While my sister and parents were in town, we figured it’d be nice to take a few day trips nearby. Our initial plan to visit Napa was derailed by flashflood warnings in Sonoma. So on the less rainy days, we decided to visit some local kid-friendly places instead:

Children’s Discovery Museum
Nicholas asks us all the time if we can go to this museum (since he enjoyed it so much on his last field trip). There were lots of child-sized discovery zones there like the Dr. Seuss exhibit with lots of Dr. Seuss inspired interactive play areas, the wonder cabinet with child-sized star-lit tunnels, building blocks, a white sand table with various measuring contraptions as well as a rolling ball maze and coin funnel. My niece had the best time in the water play area and got all wet as a result. Nicholas and Wesley enjoyed climbing into the ambulance, firetrucks, and rushing from one exhibit to the next. Daddy kept watch over Wesley while I followed Nicholas to the wall of pins shifted by imprints left by a hand/arm/object. Nicholas also enjoyed his time in the water area especially on the ball-launching gyser.

SF Zoo & Chinatown
The following day, we visited the SF Zoo and got to wander through the entire place without any crowds at all. Surprisingly, the animals were still out and about despite the cold damp weather and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. My niece had a good time too. She got a little apprehesive from the growling sounds heard around the big animal exhibits… I guess she is more into monkeys and birds than lions and tigers.
After the zoo closed, we made our way over to Chinatown… the mission: to acquire some roast duck to bring home for my mom. On her trip to China, a local SF lady told her that she can find no better roast duck than in downtown SF, even better than the roast duck in China she said. Now this my mom had to try out (no wonder, whenever our 2nd cousin used to attend conferences in SF, his mom would made him drive into Chinatown to buy some frozen ducks to take back to Chicago).
We managed to find decent parking for 2 full-sized cars just off the streets so we ended up dining at one of the more child-friendly restaurants and had ourselves a nice hot meal before heading back home.

Monterey Bay Aquarium
Visiting the aquarium was a fun experience for everyone and being a member also has its perks (no waiting in the long lines outside). And for the first time the anchovy tank encircling the roof of the outer bay exhibit was at a standstill. All the anchovies were gathered over in one corner waiting to be fed. Now that’s different! It’s always fun to check out the huge tuna fish and big sea turtle in the gigantic water tank, and the jellyfishes with its tranparent/opalescent hue is gorgeous as always.
After we left the aquarium, we strolled over to Bubba Gump’s for dinner but since the wait was too long for the kids, we ended up dining at the Amarin Thai Restaurant right across the street from the aquarium. The food was actually pretty good and conveniently located too. We couldn’t believe how much steamed rice the kids were chowing down.