Public Transportation Day! (Day 5)

My boys thought it was the coolest thing ever that we took 4 different modes of transportation on adventure today! Car, Bart, Cable Cars, and our Feet. As you read you will see the thinking behind our 7 hour adventure. I just have to say this though...I thought public transportation was supposed to be cheaper but we spent $55 just on the transportation and Rose and Ginger were free. But the experience was priceless!

We drove to the Millbrae station. It's about 10 minutes from our hotel. And bought our tickets for BART.

The kids were so anxious to ride BART. Well, except for Ginger who was thoroughly bored:-)

Here's an awesome technique I learned from my 30th birthday weekend. Set the timer and run!

We were so excited when the train arrived we hoped on immediately. We totally couldn't wait for the journey to begin.

And then we waited and waited and waited. The train was stopped for 15 minutes. We don't really know what happened but it was very interesting since we saw a security officer/policeman walk by twice.

However, as you can tell I used the opportunity to take many, many pictures!

Here is a typical expression of my "serious" girl. We haven't seen it much on this trip actually.

As soon as the train started Rose grabbed for Darin and he comforted her. I really love how my girls have their older brothers to feel protected by. Darin and Nathan are extremely sweet to their sisters.

As the ride went on Rose felt much more comfortable. We met a nice older man on the train who taught Darin how to read the map to see what stops were coming up and what line we were riding. Then Darin taught Nathan.

We got out at Powell (that's the one under the mall). My boys were impressed that Nordstroms was like 8 floors. Aren't I a good mom to teach them things like that??? Their wives will thank me later:-) Then we bought tickets for the cable car across the street. Here's my handsome boy!

Waiting in line with 4 kids isn't so bad when you have a trolley car being turned around every 2 minutes. They were so excited to ride on a real San Francisco Cable Car!

Unfortunately, we had to be inside since we have the babies. At first I was like WHAT! I can handle my girls sitting outside. After it took us 40 minutes to ride to the end of the line I was singing a different story.

Halfway through I let the boys stand up and they liked that alot. Especially riding those hills!

The whole point of this journey was to go to Ghiradelli Square and have a Chocolate Soda. Why a chocolate soda? Because a friend of mine in Austin told me about it, so I thought why not? So when I looked on the internet and found out where it was this whole plan came to my mind of riding BART into the city, then riding a cable car, all so we could have a Chocolate Soda. (Thanks Jeannie!)

After we got off the cable cars we walked 3 blocks in the wrong direction, bought my two freezing boys sweatshirts, and finally found Ghiradelli Square. So on the internet I read an article about how all the tourists only go to this one Ghiradelli store so it is always crowded, but you can go upstairs and find the hidden "local" one that sells the same exact stuff but it is always empty.

Well, the first one on the street was empty, so I decided that was good enough for us "tourists". While ordering we found our they didn't sell the choclate soda at that shop. We had to go to the one upstairs. We went upstairs, and found another shop that was empty too, but they didn't sell the chocolate soda either, we had to go to another one. Rose loved this fountain in the middle of the square. It has mermaids.

Rose especially liked the baby mermaid the Mommy Mermaid was holding. Anyway, we found the "tourists" Ghiradelli store and it was somewhat packed, but they had the chocolate soda. So we placed our ordered and paid. Then tried to find seating, which we couldn't, and we walked upstairs and guess what. We found the same exact Ghiradelli shop that was completely empty (and we could have ordered there) and that is where we sat.

I wish I would have known it was actually on the 3rd floor (instead of the 2nd) and saved myself from pushing a stroller in a crowded restaurant with a 3 year old pulling down my pants below modesty level because she was hanging on my back pockets. And then proceeded to walk up a flight of stairs with a stroller on my back and two little girls in each arm. Strangely that was the first time I wish Ken was with us and not working. I am the jealous type and I like having some of these moments to myself with the kids.

Ginger enjoyed the freedom of being out of her stroller and able to walk around and get up and down from all the empty chairs.

Here's our order! We ordered a "Gold Rush" it's a peanut butter and hot fudge sundae, an original Hot Fudge Sundae, a Cookie Bottom Sundae, and or course Chocolate Soda.

We decided to share so we all sat around the table and after 5 bites we would move the sundaes to the left. It was so good! Althought we were all; piggies and the sundaes really only made it around the table once.

The Chocolate Soda was the weirdest thing EVER. I don't even know how to describe it. But we won't be ordering it again. The other sundaes are way to yummy, and didn't seem to last long enough!

I always wonder what I look like through my children's eyes. Nathan took this picture of me. After the ice cream we bought some chocolate bars and a chocolate chip cookies that were about 3 inches thick and about as big as Ginger's head!

You can't see it in this picture but between Darin and Nathan was the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This kids waiting for our cable car ride back.

Waiting in line ended up being slightly dangerous. Ginger was having fun running in circles around us. That is until she tripped and hit the ground. She bit into her lip really bad and was bleeding all over. She got blood all over herself, me, her favorite blanket. Of course this happened exactly when we were about to board the cable car. Rose was sitting in the stroller still but she started to cry when Ginger got hurt and we took Ginger's blankie back to try and comfort her. So I ended up holding two crying babies while Darin and Nathan held my purse, our bags, and the stroller. And people looked on and gave us dirty looks. It was wonderful!

It turned out that the cable car was only going to China Town so we were able to stand in line a little longer and get Ginger cleaned up and the girls calmed down. However, our little episode made the couple behind us jump at the chance to take the trolley to China Town. I was glad because they were unbelieveably rude the whole time we were standing in line. And then of course, guess who hopped onto our cable car in China Town and ended up standing and squishing themselves right up against my little family! I mean seriously!!!

The Cable Car operators were extremely nice to us though. Aside from being nice and helpful and loading my stroller on and off. At the last stop after everyone got off, he told me to put the kids back on so I could take their picture. Seriously I could have hugged him!

Anyway, we had a terrific, fun day in spite of a few challenges. The boys never even got bored during the whole thing even though we got stopped and were waiting many, many times. This is us waiting to go home.

Here is a picture of Ginger's swollen lip. It was hurting her all night long, poor baby:-(

I am so thankful that we can go on these trips with Ken. I love the memories I am making with the kids as we explore new cities. It brings us alot closer. After dinner we just piled in bed together and relaxed. We were all pretty worn out!