The boys love finding all the buildings they recognize such as the Ferry Building, Pier 39, and the Transamerica Pyramid.  The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest building in San Francisco, so the boys never call it by its name.  They simply holler out "I see the tallest building!"

View of the Bay Bridge from the top of Coit Tower

The boys were only impressed with the view for so long.  What captured their attention were the coins that tourists place on the window ledges.  People slip the coins through the gaps around the windows.  To the boys, however, it appeared to be magic.  The kept asking me, "How did those coins get there?" and I would respond by saying, "People throw them up there from the bottom of the tower."  They didn't buy that story, but they never did figure out how the coins got there.  We did have fun looking at the different coins and trying to guess which countries they came from.  We each picked our favorite coins and explained what we liked about it.  Then we headed back down the elevator and walked around the base of the tower.  

Nigel at Coit Tower

Basil at the top of the tower

Xaviar at the base of Coit Tower

Nigel's crazy pose deserves some crazy special effects  :)

Leaving Coit Tower is the fun part for the boys.  They get to run down the hill at top speed hollering the entire way.  Friday nights don't get much more fun than this!

A Shout Out to the SF Public Library

My very first week here I left the DMV with my brand new California driver's license and went immediately to the San Francisco Public Library.  I signed all three boys and myself up for a library card and began taking advantage of their family pass program.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, the San Francisco Public Library has come up with this amazing program where they let families check out a pass to area attractions.  The bottom line:  we get to go to awesome museums and attractions for FREE!!!!!!  These passes include:

Aquarium of the Bay

Asian Art Museum

California Academy of Sciences

California Historical Society

Cartoon Art Museum

Children's Creativity Museum

Coit Tower

Conservatory of Flowers

Contemporary Jewish Museum

Exploratorium

Haas-Lilienthal House

Japanese Tea Garden

S.S. Jeremiah O'Brien

Museum of the African Diaspora

Museum of Craft & Folk Art

SF Museum of Modern Art

San Francisco Zoo

And 8 Community Pools (Balboa , Coffman, Garfield, Hamilton, MLK, North Beach, Rossi and Sava)



How it works is each branch of the San Francisco Public Library gets one family pass a week to each of these places.  For example, I go to the North Beach branch and I want to take the boys to the Coit Tower. The Coit Tower family pass became available today at the North Beach branch.  I went to the library this morning and checked out the Coit Tower family pass.  Now, no one else can check out the pass from the North Beach branch until next Friday and I have one week to use the pass with the boys. Each pass is good for up to two adults and four children and can only be used by San Francisco residents.

We have been taking advantage of this amazing deal for the last month.  Because we have four library cards, we can get four family passes a week.  During the summer we can hit up four places a week no problem but now that school has started we are probably going to limit ourselves to one or two a week. A lot of these places close by four or five in the afternoon and that doesn't leave us enough time to go during the week.  A word of advice, some of these passes are in demand so find out what day they become available (you can use the online catalog by typing in "family pass" and selecting your branch from the drop down menu) and be at the library 10 minutes before they open. . . . maybe even 15!

The Journey Begins . . .

Greetings!  This summer I moved my three children and I to San Francisco.  This blog is for friends and family to see all of our adventures as well as a way for me to share information I have learned (sometimes the hard way) with other families that are new to this city.  We live in North Beach, so many of the resources I use are in this neighborhood or close by.  We do explore however, so their will be posts from all over the Bay Area and beyond.  One thing I enjoy about this area is that the weather allows us to not only be outside, but it allows us to be active outside. We often walk or take the bus to our destination allowing us to make many discoveries along the way. 

For those of you who do not know me I will give a little background about myself:  I have three boys - ages five, eight and ten.  We moved here from Minnesota and we love it here!  I have a BA in American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota Duluth.  I am looking forward to learning more about the tribes in this area and the history of Indian and European encounters from the early contact era to present day.  I worked in early childhood and elementary special education for the last ten years.  I love acquiring and sharing knowledge and this blog will often have fun projects to do as well as fun activities and places we find.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy what I have to offer!

Melody