Settling In

Well, we've been in the Berkeley area for a couple of weeks now. We actually live in the little suburb of Albany. This little town has a fantastic school district for the boys, one of the main reasons we chose to move here. We're close to a BART (metro) station, a shopping plaza with lots of great stores and not too far from the boys' school.

The Bay Area is much cooler than we were expecting! It's the middle of summer, but it hasn't gotten above 76 degrees here! The constant coastal wind and the hills to the east, keep the air from getting too warm. Much cooler than Southern California and we actually had to go buy some pants for all of us! We have tons of shorts and capris, but they aren't comfortable to wear except in the high heat of afternoon. It is foggy and overcast every morning, clears up for the afternoon and early evening and cools off quite a bit in the evening. Lows at night have gotten down to 55 degrees since we've been here.

July 29th was our 10th anniversary! We spent the day in San Francisco to celebrate. There is soooo much to do in that city, that we just picked a couple of cheap and easy things to do with kids. Yes, the boys came with us since we didn't have anyone to babysit for us.

We saw the Golden Gate Bridge, it was very overcast, windy and raining very lightly. We managed to get a couple of pictures, before the boys decided they were too cold.



We apparently stopped on the wrong (meaning ugly) side of the bridge. Next time we'll stop on the other side and get better pictures.



We then went to Golden Gate Park and enjoyed some of the fun things there. There is a fantastic kids playground, with concrete slides. It sounds weird, but it is so cool and the boys love it! Check out the video of Samuel on the slide.






Kids carry up a little bit of sand to line the slide, sit on the cardboard and zoom down! Lots of fun and these seem to be somewhat common around here. There are several parks that have these slides.



After playing for awhile and having some lunch, we rode the carousel and then went on to Stow Lake.





At Stow Lake, in Golden Gate Park, we rented a paddle boat and did a turn around the lake.





It was difficult trying to get a picture of us all and I didnt' quite manage it.



Aaron's and my legs got tired after awhile and we drifted over to the side and fed the birds for a bit. We fed the ducks first and then the seagull came crowding in. This cheeky little guy was very bold and perched and squawked for food. They finally gave up when we ran out of food and another boat came by that had crackers.



Aaron also took and iPhone break while the rest of us fed the birds. (I think the boy is addicted!)



It was a great day and we were pretty tired by the time we had dinner on Fisherman's Wharf. We splurged and had crab legs, chowder and the boys had chicken. They were a bit freaked out by the crab legs.

We looked around at some of the things found on the wharf and then made our tired way home. It was a great day, and made us excited to explore more. We're settling in well and school starts soon.