In the city by the Bay...

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05 April 2012 @ 09:14 am

We're on Spring Break, currently in San Francisco. Beautiful weather, if a little chilly, and debating what to do our final day here since we can't go to Alcatraz (booked up weeks in advance, apparently). Christopher and I would love to go to the Zoo, which Lauren would hate. Decisions, decisions.

In LJ Idol news, I'm slipping in the polls! This last week was a partnering effort, where your standing is as a two-person team rather than an individual. If any of you liked my entry and/or

similiesslip's co-entry, please vote for us here. Thanks for your help!

We're at a hotel right next to Union Square, partly chosen for the intersection of available rooms, onsite fitness center, and lack of bedbugs. Sadly, our room choices were either right on the pool (not so noisy in and of itself, but it's the direct path from one half of the hotel to the lobby for checkout) or over the back of the parking garage. We have a nice view down a side street, but the first night featured a several episodes of what sounded like someone unloading boulders down a chute, and of course there's always 1) Car horns, 2) Unattended car alarms, 3) Every service truck on the planet running its "backing up now" beeper.

Still, we've had a great time so far. Christopher and I spent quite a bit of time at the Exploratorium yesterday, which was even more fantastic than I'd hoped. Clearly, I'm a much bigger science geek than I realized. Surface tension! Resonant frequencies! Conductivity experiments!

Heading to Santa Cruz tomorrow. Let's hope the good weather holds...

Tags: me, random

20 comments | Say what you feel

20 comments —

( 20 comments — Say what you feel )

embroiderama on April 5th, 2012 04:58 pm (UTC)

Sounds like a fun trip! :)

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 04:55 am (UTC)

It's been really nice! We did wind up going to the zoo, which was beautiful (though windy). There are several rescue animals there, too, which is great.

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tuesdaeschild on April 5th, 2012 05:29 pm (UTC)

Whatever you do I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend, my friend.
*hugs*
♥

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 04:56 am (UTC)

You too!

We dyed our eggs ahead of time, and we'll probably get back late-ish on Saturday night, and I'll throw the baskets together while HalfshellHusband hides the eggs for Easter morning.

At least the kids are older, and not prone to getting up at quite O-Dark-Hundred on holidays. :D

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tuesdaeschild on April 6th, 2012 01:00 pm (UTC)

Thank you, sweetheart.

Sounds like you'll have a fun Egg-Day and how much did I chortle at O-Dark-Hundred?!! :D

*hugs*

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tsuki_no_bara on April 5th, 2012 06:29 pm (UTC)

i love san francisco! i'm super jealous. and alcatraz is really cool but also deeply creepy, altho i don't know if that's a point in its favor for family halfshell or not.

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 04:58 am (UTC)

It's a beautiful city. I haven't spent much time here since we had kids-- HSH and I used to drive over for day trips all the time, before we had kids.

The kids wanted to go Alcatraz as much as the grownups, but I can believe it would be creepy. Just the thought of the kinds of criminals who used to be incarcerated there is kind of disturbing. :0

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locknkey on April 5th, 2012 07:44 pm (UTC)

B and I were going to go to Golden Gate park (Tues.) or Exploratorium (Weds.) but he decided he wanted a toy instead. ~smh.

Sounds like you're having fun!

Have fun, bb!

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 05:00 am (UTC)

Toys instead of adventures?!? It's such a "kid" choice to make!

The Exploratorium was fantastic (and apparently donations-only on Wednesday, so less expensive than usual).

Has he ever been before? I think he'd love it. All hands-on science exhibits, many of them indirect represenations of scientific principles. It was awesome! \o/

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muchtooarrogant on April 5th, 2012 08:39 pm (UTC)

Girl, I LOVE the Exploratorium. It's SO AWESOME! Did you guys do the Tactile Dome?

I haven't LJI voted yet, but I will in a bit, and of course you two will get a vote from me.

Hope the rest of your vacation is fun!

Dan

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 05:04 am (UTC)

Have you been to the San Francisco one?

I think we missed the Tactile Dome. :(

We started to run out of time at the end, partly because we blew half an hour searching for parking and HSH and Lauren were back at the hotel the whole time (his hip, her disinterest).

We did virtually all of the bottom floor, and most but not all of the top floor (much of sound, none of whatever was left).

I loved the hands-on exhibits, and the way so many principles were represented in abstract. Also the tale of Little Rat Rotten Hut.

If Christopher and I'd had our way, we would have gone to the California Academy of Science the next day. But no... :0

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muchtooarrogant on April 6th, 2012 04:03 pm (UTC)

Lizbeth hasn't been to the Exploratorium, and I really wanna take her and the girlitas there. Yes, the one I went to was in San Francisco.

Dude, the Tactile Dome is awesome. They have you crawl through a series of tunnels in the dark, and there are all sorts of tactile shapes and such to feel on the walls and ceiling. Oh, and a few tumbling surprises. *grin*

If you go walking down on the beach close to the Exploratorium, there's a collection of pipes in the sand, a wave organ I think they call it.

San Francisco's one of my absolute favorite cities to vacation in. I've taken all my girlfriends there, Hahahaha!

Dan

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 04:18 pm (UTC)

Oh, I think Lizbeth and the girlitas would love the Exploratorium.

Geez, now I'm sorry I missed the tactile dome. My son seemed to want to personally handle virtually every single experiment (i.e., to "drive" the science himself), so that kind of slowed us down. But we had a great time.

Just make sure taking Lizbeth to SF isn't a jinx! Though you've snagged her on a more permanent basis, so I think you're home free there. :)

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muchtooarrogant on April 6th, 2012 04:28 pm (UTC)

LOL Lizbeth and I have actually been to SF several times, just not with the kids, and not to the Exploratorium. I took her to the touristy stuff first, like Alcatraz, and we, of course, did her favorite passtime, shopping. LOL

I expect going with our two girls will be a blast.

How old are Christopher and Lauren?

Dan

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 04:51 pm (UTC)

Lauren's 14 (hence the shopping fascination), and Christopher is 12. A very young 12!

He's interested in pretty much everything (except shopping), and Lauren's interests are very narrow.

We talked about whether we could save up and take them to Europe before Lauren graduates, and her first comments was, "Oh, I want to go to Paris! But I don't want to go to museums or anything." !!!

So, that wasn't promising. :0

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muchtooarrogant on April 6th, 2012 06:10 pm (UTC)

"But I don't want to go to museums or anything."

Sounds like one of those, "We're your parents, and we know what's best for you," situations. LOL My girls are eleven and thirteen, but thankfully have pretty diverse interests.

Dan

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medleymisty on April 5th, 2012 09:23 pm (UTC)

*crosses fingers for you in Idol* I haven't read your entries yet, but I will here in a bit.

The Exploratorium sounds like it may be like our Discovery Center, which is a sort of science thing that's especially for kids but they do have occasional exhibits like the Body Worlds things, and they show documentaries on their giant IMAX.

Yay for having a good time and happy vacation! :)

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 05:09 am (UTC)

When I grew up, I spent a lot of time at OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), and that had a lot of kinds of hands-on scientific principles. But it didn't begin to touch what this place held-- every exhibit was hands-on, to let you manipulate principles of science or to adjust the setup until you activated one of the principles.

And also cool stuff like a 'satellite' orbit simulation computer thingy, where you could fire thrusters and launch free-fall at will to watch demonstrations of things like graviational pull, the slingshot effect, etc. \o/

I squeaked through on Idol, and now am looking for a partner to do round 2 (sent you an IM). Gah-- I didn't even like those prompts the first time around!

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brigid_tanner on April 6th, 2012 01:28 am (UTC)

Sounds like a fun trip! I had no idea Alcatraz visits filled up that quickly. I'll remember that if I ever get to visit San Francisco :)

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halfshellvenus on April 6th, 2012 05:10 am (UTC)

When you Google Alcatraz, you'll see warnings about the tours filling up 3 weeks in advance... and when you think about booking a trip, you'll discover that the warnings are true. D'OH!

So, perhaps another time! But there's much to see and do here, so we didn't lack for entertainment. :)

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