Nathan did pretty good on the plane. The first time he flew, he slept for part of the plane trip, but this time, he seemed to not want to sleep. So we had to keep him busy and entertained for the about 3 hours. We rotated through the toys that we brought and as a last resort, we turned to food. We found out that he can now feed himself a rice cracker.
After we got the rental car, we ended up driving through a small shopping area and got some pretty good chinese food. Nathan was super friendly towards the waitress. He even grabbed her finger and wouldn't let go.
The first night, we drove to Santa Cruz, where we would go whale watching the next day. It was about a 4 hour excursion and Nathan handled it like a pro. The weather was windy and cold, but we bundled up and cuddled to stay warm. In the end, it was worth it. We saw 2 humpback whales who swam right up to the boat. If we wanted, we could reach our arms out and touch them.
We were able to get a picture of Nathan with the whales. He was a bit curious when they first appeared, and he handled their stinky sprays pretty well, but after awhile, he lost interest and fell asleep.
After the cruise, we stopped and got some Hawaiian food, Nathan tried some garlic shrimp and liked it.
Then came the long trip to Yosemite. We decided to take the scenic route and visit Big Sur on the way, but traffic was pretty bad along Route 1, so we stopped here to take some pictures of the coast and took another detour.
We stayed in the canvas tents at Camp Curry in the valley of Yosemite. It rained the first night, so with the pitter patter of the rain, we all slept like babies. I think it may have been the first time that we all slept through the night.
On the first day, we decided to do a few easy hikes. The first one was to mirror lake, which was about a 1 mile easy, paved hike. You can see Nathan's little arm behind me.
Then, we hiked through the woods to check out Yosemite Falls. We actually hiked half way and then took the shuttle the rest of the way. Here's Nathan sitting beside one of the giant redwood trees.
In the afternoon, we drove about 30 minutes to see some giant sequoia trees at tuolumne grove. The hike was a pretty moderate down hill trek down and up a paved road. There were only a few sequoias scattered among all of the redwoods, but they were still pretty impressive.
For dinner, we ordered a pizza and then called it a night. Nathan went to bed before us so we built a little fort for him to sleep in.
The next day, we decided to go on our long hike. After studying the maps, we decided to go hike the Vernal Falls Trail. Steve was very ambitious and had planned on doing the Nevada Falls trail as well, but once we reached the top of the Vernal Falls, we decided to call it quits and head back. The trail was pretty much a steep uphill with stairs at the end of the trail. The mist trail was what they called it and we now know why they call it the mist trail. It was beautiful. Probably one of the most beautiful sights that I have seen with my own two eyes.
On the way up, Nathan became very interested with this squirrel, who came very close to us.
On the way down, we decided to take the long winding trail down the mountain to avoid the slick, steep steps that we went up on. We were toting precious cargo and didn't want to risk his life any more than we had already done.
On a side note, Nathan's cheeks became very red on this trip. I don't know if it was the dry air, or if it was the friction from being carried in the Ergo Baby carrier for many hours, but it was weird. I tried looking up to see if this was a problem for anyone else, but I didn't come across anything.
The drive back to San Francisco was ok. Nathan seemed to sleep a bit more and traffic wasn't as bad. It only took us 5 and half hours to get there. We were very lucky to be able to stay with family right in the city and that first night, Nathan fell asleep quickly and slept like a baby.
On the first day, our aunt and uncle loaned us their car so we decided to drive to the Golden Gate Bridge, looked around, and then we drove to Fisherman's Wharf for some clam chowder bread bowls.
We stopped by the penny arcade on pier 42 and put a quarter into this machine. Nathan loved it and was giggling the whole time it was playing.
We then went back and met up with the family. Nathan's great grandparents arrived too and we had a very nice lunch together. The house we stayed at had lots of mirrors, so Nathan really enjoyed looking at himself in the mirror.
That evening, we walked to a Hong Kong cafe close by and had some Americanized Chinese food. It was...interesting, but I wasn't super impressed. Again, Nathan was super friendly with the waitress and the people around us. We got compliments from 2 different people on what a good/cute/bright baby he is. Who would've thought that these compliments would make me so proud.
The next day, Nathan took a super long nap, the longest one he's taken all of vacation. After he woke up, we drove to Golden Gate Park and first went to the California Academy of Sciences. Just like we expected, Nathan was completely fascinated with the aquarium.
Afterwards, we just drove around the park and got out to go see the Japanese tea gardens and the botanical gardens. We didn't go in, but just took a few pictures outside. We then went back to the house for dinner.
It seemed like Nathan came out of his shell on this trip. He has started to become way more vocal and social than he was before. He would answer back and even initiate conversation with people. He doesn't do it so much with me, but with "strangers" he is super social, which is sooo unlike Steve or me.
With so much going on in the house, Nathan did not want to go to sleep at night. He ended up going to sleep around 8 or 9 pm CA time (10 or 11 Texas time) each night. Usually, he would fall asleep shortly after sunset. So, we are currently trying to help him adjust to the jet lag. His current bed time is 10 pm. We are hoping to push that up about 15 minutes each night until it's back to his usual 7:30 time.
The next morning, we ventured out towards downtown. We first walked to West Portal, caught the MUNI to the Ferry Building and walked around the Saturday Farmers Market. I tried some fresh oysters and we all sampled some fresh fruit. Nathan liked the apricots. They were much juicier than the ones that you get here in Texas.
After an hour, we headed towards Chinatown. Truthfully, I was a bit underwhelmed. There were a lot of touristy junk shops and Cantonese style restaurants. I was expecting to see at least one Taiwanese restaurant, but we may have just missed it. We ended up having some dim sum and Nathan tried a bit of the steamed ribs. He sucked on the bone, but that was about it.
We then found our way to North Beach, looked around, and then caught a trolley by Fisherman's Wharf to take us back to a MUNI station. We got nice seats up front, so Nathan was able to stand on Steve's lap and look out the window. He really enjoyed the ride.
Later that evening, Nathan attended a piano recital and for the most part, enjoyed listening to the music. If he got fussy, I just took him out to the entrance and danced to the music with him. Between that and looking at a flower arrangement at the front of the recital place, he would occasionally let out a loud giggle, which was super cute to me, but maybe not to the performer who was concentrating a few yards away.
That night, Nathan was super social. He might have even said his first word, "hi" to people. He was just so social, and interactive. It was really neat to see him listen and respond to other people.
We decided to start our final full day of San Francisco with a hearty seafood meal at the Wharf. Nathan was very content playing beside me while I chowed down on a delicious plate of Cioppino. He tried some of the fish, but I think the flesh was a bit too firm for him to swallow (even after I mashed it up with a fork). This may have been Nathan's first trip to a fancy restaurant.
 |
| Mommy's wearing a Bib. Just like Nathan. |
Then, we went on a big adventure. We rented bikes to ride across the bridge into Sausalito in Marin County. The baby bike seat was perfect, although we had to show the guy who worked at the store how to adjust the seat. And the helmet that they gave Nathan was entirely too big for him, but it managed to stay on his head if we put a hat between his head and the helmet, so we made it work.
When he first sat in the seat, he gave us a huge smile. He was really excited to be on the seat. For the most part, he really enjoyed the ride. He started to fuss a bit after we crossed the bridge to take a break. I wouldn't blame him. The ride across the bridge was a bit scary, cold, and SUPER windy.
Our lips and face felt a bit windburned so after we applied some lip balm, we decided to put some on him too. This is what it's like applying lip balm on a baby:
He wanted to eat it. Either it was his instinct, or the delicious vanilla scent. But nonetheless, it was cute.
The view after we crossed the bridge was pretty amazing. The ride to Sausalito was a bit more challenging than I expected. People were describing a downhill ride, but we had to take a detour and the path ended up being a combination of uphill and downhill stretches. When we finally arrived into town, we followed the advice of the guy at the bike rental place and immediately got in line to purchase tickets for the ferry back to San Francisco. There was a line of people, and for the first time, we got preferential treatment because we had a baby in tow. The lady directing the line pointed at me, I gave her a "you pointing at me" look as I pointed at myself, she gave me a nod and so I moved towards her. She directed Steve towards the front of the line and he stepped up to buy tickets. Within seconds, we were being directed to board the ship.
On the ship, Nathan got really friendly with the bartenders who were right behind us. I first notice him yelling and then looked back to see what he was yelling at. The guys at the bar were making funny faces at him and he thought that it was amusing. He continue to holler back. It was quite cute.
Soon we heard an announcement for us to go down a level to pick up our bikes. After we got our bikes we stood in a line for a few minutes as the boat docked.
Apparently we then had to hoist our bikes up a flight of stairs to the ramp. As we got closer to the stairs, we heard people grunt as they lifted their bikes up and climbed up the stairs. When we were up, with Nathan in the carrier in front of me, the guy told me to hold the frame and lift. I tried, but the bike seat was weighing the bike down. He kept urging me to lift, I kept trying and finally, with Steve's help at the back end, I was able to hoist the bike up the stairs. Half way, another guy comes to the rescue and says "You shouldn't be doing this!"
On our way to return the bike, we stopped by Ben and Jerry's. We ordered 2 scoops with one being a frozen green yogurt. Nathan had a few bites and really like it (no surprise). After we finished with the scoop of yogurt, we proceeded to eat the scoop of mint ice cream, which was off limits to Nathan. Of course he didn't know this and we had to endure the puppy dog eyes as he looked back and forth between the ice cream cone and us.
After a brief nap at the house, we decided to go climb the Moraga Steps that was a few blocks down the street.
It had gotten pretty chilly and it was super windy at the top of 330 some steps. The view, though foggy, was still nice as we saw most of San Francisco and a cool solar farm in the distance.
We boarded or flight home the next day and that night Nathan slept through the night. He went down at around 10:30 and didn't wake up until 6:30. Unfortunately, this was a one time occurrence, but I know that the light at the end of the tunnel is near.
Last night, I also discovered a 4th tooth. It's his outer incisors on the upper left side. I'm not sure when that tooth emerged, but I'm glad it did. He seems to be his normal happy self...for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment