The Haight

Can you believe I still haven't run out of pictures of San Francisco to post?
This was the lovely Japanese garden at our hotel.
I wasn't sure if QQ would notice the fishes, but she loved them. They are bright.

QQ having a zen moment.

Can you see the mischief on her face as she threatens to go down the steps on her own? No fear, daddy was just inches away to grab her.
We had set aside most of a day to visit The Haight and the Golden Gate park.
Though I've been to SF before, I have never visited the Haight/Ashbury district, so this was a first for me. The colors are the first thing to strike you.



Fresh noodles in a restaurant window. I knew that we were going to have some amazing seafood while on the coast, but the fresh, hand-made Asian noodles were the biggest surprise. They were amazing pretty much everywhere we went.
Like I said....the COLORS!!!!



Exiting the Haight and heading into the park, we found the most amazing children's park.

Someone did an amazing design job on this place....enormous freeform sand boxes (though you couldn't really call them "boxes", sculpted sea creatures to ride and climb on, a 15-foot climbing net in the shape of a tree...but I think my favorite part was the sculpted surfing waves...


The "ground" around these was a tilt-y, wave-y cement made out of rubber foam, so that it gave just enough under the feet and was sticky enough to hold little feet stable as they navigated the ups and downs.
QQ had a blast.


I had to photograph these twins, with their technicolor outfits and matching flapper bobs. So cute.
This was a brilliant touch - fish imprinted into terra-cotta waves.

This picture still cracks me up. It took me a minute to figure out why she was pulling up her shirt and sticking out her belly. Then it hit me: I had said "pelican", and she had never heard that word before...to her, it sounded like "belly button", so she was obediently finding her bellybutton for me. Too funny.
This was wonderful - a mosaic sea creature embedded in the sculptured wall of a sand pit, like some great sci-fi fossil. These boys were loving it.
Introducing QQ to sand for the second time that week. We also had a family of Chinese-speaking toddlers come up and want to play with QQ. It was adorable - though neither she nor we really remember any Chinese at this point (beyond a few perfunctory greetings). It was really kind of cool to be in a city with such a dense and rich Asian population.