Bay Area weekend

Ross took Friday the 16th off, so we could head down to the Bay Area. Our goal was to visit San Francisco--the CA Academy of Sciences and anything else we had time for--, stay with all of my parents, and visit Mt. Diablo. The iconic photo above belies our early struggles with public transit (because I was unaware that there are BOTH Muni buses and Muni trains). We arrived at the Academy of Sciences slightly later than expected but were enthralled with the aquarium. Below is a picture of Ross and Katya in a tunnel under one of the indoor aquarium ponds (able to be viewed from various levels) and the cool albino crocodile.

We also saw jelly fish. If you can't quite tell, that is Ross posing in front of a black lit jelly fish tank; below are pictures of the Moon jellies.

This is a photo of Katya in front of a free standing tank housing Sea Dragons, a type of sea horse. The Sea Dragon is above her left shoulder and looks like seaweed.

After we finished at the Academy of Science (planetarium, extreme mammals, cafeteria, coffee shop, aquarium, miscellaneous exhibits, gift shop) we walked over to the SF Botanical Gardens. In case you are wondering about appropriate botanical garden etiquette, DO NOT FEED the squirrels.

Ross was getting his second wind, so we make our way (by trains and pedi-cabs) to Pier 39. We enjoyed a nice dinner (none of us ate any shellfish) and did a quick walk of the pier.

Saturday we went up to Rock City, on Mt. Diablo, with Phil and Sandy. We all enjoyed hiking around on the rock formations and wind caves. Phil, Sandy, and I each reminisced about previous trips to Rock City. Notice the faces of Ross and Katya in the wind cave below?

This is all of us at the "castle", built by CCC workers in the '30s, at the summit of Mt. Diablo.

After our mountain tour we retired to frolic in Phil and Sandy's pool, the perfect way to cool down. Saturday night we had dinner at Skippolini's Pizza, in Clayton, and then caravaned over to Mumphie's. As you can see, we relaxed in her spa.

Sunday, the four of us went across town to tour the Ruth Bancroft garden. It was full of sculptures from a recent art in the garden show; Katya wasn't harmed in the making of this photo.

Thanks to all of our hosts in Clayton and Concord. Next time we hope to visit Alcatraz and have Ross ride to the top of Mt. Diablo!!!