Parks and Recreation, San Francisco

The parks were awesome! Dolores, Alta Plaza, Alamo, Koret Children's Quarter, Hayes Valley and Michelangelo each had a special something, not least the views and then the lovely folk we met. We made friends and even had repeat play dates... bliss.

Balmy Alley, Mission District

There are wall paintings everywhere in the Mission, but Balmy Alley feels like the heart of it all. In sunshine and with the odd roaming dog for company we wandered up and then down... their were stories of struggle we did not know the context for but we got the gist.

Started in the 1970s, there was passion and hardship and glorious colour, with the lovely ladies of the Precita Eyes Mural Arts Centre to chat to afterwards and then the delicious sweet treats of La Victoria, a block further on.

Brainwash, SOMA

So you need to do your laundry; have a bite to eat; get a drink; hear live music; chat with folks...

Sometimes you find a place that has everything you need, and pinball machines!

Special thanks to Karney and Biv and the Mnemonics

Golden Gate Park

I'm a sucker for Japanese Tea Gardens and this one was next door to the de Young Museum and its incredible view of of the Golden Gate Park.

We did art in the gardens and spun some Japanese-warrior-princess stories before Inuit art indoors and the stupendous view.

Corona Heights Park & the Randall Museum, Castro

Unbeknownst to us - every Tuesday at noon, 65 air raid-style sirens around San Francisco sound off for 15 seconds, as a test for an emergency warning system. This began in 2005 after a refurb of their WWII system, following the 2004 Tsunami.

I was happily enjoying an idyllic picnic with the girls atop of Corona Heights and assumed the worst - we decamped at speed down rocks and screed, noting a dog walker exodus below. We were heading for the wooden steps, pondering how to position ourselves if this was an earthquake warning, when thankfully a local man halted and calmed us down. Midday must be shift-change in the pooch park too.

Down below in the Randall Museum were lego sets on shaker pads, so you could test your structures strength in the face of these routine tremors.

Seward Street Slides, Castro

Built as a protest to prevent development of the site, these forty year old concrete slides are hidden above a blossom-filled residential street, well off the beaten tourist track.

The Exploratorium's experiments in friction meant we knew chicken suits would give us the fastest run. We only had cardboard and that was speedy enough!

See us slide!

Cool buildings, San Francisco

We spied Daniel Liebskind just near the conference venue, with his Contemporary Jewish Museum building and then out in Golden Gate park is the starkly challenging and fabulous  de Young Museum by Herzog and de Meuron. Not pictured is the curving delights of Frank Lloyd Wright Xanadu Gallery and it's unbelievably friendly staff.

Trompe L'oeil, Holiday Inn Civic Centre

Do we need to say that this is not a brick wall?

We braved the chill breeze to take a daily wallow in the heated water, with J on the sun loungers, offering her own perspective on all things.

Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sausalito

We whizzed down to the fab Bay Area Discovery Museum, with pirate ships and buried treasure and wave machines and a living, breathing Patrick Dougherty willow sculpture.

Down on the construction yard J was hard at work, while indoors M made a green-screen underwater movie, before hitting the art studio for  just sheer arty loveliness.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

... on a bike or two. Doughnuts first though and Dynamo win a major prize!

The hills with a dead-weight toddler on the back got me foot-stompingly mad but a lesson in gear technology, about 35 years too late, rendered me more able to climb every mountian and find the necessary bliss to savor the downhill into Sausalito - the verdant, Italianate resort for those well above our tax bracket.

Then the greatest gift of all - an iced beer on deck, as we ferried past Alcatraz in the evening sun.

Fort Mason, San Francisco

The San Francisco adventure began in a 1940s army hospital after an exhausting midnight packing session, dawn rising, interminably long cross-continent flight and then a mammoth public transport trek across SF with a car-seat, pram, large bags, computers and two small children.

First a stroll in the evening sun, palm trees, lush lawns, sebaceous shrubbery and a pooch park from heaven. Lots of fluff balls and their owners savoring the last rays and a fabulous view of the Golden Gate Bridge and more critically Safeways - the source of our evening substance, cooked in the hostel's giant kitchen. Suddenly too tired for any joy we ate and fell into our single beds and pondered the pitch darkness with a sense of trepidation.

A communal breakfast overlooking Alcatraz with bagels, orange juice and waffles was enough to right our weary souls... so we decided to walk.

For M the greatest Crystal Fair ever was the perfect start - Mexican agate and calcite and South African tiger's eye for J. Then on to the wave organ right out at the end of the marina arm. Burping octopus sounds emanating from deep tubes, as the waves rolled in and we sunned ourselves on reclaimed gravestones and eyed the fabulous yachts. Then on to Chrissy Fields beach for more dog antics and waves.

Ended with Quorn (!) and red wine in the hostel kitchen and some contentment, though no showers braved yet! Then out one last time for the loud mayhem of the Chinese New Year parade - the Year of the Water Snake.

Star Reader

Once every 25 school days, M is STAR READER. She chooses a book to read 'with expression!', to the whole class.

There is some debate about the stories and we have avoided some dull Disney tales, mainly thanks to some glorious alternatives provided by Grandma Di (One mole digging a hole), Tante Rina (The Mole Sisters), someone fantastic (The Odd Egg) and the School Book Fair (Pig Kahuna)...

MFA Open Studios, VCU Arts

Scott was lovely and can get graphite to do fabulous things, from firework plooms to stark forms, plus add in some sugar brick structures and it's beginning to be an oddly intriguing mix of strength and almost nothingness.

The man who'd filmed strips of red fabric being strung Christo-like across a snowy landscape, with an audio of the wind that clearly was in control out there, was visually poetic. There was a woman who had made a camp-fire scene with mini figures and a definite sense of crazy-forboding and another who was intrigued by couples in the water, snogging, drowning and with their Labradors.

It was a busy night and the studios themselves were fabulously resourced - like monastic cells, with access to furnaces and kit and a labyrinth passages and the sound of stimulating chatter. Great stuff from a great school.

Show and Tell

This weekly bit of public speaking passes us by most Fridays but today M decided to take in her mermaid Barbie - the youngest in her retinue - at a mere two years old. How does she know this? Each has a year of production and the word Mattel imprinted in their sveltely curved backs.

She then agreed to take her oldest too, at 46 year old c. 1966, with the Elizabeth Taylor hairdo and diamanté necklace. Attempts to fit her chest into more contemporary clothing failed and we were late as we had to find her original larger-breasted slip dress. So thankfully not naked like her peers.

Mrs M was much amused and shares a house with teenagers and still clotheless Barbies and sent us photos from M's top presentation (above taken back at home).

Substitutions for a game never played, Visual Arts Centre of Richmond

Listening to opera on a Tuesday afternoon a block from home... Vesti la giubba (Put on the costume) from Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The artist donned her own big paper-mache head and then painted herself in her studio, amongst the many piles of toys to be seen strewn across works throughout the show - Clifford the big red dog, George the monkey and someone from Bugs Life, were all there, or so I'm told by my mini gallery guide.

I rather liked some dead bird + toy still life combinations - they were a bit Diary of an Edwardian Country Lady crossed with sinister rubber ducks.

Our house

Floor plan for future guests.

Note key, with piles of clothes (two locations!) and the giant rug...

Plus, first floor = ground level

Code Red

Not MILD red for hurricane days, full-on lock-down... it's going to be exciting, I'm told and they get to hide in special places. On our way to school I say, "Don't forget to be silent." "The only sound I'll make is breathing", she promises.

On they way home I find out they got to be 'groundhogs' and snuggle - it was fun.

Walking Field Trip #1, VMFA

Hand-in-hand we walked 'with purpose' up a few blocks to the hallowed halls of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art and what do you know, I learnt that Cy Twombly was Virginian! We looked, we thought a bit about lines and colour, we sketched,  and headed back. Lots more visits to come...