"I left my heart...in San Francisco"

We had a fun week visiting the bay area this last week. Brock had a conference in San Francisco on Thursday and Friday and Branner and Eva alerted us to a great deal on airfare so we decided to all go up and make a trip of it. As a "reward" for finding us the great deal, Branner and Eva got to host us for most of the week, much to the chagrin of Eva's Macaw Biboo. On Monday we stayed with the Shafer's who finally made it back to the promised land of California after years of suffering in Utah :). Joel and Ashlyn share common literary interests, and we hope that will make the arranged marriage relationship go smoother for them. She only made Joel cry once, which is a good sign. All the kids had a great time playing, and Brock, Ben, and Whitney tried to pull an all nighter which I pooped out on early on; not because of lack of great conversation, but I'm almost 30 folks, lets be realistic.

On Tuesday we arrived at Branner and Eva's for a fun Taco night with Shannon, Aldi, and Rei. (side note: I find it very hard after a week of vacation to get back in the grove of cooking dinners every night. We ate so good all week and were so spoiled by everyone...sigh. back to reality). The next day we spent at the Zoo on a behind the scenes tour conducted by Eva.

The 6000 lb Asian Rhino Gahatti (sp?) was incredible. He loved his celery; he just kept opening up his mouth for more, and the second it was gone he started to walk away until the bucket of hay was dumped out. Next we got to be about 5 ft away from 3 polar bears and a spectacled bear, which were fed lots of fish by their trainer. Their paws were massive, and we didn't mind having a cage and a little distance between us.

We saw a bunch of animals in the Children's zoo including 2 armadillos and Sassafras the porcupine who we got to feed peanuts to. Claire got to take home a tuft of hair from the white ferret as a souvenir. She has got a reach and a grip that always surprises me. Eva describes it as X-men like.

Last, but not least we fed the baby giraffe bulldozer a bottle of milk. He was so soft and had quite an appetite, almost tore the bottle from our hands. It was AWESOME!!!

Just because Brock had to go to a boring conference for Thursday and Friday, the vacation didn't end for me and the girls. We went to Pier 39, the aquarium, and the "Butterfly Zone" at the conservatory.

We ate at an amazing Thai restaurant with Branner, Eva, Shannon, and Jeremy and all the kids Thursday night, and basicallly tired Ashlyn and Claire out all week, as you can see from the pictures below. It must be nice being able to pass out and take a cat nap anywhere you want. On the flight home we arrived in San Diego, but our 2 car seats and big bag did not...a little frustrating. Luckily they had two loaner car seats that haven't been washed since the 90s that we were able to use to get home that night. Sorry for the long "journal" entry, on to the next adventure...