Golden Gate Park

Auntie Amo and Uncle Mark came into town for a long weekend (and Amy's 30th birthday). On Friday we convinced BVZ to play hooky from work and hung out in Golden Gate Park.

First stop was the Conservatory of Flowers. It had been a few years since I had been here, so it was nice to re-visit. Mark is somewhat of an amateur botanist, so we hoped he would get a kick out of the city's original greenhouse.



Norah fell asleep on the car ride up and we hated to wake her, so in the Ergo she went. Her right leg was in some weird contorted position and I tried to rearrange her, but BVZ shut me down (a good nap is so hard to come by, he wasn't about to let me wake her up). Surprisingly, she was quite comfortable that way and took a good snooze.

The Conservatory is divided into 5 main rooms (the rain forest, orchids, water plants, potted plants, and a special exhibition). The rain forest room was nice and humid.


The orchids were pretty.

The water plant room was even more humid...

But it was my favorite because it has carnivorous plants. Amy smelled one of them and reported that it smelled like dead bugs.

A rare family portrait. We look pretty good considering we hadn't slept more than a handful of hours the night before (Norah has a cold and is getting her first tooth).

I include this scary picture because you can see what Norah did to my eye. Her favorite toy has always been my face--likes to punch, pull, and lick it any chance she gets. The other day she took a swipe and grabbed onto my lower eyelid. Within about 48 hours it was swollen twice its normal size. BVZ made me go to the doctor and it was pretty infected. I am happy to report the eye ointment they prescribed me has done the trick and Norah was sufficiently punished (just kidding).

Potted plants are fun.



Our new favorite game is 'Shark Attack'. It is played exactly as it sounds.

Norah and I spent some time sitting on a bench in the potted plants room and I pointed out all kinds of cool stuff to her. There was a tree with tiny oranges and I told her the story of when Aunt Amo was like four years old and our Grandma Flossie took us to a nursery. Flossie was paying for something at the counter and Amy spotted a tree with tiny oranges. She pocketed one of the oranges and showed it to me in the car. Flossie saw it as well, turned the car around and made Amy give the orange back to the nursery clerk. Shame and humiliation worked because neither of us ever stole anything again. As soon as Amy saw the tree she said, 'remember when Flossie busted me for stealing a mini-orange?' Ha, ha.

The special exhibition room had a train running through a diorama of San Francisco. All the buildings were made out of recycled materials.



After the Conservatory we headed over to the botanical gardens.

And got to test out Norah's new stroller's off-roading capability. It was a success.

The botanical gardens were lovely. The rain finally stopped and we strolled around the park. Mark took pictures of wayward squirrels.



We went to dinner at Dosa after the gardens. I had been to the Dosa in the Mission a few years ago and it was bright and noisy and, if early enough, somewhat appropriate for a kid. I assumed Dosa on Fillmore would be the same way, but it was much more upscale and swanky. We were there early, but the lighting was low, the cocktails flowing, and I was VERY concerned we would get nothing but dirty looks from the happy hour crowd. Norah was a perfect angel though and as we were leaving the waitress complimented us on the best behaved baby GIRL she had ever seen. I don't know if I was more excited at the fact that she was good or that the waitress knew she was a girl!