It rained on our parade!

Friends and family flew and drove to San Fran to see the Chinese New Year parade with us, and the weather was downright embarrassing. Oh well, we still had a good time hanging out with folks we love, despite days of pouring rain and icy temperatures, mind-numbing SF/holiday gridlock traffic, cancelled flights, and sicknesses. Actually, now that I look at that list they all seem to be adult irritations, I wonder if the kids even knew any of that was going on? (hang on, checking...) Nope, just asked them and Ree said “I liked it!” and Ro said “I liked the aquarium the best and the rain didn’t bother me at all.” Well there you have it.

Here are the snapshots (some with the Nikon, some with the purse cam, some with the cell phone, and some of Linda’s pics).

The drive to San Fran took many, many, many hours. It was brutal out there, and California drivers are anything but stellar when wetness is falling out of the sky:

Once there, the kids were excited to see each other and played lots of games (electronic and imaginative):

We had special seats on a bridge overlooking the parade route (brrrrrr!):

The kids bailed one by one. First Tate was freezing, then Tess needed to go get warmer clothes, then Ro and Ree fell asleep on our laps (in the middle of that din!):

After we had all moved indoors, we figured out that we had great views (with room service!) of the parade from our warm, toasty rooms. The final lighted lion dance stretched over a few blocks:

After seeing that, the kids somehow grabbed an old blanket and made their own lion. They ran up and down the hallway chanting “Dra-gon, dra-gon, dra-gon!” which was just hilarious:

The next day dawned bright and sunny (of course, now that no one had to sit outside we saw plenty of Mr Sun), so we went to Fisherman’s Wharf:

Julie and Tess had cancelled flights, so we were lucky to get an extra day to hang out with them.

We had a great Chinese food dinner, then finished up the weekend with some icecream (hence Ree’s blue mouth) and bid everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!:

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè, happy year of the rabbit!