Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

This is a 5th grade math problem.


This is not a trick question. This is a real math problem so don't say that a bus has no legs. There are 7 girls in a bus. Each girl has 7 backpacks. In each backpack, there are 7 big cats. For every big cat there are 7 little cats. Question: How many legs are there in the bus?

Scared of Thunder

This rainy day today reminded me that I am glad Missy went to daycare. Above is a picture of her normal reaction to a thunderstorm--hiding under the bed. Missy will spend hours under there. Welles and I have determined that this is her "safe place" as described by our local weatherman James Spann.

San Francisco

This is a tribute to my favorite city! Welles and I traveled to San Francisco in January 2005. I was in town for a conference, and we explored the city when I was not in meetings. See below for the list of things that we did in SF:

Great Places to eat
We went to Les Joulins Jazz Bistro for dinner one night—they had a live jazz band that was incredible! Then, we woke up the next morning and went back for breakfast—amazing croissants and coffee!

There are several North Beach Pizza locations—this Pizza was rated on The Travel Channel as one of the best and has been featured on the Food Network.

Sodinis—a must if you like Italian. It is at the corner of Grant and Green Streets in North Beach. It is reasonably priced, and isn’t too hard to get to. Our friends who used to live in SF loved this place, and they insisted that we go…it was so worth it. It is a “hole in the wall”, but they have great food. It was also recommended by several of the locals I met at conferences and training sessions.

The Stinking Rose--Welles and I really liked this restaurant. Most everything is made from garlic, but it is very good, and the restaurant has a cool atmosphere. The hummus dip was out of this world! They have several dishes that do not have garlic in them, too. After you visit the Stinking Rose—walk down the street to the City Lights Bookstore.

Hotel
We stayed in the Marriott property b/c that is where my conference was. You might want to see if you can find a place to stay that is close to a cable stop or near Union Square as this is a convenient area to stay. http://www.unionsquareshop.com/

Fun things to do:
You must spend a few hours at Pier 39 in the Fisherman’s Wharf area. Make sure you see the sea lions! They are so fun to watch (and for some reason, they make me miss my dog!?!?)

You can walk from Pier 39 to Ghirardelli Square—fun to see at night. They have a little shop where you can get a fudge brownie Sundae—out of this world! If you want to buy some chocolates—don’t get tempted. They are way overpriced at the stores in Ghirardelli square. There is a World Market in Fisherman’s wharf that will beat their prices by 2/3 on the same product.

There is a kiosk—you can’t miss it at Pier 39 sells tickets to the Blue and Gold Fleet Bay Cruise /Alcatraz tours.

This is also close to where we rented bikes. We rented from Blazing Saddles
Check out the video that shows the bike path from Pier 39 across the Golden Gate and into Sausalito. The video is pretty accurate. MAKE SURE YOU WEAR A HELMET! I made the mistake of saying we didn’t want one, and I wish we had worn them. Not that anything happened, but the 2 mile bike into Sausalito is very steep, and I would have felt more comfortable with a helmet.

If you decide not to rent a bike—make sure you take a ferry to Sausalito. I think it is only between $3 and $5. In Sausalito, you will find cute shops and many art galleries. I checked online, and Raphaella Vaisseau moved her art gallery from Sausalito to Petaluma, CA! You can still view her art online at the Heartful Art Gallery.

The Legion of Honor was really cool…it is a museum with all kinds of cool exhibits. It is a little complicated to get to, but you can ride the busses and figure it out. Ask the concierge to help you plan this part if you decide to go.

Wine Country We visited Wine Country. When we drove, we were with Welles’ friend Amy and her husband, and they knew where to go and how to get there. We went to the following wineries: Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola’s winery—they have a lot of memorabilia from his movies); Grgich Hills and Rutherford Hills. Really, you can’t go wrong with any winery you go to. You will basically pay between $5 and $10, taste 4 different wines, and get a souvenir glass.

Muir Woods We also hiked around in Muir Woods and saw the big sequoia trees---amazing to see! You can do this on your way to Wine Country.

Other tips:
o You will be walking A LOT! Make sure you have comfortable walking shoes.

o Take a jacket, even if it is going to be 70 degrees outside. It gets cold with the breezes from the bay.

Cable Cars/Street Cars
See if you can get a map that you can use to familiarize yourself with the city. If you can get oriented to where things are, you will be so many steps ahead of everyone else.
Check out rates on a pass for all MUNI transportation. This will include busses, streetcars, and cable cars. You will be better off buying the 3 day passport or even the week-long passport to the MUNI than paying for one-way bus/cable car passes ($ for Cable cars has gone up to $5 each way!! OUTRAGEOUS). Make sure you get the passport, because they include fares on the cable cars whereas passes don’t.

You may even decide to get the citypass—check out the tickets it offers to be sure that you will have time to do everything it offers. It may be worth it just for the bay cruise and muni/cable car passports.

Boston

Boston was an amazing trip. The best thing that we did is to purchase a Go Boston Card--worth every penny! We did the trolley on-off tour, the duck tour, the Old State House tour, the bay cruise, Paul Revere's House, Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, and I think that is it! The Go Boston Card covers a tour of Fenway, but we didn't do that since we went to a game.

We walked Boston Public Gardens the first afternoon there. There is a statue honoring the book Make way for ducklings. You will pass this on your duck tour, but it might be fun to also go and see it. There is also a George Washington Statue here. If you are standing in front of George, turn left and walk to the edge of the gardens--CHEERS! Cheers (Bull and Finch) There is not much to see inside, but you can take a picture outside.

Duck Tour - we woke up early one morning and took the T to the Science center--this is where you can sign up for the Duck tours and where the tour leaves from. We put our name on the list early one morning, and then we milled around the science center until it was time to board our duck.

We took the T to State Street. You will not realize it, but you come up through the Old State House Museum. This was an interesting tour! We walked part of the freedom trail to Faneuil (pronounced FAN-yul) Hall and Quincy Hall which is across the street from the Old State House. From there, you can walk to to the Oldest Restaurant in the US (or so they claim), Ye Olde Oyster House. We just stopped there for a beer. then we walked to Paul Revere's Home, The Old North Church is just a few blocks from there and we loved seeing that. This area is part of "North End" and there are some amazing italian restaurants there. We ate at Paglucias, but the locals said that any of the restaurants there are excellent. Can you tell that most of our trips revolve around researching and visiting restaurants???

Fenway Park-Red Sox Game (Red Sox vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays)

Appetizers at "Top of the Hub" in the Prudential Tower if you want to, you can go to the top of the prudential tower. they have an observatory that you have to pay for, OR--you can go up (or maybe it is down) two floors, and there is a restaurant called, "Top of the Hub." You will enjoy an amazing view; you can see for 80 miles on a clear day, and can have appetizers and a drink or even just dessert. It was really a treat!

Boston Public Library – We loved the library so much more than the Museum of Art. When we were there, they had a WWII poster exhibit on the 2nd or 3rd floor. It was really neat, and the entire building is beautiful!

Granary Burial Ground—where John Hancock, Paul Revere (and most of his 16 children) and Samuel Adams are buried

RESTAURANTS:

La Verdad-Mexican—adjacent to Fenway Park
Legal Sea Foods --everything we ate was excellent.
Finale (Voted the best desserts in Boston—we got the dessert sampler!)Paglucias—amazing Italian—we had lunch there.
Finagle a Bagel--we ate breakfast here at least 2 out of 4 mornings.

Travels

Since we've been married, we have been fortunate to travel many exciting places (Boston, Chicago, Miami and West Palm Beach, Key West, San Francisco, New York, Jekyll Island, to name a few!) We have collected some tips along the way for friends/family who may someday travel to these places. The next few posts will be dedicated to some of the places we have been over the last few years. Enjoy, and please let us know your travel tips...