San Francisco - Day One - Planes, Trains, Trolleys and Boats

One of the projects I'm working at work involves rolling out new tools for designing electrical substations. The group who will be using the tool had previously been in discussions with Pacific Gas & Electric on their experiences with the tool and decided it would be beneficial to get together for a day to share knowledge. This meant a paid trip down to San Francisco so I thought it would be a good idea to go down a few days early and check out the sites. A good idea except for the fact that the Giants made it into the World Series making it somewhat difficult to get a hotel.

It took some work but Kerry finally found one near the airport. Not a great location for site seeing however they have a free shuttle into town. A 45 minute bus ride later and I'm in the heart of downtown San Francisco at Union Square. I hadn't put much thought into what I was going to do first because I had no idea what was at Union Square. It's mostly shopping but it also happens to be the starting point for a cable car that goes all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. After about a 45 min wait I was riding a form of transportation that's over 100 years old.

The cars are powered by a single electrical motor in a central power house. As I was walking down to them there was an odd screeching sound coming from the street. It was only when I saw the first street car go by that I realized it was the sound of the cables dragging underground. The trip was about 30 minutes and went from Union Square all the way to Fisherman's Wharf. I'm not sure how they do it but it manages to go both up and down hills and make turns. I was expecting a single straight line up and down a hill but it was much better. Amazing technology for the time.

After a brief tour of some older ships including one of the oldest tug boats on the west coast I stopped at Lou's Fish Shack for some fish and chips. It didn't disappoint. It wasn't your typical beer battered fish but was very crispy and the tarter sauce was perfect. I'm a bit of a fish and chips connoisseur and this was up there on my list of favorites. After lunch I took a stroll down the peer and there was a boat advertising tours of the bay for $15.00. It wasn't a big ship but there were already about 30 people on board so it was ready to go.

The boat took you out past the Golden Gate Bridge and included your typical tour boat commentary and corny jokes though this one included a bit more political commentary than usual. Not Democrat or Republican. Just anti-government in general. The trip was only an hour which was the perfect amount of time and the weather was nice most of the way with the exception of some fog around the bridge. That just added to the experience. After we rounded Alcatraz and headed past some slumbering sea lions we were back to the dock.

Further down the dock was the San Francisco Mechanical Museum. Mostly made up of old penny arcade machines and amusement park novelties all converted to quarters. I started Callie collecting crushed pennies after a few of my previous trips and she's hooked. A nice cheap hobby. She would be in heaven here. There were crushed penny machines everywhere. A combination of electric and hand powered with multiple images in most of them. And they were only 50 cents where most are a dollar. I had change for five of them.

After the museum I headed to Pier 39. I had heard about it before but it wasn't originally on my list of things to check out. I'm glad I did though. The atmosphere was great and there are lot's of restaurants, tourist shops and sweet stores. It will be a great place to go back to on Sunday so I can pick up souvenirs for everyone. Callie picked the crushed pennies and all Carter wanted was chocolate. I'm covered nicely on both those items.

By this time I was ready to head back to the hotel. Unfortunately my Blackberry has a map but isn't great for planning your travel. I had hoped to find a transit map by now but hadn't come across one yet. I knew Fisherman's Wharf was as far as I could go so I decided I would just hop on a bus and see where it took me. It was a neat old electric trolley bus and it had two drivers seats for going in opposite directions. Very neat and it got me back to a Bart Station that I 'knew' would get me home. A bit of a story there that I will discuss tomorrow.

The Pumpkin Patch

We took our annual trip to the Aldor Acres Pumpkin patch last weekend. We've been every year since Callie was born and the place gets better every year. It's a family run farm that includes a petting zoo, a dairy farm and a Christmas tree farm. The pumpkin patch portion is on all four October weekends and I believe they've been doing it for over 20 years. Judging by the number of cars that arrive when we're there and the cost to get in, I'm fairly certain this is a big piece of their income.

Callie's favourite part is the fact that you get to pick up and feed the bunnies. I think she went back into the bunny barn three times this year. In previous years I've felt very sorry for the bunnies as she would grab them very quickly and often dropped them from quite a height when she put them back. This year though she was an expert and was even able to hold them with just one hand while she fed them hay. There were also a few baby chicks. (It's a good thing they have wings and seem to bounce when they get dropped.)

Carter was a bit pre-occupied this year. He had received some money from Barb and Reg for looking after the dogs while they were in Vegas and he was itching to spend it. He wanted to do all of the pumpkin patch activities as quickly as possible because we had promised him we'd go to the store so he could spend his money on new lego. We did manage to get him to pose for a few pictures.

As I'm looking through the pictures I've realized we forgot to get one of the kids in front of the height indicators. They have various picture boards for the kids to stand in front of that show how tall they are so you can look back at previous years. We haven't been that consistent so I'm not too concerned. At least I got one of Carter as a tiny rooster.

Geocaching at Campbell Valley Park

This summer we went Geocaching quite a few times. Geocaching is an GPS based treasure hunt. People hide cache's all over the world and post the location to a web site. Participants then get to track them down, sign the log book and move on to the next one. We've found 70 so far and have one of our own at the little free library in our front  yard. Some are just simple film canisters with a log book but others can be more elaborate and include small toys or books. The best part of geocaching is that it gets us to go to places we wouldn't ordinarily go. Most cache's are placed near something unique that you wouldn't ordinarily stop to look at.

The kids had been to Campbell Valley Park with Kerry already but Kerry wanted to go back to find a few they had missed and to take her parents with us. On one of the board walks, someone had left handfuls of bird seed. We don't usually feed the birds but since they food was already there I took advantage and showed the kids how to get the birds to land in their hand. The birds had obviously done this before and as long as you stayed still and kept your hand out they would eventually land. Callie, Reg and I all got one. Carter got one too but he immediately ran away from it. He didn't like the claws on his hands. The chipmunks were friendly as well though they never got close enough to actually eat out of your hand.

Carter's Birthday Party

This year Carter decided that his birthday party was going to be pirate themed. He toyed with a few other ideas including Spiderman and Transformers but we encouraged him down the pirate them route since we had so much gear already from our Disney Cruise and from a pirate night at Kerry's school. With his birthday happening before school even started it resulted in a rather eclectic mix of attendees because he hadn't built new friendships with any kids at school yet. There were two cousins, one of Callie's class mates, the daughter of a family friend, one kid from school and Uncle Ronnie.

It's fun that the kids still enjoy having their birthday at our house versus something like bowling or swimming because it means we get to work on the family activities as a family. They included;

1) Pirate Ring Toss - A game we made out of a sheet of plywood and some captain hook hooks screwed to a board.

2) A Pirate Treasure hunt that ended with a treasure chest I had built.

3) Walk the Plank

The cake was pirate ship shaped though when it was all decorated it just looked like a deserted island. We also got some great treasure box shaped cupcakes from Kerry's friend Kathy. They were complete with little coins and skull and cross bones. She always makes amazing goodies for the kids goodie bags. Lot's of gifts of course with one of the hits being some 3lb weights from Uncle Corey. Carter is trying to build up his muscles. 

First Day of School

First day of school was a bit later than usual this year. The teacher's strike that had started at the end of the previous year carried forward into the new school year and it wasn't until September 22nd that they finally got to return. By this time even the kids were eager to get back to see their friends. Three months of playing in the back yard and watching reruns on the Disney channel was enough.

I ordinarily schedule the first week of September off so I can help with the transition and I did exactly that except of course that turned out to be the wrong week. We have a tradition where the kids and I go to Rickey's for breakfast but since I couldn't be around on the first Monday we had to do that on the Sunday before. Barb and Reg had come down for Carter's Birthday so they got to handle first day of school duties. A few quick pictures and they were out the door for another year.

A Chocolate Slip & Slide?

We've thought about it for the past few years and this year we finally did it. We went on a family camping trip. Both Kerry and I did some camping as kids. My family had a tent trailer and would spend time at our lake property and Kerry's family had a trailer and toured Vancouver Island a lot. We have neither of those things and for now can't justify the expense. We've also decided that we're not tent campers so that left us with one real option. Renting a cabin and luckily the KOA network in the US offers just such a thing.

Our destination was the Concrete/Grandy Creek KOA campground about 30 minutes EAST of Burlington in Washington. It's an excellent family camp ground at the base of Mount Baker and they have these nice little cabins that sleep 6 people with a double bed and two sets of bunk beds. It was good that there were two sets of bunk beds because it meant both kids got their own top bunk. They even came with electricity and a space heater. This is luxury camping.

I mentioned that this was a great family camp ground. The reason for that was all the activities that were available for kids. There was a jump pillow which is like a giant trampoline, mini-golf, a pool and hot tub. Did I mention that this was luxury camping? Most of the site was well maintained and my only real complaint was that the cabins were on the edge of a very open field. At first I thought this would mean no privacy but it turns out you're so far from people on the other side that you don't feel exposed at all.

The campground had an 'Everything Chocolate' theme for the weekend. This meant chocolate ice cream, chocolate themed craft time, a sucker hunt in the dark, a night time showing of Charlie and the Chocolate factory as well as a pie throwing event where the kids threw chocolate pies into their parents face. (I unfortunately couldn't attend because I had to look after Wilson at the cabin. Too bad.) The highlight for the kids though was the chocolate slip and slide. Luckily they added as much soap as chocolate.

We went with family friends Melissa and Kathy and their families and it sounds like we may make it an annual event. Great fun!

My First Attempt at Canning

This year I decided to try canning. Canning is definitely a dying art. With the cost of canned goods being so cheap in the stores most people don't see the need to do home canning anymore. To some extent I agree but it is a skill that I'd like to have. I've also found that you can get most fruits canned in the store and they taste pretty much the same. One exception however is cherries. Most canned cherries tend to either be the very heavy syrup or the candied ones. I wanted just regular cherries in a light syrup.

I started with a 20 pound box that we picked up on our way home from Oliver and I picked up the canning supplies for about $50 dollars at Canadian tire. For the 14 cans I got I think it ended up costing about $100. The good thing though is that about $75 of that were one time costs. So although it was about $7 a jar this time, the cost will drop dramatically as I do more. So far they've turned out nicely. Every one sealed properly and show no signs of any kind of discolouration or mould. Callie and I both agree that they taste delicious.