Am back from San Francisco. Am missing cable cars.

Back today from a lovely little weekend holiday with Mr Rae in San Francisco. We stayed in a little hotel off Union Square that was so close to the cable car line that you could hear the "ding ding" when our window was open. I know that sounds like it could be potentially annoying but it was actually very charming. Lovely meals without children. Our kids don't really go for sushi (surprise!) so we took advantage of the opportunity. And it was warm, 60 degrees every day!

It's a little pathetic really how even when you're on vacation every toddler running around you or screaming on the plane reminds you of your own and you start to miss them. Yeah, even the screamers. But then we'd go out for dinner and sit there for a few hours and say to each other, "Isn't this GREAT without kids?" With the kids there'd be the entertaining and the spilling of the tomato sauce all over the place and the inevitable restaurant bathroom diaper change (gah!) and if the meal lasted more than about 18 minutes we'd have to leave.

Boudin sourdough factory on the Embarcadero

I also know it's good for our marriage to be able to take these breaks and spend time just the two of us. I don't feel guilty if I literally forget I have kids for a few hours and just enjoy the vacation. It's good for our sanity and nice for Grandma to get a little time with our kids to herself. Some people are wracked with guilt and can't have a good time without their children. Those people just enjoy vacations more when they have their whole brood around them. Not us, and I like it this way. I will say this though: when the kids are a little older, we definitely want to take them back here; it's a fantastic city to visit with kids!

 

A brief itinerary: walking through Chinatown and dinner in North Beach on the first day, Japantown (sewing pattern books at Kinokinuya!) and Muni to Golden Gate Park, a stop at the California Academy of Sciences and a lovely dinner at our friends Rob and Jill's home on the second day, walking along the Embarcadero from the Ferry Building to Fisherman's wharf and then the cable car back to our hotel, dinner at Firefly on the third day.

rainforest exhibit at CAS in Golden Gate Park

You can see the rest of the pictures from our weekend in my photostream on Flickr (and my apologies to those of you who receive this via email and can't see the pictures; you'll have to click over to the blog to see them).