Milo was fantastic on the flight over - at this age he's quite content to just sit with us and eat and sleep as necessary so he's quite easy to deal with. I think it will be more of a challenge when we go back to Australia at Christmas... Anyway, we arrived in San Francisco late on Saturday, picked up our hire care and went straight to the hotel to settle in. The next day we woke up to lovely weather and went out to Mel's Drive-In for breakfast. Nick and Milo at Mel's -
After breakfast we did some shopping around Market Street and then took the car so Nick could go to one of his favorite record stores, Amoeba Records. On the way back to the hotel we hit a taqueria Nick had been to before for a fantastic burrito.
On Monday Nick had some meetings in the morning and Milo and I hung out at the hotel -
That afternoon we drove to San Jose (about an hour south) and checked in to our hotel there - the lovely Hotel Valencia on Santana Row where Nick has stayed a few times and I also stayed back in December 2007 when I tagged along on another of Nick's work trips.
On Tuesday Nick headed back to San Francisco (this did make sense at the time...) and Milo and I checked out the huge shopping center (Westfield Valley Fair) a short walk from the hotel. Since it was quite hot (I think about 32 degrees), I took Milo for his first ever swim in the hotel pool! Milo decked out in his new swimming gear -
He was a bit tentative at first but seemed to enjoy it!
For dinner we went to a restaurant we had seen on the awesome (?!) tv series Man vs Food called Henry's Hi-Life, famous for their baby back ribs. Nick was feeling ambitious and ordered the full rack. Milo and Nick contemplating how Nick was going to finish this -
In the end (actually not long after the beginning) Nick was defeated, but I managed to polish off my half rack quite easily! They were delicious!
On Wednesday Nick was in the office and Milo and I drove about 45 minutes (with sat nav thankfully!) to the Gilroy Outlets - a mecca of discount shopping. Strangely it was spread over 4 separate parts that you had to drive between (seems particularly American after living in London with no car), but we managed to have a very successful day - nothing for me (!!) but loads for Milo and a bit for Nick too.
On Thursday Nick was back in the offie and Milo and I kept close to the hotel until we picked Nick up at the office to introduce Milo to his US colleagues. For dinner we were invited to Nick's boss Andy's house for dinner for a very nice home cooked meal. Lovely.
On Friday Nick had taken the day off and we checked out of the hotel in San Jose and made our way back to San Francisco via the Monterey Acquarium. As aquariums go, I think it's pretty famous and had been highly recommended. Milo definitely seemed to enjoy it! Watching the otters in one of the huge tanks -
Nick and Milo by the kelp forest -
Shark! -
Watching the jellyfish -
More jellyfish -
Checking out the coral -
We checked into the same hotel in San Francisco where we had been the weekend before and went out to Mel's again, this time for their fantastic burgers.
On Saturday we went to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to see the Andy Warhol exhibition. It was great and Milo loved it (he is quite the exhibition veteran now - he's seen Rothko at the Tate, Picasso at the National Gallery and Kuniyoshi at the Royal Academy - twice!). We also took the elevator to the observation point on the 9th floor which had a great view of San Francisco.
On Sunday we went out to get a few last things before heading back to the airport. Me eating one of my favourite American treats - a Wetzel's Pretzel (and proof I was actually there!) -
Milo was again great on the way home and was so chilled and adaptable he was still smiling and making friends when we touched down in London.
