Another great day in San Fransisco

Today Jean and I spent the morning attempting to get out of the apartment to go spend some girl time shopping on Market Street. It only took us two hours to get out of the building, but it was worth it. We found ourselves smack in the middle of nirvana - boutiques, street vendors and chain stores galore. We both bought a couple tops, and a few other necessities of life - I got a "jade" necklace that I successfully bargained down with the vendor.
We then found the Apple Store - and I was successful again! The iPod Classic of mine that was inadvertently dropped into a styrofoam cooler of melted ice while on our first overnight drive - was completely disfunctional. The Genius at the store very nicely replaced my iPod compeletely free of charge since it was so new and had both the warrantee AND the protection plan. I am now resyncing all my music so I can listen to some tunes! Yippee!!
We met up with Ian and Dave and the four kids who spent the morning in Chinatown buying the souvenirs that they had found earlier this week and still wanted to get. Both girls now have beautiful parasols and silk dresses from China (completely authentic I am certain). We took the bus to Little Italy and found a restaurant that served authentic (is there any other kind?) food from Northern Italy. We all ate well, and moved down the block slowly to the Italian Bakery. There we all found a delicate treat to have later - supposed to be after dinner, but they were gone before we got up the huge hill to Coit Tower.
Coit Tower, which used to be the tallest building in S.F. is now a legend in part due to history and Hollywood. They charge an arm and a leg for adults to go up, and just an arm for the kids. Needless to say, none of us went up opting instead for the views from around the tower on Telegraph Hill. The Tewksbury kids went through quarters like ducks through water, using the huge binoculars on poles around the circle. It took them a few coins to realize that all they could see was the trees surrounding the tower circle. Officials have not kept up the grounds as well as in other locations in the city and we found that we could not get a good view of the city as was advertised. We left there and returned en masse to Fisherman's Wharf. There we split up for a little and the boys all went to the NFL Sports Store while the girls all did a little more souvenir shopping. From there we crossed the millions of people and went to the Aquarium By The Sea. These tickets were part of our MUNI passes, which was money very well spent. The Aquarium was nice, well laid out and super quick to get through.
By now, we were all exhausted and headed down the main street to catch a bus home. This route took us past a small beach area where I suggested that this might be a good opportunity for the Szabo kids to put their feet in the Pacific Ocean (albeit the bay). All four kids ran down, and proceeded to splash around for a few minutes. Connor was the one who got his shorts a little wet, but they all had fun and can now say they have been in the Pac Ocean. The bus brought us very close to our door, and gave the girls yet another opportunity to open their eyes to the world around them. A very talkative and friendly gentleman who had thoroughly enjoyed his day off (I think he has all days off) with a good bottle in a brown bag explained to the girls (yes, we were right there too) the importance of learning to play the piano and music theory, the importance of doing everything their mom's told them to, and to certainly not drink or do drugs because he does - and look where it got him. He then told them to always remember what the black man on the bus told them. The girls politely took this all in with their mouths agape and eyes wide.
You learn something new everyday - Tressa and Carissa are now all set for the next week!