Christmas was vacation #2 for the Kansas City Crowleys this year, this time with the Thatchers (my side of the family).  That’s quite an accomplishment for us considering we haven’t taken a real vacation since our honeymoon in 2007!

Dustin and I arrived in San Francisco on December 20 - three days before the rest of the family arrived.  This gave us a few days to spend with Jared and some time to visit our good friends Kyle and Angela and their little girl in Napa!

It’s been nearly 6 months since this vacation but here are the details as I remember them:

Day 1 - December 20, 2010

This was my first time in San Francisco and I was a little disappointed to be flying in at night since I couldn’t really see the landscape.  It was tough to figure out where we were in reference to the bay because almost everything outside looked like water.  

But the darkness did make the drive from San Francisco to Vallejo much more picturesque!  I loved the mix of the old Victorian house and the Spanish terra-cotta roofs set against all the modern architecture.  And seeing it all lit up at night just made it feel almost magical (maybe some of my excitement about seeing my brother and being in San Francisco for Christmas helped too)! The view from Jared’s condo was pretty spectacular too.  His complex sits on shore of San Pablo Bay and is at a higher elevation than Berkely, Oakland and San Francisco so it was neat to look out and see the lights in all those cities!

Day 2 - December 21, 2010

Tuesday we woke up to our first San Francisco fog - it’s truly amazing how dense it really is!  I’m glad Jared was used to it and was able to do the driving.  The plan for the day was to take a walking tour of the city so we hopped the Vallejo Ferry to the San Francisco Ferry building and started our walk down Market Street.  I couldn’t tell you the exact route we took but we made our way though Japantown, Chinatown (where we had lunch), Ghiradelli Square and Fisherman’s Warf.  We really didn’t do anything other walk around, but walk we did for SIX HOURS!  We worked up quite the appetite, which was great because we had dinner plans with Jared and two of his (Australian wine-maker!) friends at the Zagat rated Most Popular Pizza Restaurant in 2011: Zachary’s Chicago Pizza!  

This pizza was SOOOOOO good and dare I say better than Giordanos in Chicago?  It’s no wonder this quaint little place seems to be bursting at the seems!  But fear not would-be pizza goers - Zachary’s has this thing figured out.  Chicago deep dish style pizzas take quite some time to back (we’re talking 45-60 minutes) so the first thing you do when you walk in the door is place your pizza order, THEN you take your ticket to the seating hostess to get your name put on the wait list so by the time your table is ready your pizza is not far behind!  Pure genius!

One last cool thing about Zachary’s is all of the pizza (specifically Zachary’s pizza) inspired art work they have up.  I wish I took a picture of it, but I didn’t so I’ll just have to post some from their website.

One of my favorites was this Little Prince Inspired box:

Here are a few of their 2009 winners:

Day 3 - December 22, 2010

Jared had to work on Wednesday so we took him to work so we could have to car to go visit friends from college Angela, Kyle and sweet little girl Emma in Napa.  Angela’s whole family was in town too so we sat down to a great taco lunch and took some time to catch up on the past few years.  After lunch we hopped in Kyle’s truck and he took us on a tour of wine country.  Kyle grew up in Napa and now works as a police officer for Napa County so he is very familiar with the country side.  He made for a great tour guide and had some really great crime-stopping stories to boot!

Dustin and I had a little more time to kill before we had to get Jared at work.  Some how it came up that D and I have never had In and Out Burger.  With grandma and grandpa around to babysit just the four of us went out for burgers and fries.  I have to say I was a little intimidated by all the choices - do I want Animal style or go healthy with protein style?  One, two, three or four patties?  I pretty much chickened out and got a regular, single cheese burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and ketchup but how else can I get an apples to apples comparison with other cheeseburgers?  Well for a fast food burger I have to agree that it was pretty darn good.  And the fries, oh the fries.  Fresher is better!

Day 4 - December 23, 2010

Phase 2 of The Thatcher’s take San Francisco!  December 23 is the day my mom and dad arrived in San Francisco and the day we check into our rental house.  but before all of this there was still time for a little bit of fun.  Jared works at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and was able to get us signed up for Dolphin Discovery, a chance to go swimming with the dolphins, as part of his Christmas present to us.

We arrive at the park just before 10:30 am - an hour and a half before the park opens, and I have to say it was a little bit eery walking through an empty park!  The first part of the Dolphin Discovery is educational.  We’re given a book that corresponds to a power point presentation about the different dolphin species, dolphin anatomy and the environmental dangers to dolphins including a short PSA about not polluting.  The last five minutes of the presentation included instructions on the dos and don’ts when we’re in the pool with the dolphins and then we were sent into the locker rooms to suit up in our borrowed wet suits (which one observer points out is gross because it’s well known among divers that the way to warm up a wet suit is to pee in it.  Thanks dude, I could have gone without hearing that little gem).

One thing we learned in the educational session is that some dolphins blush (the white part of their underside turns red) when they get excited.  While we were waiting outside the pool for the trainer the dolphins came to greet us and sure enough - two of the three dolphins started blushing!  Then they all started showing off - blowing bubbles, splashing, playing with toys - it was so fun just to watch them!

I wouldn’t exactly call what we did swimming with the dolphins, but it was still cool.  We spent a lot of time in the pool sitting on an edge learning more about the dolphins from the trainer.  When he’d talk about his teeth the dolphin would open its mouth and we could all touch the teeth and pet the tongue and when we were done we all fed the dolphin a fish.  Then the trainer would send that dolphin back and call for the second dolphin.  The trainer then went on to talk about its fins and tail and had it do a number of tricks before letting us feel the fins and pet its belly.  Then we got to feed this dolphin some fish and it was sent back to it’s “dock.”

The very last part of the Dolphin Discovery was a little gimmicky but this is where you get your picture taken so how can it not be?  We swam to the opposite side of the pool before the trainer summoned the third dolphin.  We would then take turns getting our picture taken with the dolphin doing a few different poses: holding hands with it, hugging it, and a couple different kissing poses.  After we all had our pictures taken we swam to the end of the pool for the final activity.  The instructions were: wade in the water, hold up your hand, give the audible cue (which I don’t remember anymore) and when the dolphin swims by HOLD ON!  For about 8 seconds the dolphins took turns pulling us by their dorsal fin across to the other end of the pool.  The ride was pretty bumpy, and swallowing the salt water was unavoidable but this was by far the BEST part of the experience, and as it goes with anything that’s awesome it was far too short.  All and all the Dolphin Discovery was pretty darn great!  And even though I don’t think he reads my blog I want to say Thank You Jared for such a wonderful gift!

After we picked up our pictures from the dolphin swim Jared gave us a short tour of the animal part of the park before we went back to his condo to clean up.  Some of the animals we got to see were Jocko the walrus of 50 First Dates fame, Sgt. Nevis a rescued sea lion who was shot in the face, Odin the Bengal Tiger, and Chewy the two toed sloth among others.

The rest of the day was pretty low key - checking into the (AMAZING) rental house which is just outside Presidio Park, picking mom and dad up from the air port and pizza delivery!

Day 5 - December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve consisted mostly of prepping for Christmas.  Mom and I spent the morning doing some last minute shopping.  We took public transit (yay public transit!) to The Embarcadero Center to exchange a couple presents and to do some general browsing and then had lunch at the Boudin Bakery for some authentic San Francisco sourdough.

In the afternoon the whole Thatcher clan went grocery shopping at the Cal-Mart.  I don’t think I’ve ever been shopping for food for Christmas Dinner because I’ve never seen a shopping cart so full!  I guess it didn’t help that we did not have a well stocked pantry and had to buy EVERYTHING we would need: spices, sugar, cookie cutters and we also had to get things like bread, lunch meat, cereal and juice for meat for meals other than Christmas.

After grocery shopping and after our delicious frozen lasagna dinner we spent the evening prepping food for Christmas, making cookies and desserts, wrapping presents and trying to make it feel like Christmas in the condo.

Day 6 - December 25, 2010

Merry Christmas!  

Jared woke up early for Phase 3 or The Thatcher’s take San Fran as Aaron, Ali and Hayden arrive on an early flight.  I was just finishing getting ready for the day when they arrive and mom and dad give them their first Christmas present - Izzi the dog. Luckily I could hear what was going on so I didn’t miss Hayden saying “We already knew she was our dog.”  (The background here is that my brother bought the dog back in October and she’d been living with my parents as their dog.  The kids being as clever as they are - and my mom and brother acting obviously suspicious - figured it out pretty quick).

As always the kids hit the mother load for Christmas, even though we were 1,800 miles from home, and the living room quickly turned into a toy war zone!

Christmas was a really good day.  We cooked, we baked, we ate, we slept, we watched movies and we played with toys.  It may not have been home for any of us, but this was the first Christmas in a long time that we celebrated with everyone there and it was great!  I wish we cold do this every year.

Day 7 - December 26, 2010

I mentioned earlier that Angela’s family was in town, and yes they were in town for Christmas, but they were also in town for baby Emma’s baby blessing.  Angela and I played flute together all through college and when Angela found out I was going to be in town for Christmas she asked if I’d play duets with her (for old times sake) at Emma’s blessing, and of course my answer was yes!  Until now I hadn’t played with Angela since the fall of 2005 and when we started playing our old duets again it just took me back.  I always knew I missed Angela, but I really had no idea how much until we were playing together again - and I think she felt the same.  We played the postlude for the service and we just kept playing and playing for about 20 minutes until we had run out of things we knew, and then we found some things that looked fun and then played a little bit more!  

After church Jared took Aaron, Ali, Hayden and mom to Six Flags while dad, Dustin and I went to Muir Woods National Monument.  I was a little out of sorts in the beginning because I wasn’t aware we were going and I was not prepared in my church clothes, but I’m a sucker for the beauty of nature so it didn’t take long for me to come around.  

We spent an hour or so walking and then stopped in the café/gift shop for a hot chocolate to warm up.

On our way back to the rental home we crossed over the Golden Gate Bridge and got lost in Presidio Park.  For dinner D and I went on a “date” to Papalote, a local mexican grill.

Day 8- December 27, 2010

Day 8 was much like Day 2, but this time we had all the Thatcher’s in tow.  The first stop was Ghirardelli Square where Aaron and Hayden got some Ghirardelli ice cream, Jared and I got cupcakes from Kara’s Cupcakes, and mom was in doggie clothes heaven at Yap Wrap.  Since it was Christmas there were also some great decorations including a giant tree with giant bulbs bigger than a human head!

Next up is Fisherman’s Warf, but on our way we had to stop by Cold Stone to get Ali some ice cream (she was with me and mom at Yap Wrap when Aaron and Hayden were getting ice cream).  On Day 2 we discovered this really cool old arcade game museum called Musée Mecanique that we thought the kids would really enjoy.  Each kid got $5 to spend so we were there for quite some time.

At the back of the museum there was an old war ship, a submarine and an old missile in the foreground of Alcatraz.  

The next stop for the day was Chinatown so mom and Jared could do some tea tasting.  It also happened to be lunch time so we had lunch here too.  Lunch was a little bit of a disaster.  Jared seemed to be the only one who knew what was happening, but as soon as we were seated he excused himself to use the restroom.  While he was gone they started brining food to our table.  At first I thought maybe they were free appetizers like chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants, but they just kept bringing more food and I wasn’t sure what to do and no one else at the table was speaking up.  We probably had 4 or 5 plates on our table by the time Jared got back and he was irritated by the food on the table because he told the person who seated us that we didn’t want the “family style” plates.  So already being a little moody from hunger I became even more so because I felt like everyone blamed me for all this food, but no one ever said anything when they were putting it on our table.  Lunch went on and needless to say we had a TON of food left over.  We took it to go and ended up giving it out to the homeless people we came across throughout the rest of the day.

After lunch Jared took mom to do a tea tasting and the rest of us went to the Cable Car Museum.  I love to see how things work so it was really cool to see the cables and gears that make these historic cars work.  There was a lot of things to read in the museum so I could have spent more time there, but as I’m learning, when you’re with kids you kind of have to work on their schedule.  And they were bored and ready to leave.  

Since we had been through the museum and seen how it works the last thing we had to do before retiring to the rental house was ride the Cable Car!  After another typical family miscommunication we met up with mom and Jared to ride the Powell/Hyde Street car.  The wait to get on was ridiculous and when cars would pass by without a single person getting on we knew we weren’t going to get everyone on the same car.  So we decided to get a little aggressive and negotiate our way onto the cars a couple people at a time.  We were packed in like a can of sardines, but at least now I can say I’ve been on a cable car!

Day 9 - December 28, 2010

Day 9 was our last day in San Francisco but there was still SO much left to do!  Kyle recommended the California Academy of Sciences because it was really cool and would be fun for the kids and adults so we headed over to Golden Gate Park.  We had to park and walk (and lucky for Aaron there was a hot dog stand on our way) and when we came up to the museum there was a HUGE line!  We felt a little discouraged but decided we should at least check it out.  Unfortunately the prices were a little bit outrageous and with the lines and the prices combined we thought it was best to do something else.

How can you be in San Francisco and not visit the Golden Gate Bridge?  We didn’t spend too much time at the bridge, maybe 45 minutes, because the kids were a little bit cranky.  So we walked out to the first tower…

…took a couple pictures…

…and went back to a car after a quick stop in a café at the end of the bridge where we found Thatcher’s carmelcorn!

As I mentioned before the kids were a little bit cranky so we went back to the rental home.  We only had a few hours left in San Francisco and I really wanted to go to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Being the awesome brother that he is Jared agreed to take us in the car so we could spend more time at the museum and then go straight to the airport.  They had to special exhibits going on, one about wine and one about voyeurism and we went through those first.  

The wine exhibit was really cool, it focused on American wine starting in 1976 when American wines beat French wines in a blind taste test.  In the first room you walk into there is a chime or bell made out of a wine glass that goes off periodically and a giant wall with the names of all kinds of wine on it.  There was one exhibit where they had beakers of wine lined up on a wall and each had an hand air pump attached to it that would expel the aroma of the wine into the air above the beaker.  I will admit I do not have a sophisticated pallet - there were signs that accompanied each beaker that pointed out the nodes you would smell but to me they all just smelled like wine. Some other cool things from this exhibit were models of wineries and their vineyards, different types (and some quite outrageous) of wine glasses and decanters, and soil samples from vineyards around the world.

The voyeurism exhibit was interesting….but I think I was affected by it the way I was supposed to be.  It made me uncomfortable.  They had 2 videos but we only watched part of one, it was just really awkward to watch someone watching someone else in a sexual way sitting in between my brother and my husband.  No, thank you.  Not everything was about sex though, a few images focused on the celebrities (like paparazzi) and one really cool display you couldn’t see what the images were until you looked in a video feed.  I can’t remember what it was that made the images appear but I think it was something like infrared. 

We did have time to stroll through the rest of the museum, but I’m not very knowledgeable about modern art so I can’t speak to it very much except to say that I enjoyed it.  Here is a picture of my FAVORITE thing in the museum

It is the entire Holy Bible alphabitized!

The pictures are pretty bad, but I think you get the idea.  I can’t even explain why I liked this so much I just know that it put a big smile on my face!

So that was it for our trip to San Francisco!  After we left the museum we went straight to the airport and we had a direct flight home.  I had such a good time in San Fran with my family and it was great to be able to be with Jared during the holidays for the first time in quite a few years.

I’m seriously sad that I didn’t come home with more pictures, but I’m working on my family to get me theirs so I can add more to the blog.  For those who are still with me thank you for reading, I know it was a long one.  This one may be more to help me remember than for anyone else to actually read.