San Francisco Zoo

Once Aili was discharged in the afternoon of Thursday, May 23rd, we went back to our hotel room and we all took a really long nap. It felt great! Then we met up with Grandma and Grandpa to get some dinner.

The Best Western that we stay in when we go out to Lucille Packard is about 3.5 miles away from the hospital. They give us a discounted rate because we are there for surgery at the hospital. It is in a little bit less nice of an area but it is quiet, and its a nice hotel. We really enjoyed our stay there last time so that is why we booked there again. It is across the street from a Chavez supermarket, that kind of may give you an idea of the type of area it is in. Anyway I'm going to be honest here, because of maybe some weariness of another race we did not go over to that supermarket til the very last day we were there last time. It looked a little sketchy on the outside and there were always groups of men out in the parking lot in the mornings looking for work. Well turns out its like the nicest supermarket ever with the best stuff! It is super clean, organized, and has the best produce section ever.

That night we went there to eat. They have this AMAZING taqueria....seriously SO good. We had the carne asada tacos that night and then the morning we left we got a breakfast burritos with chorizo. Seriously so delicious. I can't believe we avoided the place the whole time we were there last time! It was right across the street! We are SO dumb! Serves us right. I still crave that food.

On Friday we decided to go to the San Francisco Zoo. Aili was doing really well, other than the nasty runny nose she got. We both caught something nasty. Good thing she wasn't recovering from open heart surgery. It was also Grandpa Andrea's birthday, so since we were out there and not recovering from open heart surgery we decided to do something fun.

The San Fran Zoo is right on the coast. It is really nice, big and lush. Honestly I can only compare it to the Hogle Zoo and this one is a lot better. Except for the seal and polar bear exhibits those are better at the Hogle Zoo. Aili loved it. She just liked exploring and walking around. And if the animals were close, easy to see, and moving she was super interested. For that reason she loved the Flamingos, Koala bear, and by far her favorite was the peacock that was roaming around. She followed and pestered that poor peacock so much, she was not scared of it one bit.

Aili's Jeep she drove in.

The gorillas were awesome. I could watch monkeys all day.

She just wanted to jump in the water with them.

This guy was the cutest!

She was pretty excited as you can see.

We went for a ride on the train. Aili loved it and was waving at everyone as we rode by.

The lady who took this picture was actually a nurse at the hospital and helped us with some of our pre-op stuff the day before surgery. We made eye contact and I was like, hey your a nurse! And she was like uh...did she not have surgery? She was way confused at why we would be at the zoo when she was schedule for open heart surgery the day before. She was really excited that Aili didn't have to have the surgery, and she remember Aili's name too! She was really nice.

"Hey wait up!"

 We then drove through the city and down to Fisherman's Warf. We didn't stay too long because we forgot the stroller in the other car, and the wind was not doing Aili's runny nose any favors. She sneezed while atop her dads shoulders and it was a disaster. I had tissue on hand, but WOW that was a TON of snot. We left right after that.

Awesome view of the city as we came down the road.

Alcatraz. Does anyone else want to call it Azkaban when they see it?

We are super happy we the trip to California ended like this! We flew home all together on Saturday. And we still can't believe how it all went down. I was being really positive about Aili healing fast again, and getting home soon, but wow we were home REALLY soon.