San Francisco!

Our little fam recently traveled to San Francisco, Portland & Seattle!  Our baby girl turned 4 months old while we were away.  She was a champion traveler!  I admit, I was nervous about...everything.  Will her ears adjust on the flight?  Will she sleep well on the go?  Will she have enough play time?  Will it be awkward to get around with a stroller?  And so on...  but in the end, it was great.  Of course, there were a few meltdowns (mom & dad included, who are we kidding), some jet lag, & many awkward moments.  Even some 4 month sleep regression thrown in there for good measure.  I've concluded that traveling with a baby is not as easy/fun as traveling by ourselves...but it's much more fun than not traveling at all!

Here's a few photos, and a couple of tips for traveling with a baby in San Francisco:

We were blessed that the baby did SO well on all the flights we took.  She actually slept through take off/landing of the first flight.  I wondered if I should nurse/put her pacifier in, since I had read that it helps their ears adjust.  But she was totally out, and didn't notice a thing!  She was awake through other take off/landings and still did just fine.  Other than that, we just kept our little eat/play/sleep routine happening and she was happy and smiling at anyone who would smile back.



Our first night, we saw a Giants game.  They were playing the Oakland A's, so it was a great rivalry.  Our first lesson was a hard one though.  That night we discovered that a) San Francisco is windy/cold!  b) Don't plan an outing on the first night, with a jet lagged baby who just wants to sleep.  Especially when it's noisy.  And cold.  And she's strapped to you for 4 hours solid.  Let's just say it was the worst night of our trip (especially for me).










The clam chowder bread bowl at Boudin's is as good as they say!

So are the giant sundaes at Ghirardelli's!

The old trolleys are fun to ride, they just have narrow aisles - a bit tricky with a big stroller...



Lombard Street was fascinating!



The hills in San Francisco are an adventure on their own.  The photo above and below are from the same spot, just looking in different directions!



We love aquariums - Aquarium of the Bay was a good one.



It was windy/chilly, but our walk across the Golden Gate Bridge was well worth it.  So majestic!  It took about 45 minutes-ish each way.



Took the Go Pro on our cable car ride (and the baby in the carrier, because the stroller would definitely have been awkward/too big).



She loved it though!





All the heart eyes for bay windows everywhere!



The Painted Ladies!



A few other thoughts:

- When you travel with a baby, be flexible about when you eat.  You may want to avoid the most common times of the day to eat, especially in San Francisco because most restaurants are really small and fill up fast (also awkward if you need space for the stroller).  Ideally, we would stop to eat while the baby slept so that we could use our hands.
- I think 3.5 months was a great time to travel...especially now that we are at 4.5 months and going through the nap-resisting, night-waking, over-tired stage (such fun! :)
- RELAX!  I had to remind myself of this 1000 times a day.  It's easy to stress over every little thing, but much more relaxing to take each moment as it comes.  Be present and enjoy where you are!

Maybe we will see you again someday, San Francisco!