Correction: Not Lost...Just Misdirected.

I often wonder...do we do things backwards or is it everyone else?  Things are different when I step outside of my bubble.  That leaves me wondering if it's just me!  For example we traveled to the Bay Area only to find out that several of the buildings we ventured into were not equipped with any form of air conditioning.  Sorry that fan on the floor does not count!  It's 76 degrees out there but I am melting in here!  I was so relieved to get back in the car with nice cool air conditioned air hitting me.  Even if we were off getting lost, we were nice and cool!  We just had to avoid any buildings that had their doors propped open.

Okay so we weren't lost.  We knew where we were at all times.  We were in San Francisco.  We just were not on the right side!  We had the Magellan going along with some Google Maps action and still managed to take a very scenic route through San Francisco.  We saw the Financial District, Union Square and China Town!  The kinda funny part of this story is that we weren't trying to see any of that.  We were trying to get to the Walt Disney Family Museum.  Luckily even with the very lengthy scenic route we managed to keep our cool and keep laughing as we dodged pedestrians, parallel parkers, busses and oh my gosh more cyclist!    

Destination 104 Montgomery St.

What's funny is that there is no 104 Montgomery!  We parked and walked half a mile taking in all the lovely sights only to find out that the 100's block of Montgomery is all banks.  What the heck?  So after a few moments of staring at each other we couldn't figure it out.  We both had two separate devices and looked up the address from different websites and everything we looked at pointed us here.  Guess what? I guess that has happened A LOT.  Or at least that is according to man that brought out the map to show us how lost we were.  We dodged into one of the buildings that was very tall, very marbly and had a receptionist.  Although he was a guy.  A manceptionist?  Spell check said that isn't a word.  Concierge? I think thats what it is.  He was helpful but I can't say he was very friendly.  He was annoyed.  Like he gets people with mickey shirts harassing him a lot.  I was half heartily hoping that he was going to be all like "Just kidding it is upstairs" but he didn't.  He half snorted and said "Yeah, you're not even close!"  And then pulled out his half folded map and showed us where we really needed to go.  And guess what?  We were not even close.  So back to the garage to weasel the car out of the parking structure.  I have never been so thankful that our home town has flat parking!  By the way, Thanks Lissa for driving!

So after the Magellan/Google Maps fail we looked up the intersection instead of the address.

Tada!  Where we should have been!

It ended up being an hour and half detour.  Screw you Google Maps!  Presidio and San Francisco have the same streets but are different!

Not only have I learned to appreciate flat parking structures I also appreciate overall flatness after experiencing the very hilly San Francisco.  By the way...Thanks Lissa for driving! (It really does bare repeating).

Destination is on the right!

So when we got there I mentioned to the door opener that we got lost and she said "we hear that a lot" and I wanted to scream at her " THEN WHY DONT YOU FIX THAT!" but I bit my tongue because I'm not that confrontational.

The Museum was very nice.  The exhibits are cool and Clover loved all the ones with the phones.  I don't have any pictures of the inside because that's not allowed.  Which sucks because it was pretty cool.

On the way back home we dodged more cyclists...

Everywhere! Okay I was really just trying to get a picture of the water but I couldn't even get that without the cyclists in the way!  

And dodged some more cyclist after that.  We hit some minor traffic and headed back over some hills.  I think that both of us were so very glad when we saw everything flatten out.  Flat, sprawled out and oh my gosh there are sheep right next to that Target!  Be it ever so flat...there is no place like home!  

Not Your Normal Adventure

We just got back from whirl wind trip of the Bay area.  I didn't even drive (because of my screwed up head) but I am exhausted.  I sat in the passenger seat and pretended I was being useful by pointing out all the bicyclists.  And holy moly there where a LOT of them!  Everywhere!  I have met my "spandex" quota for life!

Friday we were stoked because we were off on our little girl's trip to see Jenny Lawson.  You know from The Bloggess!  To say that we were off for an adventure would be putting it lightly!  We were prepared though.  Not only did we have a GPS, along with Google Maps on two devices but we also had directions printed...on paper.  Getting there was no big deal.  Driving around in the Marin/Mill Valley/Larkspur/Corte Madera area was another story.  Back home we have these nice little road signs that tell us things.  Like the big yellow signs that say LANE ENDS, and because we are oh so smart here we have another yellow sign after that with a very simple picture of that said lane ending!  It's like someone was playing a really mean practical joke on us and stole all those signs in that area right before we got there!  It seemed like every lane we were in seemed to end.  Then there was that whole mountain like detour we took on the roads that were only wide enough for one car!  

We managed to find our way.

Because who doesn't travel with their own stuffed animals.  Okay these were at once alive but whatever.  The small one in the apron is Juanita just in case you were wondering.  

We still got there on time and manage to reserve a seat!  I felt a little guilty about bringing Clover to book signing with several adult themes but she was off in her own little world with her new book and her travel magna-doodle.  I know that she was in her own little world because there were several words that she is good at pointing out that we shouldn't say and she didn't manage to hear any of them.  She snapped out of it when we got in line to get our books signed and wanted her book signed too.  Her Olivia book!  Which Jenny signed because Clover asked her and she even drew a little kitty in it.  Clover was also very concerned that Hamlet Von Schnitzel was missing.  Jenny kindly told her that he broke his leg and then Clover's face got all scrunched up and she also added that he was okay and they were getting him tiny crutches and she felt a lot better.

My very first book signing!

  

Since we were all feeling great about the night we decided to hit up some of the activities back at the hotel and ended our evening at the fire pit with some yummy S'mores!

The next day turned out to be an adventure of it's own which is why it is reserved for its very own post.  

   

Juju's Whirlwind Tour

When Hubs asked us if we wanted to go I thought it would be a good idea.  Hubs had two days of meetings and I figured Clover and I could have a mini vacation.

And then I remembered that big cities are on the short list of things Juju Doesn't Do.  You see, I grew up in a farm town and surrounding small cities.  You can go ahead and insert jokes about me being a hick here.  You wouldn't be the first clever person to come up with those all on your own.  We moved to the "big city" when I was in the 6th grade.  Then I got older and realized that my big city is small compared to the rest of the world.

I am always in awe when I travel because I can't wrap my head around big city living.  There are plenty of things for us to do as a tourist but I can't wrap my head around how they do normal things like grocery shopping.  I didn't spot one single grocery store while we were there and to go to the office depot you had to park in a four story parking garage.  Navigating through San Francisco traffic left me on the verge of tears.  I can see why everyone walks everywhere.  We parked the car at the hotel and left it there for two and half days.  On the first day Clover and I borrowed a stroller from the hotel.  Which I didn't know they had until I read the hotel guide.  We walked around the neighborhood and checked out the sights.  We found a park and a free concert.

Waiting for Yerba Buena Concert Series

I wish I had taken a camera.  After packing for three people including work clothes for the hubby I forgot the touristy stuff like a camera.  All the pictures I took were on my cell phone.  All that walking and dancing left us starving.  So we walked around to find something suitable for lunch and found Mo's Grill.  My hamburger was awesome!    

Plain Cheeseburger with literally a mountain of garlic fries.

Clover demolished hers and started to attack her plain fries with a lake full of catsup.

We found a playground and played and explored for a bit.  Then we headed over to Zeum.  A local children's museum.  

Zeum is undergoing some construction and looks as if they are reopening under a different name.  They had some cool stuff for older kids to do and a few things for littler ones but not a whole lot to do for the in-between.  Clover enjoyed herself.  She especially loved the Special Effects slide.  It was a green slide and as they went down it you could choose a digital background and it shows you on a tv screen.  I think Clovers favorite was the fish tank.  She really seemed to like it so I don't want to bash the place but they seem a bit over priced to me for what they offer.  Maybe if Clover was older we could have taken advantage of all of the booths.  We did take full advantage of the music video booth.  

After the Zeum we went back to the room for a brief visit with the hubs before he headed back out.  We ordered dinner and dessert.  After we watched some terrible hotel tv, we crashed.  There was a few meltdowns while watching hotel tv.  My darling daughter is used to netflix.  We can watch whatever we want, whenever we want.  She had a hard time understanding that while traveling I can't control what we watch.  

On Day two we hung out and got breakfast.  We had three hours to kill in-between checking out and Hubby getting out of his meeting.  After browsing some guide books we narrowed it down to catching a movie or catching a bus.  I let Clover pick.  She picked the bus.

We jumped on the double decker downtown loop bus.

A display of vintage sewing machines.  

Union Square

Bay Bridge.

The tour guide was pretty nice.  You pay for the tour but the pass is valid for 48 hours and you can hop on or off at any of their stops.  So you could buy a pass and just take the bus all over San Francisco for two days.  You would never have to drive.  Had I known this I would have taken it the day before.  If we ever go back I will have to keep that in mind.  I'm not in a rush to go back after dealing with all the traffic.  It was gnarly.  

Over all I had a great time with my daughter jaunting all around town.  She tells me all the time now that she LOOOOVES San Francisco.  I'm so glad she is adventurous!  I regret not walking down Market and hitting up some shops.  I will put that on the list for next time.