8. Bathroom -- The ONE and only in our humble abode.
Anyone who wants to be tagged... you're it!
This was taken about 3 weeks ago.
Oh how I hope his curls come back!
I am always amazed at how much older the young guys look when they get a haircut and how much younger the older guys look when they get a haircut!
McKay LOVES spaghetti pie. He'll eat more of it than any other meal. Once in a while I tell McKay to 'say cheese' when I am going to take his picture. As I was getting ready to take this picture I said 'say... ' and he said 'cheese!' and grinned. I guess he remembered. ;)
We have been itching to go somewhere fun so yesterday we spent the day in San Francisco. We decided that since we recently went to Japantown here in San Jose, we should go check out Chinatown in San Francisco. It is the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and was very interesting. We really felt like we had gone to another country.
McKay thought this lion at the entrance was pretty cool and wasn't quite ready to move on when we were.
All the stores have chinese lanterns or something like them hanging from the ceiling and we enjoyed hearing McKay's sqeals at being able to touch them. He had a blast being on Jordan's shoulders and got a lot of smiles from people around us.
This is the most photographed street in Chinatown because of the bright colors; the stairs connecting each level are very typical of San Francisco.
We had a list of some restaurants in Chinatown we got off the internet that were supposed to be good. We ended up trying 'Gold Mountain'. Unfortunately for us, no one spoke much English and communication was a huge issue. Some of the servers just gave us blank looks and moved on. They were serving Dim Sum when we got there. Basically, it is like Chinese tea-time where they drink tea and eat different foods. The servers come around to the tables (much like they do at Tucanos in Provo, Utah) and ask if you want a small plate of what they have. Each plate has a price associated with it and they mark your 'bill', which stays on your table, after they give it to you. We weren't too excited about dim sum and asked for a menu. Well, the menu was impossible to read; everything was in Chinese with probably half of it in English as well. No one could answer our questions, though they were pretty good at answering questions we didn't ask. Since we couldn't get anyone to explain the menu to us and the servers kept asking us if we wanted what they had we finally gave in and decided to try dim sum. It seemed like a faster way to get our food and we were starving. Well we didn't understand how dim sum works until after we were into it. Some of the food was okay, one of the dishes we each had one bite of and couldn't stand anymore and the rest we choked down because we had paid $3-$4 for it. I (of course) was keeping a talley of how much we were spending and knew about how much our bill would be. One of the servers told us the cashier was closing and she needed our ticket (whatever! There were still people getting food! We aren't that clueless!) Well, it came back $3 higher than I had calculated so I asked her about it. She explained that I needed to put an amount on the tip line and sign the reciept. So I tried again. This time it connected and she went to find our bill. Five minutes later (literally), she came back. Everything on the bill was in Chinese & in English except for one line on the bottom. That line had $3 on it. Apparently, we had to pay $1 per pereson for the tea we didn't drink. We were quite frustrated because we had asked for water the whole time and had asked the servers how their restaurant worked and had gotten blank stares. So we paid and left. Next time, we will NOT get dim sum.
We HAD to go see Ghiraradelli Square. We hadn't had dinner yet so we ate at a diner with a view overlooking Fishermans Wharf and the Bay. The sun setting over the bay was absolutely beautiful and McKay loved looking out the window. Unfortunately we were too full to have a famous Hot Fudge Sundae from the Ghiraradelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop so we settled for going though the chocolate store and getting a sample of Ghiraradelli Milk Chocolate with Peanut Butter... twice - once before dinner and once after (Luckily for us, there were different people handing them out each time - McKay is one people always seem to remember!) I think the chocolate & the famous water fountain in the middle of the square were probably McKay's favorite parts. Mine were the chocolate & the sunset. Jordan's favorites were the chocolate and the onion rings at the diner. Yeah, the chocolate was good.
Lombard Street is famous for being the 'crookedest' street in San Francisco. It is a one way street (down :)) past beautiful Victorian Mansions on Russion Hill (we're talking EXPENSIVE real estate here). The street is paved with stone and there are beautiful flowers along the switchbacks. There are sidewalks on both sides so you can hike up or down it, as well as TONS of people at both the top and the bottom of the block. Click here for an aerial view of Lombard Street.
Coit Tower is the tall building in the middle. There is a city ordinance prohibiting any building from blocking the view from the tower so you can see the whole city from the top. This picture was taken as we drove down Lombard Street.
This is the corner of Montgomery & Green Street. Before reading on, does anyone recognize what street this is? Hint: I am touching the pole. :) Click here to see why we took pictures here.
This is the first time we have purposely gone to a place where the TV show 'Monk' was filmed. That shot was taken in 2002. Notice how much the tree has grown in 6 years! Other places we have been that are on that website are to the Bay Bridge view from the Embarcardero and on this trip we drove past North Beach (Little Italy - we'll actually visit it next time) which is next to Chinatown.
This is looking up Green Street. Definitely not the steepest street in San Francisco but a good example of what we walked up and down. Walking it is one thing but pushing the stroller too... yeah, it feels much steeper! After we took our 'Monk Site' pictures, we drove up this street.
This is our view from the top of Green Street. When we got to the top, neither Jordan nor I could see anything in front of us. Jordan cautiously pushed on the gas and we were able to see that there was indeed road in front of us. It was a little scary!
Jordan loved his potstickers.
McKay loved his balloon.
I loved the strawberry, nutella, ice cream crepe we had in a little crepe shop we found and will be returning to often. They had specialty drinks, dessert crepes, and breakfast crepes as well as wraps. You'll notice no picture of me eating the crepe... yeah, well maybe anther time I'll get to it fast enough to get a picture! I didn't have time to stop for a picture when the delicious dessert was disappearing before my eyes! ;)
McKay constantly undoes his shoes. I am not sure if it is just because he CAN or if he is trying to set a new trend. The only time I insist he has them done up is when he is walking outside. I would say maybe it is time for shoelaces but he knows how to undo those too... just look at my shoes!
This picture cracks me up. Notice, his shoe straps are undone. Funny boy.
I pretty much followed the recipe for the talapia (except I toasted my own bread crumbs - can't waste that end-slice!) but the rice was the experiment. I used 1 1/3 c. water, 1/2 c. brown rice, 1 cube chicken bullion, 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning, about 1/8 teaspoon garlic salt, and a couple of shakes of paprika. The water & rice are the amounts you normally use for 2 servings of brown rice. Next time I will probably add 1 Tablespoon more of water, but it was still really good and wonderful with the talapia! Add to the fish & rice steamed broccoli, carrots & summer squash and we had a delicious & healthy dinner! Definitely one we will repeat!
I was doing the laundry and as usual, McKay kept grabbing whatever I was folding. He especially likes when I fold towels or sheets. This time I was folding the blue blanket in the picture above so I thought we would 'play' with the blanket. I took it into the front room and made a fort, using the desk chair, the glider, and a chair from the kitchen. McKay thought it was so funny when I got under it. To make it a little interesting, I got some 'instruments' from the kitchen. NOW he was interested! He had a ball making as much noise as he could. As soon as that wasn't exciting anymore, he enjoyed going in and out of the fort, standing up of course, and letting his head brush the blanket until the entrance to the fort collapsed. Cheap entertainment!
McKay has decided he is ready to start feeding himself. I usually give him a spoon and I have a spoon and together we try to get some food in his mouth. He actually does quite well, unless it is peas or something like that that rolls right off the spoon as soon as he gets close to his mouth. He loves to try and thinks it is so funny when his food rolls away.
Success!
Now McKay walks all over the house, the rings have lost their appeal and my closet has opened up a whole new world! We have the closet doors that you roll open and McKay loves to open them (because he can) and carry my shoes around the house. Notice he has one on each arm just like he used to have one ring in each hand.
Today we decided to drive to San Francisco to do the Lands End hike. We have wanted to go back and do it since we discovered it on our last visit to San Francisco. The hike is about 3 miles round trip along the coast. Most of it is shaded too, so that is great. There were people out playing all over! Lots of people sailing, surfing (neither of us are surfers but those waves looked pretty perfect for surfing), biking, hiking, running, or just out enjoying the beautiful day. We were going to stay home and give the garage some much needed attention. But it was just too beautiful of a day to do that!
It was a perfect day for a hike... 77 degrees and a cool ocean breeze.
The water was so inviting, we wished we had come prepared for the beach.
We are really glad McKay likes to ride in the hiking backpack. He often falls asleep - Yeah!!
I thought McKay looked so cute with his face smashed into the side of his chair and his droopy, tired eyes about to close... again!
Where's McKay?!?
Peek-a-Boo!
