HAPPY 4000 HITS! Thanks for visiting everyone!

Some San Francisco Treats

San Francisco might quite possibly be our favorite city that we've visited so far. And that's saying a lot, because we've been to quite a few places. It's just got so much to offer. But (don't worry mom & dad), we haven't started checking into real estate there (at least not yet). So, even though I took about 200 photos, here are the highlights - starting first with some photos of Josie just hanging out being adorable after her bath in the big hotel tub.
It's amazing what a good camera & good lighting can accomplish!
And, she was totally digging this comb & the sound the comb's teeth made against her teeth.
Doesn't it look like she's singing? I guess in a way, she kind of was. :)
Now, I've gotten a bit ahead of myself. So let me start at the beginning. Remember those photos you just saw of Josie looking adorable near the end of our trip? Well, for the point of comparison, here she is looking her worst at the very beginning of the week. This was after 5 hours on a plane and about 4 hours past her bedtime. She was well beyond exhausted, not to mention very confused with the fact that she was in a strange car in a strange carseat (facing forward?!). Poor little thing. We thought she would sleep on the plane starting around her normal 7pm bedtime, but we didn't account for the fact that we were flying west and that it wasn't going to get dark. So, she "thought" it was still daytime & just couldn't get to sleep. Anyway, lesson learned - don't fly west around bedtime. Here she is looking exhausted (and she was finally asleep just seconds later)!
Ah - a night of good rest in between mom & dad in a comfy king-sized bed (the crib the hotel gave us was metal & didn't have a crib bumper, so she kept banging her head & grew to hate that crib very quickly). Anyway, after some good sleep, Lou was off to the first day of his conference & Josephine and I were ready to tackle San Francisco. Here's Josie "helping" me with the map and guidebook. Fortunately, she didn't eat too much of them so I was still able to find my way around.

After a whole bunch of walking, sight-seeing & shopping, Josie was in desperate need of a diaper change. I asked around & got directed by a security guard into the "family room" near the food court in the basement of a large mall. And OMG - here's what we found:
I'm not kidding - complete with marble changing stations, three private nursing rooms, a kid's play land, flat screen TV, bottle warmers, a microwave, etc. It was UNREAL, and I think every public place in American needs to start building these right away. It was the perfect little oasis in the middle of the bustling city.

Anyway, after more walking & more shopping, we met back up with Louie to tackle Chinatown. Here they are are the famous gates to Chinatown.

And, I won't go into the rest of the Chinatown trip, except for to say we got a little too adventurous in looking for a snack & wound of wasting four perfectly good dollars on some kind of scary sweet rolls with mysterious "meat" inside. Luckily, Lee & Alicia (our friends who live in San Fran) took us out for some delicious authentic Italian in North Beach and that more than made up for the scary Chinese cuisine.
Here are some other photos from our family adventures around SanFran, namely - the obligatory cable car ride (which we discovered you can skip the line and the cost of the tickets if you walk to the top of the giant hill & take the trolley down instead of riding it up like everyone else).
And after a long day of partying West Coast style - here's one very sleepy Josie, back in the middle of the giant bed.
On to another day of big adventures. After more shopping and tea lattes with mama, Lou wrapped up another day of conferencing and we headed just down the street to the Yerba Buena Gardens for Josie's very first carousel ride! I think I actually had more fun that she did.

She was really confused during the whole first ride, but got into it during the second ride:
Here are Louie & Josie standing outside the carousel. We were going for the "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair" shot, but she just wanted to eat the flower so this is as close as we got:
Then, off to this really cool park, where Louie performed an impromptu concert for Josie:
Later that night, Lou & I walked back to Union Square for some tasty sushi. Here's Josie having her dinner, while we had ours. (And just to reiterate the coolness of this city, we sheepishly asked the hostess if it was okay to eat there with our baby in tow. She said "of course" and even brought us in the the back door which was easier with the stroller. And we saw two other families with babies while we were there!) I had to laugh because I have this tongue-in-cheek picture book called "Urban Babies Wear Black" and one of the pages says "Urban babies eat sushi." :)
And, the next day we were off again for some more sight-seeing, this time with Louie's longtime friend Lee to show us around the city. After a long, scenic drive through Golden Gate Park, here we are at the beach.

The photos are a bit out of sequence here, but later that day we went to the Haight - see those photos below.

The next day (Saturday) was the only full-day we had as a family because Lou's conference ended on Friday afternoon. So, we packed in a TON of activities. Lee & Alicia also had the day off of work, so they were gracious enough to spend the day sharing some of their favorite things with us. Before leaving the hotel that morning, we tried out the cool baby backpack that we got from this amazing company called "Baby's Away" that also rented us the carseat (parents take note - apparently "Baby's Away" has locations in all major cities and rents everything you need from the big stuff like cribs, strollers, and carseats to the little stuff like bathtubs, toys, etc.)

On this gorgeous 80 degree, sunshiny day the first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge and the beautiful view from the other side. Here's the whole crew:
And our family photo with San Francisco in the background:
And Lee & Louie looking like twins in matching shirts, jeans, and shoulder bags. Hilarious!
And sweet Josie "posing" in the shadow of the Golden Gate.
Later that day, we headed to Stinson Beach (where Janis Joplin's ashes were scattered). It was beautiful! We had some tasty ice cream cones:

And enjoyed hanging out in the sand:
San Fran water is chilly, but that didn't stop Josie from enjoying the feeling of the waves splashing up between her toes.
I think Josie needs her own pair of sunglasses, or at least a sunhat that will actually stay on:
Hopefully this was just the first of many Schneider-family afternoons on the beach. Of course we don't want Josie's life to zoom by any faster, but it will be so much fun when we can build sandcastles together, toss a frisbee, fly kites, splash in the waves, etc.
And here's a photo of Baby J sifting her fingers through the sand. She was SO happy just sitting there feeling the sand between her fingers and burying her legs. She just stared at the sand and smiled. And I'm happy to report that she didn't eat a single bite of it!

Here are the Haight-Ashbury photos! Did you honestly think we could go to San Fran without checking out this spot? As we pulled into the neighborhood, I told Josie we were only about 40 years too late, but once we got parked and started walking around, it was clear that the Sixties never really ended in the Haight. Here's the intersection that gives this neighborhood its name.

And here are the boys posing in front of the house where the Grateful Dead lived.
And Josie smiling up at what must have been the ghost of Jerry Garcia. :)
And the adorable tie-dyed onesie that I just about bought for her in every size!
Back to our day with Lee & Alicia in Marin County. Here is Sausalito. Gorgeous, quaint, and the perfect way to spend a sunny California afternoon.

We had a delicious lunch at "Horizons" on the water. We feasted on fish tacos & sandwiches, Josie feasted on her worm which was easily the mascot of the whole trip!
Next we were off to one of the highlights of the whole week - Muir Woods - home of the giant redwoods and Sequioa trees. Really, the photos just don't do them justice. They are as tall as buildings and grow in these beautiful "family circles." The air was cool and fragrant, the trees were mezmorizing and the whole experience was absolute tranquil perfection.

Here we are posing inside one of the mammoth trees.
And, even though Josie was sleeping, we had to pose her inside the giant tree as well.
You have to picture the fact that there was a whole line of people waiting to pose for their own pictures inside the tree, so that made this even more hysterical.
Oh - I forgot to mention - the roads in Marin County are like something out of a cartoon - they twist, turn and wind all around the mountains. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with poor, screaming Josie because she never fusses in the car, until I looked over and saw her totally turn 'green' and get car sick all over herself. Poor baby. All those bends were just too much for her. By the time we got to Muir Woods, she was definitely ready for a nap in the stroller.

After a long, exciting day driving all around Marin, we headed to Lee & Alicia's beautiful home perched high atop Potrero Hill for some ice cold beer and delicious takeout Thai food. The view from their house seriously had us ready to move in a second. It was breathtaking. The view from every window of the house offerred something spectacular - the ocean one way, the city the next. And here's the view off the deck - the bright lights in the center are the ballpark where the Reds were destroying the Giants.

And, what better way was there to top off the perfect rip than a perfect sunset over the city? It was gorgeous. Great food, great friends, a great view...what more could we ask for?

Overall, San Francisco was obviously fantastic and we will definitely be returning again before too long. There are some great short videos from the trip that I will add later this week - as well as the link to the full photo slideshow in Shutterfly (although I'm sure this is more than enough to hold you all over). :)