Some time last year Aaron started asking to go visit a cave. I don’t know where he learned about caves, or what drove this request, but he was quite insistent upon it, for months. Finally, just prior to his birthday in December, I did some online spelunking to see if there were any we could visit nearby that we could visit as a birthday gift. Voila! I discovered that there’s a man-made “cave” near the ruins of the Sutro Baths in San Francisco.
Adam, on the other hand, wanted to see a baseball game for his birthday. Unfortunately, his birthday is in January, and that’s about as far as you can get from anything baseball. How about a hockey game? Yes! We penciled one in for January and got to planning.
But first we had to go see Aaron’s cave. Both of these events landed in January, since I was in no shape to go to a cave right after my surgery in December. Our cave day began with a trip to the farmer’s market in town, then the boys and I took a bus to our favorite cafe in town where we met MJ for breakfast (why did we take a bus and MJ take the car? Because the boys love buses, of course). After breakfast we drove directly to San Francisco, and encountered the usual amount of traffic along the way which reminded us why going to the beach side of San Francisco is such a time investment these days.
There was a lot of parking at the park that houses the Sutro Baths ruins, which was a relief.
To get to the cave, you first walk down some trails and past the baths, the cave is pretty easy to spot, and it’s actually more like a tunnel. It was enough for Aaron though! They got their shoes all coated in sand and ran through the cave, and tried to jump in puddles. The cave has little openings here and there where you could see the waves crashing in, which was pretty cool. Reading about it, the cave is actually a rock quarry, and they used the rock to build the now ruined Sutro Baths.
I’m glad Aaron was satisfied, but I think the rest of us preferred the rest of our adventure, traipsing through the national park that’s there, seeing windswept trees and taking in the magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. It’s such a beautiful place. The very California gift shop was nice too.
Afterwards, we made our way down to the Beach Chalet. MJ and I went there regularly when we lived in the city, so it was nice to be back, even if the boys were finicky about their food. After lunch, we took a little walk in the western-most part of Golden Gate park to see Queen Wilhelmina’s windmill and the gardens surrounding it.
It was a good day.
Adam’s birthday adventure was on the following weekend, a San Jose Sharks game! During his party, we made plans with his current and former au pairs, so all eight of us ended up going together.
I definitely had my apprehensions, there wasn’t a daytime game until March, so going in January meant we were taking them to a 7PM game, and their bedtime is usually 7:30. They were definitely a little tired, but Adam eventually got into the excitement of the game and really enjoyed spending time with his au pairs. I bought Aaron a Shark hand puppet to keep him entertained, and the boys kept eating my food.
I forgot how much I like SAP Center, even if it’s a driving journey to get there from the east bay (no useful trains like on the peninsula). It’s bright and clean and there are TONS of screens, so when I left my seat to grab some more food I was still able to see the game, and didn’t have to deal with the between-period crowds.
And a success for Adam’s birthday? Yep! I think hockey is nice because of how fast-based it is and even between periods they have entertainment to keep the crowds happy. We were lucky enough to attend on the evening they were observing the Lunar New Year, so we were entranced by lions and dragons, which was quite a lot of fun.
As for me, it was a bit of a stressful evening. I’m still bringing a diaper bag and snacks, and I do have to entertain them, so it’s not a lazy night at a game like it used to be, but it is starting to get a bit less stressful. The boys listen a bit more, run off less, and with careful planning I can make sure no one ends up too hungry/thirsty/bored. And it was worth it, I did still have pockets of fun, and I always enjoy having new experiences with the boys.