Table Mountain

A fine journey and hike to see the wildflowers and sights.

San Francisco Trip Journals

C Says:

I bought a real sword in Chinatown San Francisco. My sword has a hilt long enough that I could use four hands to hold it. It is made of wood, brass and sholeace, foam and some sort of dark metal. The blade is made of steel and has seven pictographs on it. The sheath is made of wood, is painted white, and has ten gold trees printed on it, has a shoelace tied on it and is lined with wax. I earned the money by playing violin songs; Minuet 1, Minuet 2, Etude, Andantino, Allegretto, Alla en el Rancho Grande, Perpetual Motion, Boil them Cabbage Down, Allegretto and Long, Long Ago.

Sam says:

Our Trip to San Francisco
We went to San Francisco this week. I had to write a report about it, so I chose my favorite part and decided to write a report on it. We walked up a beautiful mosiac staircase that ended at the top of a sand dune. A sand dune. Doesn't that wound a little odd to be in the middle of the city? Well, this is why its in San Francisco. The whole Sunset District used to be sand dunes until people came and just built houses on them. When Sir Francis Drake first discovered San Francisco, it was quite a bit smaller. But when more people came to San Francisco, there was not enough room. Then some people agreed to fill in some of hte bay to make housing. Unfortunately, for them, when the earthquake occurred, the ground acted like Jello and collapsed. Almost all of the houses fell down. Now they have rebuilt it and San Francisco can hold lots of people. Unfortunately, the next earthquake will probably be the same. San Francisco's history is very interesting.

Mom says:

Every trip we take to the city, we try to find new and exciting nooks and crannies. As usual, we had a long list of new discoveries to make, and as usual, we also got sidetracked by our favorite spots (Chinatown, for example, we just can't escape the lure of cheap imported stuff, apparently).

We found a new favorite hotel, the Phoenix Hotel. Free parking (for 1 car) and it is a hip, restored 2-story motor inn just a couple of blocks from Civic Center. This is the tenderloin, but its also San Francisco, and there were actually less homeless than I've seen on past visits. Its kind of an up and coming neighborhood, with lots of new ethnic restaurants, and really centrally located. Had a nice, heated (and I mean heated!) pool with beautiful mosiacs, lush tropical landscaping, and very nice, clean rooms. The service was outstanding and friendly, "normal" people, and the continental breakfast was actually decent. All this for just $120. They hype the place as a hip place where the rock stars stay (yeah right), and although Sean Penn hosted a party there Monday night, we won't hold it against them :)

We toured the very famous and historically significant Palace Hotel, went to the Pirate Store (826 Valencia's writers workshop--don't miss it, its performance art-I bought my second copy of their excellent writing lesson book), sought out some interesting art/playground-mosaic sites, visited Baker Beach and Ft. Point (closed except F-S-S so we couldn't go in this time), Coit Tower, Hyde Street Pier and the Balclutha (ship), rode the cable cars lots, Levi Plaza, saw the Wild Parrotts of Telegraph Hill, had coffee (Grandma and I, the kids had cocoa) at Cafe Trieste (tried to explain why it was an historic spot). At Cafe Trieste, Sam took the cell phone into the phone booth and called Dad.

The phone booth was just one of the cultural experiences my children were able to relish. The other was Pizza Delivery. Riding the cable car back towards the hotel one night, Sam announced to me "Grandma says we can have pizza delivery tonight, I've never HAD pizza delivery!" The brakeman glanced over a couple of times, and finally, couldn't contain himself. "Where are you FROM?" He asked. "Never had pizza delivery?"

And that, is why, I need to take my kids to the city a couple of times a year.

For that, and the good thrift shops.

We do lots of planning and navigation during these trips, and the kids are getting stronger opinions of where they want to go, and how they want to get there. I told them that I think on the next trip, I'll let them plan, budget and navigate, and I'll just follow their directions.

We also make lots of lists of things we see and want to know more about as we travel along. This time that list included: Panhandler, Tenderloin, Hatsu (a container ship we saw-turned out that was the company name), Edwin Klockars Blacksmith Shop, Hoppers Hands, how did President Harding really die, Sharon Building, Gunner's Vengeance, Maxfield Parish, and other stuff we looked up right away. These things can lead us on some interesting threads of learning, and we often circle back around to them later, ie: remember that painting we saw at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, well, that was the same artist."

At the Palace Hotel tour, it was fascinating watching C make connections between some of the people the tour guide was talking about, and his own Gold Rush history knowledge.

I love abandoning our car and just using public transportation. I'm lucky my kids are such adventuresome travellers, and just take it all in!

Sam at School

Sam prepared for her first day back at school by setting out all of her green clothes, and trying to go to bed at a reasonable hour. She made a list of her packed lunch menu for the week, and a shopping list for Dad.

We got her up at 6:30, and at 7:30 started our walk to school, just her and me. She said she was nervous and excited to start back.

We checked in at the office, and I started to walk her to her new class. But, she wanted to hang out with friends on the playground, so I left her there.

She seemed to have a good day at school, and when she came home, she sat right down at the table and finished all of her homework! Wow! Wonder how long that will last?

It was quiet around here during the day, her brother didn't seem to miss her too much, but when she came home, he kept asking her when she'd be done with her homework.

After they both got done with music, they got into a big fight, and had to be sent to their rooms. So goes my theory that they'll miss each other so much that they'll play in harmony. . .

Mom

Sam Moves On

Our dear Sam has returned to public school so she can have more time with her friends. We will miss her, but will still probably make her do fun and interesting things after school.

Discovering Pi

We recently did an experiment to discover the value of pi. We did this well before Pi Day, and true to form, we are reporting on it after Pi Day.

Our first experiment measured pi by measuring the diameter and circumference of bean cans. We measured the diameter by putting a ruler across the can and measuring the biggest line across the can. We measured the circumference of the can by putting masking tape around the top of the can, marking the circumference on the tape, removing the tape, and measuring how long the tape was.

C's measurements were
diameter = 10.1 cm
circumference = 31.5 cm
and pi = c/d = 3.12

Sam's measurements were
diameter = 8.55 cm
circumference - 26.6 cm
and pi = 3.11

Not bad!

Our second experiment compared the weight of a square of cardboard to the weight of the circle it contained.



Dad did lots of explaining about ratios, density, and the formula for the area of a circle. After some fabulous and very interesting algebraic manipulation we found out that we could measure pi by comparing the weight of the square of cardboard to the weight of the inscribed circle:

pi = 4 x weight of circle/weight of square

We used a compass to make a circle on some cardboard. We drew a square around the circle using a plastic triangle. Then we cut out the square and weighed it on a junky old scale that has a broken unbreakable cover that covers the needle. The square weighed 1 5/8 ounces. Next we cut the corners off to make a circle and weighed the circle. The circle weighed 1 3/8 ounces. Using the formula above we calculated pi:

pi = 3.38

Not as good. We discussed why our first experiment gave us a better value for pi. C concluded that the ruler worked better than the scale, because the ruler actually works. Dad would like to note that it would be interesting to repeat part 2 with a heavier material or a more sensitive scale.

San Francisco Trip

Tabby Musings (Part II)

My most recent cat on the computer incident was interesting in the most unwelcome way. I'd been using an Excel file that I use to keep track of the kids work for reporting to the school. Reporting is by far the most tedious task I have to do, and the file makes is slightly more straightforward. I'd left the computer with the folder containing the file open and the file highlighted. I removed the cat to find the "Confirm File Delete" dialog box on the screen. The file is okay.

[note from Mom: would you think he would now remember to close the laptop?]