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Riley's Trip to the Bay Area Riley came to visit his big Brother Dustin, for the Fourth of July weekend... What follows is a brief story and lots of pictures... |
Day 1, Wednesday: OaklandRiley toughed it out all day playing computer games and reading books, while Dustin completed a day of work... That evening, Dustin took Riley into Downtown Berkeley...We played some Rummy, visited a few stores, and ate Pizza at Blondies... How very Berkeley. Sorry to say, but we have no pictures from this day... While the trip started off slow... it definitely kicked up... Keep reading... |
Day 2, Thursday: San FranciscoWe got up early and took a TransBay bus to San Francisco! Our first stop was going to be the Zeum (a museum), but they were closed, so instead we we hung out at the Metreon for a little while before heading to the Exploratorium. The Exploratorium is a science museum with all kinds of hands-on experiments... While there, we created tornadoes... We enjoyed many visual mind benders... We played with momentum (or better, momentum played with us...) After the Exploratorium, took a bus Downtown, so that we could visit FAO Schwartz (this store was a highlight of a previous visit), so we made the rounds of this one-of-a-kind toy store. Then we slowly walked to North Beach via Chinatown, where we picked up all kinds of cheap nick-nacks (snappers, etc.). At North Beach we had some pizza, and played some cards (Rummy again), as well as practiced some coin magic. (Riley learned how to become richer by pushing quarters through your knee and into your blood...) Also, while in a North Beach cafe, a real magician saw us practicing coin tricks, and showed us some really cool magic... He had a way of rolling quarters down his fingers, that made it seem like they were flowing like water... Very cool indeed. Then came the fireworks!!! For the best Four of July fireworks display in the Bay Area we headed up to Coit Tower. It is a great show... Two identical displays go off (one near Fisherman's Warf, and the other near Alcatraz), and it is cool... Especially with the American Flag flying high in between them...
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Day 3, Friday: Point ReyesAfter a busy Thursday, we relaxed on Friday morning... Finally, around 10 AM, I called up a ranger at Point Reyes National Seashore, and he said that they still had some first-come, first-serve campsite available. (I was surprised to hear this considering it was Fourth of July weekend, but I sure didn't complain.) So, we quickly packed our camping gear, and took the hour drive to Point Reyes. The hike to our campsite was a beautiful three-mile hike (too far to keep just anybody out, but not too far...). Over half the hike into the campsite (called "Coast Camp") was along a lush marsh, so we had plenty of company in terms of wildlife... Lots and lots of birds... then for the last mile of the hike, we went along the cliffs overlooking the beach... It was all very beautiful. (I advised Riley that this would be a great place to take a date later on in life!). After making it to our campsite, we made the tent, and then headed on a couple of hikes. Our first hike was to the beach in front of the campsite, but quickly we decided to go a little farther. So we headed South. The amazing part of heading south was that once we left the campsite we never ran into any other hikers. We were the only people out along this beautiful stretch of coast. During our hike along the cliffs above the coast, we saw all kinds of wildlife, including wild goats, elk, snakes, quail and lots of other birds. At one point we made our way down to Sculptured Beach... This beach consisted of amazing rock formations with waves crashing into and under the rocks. There was so much marine life... As the darkness came upon us, we made our way back where we watched an amazing sunset and turned in for the night.
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Day 4, Saturday: Point Reyes to San Francisco to OaklandWe woke up Saturday morning to the sound of the wild outside our tent... We ate a little breakfast, and went out to the beach again. There were all kinds of birds flying North up the coast, and I had a really hard time capturing a good picture of them (despite considerable effort). After a cold morning hike along the bridge, we packed up our gear and headed back out the trail... We ended up making it home (to Oakland) around noon, and after a little break, we headed into San Francisco to go the Zeum. At the Zeum, we did all kinds of cool things. Riley made a wind-powered vehicle out of random craft products... He colored a Frisbee on a spinning wheel... And together we made a clay animated movie. I actually have a copy of the movie (we burned it onto a CD at the museum) on my hard drive, but alas, it is 94MB, and my web service provider only gives me a total of 25MB, so I can't put it on the internet. Maybe someday. Also, I forgot the camera in the car, so there are no pictures of this considerable fun. We came back to Rockridge (a part of Oakland) for a great dinner at Zachary's Pizza. Zachary has the best pizza in the Bay Area... It is so good, but alas, I left the camera at home, so you are just going to have to believe me that we thoroughly enjoyed the pizza. Fully stuffed, we headed home where we pretty much crashed as soon as we got home.
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Day 5, Sunday: OaklandOn Saturday, we migrated over to Noah's Bagels, where we had a tasty breakfast before heading out to the nearby lake (Lake Merritt) for a ride on the paddle boats. Once again, I left the camera at home... So no pictures. But we did have a great time, following geese and pelicans around the Lake. At one point I steered us so close to a water fountain that sits in the middle of the lake, that Riley ended up getting one final bath before he headed home. After our bath, we headed home and prepared to send Riley home on his first airplane trip. One of the stewardeses introduced herself as Riley's girlfriend, so I knew he was in pretty good hands as he headed back to Burbank Airport. |