52 Week Project: Week 24

Week 24: City Street Art

Over the weekend we headed into the city to catch up with friends who were visiting from Australia.

My favourite place in the city to take visitors (who aren't too fussed about doing super touristy stuff) is the Mission District. We always spend some time hanging out in Dolores park, where the views and people watching are amazing (giant slip and slide with oil, anyone?) and the kids can play at the playground while we catch up. 

Then we usually move onto finding something to eat, which is never hard as the Mission District is full of fantastic eateries.

And then finally we check out the streets, because that's where all of the colour is. And by colour, I mean murals. The Mission District is full of them! We usually head to either Balmy Alley or Clarion Alley where the walls (and sometimes the ground) are completely covered. On this occasion we went to Balmy Alley. The murals are always evolving, so even if we've been there relatively recently, there's almost always something new to see. The girls posed with their new favourite murals for plenty of fun photos.

Mission District with Mamma & Papa

Day three with Mamma and Papa was spent hanging out in San Francisco's Mission District.

Just like the Mission District itself, our day was a mixed bag. A little gourmet food, a little playground fun, a little history and a little street art.

Playing Tourist in San Francisco

One of the great things about living in the San Francisco Bay Area is that there's just so much to see and do here. We're always finding new places to visit and we love sharing our discoveries with friends and family here on Little Hiccups.

Having friends and family actually visit us in person (rather than just online!) is such a great opportunity to get out and about and explore San Francisco a little more. Kim's sister and her family recently visited from Australia and we had a great time playing tourist with them.

We spent an afternoon in Dolores Park, ate the most delicious ice cream from Bi-Rite, took in a Giants game at AT&T Park, ate too much chocolate at Ghirardelli Square, walked down Lombard Street, took in the sights of the city from Coit Tower, rode a carousel in Yerba Buena Gardens, made wishes throwing pennies in fountains, ate too much chocolate again and walked and walked and walked all over the city. So much fun packed into just a few short days.

The girls were so excited to see their cousins and had so much fun playing with them. They were both pretty upset when they had to say goodbye. In fact, a teary Ava asked if we could move back to Australia so she can see her cousins more often. Aww...

Here's a look at some of the fun we had playing tourist in our own backyard...

On our first day of playing tourist we met up in Union Square. The girls were a little shy at first when we met up with their cousins but they warmed to them pretty quickly. Lola has been telling everyone about "my cousin Grace" after speaking to her on Skype a few weeks back so she was excited to meet her in person.

Our meeting point on the first day and such a great San Francisco landmark

Dolores Park on sunny day

Dolores Park in San Francisco's Mission District is always an interesting place to spend a sunny afternoon. Yesterday was no exception. Whenever the sun comes out so to do the crazy hijinks!

We had organised to spend the day in Dolores Park with friends from Berkeley. It was a beautiful day and we soaked up the sun (a little too much for my poor shoulders unfortunately!) and sights as the kids played in the amazing playground, rode their scooters and balance bikes, kicked balls, threw frisbees and took it in turns sitting on a police motorbike.

Little bikie gang

Dolores Park Playground

Time for another amazing playground, this time a little closer to home.

When we first moved to the Bay Area one of the first places we visited was Dolores Park in San Francisco's Mission District. It's an amazing park with sprawling lawns, breathtaking views over the city and some pretty interesting views of the (not always dressed) locals! One thing that was missing, however, was a playground.

Fast forward to April this year and a new playground has been opened in Dolores Park. And what an amazing playground it is. The kids absolutely love this new playground. I love this new playground!
We visited the new playground while attending the Cinco de Mayo Festival in Dolores Park. As you can imagine, the park was absolutely packed with festival goers. That said, the playground has enough to keep kids occupied even with huge crowds. I think the only thing the girls had to wait their turn for was the swing and the long slide. Other than that it was go, go go...

The playground at Dolores Park

I won't go into too much detail about the playground. I'll just let the pictures tell the story.