It’s been about a week since the RV went into the shop, and as you know, the truck wasn’t far behind it. We’ve been at the Navy Lodge at Moffett Federal Airfield, in Mountain View, CA, for several days now. My Father’s World, the company where we get our homeschool curriculum and all the books, is sending us everything we need to finish out the school year, free-of-charge. In the meantime, we have just been working on reading chapter books, completing First Grade Workbooks (for review), and taking Math and Language Arts placement tests. We’ve also had lots of time to take in the sights.
Though the ordeal with the RV and truck has been discouraging, not to mention we were just starting the process of putting our house up for sale in South Carolina (which was another stressor), things have slowed down some. The house is on the market, the truck is waiting on parts and should be ready in a week, and the RV is in the process of getting a new roof (so, it’s all a waiting game right now). Nothing we can really do.
So, we have been to San Francisco a few times since we’ve settled into our temporary hotel home. We went to Golden Gate Park to let the kids play on their amazing playground, eat hotdogs, and ride the carousel. We drove the girls down the very crooked Lombard Street, visited Coit Tower to take in the spectacular views, and then we followed that up with a pit stop at Treasure Island to see the city from a distance. And today we visited the Sutro Bath Ruins.
The Sutro Bath Ruins was right up my alley. I love old stuff. I really love old, abandoned stuff. I don’t know what it is. Well, I do, sort of. I like to think about the people who were there when it was fabulous and new and glamourous. But, I also like to see the leftovers of that long-ago time.
A little history: A former mayor of San Francisco, Adolph Sutro (mayor from 1894-1896), built the largest, indoor swimming pool. A public, swimming complex, the baths offered six saltwater pools and one freshwater pool. There were seven slides. Water came directly into the pools from the ocean. When it was first built, it was a big hit. People came in droves. Then the fascination died down, and the baths struggled for quite a while. The maintenance costs were outrageous. It eventually closed in 1966, and the facility burned to the ground shortly after closing.
Located in the Lands End area, we (or I, to be perfectly honest) had to see this, before taking a short walk along the Coastal Trail and then hitting Ocean Beach. The girls got to climb around the ruins, check out the tunnel where the seawater used to rush from and into the pools, and then dig in the sand at the beach (Digging in sand is about their favorite thing in life). The dogs also got their fun in, as Ocean Beach is very dog friendly. Clyde and Scout are completely tuckered out tonight!
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