"Party in San Francisco, Dah, Dah, Dah!!"

Once, when I was eight, I went to San Francisco to visit my darling Aunt Kim and her awesome little family.  While driving around, we invented a song (I wish this blog could sing) called, "Driving in San Francisco, Dah, Dah, Dah."

That's the whole song.  

One line.

And a totally catch tune. 

Over and over again.

It'll stay in your head and haunt your dreams for weeks. 

 

 Anyway, after driving 17 hours from Iowa to Idaho and then 12 hours (in traffic) from Idaho to California, we decided that that wasn't enough driving and we absolutely had to make another 8 hour drive from So Cal to Nor Cal.  

It was SO worth it.

We stayed at the "Hotel de Kim" (A.K.A. my super classy and talented Aunt Kim's home (A.K.A. mansion.) This picture is actually three pictures pieced together and doesn't even come close to showing how huge and incredible this place is.)

Oh, and the inside looks like this: 

It has about 26 rooms and all of them are "Architectural Digest" worthy.

There is also a backyard on this place that rivals Wonderland.  

 

My kids spent the entire trip collecting "treasure balls" (A.K.A. cousin Nate's air soft pellets), hunting rabbits, jumping on the trampoline, chasing lizards, and picking raspberries.

 

I occasionally interrupted their fun with demands that they look at me and smile.   

They WILL thank me some day.

Not only was the outside of their house magical, but the inside was something straight out of Brooklyn and Aubrey's "Dream Come True Notebook."  

The Barbie Extravaganza lasted for several days, made it's way to multiple rooms, and somehow pulled in almost every person in the house.

Accessorizing has never been quite so fun.

We made our way to a Farmer's Market one night and the "Dream Come Trueing" continued when Brooklyn got her very own corn on a stick.  

Corn on a stick = one very happy Brooklyn. 

A night out with super darling cousins = one very happy Ashley.

 

Snow cones with every flavor syrup = one very happy family.

The Party in San Francisco (dah, dah, dah) continued with a trip to Pier 39.  

 And what's a trip to Pier 39 without staring at (and smelling) the Sea Lions...

 

 imitating the Silver/Gold men...

 

eating a Boudin's clam chowder sourdough bread bowl...

 gorging ourselves on chocolate at Ghirardelli...

 and being accosted by a man in sparkly rainbow sequined spandex and silver platform shoes holding ski poles.  He yelled at me in his techno microphone because I didn't give him money.  

 (Excuse me, Mr. Sparkly Rainbow Sequined Spandex and Silver Platform Shoes Man.  Did I ask you to wake up this morning and come stand on the sidewalk?  No, I did not.  Did you give me something or provide me with some valuable service that I should be required to reimburse you for?  No, you did not.  Does demanding that I give you money make me want to give you money?  No.  No, it does not.  And that is why you got none from me.  Thank you.)  

My favorite day (by far) however, was the Boat Day.  ( I should be sent to time-out for calling the boat a "boat."  It was no ordinary boat, friends.  It was a shiny, sparkling, pimped-out, music booming, fun inducing, power MACHINE.)    

The girls could not have had more fun.

 

(I could have maybe had more fun if I was allowed to participate in the festivities.  But since I'm growing a human, I was forced to watch.  Cruel and unusual, I tell you.)

Aubrey especially loved it when people fell down. 

 She really, really loved it.

The girls had to be convinced (4 times) that there were no sharks in the water, and then we couldn't keep them out of it.

And just when we thought the fun couldn't get any more fun...

out came the Inner Tube. 

In it's premier run, it managed to fling off two unsuspecting cousins like they were ragdolls being thrown down a flight of stairs.

 

They may be in counseling for the rest of their lives.

 It took a lot after that to convince the girls to climb aboard the Floating Death Trap, but eventually we were all locked and loaded and being dragged behind the boat to Aubrey's chorus of "Aaah...aaahhhh....AAAHHHHH!"

She didn't really appreciate it.

 She did appreciate that there was a floating bathroom in the middle of the lake since she chose a perfectly awful time to have to drop a number two.  Unfortunately, the floating bathroom dumps directly into the lake (WHY?!) and so those poor unfortunate souls that were riding on the raft at the time had the privilege of swimming in...(shhhhhh!)  

We swore to never talk about it again.

 

By about two o' clock, the girls had hit a brick wall on the Fun-O-Meter and Brooklyn spent the next hour pretending to be a turtle inside it's shell.

It was uncanny.

 By the end of the day, both girls were found like this:

 (They are completely and totally dead-to-the-world asleep, face-down, on the edge of the boat.)

What a truly amazing party in San Francisco.

 Dah. Dah. Dah.