We took a half-hour bus ride to the Caltrain station this morning and then a 42-minute, express train to Mountain View before getting on a free (Google-sponsored) shuttle bus for a few minutes and arriving at the Computer History Museum. The exhibits are really neat and include not only a UNIVAC and an ENIAC but…

The college students returned to campus this week, so we did, too. Charlie has been wanting to go up in Sather Tower, a campanile (bell and clock tower); but it’s mostly only open when school is in session. It costs a couple dollars per person to go up to the observation deck at 200 feet;…

We got sidetracked on our way to Lombard Street earlier in the week, briefly taking in the sights in The Castro and further on at a pretty Episcopal church – Grace Cathedral. Then we walked up the stairs next to twisty-turny Lombard Street before heading down to Pier 39 again so Charlie could get his…

We ate a late lunch/early dinner at the Cliff House at Ocean Beach today. There are huge windows all around so you can look out at the Pacific Ocean and Seal Rocks. We thought there would be seals at Seal Rocks which was one of the big incentives for our going. However, we found out…

We bought a basketball earlier this week at Sports Authority and shot some baskets at Balboa Park (not to be confused with the park of the same name in San Diego) a couple days later. Charlie couldn’t bounce the ball despite my demonstrations, explanation, and hand-over-hand help. Then twice when I passed him the ball,…

It was a full day! We took a cable car to the Cable Car Museum (which is also the cable car garage) where we watched the wheels and cables operate. There are four cables coming into the garage/museum for the three cable-car lines (running along four streets). An electric generator powers the twelve huge wheels…

On Saturday we took BART to Civic Center and walked around the San Francisco Library. It’s a large, modern building, finished in 1996, with six stories and a huge, light-filled atrium. The children’s room featured a large bulletin board that said, “Year of the Horse” and had two paper horses. It reminded me again of…

Laurel finished knitting her second hat – this one for herself. It’s supposed to look like the TARDIS (time machine) from Doctor Who. We rode the bus to the Golden Gate Bridge on New Years Day. I figured the sidewalk on the bridge would be crowded since that was the case when we were there…

I think I’ll let the pictures and captions do the talking.