Thursday! How time keeps flying! The morning started off being all calm and cuddly. Shortly before noon I took the kids to yet another familar playground, before shipping Anna off to a playdate with one of her old friends. I then left Bjarki with Augusto and kidnapped Sarah to go adults-only shopping at the Great Mall, which was by all accounts a great success!
Here are a few pictures from the quiet morning:
Crowded on the floor.
After Tuesday’s all-day trip, I decided to spend Wednesday doing ‘quieter’ things… a lot of them. 🙂
Anna and Bjarki playing with the epic tennis-ball-moving-machine at the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo. There is a whole second portion to it on the left side (not pictured) – tennis balls move between the two via a tube up in the ceiling.
After a quiet Monday, I decided to take the kids up to San Francisco Zoo for a day-long outing. I know many people prefer the Oakland Zoo, but we only went there once and, sure it was fine, but we ended up in SF Zoo multiple times (1, 2, 3, 4 at least) so it had a bigger ‘nostalgia factor’. SF Zoo also has worse weather (it tends to be cloudy and pretty chilly), which can be nice when you’re out walking for an entire day.
Be warned that this page consists almost entirely of pictures of Anna and Bjarki in front of some animal or other!
Our first task of the day was to drop Finnur off at the SF-bound bus-stop on the main Google campus. Yes, Google runs a large bus-system in the Bay Area, shuttling its employees to and from work, and between offices, in WiFi-enabled buses. We would have given him a ride, except our minivan doesn't have WiFi, and the SF office and the Zoo happen to be on the opposite ends of the city.
After the customary 50 minute ride north, we finally parked in the 'secret' free parking lot by the Pacific Ocean. This sea-side parking lot has been getting smaller and smaller over the years, as the ocean erodes the coast away (see the concrete blocks in the background – there used to be parking spaces there), but the lot is only a short walk from the Zoo, where one otherwise has to pay $8 to park.
First up, the giraffes! Bjarki has unfortunately hit the age of 'hating the camera' and almost every single picture has him 'scowling'.
On our first Monday in California, Finnur took an early bus up to the city (San Francisco proper – where most of his team is now located) while I drove to Menlo Park to meet a friend for breakfast, with a quick non-stop visit to Stanford because I was early.
Driving on the aptly named Palm Drive towards the main Stanford quad.
Next up on the friends-travaganza were Deirdre and Matt, whose son, Owen, was born last December and we therefore hadn’t seen in real life. We arrived around lunch-time, and hung out for the entire afternoon, California-style! 🙂
Obligatory sofa-picture of Deirdre and Owen, now 5 months old. 🙂
We planned our California trip on very short notice, and picked dates mostly with regards to airfare prices. As it happened, Augusto and Sarah had long since booked a camp-site for our first California weekend, so they took off less than 24 hours after we’d landed. This worked out fine though because we were VERY jetlagged and had trouble being coherent much past 8 pm for the first few days. We were mostly coherent in the daytime though, so we used the opportunity to visit some good friends. First up: Katie and Dirk and Sean and Lulu. 🙂
Sean and Bjarki exchanging water-gun shots in the driveway.
Probably comparing gun-sizes, as men are wont to do.
We landed at San Jose airport late Thursday evening, after a quick stopover in Seattle. We are incredibly fortunate in that we still have many friends in the Bay Area, and were super-fortunate in that Sarah and Augusto agreed to house us for the duration of our stay. Thankfully, Augusto also agreed to pick us up at the airport, which was very much appreciated after a looong journey! 🙂
Our first morning in California: Giving Clarissa a present, a classic Icelandic children's book. 🙂 She was much more interested in the wrapping paper though… 🙂
The older kids playing in the driveway. And wearing t-shirts outside! 🙂
Finnur’s job requires him to travel to our old stomping ground in California twice a year, usually in May (for the lovely weather) and November (for Christmas shopping). This year I found myself feeling terribly homesick for Whole Foods, warm sunny camp playgrounds, and old friends – so I ever-so-gently twisted Finnur’s arm into agreeing toRead more
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