LAX to SFO

What a difference a month makes! Anya was great on the one hour flight to San Francisco and handled the shuttle buses with ease.  We, of course, had to stop for some macaroni and cheese and chocolate milk before we headed into the city.

Off to Fisherman’s Wharf to see the sea lions and most especially to visit the USS Pampanito. It’s a museum on a submarine that is docked at one of the wharfs. Anya has watched our home movies several times and has seen her older brother and sister touring the sub. So, we wanted her to have a similar memory and took the tour.

Note to self: submarines aren’t made for dwarfs’ short legs.

She also got to play a racing arcade game (with help from Dave for the pedals) and LOVES it. I told her she isn't driving any car of mine any time soon based on her performance.

 My view of Anya while waiting for the plane-yes, that's my iTouch. Gotta earn more money for behaving on the plane. And the count down timer

is on the iTouch.

 Her view of me while waiting.

 At Fisherman's Wharf-what is she looking at? Or rather listening to?

 The Sea Lions-if you've never been, it's a sound to behold.

 I always loved Rosie the Riveter!

 I took a couple of pictures, but Anya couldn't look at the camera 

because the men next to me were holding dogs.

Anya told us she wanted to see the thing like this (hand motions of the shape of the Golden Gate Bridge) and “it’s red”. So we went off to a coffee shop at the base of the bridge that my high school friend took us to last year when we visited. After walking around there, we headed to my aunt’s house in Montara, on the ocean, where we were going to stay.

 Must catch the bird...

 Mama, do it again, yawn!

 Just messing with my cheapy camera and liked this shot.

Our family also got the chance to see my friend from childhood and enjoyed a few hours at their family store, Flax Art and Design and then had lunch together. We had a great dinner with family and the next day we went to the tide pools and explored. Later in the day we met up with our older daughter and took a 3 mile walk on the beach to the Cliff House (with an eating break) where our daughter sells her jewelry. W walked home party of the way through Golden Gate Park. Anya was a bit stressed sleeping in a different house, but she did alright. Dave and I went out to dinner for our anniversary while my aunt watched Anya and they walked down the street to see the baby alpacas, all four of which had jackets on!

 Anya took this photo. We were in Golden Gate Park.

The next day we went to Anya’s favorite spot-a zoo, the San Francisco Zoo to be exact. It is really a very lovely zoo, and I’m not much of a zoo person. Anya got to see two sister bears, about 20’ in front of us, wrestling for about 10 minutes. She also now describes a sea lion as an animal that was shot in the head and is blind. All this describing is done with hand motions and a lot of “like this”. In a special tank, there was, you guessed it, a sea lion that was shot in the head and is now blind.

 I liked how long Anya's hair looked this day!

 Anya's favorite animal at the zoo-Simba. 

From her Russian childhood movie watching.

Dave and I knew the battery in his car was not holding a charge and that we’d probably have to jump start his car when we got back. If we only had time to change the battery before we left, but we didn’t. And we did have to jump start it. Anya has a special memory of pushing papa’s car with mama and then with papa (mama doesn’t push fast enough to get into second gear…) and having it start! Nothing like ending the trip with In-N-Out for a cheeseburger, fries and milk-Anya style.

One problem-shortly after we got home, my older daughter got a dog. Now Anya wants to put our Pug in the overhead bin and take another flight up there so we can all meet the American Bulldog, Brutus.

~Monica