A Tale of Two Beaches Part II: Stinson Beach

Exactly a month later on Mark’s and my fifth wedding anniversary, we hit the beach again this time to the north instead of south. Before leaving the house I actually got Julia to wear a dress! It involved receiving a bribe of a Cookie Monster cookie after she put it on and another in the car if she kept it on. (The first time I tried cookies as a bribe she immediately wanted the dress off as soon as she received the cookie so I’ve learned from that mistake.)

First stop was Park Chow in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset. James and Julia were excited to (slowly) walk up the stairs to the heat-lamped covered balcony, creating a line of traffic behind them. A woman sitting nearby with an interest in twins was charmed by ours and gave us four free Oakland
Zoo passes (score!).

 
Mommy walks with James and Julia in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset.


Waiting for a table at Park Chow


James puts on a Halloween mask. Oh wait, that’s his actual face.


James pulls Julia out of his hat.


“Seriously, Mom, don’t you have enough pictures already?”

Then we snaked along the Marin County coast to Stinson Beach, and James and Julia napped on the way just like I planned. It was a chillier beach and some people were in long sleeves - you could definitely tell we were north of San Francisco! The twins, particularly James, enjoyed viewing a game of beach volleyball having just watched that on TV during the Olympics. They liked playing in the sand, and James discovered the joys of hiding his feet under it. The twins and I were particularly struck by how cold the sand was in the shade on the walk back to the car.


We arrive at Stinson Beach.


Daddy gets comfortable.




Not only did I get Julia in a dress I somehow managed to get her in pigtails too, which got sloppier and more uneven throughout the day. However, I dared not touch them for fear she’d remember they were there and want me to take them out.


James sets up a shell game to con other toddlers.




Julia and James try to catch Daddy.


James suddenly wants a hug.


And then after the hug break more trying to catch Daddy.


Mommy’s going to get James.




“I’m going to get Julia!”


“Gotcha!”


Heading home


Mommy, James, and Julia stand in the cool sand.

Then for dinner we stayed on San Francisco’s west side again and ate at Mandalay, a Burmese restaurant in the Inner Richmond, for the first time. With James wearing his red hat and Elmo overalls, one of the patrons tells him he looks like Super Mario. The twins loved the tea leaf salad and broken samusa soup.


James and his other twin, Super Mario


James eats Mommy’s food at Mandalay.

The Stinson Beach jaunt was a longer drive than expected and it resulted in us arriving home 1 ½ hours later than they usually go to bed. Unlike our return from Santa Cruz where a roused-from-sleep James had a major meltdown upon arrival, this time they were still out when we carried them in. It was the first time we’d ever brought them in when they were overtired and they just wanted to be put in bed.


Asleep in the car holding Doggy and Bunny

A Tale of Two Beaches Part I: Aptos and Santa Cruz

In July when the twins were two-and-a-half, Mark took the day off and we drove to the Santa Cruz area for the day. First stop was Cafe Bittersweet in Aptos for lunch. I gave James some of my cole slaw and the name seemed to cutely confuse him: “It not hot. It cold slaw.” He was also excited to eat some of our delectable banana chocolate bread pudding.


Outdoor lunch at Cafe Bittersweet


Happy chocolatey boy

For James and Julia’s first big trip to a beach, we went to Rio del Mar in Aptos, parked for free right next to the beach (a godsend when transporting toddlers), and got the twins dressed and ready in the hatchback of the Prius (which has essentially become a mobile diaper changing station).


Heading to the beach

It was my first time at a non-San Diego area beach and with the sun beating down it felt like home. As did the cold water. Speaking of which, as soon as we arrived Mark and I led the twins to the water, but the the tide going in and out scared them. They would look at the waves and get upset and point as though to say “What kind of witchcraft is this?” They were convinced that Mark was behind it and wailed, “Daddy, stop it!”

I suggested playing in the sand and returned to our picnic blanket. James insisted at first on playing in the sand behind the blanket, as though the blanket was a wall that could protect him from the evil waves.


James Sad Face suspiciously watches the tide.


“We should be safe from the waves in this bunker.”

James and Julia were upset at first when Mark waded in the water by himself, but they liked what he returned with: pails and yogurt containers full of water. The first time Julia misunderstood and tried to drink the seawater! Soon they realized it was fun to pour out the water, and then as soon as Mark would return they’d immediately dump the contents onto the sand.


Daddy brings the twins cups of seawater.


They promptly pour it out and demand more.


“Yay! Daddy’s coming with more water!”

James discovered he loves kicking sand. Too bad there were no weaklings nearby to bully as well. I showed them shells and they picked out a few to give Gaga for her upcoming birthday.


Daddy shows them how to make a wet sand mound and James immediately shows Daddy how to kick it.


James readies his kickin’ foot.


Julia looks at shells.

Before we left I held James’s hand and Mark held Julia’s and they seemed fairly relaxed as we walked to the shore. We carried the twins while the waves hit our feet. James was quite stressed as the waves hit my legs and, although calmer than before, he’s still not getting a foam finger that says “Go Waves!” anytime soon.


Mommy holds James to let him see the water.


Watching the water isn’t nearly as scary as standing in it.

We drove to Pacific Avenue, the main retail drag of Santa Cruz, for dinner. James overheard me refer to it as an outdoor mall and hearing the word “mall,” kept looking around for his favorite thing, escalators. They ate corn dogs for the first time at Hoffman’s (the subject of a Food Network Restaurant Impossible special several months before), and we arrived at home an hour past bedtime with a James who did not take well to being awoken to get out of the car.

First Trip to the East Bay

In mid-May 2012 when the twins were nearly 2 ½ we decided to visit our old stomping grounds in the East Bay. For lunch we met up with newly married Heidi (a bridesmaid from our wedding) and her husband John at Burma Superstar in Temescal.


We start our day in the East Bay with lunch at Burma Superstar.


James collects chopsticks.


Newlyweds Heidi and John

Afterwards we visited Colby Park, a little park near our old apartment in Rockridge. The twins were thrilled that there were lots of toys and sand toys laying around to play with. Hoping the twins would nap, we then took them on a long walk in the stroller down College Avenue all the way to Broadway, but there were no takers.


Julia at Colby Park






We planned to ride the Tilden Park steam trains but we ran out of time since James spotted the Rockridge BART escalators. They rode them six times, each time with James dragging me by the hand to start another trip. James was so excited and he narrated the action each time: "Moving! Moving! Escalator moving! Up!" I can't imagine the steam trains beating that. The fun was capped with Daddy running up the down escalator and down the up one. The twins were delighted.


James saw the BART escalators and wanted to ride them again and again and again.


Daddy and Julia again share the same expression.


"Yes! Daddy and Julia made it to the top!"


James drags Mommy onto the escalator.

Next we stopped at Tara’s for ice cream. We sat outside and James loved running up for bites but strangely Julia was uninterested.







We decided to walk to Elmwood, a half mile away, with the babies out of the stroller. It was slow going. Our final stop was at Shen Hua for dinner. Unfortunately with no naps they weren’t in the best of moods at the restaurant. Not surprisingly they fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Julia and James help Daddy push the stroller to Elmwood.


Some are happier to eat at Shen Hua than others.

First Trip to San Francisco

Not counting the newborn photos taken a few weeks after they were born, James and Julia had never been to San Francisco. So at the end of January 2012 when they were 2 years and 1 month, Mark and I made a day of it. I packed a lot of toys and musical instruments for the car ride because I didn’t want them to be bored when it was dark.

First stop was Anzu, a restaurant in Union Square. Anzu was participating in Dine About Town, a promotion wherein upscale San Francisco restaurants offer discounted prix fixe meals. But first we had to park and in doing so we discovered that James HATED being inside a parking garage, and next we had to take an elevator and James HATED that too. (When we returned to the car, I waited with the twins outside the garage to avoid further trauma.) For the record, after lunch James also HATED getting going inside a public restroom for a diaper change. Judging from what he HATES, I’m thinking he has a bit of claustrophobia.


James and Julia see San Francisco for the first time, at Market & 5th.

There was an elevator to get to the restaurant (oh no, not again) but we decided escalators and stairs were a far superior option. And the babies loved crawling up the staircase. I just pretended not to think about them eating with their hands after that.


Julia and James wait in the lobby of the Hotel Nikko, home to Anzu.

Anzu, a swanky Asian fusion Sushi bar, was easily the nicest restaurant the twins had been to, and they were model diners! They loved the house bread and decorating the coloring book of San Francisco Anzu provided. I ordered them the $5 mac and cheese off the kid’s menu for them, and I ordered the truffled mac and cheese off the prix fixe menu for myself and we got the same exact thing! Portion size and everything! I wasn’t sure if I should be outraged that I paid so much for mine or excited that theirs was so cheap. (Note to self: Anzu’s kid’s menu is AWESOME. Can I convince Mark to look 12 on our next visit?) As it turns out, James and Julia preferred the cold Trader Joe’s mac and cheese I brought along, but I got some pretty sweet leftovers.


The babies enjoy fine dining at Anzu.


Julia daintily eats bread above her San Francisco coloring book.


James and his Truffle Mac N Cheese

 
The twins love the bubble sculpture at Anzu. Hope they don't mind toddlers pounding on it.

 
James talks to Ghost James.

We took a long long walk all the way from Union Square to the Mission Creek drawbridge by AT+T Park, hoping the twins would nap. In the end, only Julia did. James was literally on the edge of his seat in the stroller, not wanting to miss a thing.

Next we visited Yerba Buena Gardens Children’s Playground. The playground is pretty chaotic with tons of kids running up steep ramps and swishing down long flume-like covered slides. The twins stuck to the water area and were content playing there with sand toys. They also experimented with hitting the pipes to play different musical notes and ran with us up some of the lower ramps.


Julia and James play with their sand toys in the water.

 




Julia plays the pipes.

Afterwards we had a quick dinner at Frontera Fresco, Top Chef Masters winner Rick Bayless’s fast casual restaurant in Macy’s Cellar, with James quickly getting cranky due to not having a nap. Not surprisingly, he slept on the way home.

And that’s the end of the our first big toddler day trip. And any day trip you can walk away from (with your eardrums intact) is a good toddler day trip.