Month: August 2018

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Salesforce Park and Transbay Transit Center

This just opened up the other day.. but it is an elevated park 4 stories above SF streets, 5 blocks long, in downtown SF. It sounds amazing and it truly was pretty damn cool.

I don’t know all the little things of this, as there are still a few things that being worked on, but you go up 4 stories to reach the rooftop park.  There are various trees and grass.. food court, climbing structures for kids… tons of benches and it is well lit.

Below the park itself, is the bus systems of AC transit, Muni and Greyhound. I believe the underground level will be for BART, CALtrain and if it ever gets done, the light rail.

I arrived there late as I wasn’t expect to check it out, but decided to last minute. That little time had a huge impact and left me impressed!

I should have took more pictures, but I was doing live streams on FB and IG. As I was trying to go to the other end, security started to shut down the park, which is open til 9pm.

credit – CurbedSF

By Roger on Bay area, USA tagged - Leave a comment

Palace of Fine Arts

Heading towards the Golden Gate from SF, you will see the Palace of Fine Arts. Outside, if you can find parking, it is nice to just hangout and view the mini lake and older architecture.

 

You can also go inside and get a history lesson. It is an active place for music as there are artist and events constantly happening there.

 

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California Academy of Science

 

 

Located in Golden Gate Park, the California Academy of Science is pretty cool. There is an a Planetarium, live animals, aquarium, rain forest..

It is about $40 for adult.  I always look for discounts, but sometimes there are free days.

 

 

On certain evenings, they place in transformed to Nightlife. It is live music, drinks and hanging out. Pretty much a dive bar with animals around. LOL.

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Tilden Park mini steam train

Tilden park is located in the hills near Oakland, Emeryville and Berkeley. Like any big park, there are things to see throughout.

We have typically taken the kids there for both the park, little farm and Tilden natural area for some short hikes.

But we’ve mainly come to experience the steam train.

The location is actually further south. Take Central Park Dr until you hit the Tilden Merry Go Around.

 

By Roger on Canada, Vancouver BC tagged , - Leave a comment

Lower Joffre Lake 2018

When we were planning a mini road trip, I told everyone I had to meet with friends on Monday Night.

Since Monday was BC day, everyone had it off. It was the long weekend for them.

It was decided to go to Sea to Sky Highway, in which I thought to see the Gondola ride and suspension bridge. Ate Joan said there was a lake that was up that way and had clear water. I thought it was “close enough” to reach when in reality it took 2.5hrs to drive, not including the stops for food and gas.

 

Once you reach Pemberton, you start driving in an area that I believe belongs to the St’at’imc or Lillooet tribe. Then the drive starts going up hill into the mountains.

 

Having our kids, Nanay and Ama and my limited time, we couldn’t make the 3.5 hour trek to the middle lake, which we heard was better! It is one of those things you need to leave early and do all day.

When this was first purposed, I really wanted to check it out and when Jasmin asked me what time should we leave, I said 6am. She said 930am, which we did, but told them we can’t do the big hike.

We saw many things on the way there that warrant future exploration with day trips. This was also great to see how we would travel as a big group and with our kids (10 of us).

 

 

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Sea to Sky Revisited

It was a gorgeous day and we were gonna go to Joffre Lakes… which I didn’t know was really deep North! Sea to Sky Highway goes along the coast. On the opposite side of the road is the mountains… so it is awesome to just see!

I’ve taken pictures in the past, but I don’t think I ever took them when the weather was this great.

The end destination was Joffre Lakes Park, which is 2.5hrs north of North Vancouver. There are so many spots along the way that needs to be explored themselves.

 

 

After Joffre Lake, it was just as gorgeous going home!

 

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Capilano Suspenion Bridge, Cliffwalk and Treetop Adventure 2018

It was time to revisit Capilano Suspension Bridge. It has been a few years, Cliffwalk is now available and now we all have kids.

Price in Canadian Dollars

Prices have gone up, I think $47 for each adult, $15 for Jacob and 6 and under are free (Gab, Isaiah and Lucas).  30% off after 5pm.

The first was Cliff walk. I’ve been wanting to on this… it was truly hard to video, take pictures and even keep up with the kids. Like any place that is super crowded and attractions like this where moving is essential, I was only able to get a few pictures. I wanted to take more, but it wasn’t easy.

Cliffwalk was to the right, before the suspension bridge, you would walk along the cliff, and then circle back with a small walk in the forest.  Besides the pathways being small and busy, it was actually pretty cool.

Cliffwalk:

 

We then crossed the suspension bridge. When we crossed, there were tons of people coming back, so the bridge started to swing. Lucas became impatient and was wanting to get off the bridge by going back. I was gonna go back with him, but he went the other way.

 

Once across, there are a few things to do.  Walk around the Living Forest, go along the edge of the forest (which was closed off) and Treetop Adventures. Lucas was kinda still agitated, but slowly calmed down. Once we got up to the tree tops, he got excited and started to run ahead (He and I were behind, but the rest of kids were ahead).

 

Treetop Adventure:

My lovely Lucas finally was happy! He kept running everywhere! It was tough to keep up with him.

 

He was great going back. Jacob was tired and wanted his Icee (he loves cold drinks).

 

There are stamps throughout the park and at the end you can redeem for a Completion Certificate. I got one, unfortunately, I left it in the rental vehicle and forgot about it. At least I have this picture of the embossed stamps.