Reality report for the plan of March 28.
Because we came very early to the cable car stop (9am), there was virtually no line and we sat on the outside seats. Of course, there were people in front of us holding the poles, but that cannot be helped. It was a nice ride up and down the SF hills, that took us all the way to Powell & Market, from which we walked to the Asian Art Museum.
Unlike our first visit, the kids were not as entranced, not surprisingly, as this particular museum material is harder to appreciate for ones so young. We enjoyed looking at the swords, animal sculptures, and of course, going up and down the escalator. Then we wanted to take the trolley back to North Beach, but it was broken. Well.
We took the taxi (we could have taken the metro, but there were 6 of us, and taxi was cheaper and faster) to Rose Pistola (reserved on OpenTable). On this, our third, visit there, we ordered smoked salmon & soft egg appetizer, sweet potato gnocchi with prosciutto, and chicken with asparagus, all very well done. This left us just enough room in our bellies to go next door to Gelateria Naia (Rocher ice cream, mmmmmmmmmmm!). We found that for our family, splitting two entrees, occasionally adding an appetizer or a dessert, is usually a perfect amount of food for four.
We then walked to our garage (we parked at Hilton; we should have looked around the corner for cheaper parking). We did in fact quite a bit of walking, but it was a good day to do that.
After we drove home and put kids down for their nap, we left instructions to my parents, and jumped on the rare opportunity to go to theater. For dinner before the performance, we went to Emile's in San Jose, our second time there, and it was a bit underwhelming. We ordered cream of mushroom soup (good but average), les grenadines des troi roi (supposedly on grilled potato croutons, but in fact on just mashed potatoes), and roasted moscovy duck breast a l'orange with wild rice (solid but unexciting). Certainly, made us wish that we try some place else for the next time. The performance, however, was great. We saw Camelot, which in my haste to find something interesting I took to be a play, but was in fact a musical. The performers were professional, the set design incredible, and the story surprisingly complex (as average musicals go, of course).
Showing posts with label restaurant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label restaurant. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Reality vs. plan, March 15: Academy and Dumbo
Reality vs. plan report for March 15 (see the plan in earlier post).
When we woke up, my husband told me he has a cold and doesn't feel up to the trip, so off we went, just three of us. I get really tired during such outings, the stress of trying not to lose the kids in the crowd, not preferring one child's desired path over another, making sure they stay together, and answering all questions and pointing out things. With another adult person, you at least get an occasional respite.
Because the crowds at the California Academy of Sciences are not letting up, even though it's been open for 6 months now, we bought the membership and have been coming there an hour before the member hours start. What do we do for an hour? Well, if my husband was with me, we'd let them just run around in the beautiful park-like area between the Academy and DeYoung Museum. Since he wasn't, I took my laptop with me, which is filled with all sorts of digital books for the kids, and we just sat on my sweater on the ground and read. The kids were so engrossed that we didn't even notice the time. This time, we ran straight to the restaurant to make reservation for lunch and straight to planetarium to get the passes. They were for 10:30, so that's what we saw first (right after the short stroll through "Africa"). The show placard warns that it's not advisable for kids under 6, but we decided to wing it anyway, since how can one know if it's true for your kids unless you experience it? Well, if you read the post from yesterday, you can imagine how A. behaved (wiggly and talkative), but L. (more than 2 years below the guideline) of course liked it - it was about space, after all. He knows all the planets, and sometimes remembers other things we talked about (the orbits, lack of water and air on other planets, various spacecrafts, how you get there, etc). He recognized the satellite immediately. Some of the topics were pretty complex, but the show is only 30 minutes, and is certainly enjoyable on various levels of your understanding of the subject. The verdict: know thy child.
Then we skipped the butterfly exhibit, because the lines were huge (and I'm not a big fan anyway), and went down to the Aquarium where we did the usual route (tropical fish, jellyfish, all sorts of weird fish, touched the sea star, admired the alligator and turtle, etc). There were other parts of the museum left, such as the whole "fragile planet"-type exhibits, but we've seen them before, and I thought it was more important to give them time to just run around in the outside courtyard of the museum for 20 minutes until our lunch reservations. Impressively, the host recognized us from last time. Unfortunately, they phased out the incredible mushroom ravioli we all loved last time; so we ordered the new ricotta(?) ravioli (ouch, spicy), tagliatelle with meat, the very enjoyable duck confit salad, and chocolate mousse bombe. Solid 3.5-4 stars out of 5. Then it was time to drive home and nap. Of course, A. fell asleep in the car.
I must say, this is our fourth time to the museum, and it really does not compare favorably with the Field, Smithsonian or NY Museum of Natural History. You'd think there'd be at least one museum of such stature on the West Coast. The Academy, however, is pretty small; the biggest part is the Aquarium, the Natural History part is very bare, and Planetarium with a short show and no related exhibits - hmmm... Of course, since it's the only such museum in the area, we have no choice.
Once we got home and L. got his nap, I didn't feel like going to the mall without my husband even though we really need to buy those spring-weather shoes. So we watched Dumbo (which was scheduled for yesterday). A pretty sweet movie, with none of the stupid contemporary references permeating recent Disney movies, such as Aladdin etc; at one hour long, shorter than most Disney flicks; the end is a bit too capitalistic for my end (so he got rich and that's why no one mistreats him or his mom? feh).
After dinner, we played some hilarious games, such as throwing a pillow to knock A. off his feet (he asked me to do it again and again, for almost 30 minutes), and dropping little people into a chute ("slide", made out of hollow fence post with one side cut out - for a different former project).
Good, albeit more tiring than usual, day.
When we woke up, my husband told me he has a cold and doesn't feel up to the trip, so off we went, just three of us. I get really tired during such outings, the stress of trying not to lose the kids in the crowd, not preferring one child's desired path over another, making sure they stay together, and answering all questions and pointing out things. With another adult person, you at least get an occasional respite.
Because the crowds at the California Academy of Sciences are not letting up, even though it's been open for 6 months now, we bought the membership and have been coming there an hour before the member hours start. What do we do for an hour? Well, if my husband was with me, we'd let them just run around in the beautiful park-like area between the Academy and DeYoung Museum. Since he wasn't, I took my laptop with me, which is filled with all sorts of digital books for the kids, and we just sat on my sweater on the ground and read. The kids were so engrossed that we didn't even notice the time. This time, we ran straight to the restaurant to make reservation for lunch and straight to planetarium to get the passes. They were for 10:30, so that's what we saw first (right after the short stroll through "Africa"). The show placard warns that it's not advisable for kids under 6, but we decided to wing it anyway, since how can one know if it's true for your kids unless you experience it? Well, if you read the post from yesterday, you can imagine how A. behaved (wiggly and talkative), but L. (more than 2 years below the guideline) of course liked it - it was about space, after all. He knows all the planets, and sometimes remembers other things we talked about (the orbits, lack of water and air on other planets, various spacecrafts, how you get there, etc). He recognized the satellite immediately. Some of the topics were pretty complex, but the show is only 30 minutes, and is certainly enjoyable on various levels of your understanding of the subject. The verdict: know thy child.
Then we skipped the butterfly exhibit, because the lines were huge (and I'm not a big fan anyway), and went down to the Aquarium where we did the usual route (tropical fish, jellyfish, all sorts of weird fish, touched the sea star, admired the alligator and turtle, etc). There were other parts of the museum left, such as the whole "fragile planet"-type exhibits, but we've seen them before, and I thought it was more important to give them time to just run around in the outside courtyard of the museum for 20 minutes until our lunch reservations. Impressively, the host recognized us from last time. Unfortunately, they phased out the incredible mushroom ravioli we all loved last time; so we ordered the new ricotta(?) ravioli (ouch, spicy), tagliatelle with meat, the very enjoyable duck confit salad, and chocolate mousse bombe. Solid 3.5-4 stars out of 5. Then it was time to drive home and nap. Of course, A. fell asleep in the car.
I must say, this is our fourth time to the museum, and it really does not compare favorably with the Field, Smithsonian or NY Museum of Natural History. You'd think there'd be at least one museum of such stature on the West Coast. The Academy, however, is pretty small; the biggest part is the Aquarium, the Natural History part is very bare, and Planetarium with a short show and no related exhibits - hmmm... Of course, since it's the only such museum in the area, we have no choice.
Once we got home and L. got his nap, I didn't feel like going to the mall without my husband even though we really need to buy those spring-weather shoes. So we watched Dumbo (which was scheduled for yesterday). A pretty sweet movie, with none of the stupid contemporary references permeating recent Disney movies, such as Aladdin etc; at one hour long, shorter than most Disney flicks; the end is a bit too capitalistic for my end (so he got rich and that's why no one mistreats him or his mom? feh).
After dinner, we played some hilarious games, such as throwing a pillow to knock A. off his feet (he asked me to do it again and again, for almost 30 minutes), and dropping little people into a chute ("slide", made out of hollow fence post with one side cut out - for a different former project).
Good, albeit more tiring than usual, day.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Dinosaurs & Flamenco, aka Reality vs. plan report, March 14
Reality vs. plan report for March 14. (See plan in earlier posts).
Yesterday I was working till late, so I made the pancakes before I went to bed (at 3am). So my husband woke up with the kids, they had the pancakes and then they were supposed to watch Dumbo, but he couldn't find it (men!), so they just played together until I woke up at 10:30, quickly packed a gift for the birthday girl and off we went to the Shoreline Lake. It was colder than we thought, but moderately enjoyable. After the birthday, which was (at least in theory) mermaid-themed, I asked my oldest L. (whose classmate's 4th birthday we celebrated) what he wanted to have for his 4th celebration in July, and (after we listed some possibilities) he said "Dinosaurs". As we drove home, I impressed on L. how important it is that they get a nap and not play together in their beds as they're wont to do. Amazingly, he listened and actually didn't make a peep when I put him in bed even though my youngest A. (2.2-yr-old) made all sorts of noises. They both fell asleep about 10-15 min. afterwards, which rarely happens unless they're completely worn out (which they weren't).
As they were napping, I researched dinosaur birthdays and apparently (hah!) it's a very popular theme, so I'm overflowing with ideas. We'll see.
After the nap, we drove to Redwood City and explored Jigsaw Java. It's an interesting idea: have a place to play all sorts of jigsaw puzzles along with coffee & hot chocolate. The execution was kind of blah. There weren't enough interesting (or non-branded) puzzles for my oldest, let alone my youngest, and the coffee was more of the office variety as opposed to Starbucks. I coaxed L. into making a Curious George puzzle (25 pieces) by pointing out the age on the box (3+) and heavily helped him; I suppose I can judge it a lukewarm success since he is really not into puzzles and gives up very quickly. He did like to see it all completed (even though it was 80% my effort) and wanted to do another one, the desire which faded as soon as I removed the pieces from the box. So we walked 0.3 miles to Barnes & Noble and my husband read L.-selected Wizard of Oz, while I read "Where's Spot" and other Spot stories to A. Then we walked back to Angelica's Bistro. The kids enjoyed the walk as the path took us under the railroad bridge and they saw Caltrain(?) pass by.
The flamenco dinner & show was a little disappointing, but mostly because of my inflated expectations. First of all, the seats we got were to the left of the stage meaning the thing that we could see best was the back of the guy who played the drum. And we couldn't really see the dancers' feet which for me is the most important thing in flamenco. Apparently, if we called earlier to reserve the seats, we would have gotten better ones (as opposed to just showing up early). Secondly, even though I looked up the regular menu beforehand and judged it to be good, they had a "special" menu. Not sure whether this "special" menu is reflective of how they usually cook food, but it was pretty basic (more homemade rather than "restaurant" food). We ordered pineapple-ham crostini, penne bolognese, salmon with mango salsa & roasted potatoes, and nutella-honey-banana crepe. As always, we split all of it among four of us. Thirdly, I always expect more out of A. than what L. was in fact capable of in A.'s age (because I forget how he was). So, A. was very wiggly and although he paid attention (and even tried to imitate the movement of the dancers' arms), he clearly is not yet ready for a formal concert. So, in that regard, it was a good experiment, as it yielded an answer to a hypothesis. (After I went home, I looked at my baby notes, and of course, L. was older, 2.7-yr-old, when we took him to his first concert and he was ready then).
Yesterday I was working till late, so I made the pancakes before I went to bed (at 3am). So my husband woke up with the kids, they had the pancakes and then they were supposed to watch Dumbo, but he couldn't find it (men!), so they just played together until I woke up at 10:30, quickly packed a gift for the birthday girl and off we went to the Shoreline Lake. It was colder than we thought, but moderately enjoyable. After the birthday, which was (at least in theory) mermaid-themed, I asked my oldest L. (whose classmate's 4th birthday we celebrated) what he wanted to have for his 4th celebration in July, and (after we listed some possibilities) he said "Dinosaurs". As we drove home, I impressed on L. how important it is that they get a nap and not play together in their beds as they're wont to do. Amazingly, he listened and actually didn't make a peep when I put him in bed even though my youngest A. (2.2-yr-old) made all sorts of noises. They both fell asleep about 10-15 min. afterwards, which rarely happens unless they're completely worn out (which they weren't).
As they were napping, I researched dinosaur birthdays and apparently (hah!) it's a very popular theme, so I'm overflowing with ideas. We'll see.
After the nap, we drove to Redwood City and explored Jigsaw Java. It's an interesting idea: have a place to play all sorts of jigsaw puzzles along with coffee & hot chocolate. The execution was kind of blah. There weren't enough interesting (or non-branded) puzzles for my oldest, let alone my youngest, and the coffee was more of the office variety as opposed to Starbucks. I coaxed L. into making a Curious George puzzle (25 pieces) by pointing out the age on the box (3+) and heavily helped him; I suppose I can judge it a lukewarm success since he is really not into puzzles and gives up very quickly. He did like to see it all completed (even though it was 80% my effort) and wanted to do another one, the desire which faded as soon as I removed the pieces from the box. So we walked 0.3 miles to Barnes & Noble and my husband read L.-selected Wizard of Oz, while I read "Where's Spot" and other Spot stories to A. Then we walked back to Angelica's Bistro. The kids enjoyed the walk as the path took us under the railroad bridge and they saw Caltrain(?) pass by.
The flamenco dinner & show was a little disappointing, but mostly because of my inflated expectations. First of all, the seats we got were to the left of the stage meaning the thing that we could see best was the back of the guy who played the drum. And we couldn't really see the dancers' feet which for me is the most important thing in flamenco. Apparently, if we called earlier to reserve the seats, we would have gotten better ones (as opposed to just showing up early). Secondly, even though I looked up the regular menu beforehand and judged it to be good, they had a "special" menu. Not sure whether this "special" menu is reflective of how they usually cook food, but it was pretty basic (more homemade rather than "restaurant" food). We ordered pineapple-ham crostini, penne bolognese, salmon with mango salsa & roasted potatoes, and nutella-honey-banana crepe. As always, we split all of it among four of us. Thirdly, I always expect more out of A. than what L. was in fact capable of in A.'s age (because I forget how he was). So, A. was very wiggly and although he paid attention (and even tried to imitate the movement of the dancers' arms), he clearly is not yet ready for a formal concert. So, in that regard, it was a good experiment, as it yielded an answer to a hypothesis. (After I went home, I looked at my baby notes, and of course, L. was older, 2.7-yr-old, when we took him to his first concert and he was ready then).
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Berkeley Lawrence Hall of Science
I've been putting off blogging until my camera USB cord arrives, because it's more interesting with pictures. It is, however, taking its sweet time, so I better write before I forget, and illustrate afterwards. (Updated: obviously, it's arrived, hence, pictures).
So, Lawrence Hall of Science.
On the minus side:
On the plus side:
We started off exploring the "free" areas next to admissions booth. The kids are too young to really understand the math games, but they liked manipulating the objects. I tried to get my oldest L. (3.6 years) interested in the Towers of Hanoi; he could understand the rules, but apparently not the solution. Still, it was fun for a bit to see him grapple with it. Then we played a bit in the toddler area with its soft construction blocks, pyramid mirror, and the wall track for little balls.
We spent quite a bit of time outside, with L. exploring the stream and throwing things in the water to see them flow, and with A. (2.1 years) excavating with two shovels. L. found a stick, first pretending it's his tail, and then, his weapon.
Then we went back inside to explore the water play area which shows various uses and effects of water, huge rotating Earth, and new exhibition of Grossology (excellently produced).
At 12:30, we left for Mezze in Oakland. Pretty good food, although smaller portions than we were expecting and brunch menu as opposed to lunch I was expecting. We ordered a burger, a smoked salmon and bagel plate, two scrambled eggs on the side, and a chocolate croissant pudding. We shared everything as always. The pudding turned out to have a bit of alcohol in it, marking this the second time we gave them alcohol (inadvertently, obviously).
Then we walked back to the car and played in the playground right next to it (a block away from the restaurant).
Drove home. Good day.
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