Berkeley and San Francisco with Scott and Sara

I have lots of lovely pictures to share today! I took a couple days off from work to go visit my brother in Berkeley, but we also managed to escape to San Francisco for the day on Sunday. It was the first time Sean and Ashton (and me too!) have ever ridden on BART, and Ashton was definitely concerned because he thought it was going to be a roller coaster, like Space Mountain or something. But once we got started, he quickly relaxed and quite enjoyed his ride. After walking around for half the day, he started asking every so often when we got to ride the train again. :)



And did I mention we walked for 5 and a half hours?



Sean and Ashton did awesome, too. They didn't complain, only begged to be carried because they wanted to climb all over Scotty.



I have to say Scott was quite the trooper- he willingly carried them both almost as often as they asked. What a great uncle! They soaked up the attention.



We found a free museum of SF history, all machine operated, but the best part (for S & A) was the distorted mirror. Talk about some hysterical laughing! And again when I downloaded these pictures (I took about 10 of these).



One of the best smells to ever assail my nose, this place is true to it's name! We stopped in here just to breathe, but of course ended up buying a different hunk of chocolate for each of us.



Oh, yes, SO much goodness... and Scott was kind enough to pose for me with the goodness, no Greatness!



Sean and Ashton begged to go on the carousel on Pier 39:



Family picture with Alcatraz in the background:



On Monday we had planned on taking the boys to the Exploratorium, but they were closed on Mondays! Didn't know that, so we headed to the second best place: The San Francisco Zoo! It was pretty cold, so we bundled up and headed out. Of course when we got there, we headed to the Children's Zoo first. Sean and Ash had a great time petting/chasing/brushing the goats and sheep (although I somehow managed not to get a picture from the front):



Ashton and Sean took their turns riding on the available saddles- Ashton on an English style saddle:



And Sean on a Western saddle:



Then for a fun family photo in a prairie dog hole (with my camera set precariously on a rock on an auto timer- I didn't do such a good job of lining it up, now did I?)



Now, I was all excited to go to the zoo because they have I think 4! snow leopards! But I was thwarted in my excitement to see them by the fact that the entire feline conservatory was closed! No snow leopards for me. Bummer! But I did get to see a 3 month old baby tiger, one of three born in the zoo, and I was even lucky enough to find this one lazing next to the window! We had to wait our turn to get up close, but it was worth it! Here is Ashton, the tiger and Sean:



And another one with just Ash (can you just see the "Awww!" on his face?):



I couldn't resist this Lemur pile- I think since they are from Madagascar, I bet they were cold this day too! SO CUTE!



They are more colorful than I realized too!



One final picture of the boys on the bronzed puma on the way out the door...