Father's Day

Now I remember what I wanted to write about: Father's Day.

Ftaher's Day 2011 was last Sunday, and it was well-spent. The four of us started the day with breakfast, and packed up for a picnic at Stern Grove. Live music, picnic, family time.... you know, important things.

We bought food from Safeway on Taraval, then found parking 2 blocks from the grove and walked it. Once down the entry path, we got to the concert area and saw that it was quite packed. We hiked up the slopes towards the back of the theater, and I'm telling you it wasn't an easy hike. There were people packed everywhere! Even up on the slopes. Under the trees. Looked like there were picnic camps set up in the darkest area of the slopes too. I had Aubrey carried in one arm, a backpack of their day stuff, her doll and the kids' sweaters in my other arm. I needed a third arm to hold on to trees to avoid a fall! Well, that was a really uncalled for hike, as I was wearing the wrong shoes. But at the time, we didn't realize there was an easier way to get to the other side. We almost set camp on the slope but I argued my way out of it as I didn't think it was safe for the kids at all.

So we found our way down and saw that there was a flat grass area on the other side of the theater that was only half-full. We settled there, the kids were hungry enough for lunch, and we had a very kickback day. The park got even fuller as the day went. Though that area couldn't see the concert, we heard the music just fine. Aubrey started her dance while Gerard was bored out of his mind (he wanted a playground) but to his credit, he was behaved and didn't throw a tantrum. I took Aubrey out for a short walk to see the band, and we saw a little bit of them. She wanted to see more (kept crying to me "band! band!") so I tried to get in the amphitheatre but by then, the band was done and the next one was getting ready to go up. We didn't really stick around for that so we walked back to our picnic.

We stuck around for a couple of hours, then left early to avoid the foot traffic out of the park. Since we were parked so close to Stonestown mall, we decided to move the car to its lot and got some dessert at Haagen Daazs inside. The kids were so well behaved that they deserved the treats.

After the dessert, I got a call from my dad that there was to be a family Father's Day dinner in a couple of hours. I had no appetite for dinner because my frozen mocha drink filled me up. Since we still had some time to kill before then, we decided to drive the kids around so they could nap. We ended up at Fort Funston where they continued to sleep in the car. Egan wanted some shut eye too, but I couldn't resist getting out of the car and have some "me" time so I went for a walk. Had the camera with me so I took some pictures, watched some people fly their radio-controlled toys over the cliffs, and basked in the awesome San Francisco early evening weather. I walked back to the car and the kids had just woken up. We took them out to see the ocean and the hang gliders that were being packed away for the day. Aubrey was so amazed by the radio-controlled bird that she wanted a real bird and so she kept asking for one.

As the dinner time came to a close, we went back to the car and headed to Chevy's in San Bruno to meet everyone. I thought I wouldn't eat much but I ordered a fajita burrito. Well I didn't eat much! Two bites in and I had to put it in the to-go box. It was a nice dinner, and it was a nice way to end the day.