Dash-a-roni

Dash has enjoyed a steady diet of San Francisco treats since Sunday. With Mommy in all-day meetings at Genentech HQ (boo!), Dash and Daddy have been free to wander (yay!).

It all started with a delayed flight, Dash's third flight in a month (already surpassing Daddy's total for his first 18 years). As with flying to San Diego, he was The Amazingly Non-fussy Baby. So much so that a steady stream of passengers felt compelled to stop and pay homage to the wünderkind.

We barely had enough time to grab a late, late lunch and check in before heading up to the Castro district to meet Daddy's oldest friend, David, for dinner. It being Easter Sunday in the Castro, resurrection practically gave way to insurrection.

San Francisco's notoriously bad street parking did not prevent Mommy from immediately finding a spot just around the corner from the restaurant. Unfortunately, Dash saved up all his fussiness for dinnertime, and barely allowed Mommy to sit. After dinner we took a nice stroll around the neighborhood. The moment Daddy asked David where Harvey Milk's old shop was located, he told me to simply turn around.

Shortly thereafter, we said our goodbyes and headed back to South San Francisco.

Monday started out gloomy. Rain was coming down and more was expected. When it began clearing a little in late morning, Daddy stirred Dash from a long 2 1/2 hour nap to get him ready for a drive to Berkeley to grab some lunch and explore. (Daddy had never been there.) The campus is pretty stunning.

Then it was time to head back over the Bay Bridge. Destination: Chinatown. Without Mommy's parking angel, the closest we could find a spot was on Telegraph Hill. So Dash and Daddy decided to make a quick stop at Coit Tower.

On the way up we heard squawking overhead. Sure enough, it was the fabled Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. (If you've never seen the documentary about them, rent it. Today!) Here we are at the top with the Transamerica Building poking at us in the background.

We finally made it to Chinatown, where Dash and Daddy were on a mission to a) get Mommy a bag of fortune cookies from alley-hidden Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, and b) find decent take-out to bring home for dinner with Mommy. We fulfilled both.

On the way back to the car, Daddy did not, repeat, did NOT, bring Dash in here.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a banner day in San Francisco. Sunny, low 60's. The perfect kind of day to head back up to the city. Dash and Daddy picked up David at the VA (where he does open source physicist programming for MRI's -- can you tell Daddy has no handle on this stuff?) and went to lunch at his favorite nearby Thai place. Dash, naturally, chose lunch to have an epic "blow-out". With no changing table in sight, Daddy was forced to use the car's back seat to dismantle the dirty bomb. That done, the three of us headed to Lincoln Park, where the VA is located, with views of the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The last stop of the day was the stunning park at the Palace of Fine Arts, site of the only remaining structure from the 1915 Pan-Pacific Exposition.

Today? Who knows. Maybe a trip down to Palo Alto before picking up Mommy and heading home back to the airport.

All photos ©2011 Garrito