A San Francisco Thanksgiving

It's been a LONG time since we've been on our own for Thanksgiving.  We are usually rushing, running, flying, all over the place but this year we decided to stay put and while we were sad we didn't get to see extended family (Jacob and Maddie especially sad about not seeing cousins), we made the most of a beautiful (GORGEOUS) day in the city.

For years, J & M have begged us to take them ice skating.  Let me be honest.  I've only been ice skating once, maybe twice in my life and I was NOT a fan.  I kept falling all over the place and just couldn't get the hang of it.  I think when I was little, I actually accidentally did the splits on the ice as my skates went in uncontrollable ways underneath me which led to a very painful experience.  I really didn't want to repeat that (as an adult, especially)!

Union Square in downtown San Francisco sets up an ice rink during the holidays every year and it was open on Thanksgiving.  We decided to make a day trip into the city and take them skating finally.  I am proud to say, Mark and I stayed upright the whole time!  The kids, not so much.  But they really had a great time (even though there were a few tears in the beginning).  They stuck close to the wall at first, then as they gained confidence, they would branch out a bit more.  At the end, Jacob thought he was an "expert" skater (I'll let you be the judge of that) -- ha.  I should never have let him go across the ice like that (you are supposed to go in the same direction as everyone else) but it sure is funny to watch him walk/skate across frogger-style.


Maddie was having a hard time in this clip:

Then we decided to show them the most crooked street in the world, on Lombard Street.  We've tried to show them before but the line of cars to get up to the top is always SO LONG.  The beauty of going into the city on Thanksgiving was that it was relatively quiet and we only had to wait a little while to drive down the crooked street.  They thought it was very cool!

We decided to head over to the Golden Gate bridge since we've never walked across it as a family.  Again, it was a really beautiful day so the views were endless.  One of my favorite things about living in the city years ago, was taking runs across that bridge.  My bootcamp class used to start at 5:30 am and Wednesdays were our cardio days.  Some times we'd run the Lyon Street steps and sometimes we'd run the bridge.  It's about 4 miles and by the time we were headed back, the sun would be coming up.  We'd start in the dark and we'd witness the day waking up as we were suspended hundreds of feet on that amazing bridge.  I miss that.

We finally ended the day with an early dinner at McCormick and Kuletos in Ghiradelli Square.  Of course, we couldn't pass up a Ghiradelli treat after dinner which was DELICIOUS.

By then we were exhausted and it was time to go home.  But what an amazing day it was!