Summer Vacation Day 3 - Fairfield and San Francisco

This was our first time staying at a Hilton Garden Inn for a long time, and I had booked their bed and breakfast rate, so we had a really great breakfast in the morning.  After getting some gas (and Riley washing the windows!), we stopped at a store to get some salt, distilled water, and Q Tips so we could start a daily regime of cleaning one of Riley's ear piercings that seemed to be infected.  It became Leighton's job to carry the jug of water in and out of every hotel room, and the giant container of salt would always be somewhere different - in my purse, in a suitcase, with our groceries ... It was the only thing that was the same every morning and every night since we were in a different hotel every day.  Funny how something so unexpected becomes something you remember so clearly about a vacation!

Anyway, our first 'real' stop of the day was the Jelly Belly Factory.  We had visited the Jelly Belly Distribution Center in Wisconsin on our trip last summer, so we were excited to see the actual factory.  I had made sure that we were there on a day when it was in production.  We did the self-guided tour and had a few samples at the Sample Bar.  It was a fun time, but we all agreed we liked the one in Wisconsin a bit better.  It was less busy and the Sample Bar was more relaxed and we loved the train there!

We left Fairfield and made the drive to San Francisco.  I had chosen a route that took us across the Golden Gate Bridge.  After driving across, we stopped at the View Point.  At first we were worried we wouldn't find a parking spot because it was incredibly busy and there are limited spaces, but someone pulled out and we took their spot!  It was windy and cold, so we added on some warmer layers and walked down to see the bridge from different angles, checked out the gift shop, and squished a penny.

It was about a 15 minute drive from the bridge to our hotel.  We were lucky that they had our room ready a bit early, so we checked in, relaxed a little, and then set out to explore!

Our first stop was the Keith Haring sculpture outside the Museum of Modern Art.  The kids are familiar with Keith Haring from one of the Name That Book titles Leighton had to read this past school year.  When I saw there was a sculpture, I knew we needed to go see it - just like we had gone to see the sculpture of the 'Mother of Balboa Park' the kids learned about in one of Riley's NTB titles.

We spotted one of the painted hearts I had read were around the city.  This was the only one we saw while we were there - but we didn't go searching for them and didn't have time to explore so many areas where I know there were more.

We went to the Yerba Buena Gardens to see the MLK Jr Memorial Reflection Pool and Waterfall.  There is also a playground here with some cool looking slides ... but I couldn't see where it was!  We got distracted by the Target next to it and wanting to get water for the baseball game, so we didn't search too hard - but I'm sad we didn't since I know Riley would have loved the slides.

We all really liked this sculpture and talked about it and looked at it for a while.

So - we went into Target quickly to buy water.  Roy took Riley to the bathroom quickly and Leighton and I paid for the water ... Leighton spotted this sign for the bananas and LOVED it.  He's been pointing out 'bananas by the each' at every store we've been to since.

We saw this mural by a surface parking lot and had to take a picture!

And then we saw the name of this place and HAD to take a picture here, too!

Finally we made it to Oracle Park!  We got there about 20 minutes before the gates opened so too a few photos and waited in line.

Once we got in, we went straight to the Coke bottle slide and glove for some photo ops before they got too busy.

First was a cable car ...

Then some of the seats from Candlestick Park ...

Then the glove ...

The kids were very eager to watch batting practice.  As always, Leighton had his glove ready and wanted to catch a ball.  As always, one of the players spotted Riley and tossed her a ball!

Here is Leighton in front of the Coke bottle slide.  The kids did one slide down earlier.

We went to find our seats.  I had researched the heck out of the stadium seating to figure out where we wanted to be.  Shade wasn't of concern since it was a night game.  But we wanted views of the Bay and the Bay Bridge ... and any protection for the cool wind that would surely happen after dark.  We were pleased with the seats, and the cement wall really protected us from the wind later on.

Funny sign in the ladies bathroom!

You can see it's getting a bit chilly here ... Riley had on so many layers!  She had a tank top with her Giants shirt on top.  Then her cardigan.  On top of that was her pink hoodie.  To block the wind, she had her wind/rain jacket on.  She had her black legging son all day, and I brought her blur ones to put on top.  Leighton refused to wear the pants I brought him, so Riley put those on, too!!  We were trying to keep her hat from flying off, so we wrapped her headband around!  I don't have any photos, but I found a random pair of socks in my pocket (NO clue when those got put in there!) and I wore those as gloves!

We had a great time at the game, and it was fun to come since this was THE place that was the start to the whole trip we planned!  Last summer Leighton and Roy mentioned that it would be a great ballpark to see .... that got my travel planning wheels turning ... and soon I had mapped out our whole trip based on little things we've mentioned wanted to see/do!