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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Erin Goes to Sausalito

It was Saturday, and it had a very relaxed feel about it. Going into the weekend Emily had daydreamed about taking a last-minute flight from San Francisco to either Seattle or Vancouver BC, just because we could and a weekend away sounded awesome.

But it's rainy in Seattle and Vancouver this weekend. So we thought about somewhere closer we could go, just for the sake of going.

Why not Sausalito?

Well, I don't know why not. I don't really know why to, but if the point is to go just to go, then Sausalito it is, baby!

So we loaded up the backpack and drove to Pier 41 in San Francisco.

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Erin took her second ferry ride ever (the first was the Amherst Islander up in Lake Ontario).

She snuggled with her mom on the boat:

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We saw a guy building rock towers down by the waterfront:

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Because it was a somewhat nautical day we dressed Erin in her best clam chowdah-yachting shoes from Old Navy:

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We had lunch at Winships, where we were greeted very skeptically by the host when we asked for a high chair for our, you know, baby. The reason for his attitude became clear when we were sitting at the table reading the menu and we noticed this little item at the bottom:

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As we left the restaurant we went into a junk store, I mean "souvenir shop" and Erin just about Lost Her Freaking Mind when she saw this Rubber Duck Tower:

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I bought her a keychain version I could attach to a backpack strap for her to play with on the go:

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We walked around for a while, went to the library, and then boarded the ferry again so Erin could nap in transit.

On the other side of the Bay we walked around the piers for a bit:

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And then we wound up at the AWESOME Musee Mechanique at the foot of Fisherman's Wharf. A bunch of old old old penny arcade mechanical games and novelties, like the English Execution, an ancient version of Rock'em Sock'em Robots, and my personal favourite, a classic baseball game:

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Even though it wasn't a weekend trip to the Pacific Northwest we had a lot of fun. I love showing Erin the world, and I have to keep reminding myself that she doesn't yet believe that the interesting parts of the world are far away. And being able to show her new things makes them interesting to me as well.

Even if they are only 40 minutes away from home.

6 comments:

Carmen said...

That looks like an awesome time!

for a different kind of girl said...

Looks like you had a glorious weekend adventure. I'd likely say more, but I am momentarily dazed by that adorable little baby ankle!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great weekend "getaway". And dude, it SNOWED in Vancouver this weekend, so you're lucky you didn't make the trek up here!

Backpacking Dad said...

Snow in Vancouver? In March? In 2008?

I hope they figured out where they hid that one snow plow that takes care of the entire city.

Anonymous said...

The East Coast has WAY better day and weekend trips!

Anonymous said...

I'm late doing this, I know, I know, because here it is August. But I just stumbled across this and wanted to voice my disdain for the policy at the Winships. We had a pretty bad experience there because we had 2 little ones in tow (both of whom are well-behaved). In fact, due to the host's attitude, we chose not to patronize Winships and left without ordering. Blech.

Sooooooo, we didn't even see the admonishment on the menu.

I admire your decision to go ahead and stay (assuming you did)! We were too tired after biking across the Golden Gate and into Sausalito to deal with snarky restaurateurs.