What We Did Instead.... or San Francisco Sight-Seeing Plan C

Today's original plan was to go to the Exploratorium. As explained in the previous post, even after wading through heavy traffic to get there, that plan just didn't pan out. I guess free day in July is just an all-around bad idea. But we were already in San Francisco, so time for Plan B.

We decided to do some sight-seeing instead. We drove from the Marina district to Fisherman's Wharf/Ghirardelli Square. We wanted to go to the Maritime Museum or ride the cable cars, but I was kinda hoping to find parking that was less than $2.50 for every 20 minutes. (Alas, wishful thinking....)

We drove around for quite some time, but without any luck. After a while of this, the kids were bored and whining and (quite reasonably) disappointed in how fun our trip was turning out to be. So we decided to at least stop at Ghirardelli Square to get some chocolate and/or ice cream while we decided what to do next. At least there they validated parking. We walked through some of the shops, had some delicious chocolate samples and the kids had a ball chasing pigeons and plotting how best to catch them.

After our yummy chocolate samples (which Jackson smeared all over his face and fingers) and brief survey of the shops, I took the kids to the ice cream parlor to split a famous Ghirardelli Hot Fudge Sundae. We had gotten them on a previous trip to San Francisco and despite the touristy location and price, they were really yummy. Well I don't know if it was just that I was tired from driving around, that I was disappointed that both our original and back-up plans for the day weren't working out, the fact that they actually didn't validate parking unless you purchased more than $20 of stuff (and the last thing I needed after a week of cruise food was piles of chocolate or my own hot fudge sundae...), or that or that the single hot fudge sundae ended up costing $15 (between the $8 price, tax and parking), but it just wasn't as great as I remember it. At least not $15 bucks worth....

Luckily, the kids are much less picky than I am when it comes to both travel and cuisine. They loved the sundae, happily looked at the chocolate machine exhibits in the ice cream parlor and then asked if they could please go back outside to chase pigeons. Even Jackson didn't complain too much about being stuck in his stroller.

Jared and Camryn happily amused themselves chasing pigeons and trying to fish coins out of the mermaid fountain until I told them it was time to go. (Now if only we weren't paying $7.50 an hour in parking for the privilege of chasing pigeons!) I guess I should probably try to learn a lesson from my kids: sometimes you've just got to go with the flow and enjoy what you end up with instead of being frustrated with what didn't work out. Maybe that's part of "becoming like a child." And there's lots of fun to be had in pigeons, fountains and ice cream sundaes that are WAY too expensive. Especially when mom pays. ;)