Our Recent "Adventures". Lots of Pics!

Gosh, it's been a while since I updated this thing! That being said, time is going so quickly and I can hardly believe we're already halfway through October! I have a few things lined up here to update with, but I haven't finished going through photos as I've been a bit lazy when it comes to editing them and organising them. 

Mr 2 began soccer lessons a few weeks ago. I felt like he/we needed more things to do, especially during the week. The term began last month, so we were a bit late to the party, but oh well. The classes are held in the Marina District in a really beautiful spot. They're set right on the water in front of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a gorgeous area, and I guess how I feel about it is probably how people feel about the Harbour Bridge and the Kirribilli area when they go there for the first time. 

That being said, I don't think soccer star is on the cards for a future occupation for Mr 2. He's not completely into the classes and prefers to partake in only a few of the activities they do in the 40 minute classes. Although, being a combination of myself and Robert, I guess I shouldn't be so surprised by that. Haha...

Robert's Mum came to stay with us last week after she'd been on a trip to Europe. We didn't end up doing as much with her as I thought we might have. She'd been here before and I think she mainly wanted to just see Mr 2 (and us). So she accompanied us to a soccer class and basically just experienced everyday life with us. Robert did take the week off, though, which was awesome. I have to admit that it was really nice to have a little break from full time motherhood for a bit! Heh... The most tourist-y thing we did was go to Muir Woods (again. It was the third time we've been. LOL) and Sausalito with her.

In other Bartlett life news, Mr 2 got accepted into a pre-school the other week, which is awesome. I was getting anxious not knowing whether he'd be going to a school of our choosing, so I was very relieved at this! He won't start until September next year (because that's when the school year here starts), but it's so competitive here and you really need to get in early. So I'm glad we did. 

And having said that, I'm sure I had a lot more to say, but I'm so tired after a terrible night last night that I'm just going to leave you with lots of pictures. I apologise for the incoherence. I need another coffee.

xoxo

Ghirardelli have filled their fountain with pumpkins. Pumpkins are everywhere at the moment!

Muir Woods: beautiful no matter how many times you go!

I spent a lot of time on this visit looking for 4-leaf clovers. I'd never found one; I still haven't! :-(

Sausalito

View from Sausalito

Everyday SF Life Part II

Our little apartment building is up there amongst those highrises. LOL...

This blog update has been coming for the past month or so, but I'm only just now going through the photos I took! Soon after I took my camera out to take photos of the city and our everyday, I took it out again when Mr 2 and I headed down to the South Beach playground which is in the opposite direction to everything I took photos of in that last post. South Beach is (apparently) one of SF's most expensive suburbs/neighbourhoods to live in. It's one of these newish areas that are popping up, and it's on the water, which is probably part of the reason it's so expensive. There are lots of new apartment buildings and nice little shops. It's also home to the huge AT&T Park where baseball games get played. So the area is really busy when games are on (as you can imagine). I don't go there as often as I should/could, mainly because it's a slight uphill walk home, and I'm too lazy to do that when the opposite direction is flatter. HAHA. But I go down there to get my hair done, to go to the little playground there and to go to an awesome cafe there that's part bookshop/part cafe and has a lovely garden in which kids can run around in.

Clearly, it was a lovely day when I took these photos. Actually, it was really just a typical SF day. The weather here doesn't change a lot (aside from the past weekend where we had a heatwave. UGH), and when the fog clears, the sky is as clear as ever. 

Anyway, here are some more pics of just everyday SF life for me and Mr 2. (I should really gather up some driving confidence so we can go to more interesting places during the week...!)

OK, not a lot to say, otherwise! Enjoy the pics. 

xoxo

P.S. October begins tomorrow. The Halloween decorations and paraphernalia have been out in shops for a while, now. But our first American Halloween is fast approaching. Halloween's never been a big thing to me (I don't see the point), but I think that's about to change, especially as we have a child!

South Beach apartment buildings.

Details in the little playground.

The Bay Bridge and this random sculpture taken from the playground.

Such blue skies...

Mr 2 enjoys playing in sand these days. I'm not hugely fond of American sand, though. The grains are big and dirty, as opposed to Australia's fine, white powder.

A few details along the street...

SF Life Continues...

I haven't updated this blog for a while. Mainly because I've just been busy with other things, primarily trying to put together a design portfolio! Which I'm excited to say is gradually coming along. 

Anywho, SF life has been rather boring and unblog-worthy lately. Although the weather (for me) has been horrendous. Although Autumn (or "Fall") has just begun here, SF has a late Summer; its warmest months are September and October (apparently). So just as I thought Summer was over, it warms up. I'm pining for colder weather, especially since we moved here as Summer was about to begin and it was still going in Sydney. 

BUT ANYWAY, enough weather whinging, in the past couple of weeks, Mr Toddler turned two. (Obviously) it was his first birthday we've celebrated here. We didn't do anything major (I refused to organise another party this year after he had a Christening and a birthday party last year!), but he did get lots of presents and we took him to the zoo as it has everything he likes there: a train and animals. LOL. I also skipped a ballet class to make him a train cake from the Aussie Women's Weekly kids' cake cookbook that I think every Australian knows of! 

Today, however, we took him for ANOTHER little steam train ride. There are so many here, which is great because he loves them! They're also cheap, which is also great! This one was in Berkeley which is about a 20 minute drive from SF over the Bay Bridge (the Golden Gate Bridge's less famous sister (or brother?)). A friend in my ballet class suggested it to us. It was at the end of a really lovely drive and up a small mountain, so we got some amazing views along the way. From one point you could really see the whole of SF; it was pretty awesome! 

I think we'll probably be back here, as long as Mr Two likes trains. Aside from it being cheap, it's not in the middle of another big park or amusement place. It's just this little steam train service/place at the top of a mountain. LOL. And it just makes for a simple outing. We went on two rides as the ride itself is only 12 minutes long. It takes you through some nice forestry, and... that's about it! It was nice to have an outing where we didn't need to pay heaps to get into a place and/or do lots of things. It was simply just a little train ride that our toddler enjoyed. Dad, if you're reading this, Robert's thinking of taking you here when Mum, Erika and I go to the ballet! :-) I think you'd really enjoy it! (My family will be here over Christmas, which I'm very much looking forward to!)

Anyway, I have some more everyday-life posts to make here, which people seemed to enjoy last time. So hopefully I'll update this blog again soon! Sorry for the silence!

xoxo

If you're my friend on Facebook, you may have seen this picture, but there are some amazing views on the drive to/from the train! You can see the WHOLE of SF. Straight ahead is the city and the Bay Bridge. On the right is the Golden Gate Bridge. :-) I made Robert stop the car so I could get out and get a shot! :-) 

Traintown! (I think the name is pretty self-explanatory!)

I should re-name this blog to: Family-Friendly Things to do in the Bay Area. LOL. Considering our "adventures" and activities are generally based around what we think our toddler would like. We (obviously) don't really get the chance to do things like try fancy restaurants or check out the night life (yes, I could hire a babysitter from somewhere, but I don't trust people easily, let alone someone I don't know at all to take care of my child just so my husband and I can have a child-free night.). Although I was meaning to do a post about Cliff House where Robert and I went for dinner one night when my Mum was here. But I only just remembered that, so perhaps that'll be for a future post! 

Anyway, we took a drive to Sonoma last weekend so we could take Mr almost-2 to Traintown. If you've been reading this blog, you'll know that our toddler is currently very, very obsessed with and consumed by anything trains. Thomas and Friends characters are his favourites, but he'll take any train he can get! Sonoma is about an hour's drive from SF (just a bit over?), and is a bit Hunter Valley-like (for those who know Sydney and it's surrounding areas). We drove through quite a few vineyards and farms which made for a nice drive (when I was awake. LOL!). I quite like seeing some country-side-ish places; it makes for a nice break from the city's hustle and bustle that we live right in the middle of.

Traintown itself is, I guess, a small amusement park(?). I'm not really sure what you'd call it as there's really nothing like it in Sydney. It's built around a small steam train that you can (obviously) get a ride on. But there are other rides there, such as a ferris wheel and other small rides you'd see at the bigger theme parks. But it's nowhere near the size of Luna Park. The train ride itself was about 20 minutes. It would be shorter if it didn't stop halfway to let riders get off at a little petting zoo! It wasn't a big petting zoo, there were mainly a few goats and alpacas(? llamas?). But they're enough to build (more) excitement in little children. They could feed them and pet them, which is nice for a city kid like ours! (The place knows what attracts kids: trains and animals!) We also took the chance to check out the train up close. Along the ride, there are also miniature buildings built, so it looks like you're travelling through little towns. It's pretty cute. 

You could spend an entire day there, but two year olds only have an attention span of so long, so we were there for the train ride, a ferris wheel ride, lunch and for him to check out the gift shop (which he spent a long time in admiring the Thomas merchandise! Amazingly, we walked out empty-handed!). 

I felt that the biggest downside of the place is the food situation. There are signs everywhere saying "no outside food to be consumed in here". I'd packed a lunch for us as I couldn't find any info. on the website, but seeing these signs, I assumed there was a cafe or restaurant in there. The only thing they have is a tiny counter with junky snacks and soft drinks; no proper meals. Now, considering this is a family-oriented place, I found this extremely stupid. I don't think I'm a complete food nazi, but I am very conscious of what my toddler eats, and I generally try to feed him healthy food, with sweet/junky things being treats once or twice a week (if his father chooses to eat ice cream multiple times a week, he has to eat it after Mr toddler's bedtime!). And I think people are becoming more conscious of what they feed their kids, so you'd think you'd have a proper cafe selling proper meals for kids, at the very least. There also isn't really any place to sit down and eat properly; we just had to find a bench to perch on. We bought a couple of pretzels and drinks, but in the end I ended up giving our toddler his packed lunch in secret, which I felt was so stupid! Clearly, other people felt similarly: I saw lots of people grabbing pizza from the place next door and bringing it in, anyway. And the dad in front of us on the train had a lunch box for his daughter, so we obviously weren't alone in how we felt about that!

But otherwise, the place was quaint. You could end up spending a lot with older kids as I'm sure the ticket prices for each ride just continue to add up, but I guess that's how it is with all theme parks? (I wouldn't really know; I don't go to them very often!). We really just went because I Googled "steam trains in the Bay Area" and it came up! (Good ol' Google!)

Speaking of food, however, I should go and give my child dinner. Because apparently kids need to eat three times a day or something. What's up with that?! LOL. I leave you with some more pics!

Thanks for reading!!

xoxo

You can't really see it from this picture, but these are some of the miniature houses along the way on the train ride!

And so are these.

The miniature town that the train stops in and lets you out for the petting zoo.

Hi!