October Outings

This month seemed to be the month to getting out to explore more of what the Bay Area has to offer kids and families.  We started going so many places that I decided to condense them all into one post.  Most of these places were free since we used passes from the library, so it was nice to get to visit some of these attractions and judge whether it's worth going back to or not.

Lyla and I started out one week by hitting up CuriOdyssey.  It was a relatively quick car trip to get over to Coyote Point Park and in to the museum.  I didn't know anything about this place, but it turned out to be more of a nature preserve for animals injured or not able to be re-released back into the while after fully recovering from some ailment.  It was pretty small, and we whizzed through everything in less than a half hour.  I was a little bummed that it may have been a bit of a bust UNTIL we decided to explore the park a little further.  It turns out we had a great view of the San Francisco Bay AND we were super close to the San Francisco airport.  Since we could see the airport from the edge of the park, we were able to see a ton of planes coming and going from the airport and they all seemed so close!  When I asked Lyla later about what she did that morning, she said she watched airplanes.  It just goes to show some of the best adventures turn out to be a bit unplanned.

A few days later we ventured into Aquarium of the Bay in downtown San Francisco.  It's been awhile since I've had to navigate downtown in a city, but we made it there without making any wrong turns!  Again, this place turned out to be quite small and we were ready to go after going through the underground aquarium a few times.  I can't complain, though, since it was free! This aquarium sits right on Pier 39, a tourist attraction.  We walked down to the end of the pier and had a picnic lunch with a great view of Alcatraz.  It was a pretty crummy day and fairly windy, but Lyla insisted she wasn't cold and just enjoyed having a picnic with her mom.

 

That weekend we took Dustin with us to the Exploratorium in San Francisco.  It was so amazing in there!  It seemed like a huge never-ending series of science experiments.  While Dustin and I thoroughly enjoyed everything they had to offer, everything was a bit too young for Lyla to enjoy.  She was a good sport, but it can be frustrating for a toddler that can't read or do any of the activities by herself!  Afterward we went outside to this park in the Presidio and had a beautiful picnic lunch.  Lyla has been talking a lot lately about how much she enjoys picnics, so we're saving cash on eating out when we take these adventures AND we enjoy some beautiful scenery outside.

The next week Sherie's neighbor invited Sherie, Lyla, and I to Happy Hollow Zoo to tag along with her and her grandchildren.  Lyla and I went over a year ago, but this time Lyla was just the right age to enjoy it!  Happy Hollow has a small zoo, several playgrounds, a petting zoo area, and rides for the kids.  Lyla happily bounced from place to place - she really seemed to love it all.  I think her favorite thing may have been riding a carousel, though.  She rode with Sherie FOUR times.  I think she would have rode all day if I didn't tell her we needed to head for home.  She was a great sport about leaving when it was time and she loved recounting her fun-filled day to her dad as soon as he stepped in the door.

This past week I took Lyla out on my last planned adventure for awhile - the Oakland Zoo.  I don't know how, but I managed to time our visit on one of the few rainy days we've had in the past several months. It wasn't too bad - just a drizzle for the first half of our visit.  It turned out to be a good thing, though, as the zoo was pretty much deserted and we got to see a lot of the animals in more of a natural, quite, calm state.  Since it was rainy, I took exactly one picture before we even left for the zoo, but it was super cute because Lyla was so excited.

I learned by our last trip to the zoo that carting Lyla all around the Bay Area is starting to get a bit tiresome and as much as I want to convince myself that I'm tough and still in good enough shape to be running around like a non-pregnant lady, the time is coming where I may need to slow down (slightly).  I'm giving Lyla and I a few weeks off and then we'll reassess if we are able to do some more outings before the holidays.  Lyla's pretty persuasive since she's always a gem when we go out, so I probably shouldn't count on staying home for too long though.