The Big Red Shiny Mack

It's been a few days since I've written. I know. We've been busy, though. What, with the 4th of July and all... To be absolutely honest, we did not a dang thing for the fourth. We chilled around the complex, which I've dubbed Melrose Place, for all the young eye candy inhabiting the buildings. It would be really great if they didn't exhibit such disdain for children.

Although, it's not always like that... On the fourth, Caity and Jacob decided that they wanted to go swimming, so we all crashed the young peoples' pool party that had been going on since something like... the night before, and Caity completely wooed the older girls into discussions about Finding Nemo and band-aids and others that resulted into she and her sister scoring a Barbie doll that had been shoved into the trunk of a palm tree a few hours before... The funniest thing about this whole fourth-crashing-the-Melrose-Place-shindig is that Jacob mentioned in passing that Caity had made friends with some college-aged girls in the pool area, and five minutes later, Aidan is trucking out to the pool area looking for some action... Too funny!!!!

We are settling in. We've gone shopping at the local Safeway, where I purchased a shopping cart to help tote groceries in my walking trips to the store. The stock boy dubbed it a "Granny Cart", and I quickly admonished him for using that moniker in reference to me... He, then, changed his tune and referred to it as the Beer Transporter. Much better.

We are within walking distance of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Yerba Buena Gardens, some crazy mecca of art and leisure that I've never experienced before in my life... What a beautiful place!!!! Some of the attached pictures are of the kids at the playground or feeding the pigeons, or riding the antique carousel. The Yerba Buena Gardens have multiple movie theaters, a gigantic playground for the kids, a recording studio, many open spaces to run and play, an actual Keith Haring sculpture, tons of gorgeous fountains, free entertainment, etc... Within a five minute walk from our apartment!!!! It's lovely times ten!

We also took, just today, one of the best tourist experiences I've EVER had... ANYWHERE: The Fire Engine Tour of the Golden Gate Bridge and Sausalito, California. It's run by a husband and wife team: Robert and Marilyn, and she sings and dances, and he provides the comic straight-man routine, sorta... And they just charm their way through a spectacular and informative tour of some of the neighborhoods, the Presidio, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Sausalito. I highly recommend it to anyone who is coming to the area. If you live in the area, and you haven't taken this tour, you must! It's great!!!

After the fire engine tour, we hopped a cable car back home. We were tired and a bit cranky. The cable car operator was definitely a seasoned veteran of the line. He was crass and all business, but he did take some time to talk with us about raising a family in San Francisco... We all agreed that it is not a good idea... Then went back home to continue raising our families... :)

I really enjoy living here. The weather is crazy... It gets SO cold, but then 30 minutes later, you are taking off your coat. The culture is amazing. The people are friendly, especially if both involved are from out of town... No, seriously, it's quite and amazing city... We're lucky to be here, but we also miss everyone from back home!

Hope you all had a great Independence Day! See you soon!