Another adventure

Today we ventured to the San Francisco Zoo. Truth be told I haven't been to another zoo outside of North Carolina so it was fun for me as well to see a different place. NC's zoo is the largest by land mass in North America. It is great for the animals to have so much space but makes for lots and lots of walking and the animals may end up being far away. We were able to get to the entire zoo today and see lots of animals up close. We met the Fehrenbachs and Nonni and Opa there and had a great. We were going to drive but last minute changed our minds and decided to take the bus which was lots of fun. the stop was just down the hill from our Airbnb place and the drive ended up being spectacular. Not sure what neighborhood we went through but it was gorgeous with manicured lawns and stately vintage homes. The skyline was breath taking with views miles long. Once at the zoo we quickly got started on our adventures. WE were able to hold a real ostrich egg that weighed 2 pounds and saw lots of animals close up like gorillas, giraffes, penguins, bald eagles, tigers, and the list goes on. One of the highlights was watching the feeding of the grizzly bears. the zookeepers came and spread vegetables and fruit around and placed 2 live fish in the habitat then released the bears for feeding. They made quick work of the food and we were so close to them we could have hugged them if we had not had the glass separating us. The kids loved that. We also went through the children's zoo part which was fun with an opportunity to brush a goat, pet a sheep and see very cute bunnies. The kids loved the playground on site and had fun on the merry-go-round before we left to head home.

We then decided to go ahead to an early dinner at Gracias Madras. We rode a bus and then the BART of the first time with the kids so they have been on 4 different types of mass-transit so far - MUNI, Bus, Old Trolley and BART - Hannah likes to point out her feet should count as another means of transit :) Boy was the restaurant good! It was a vegan Mexican restaurant that was so very good. They made their corn tortillas on site and we could go back and watch the process over a glass partition. Sam was so enthralled and engaged the chef so well that he was handed some corn tortilla dough to sample, then the lady made Sam and Hannah their very own personal tortillas which they loved! Sam's even had a scoop of fresh guac on it. We were stuffed when we left. Nonni and Opa were haling a taxi and we rode the bus back to our place. The kids wound down with a tubby and some screen time. What a great day!