San Francisco: Mill Valley with the Jamiesons

So the Jamiesons live(d) in Mill Valley, a lovely area across the Golden Gate Bridge that had a pretty Adelaide Hills vibe to it. We spent a few days hanging about this area doing a bit of shopping (dear GOD did we shop) the outlet malls and seeing the sights (GG Bridge, Sausalito, Costco) and a couple of day trips out to the Napa Valley and downtown San Francisco itself.

Below are some of the pics we took. In order to travel light (not easy with 2 babies) I didn't take my camera (its enormous) so the majority of photos below were taken by Chris.

Emmy meets Rocco. Love happens. Dave and I have decided that if something unfortunate should happen to us, Emily is the person best able to look after him. It was not uncommon for me to turn around and see Emmy watching him expectantly, dummy ready in one hand, wipe poised in the other on the off chance our bubbly baby made a noise or dribbled.

Phoebe meets Rocco. Love also happens. An altogether different character from her big sister, Phoebe did amazing looking after the two boys. A lot of time was spent in the car and the girls would fight for the right to sit between the boys and tend to their every need. Which is amazingly brave, I'm not too sure I want to be responsible for keeping Fred from being outraged (oh wait....). Anyways, Emmy (of course) was amazing, but it was Phoebe who surprised us all, fighting off tiredness to turn the cabin light on and off and on and off and on and off in order to keep Fred from melting for hours on end. She also played beautifully with him over the week, enthralled by being the bigger kid, never hesitating to run and tell us when Fred was acting up or to tell Emily when he had started playing with her toys.

Whilst Edwina worked and the girls were at school we spent our first day in the Napa Valley where Jamo took us to eat the Worlds. Best. Hamburger. Unfortunately no pics of much else from here as the day was so miserably wet, it seemed for too much hard work to keep dragging the boys in and out of the car. We went to one place for a tasting, but as the big boys went inside to wax lyrical about wine, I got left in the car doing a double nappy change, each of a serious matter. F-U-N. After this we went and did some Factory Outlet shopping which was... totally awesome. Neither Dave or I went to America with the plan of doing much shopping - i thought maybe i would try to find Fred some cute American PJs was the extent of my plans - but low and behold we shopped for the whole of England. And it kicked off here, particularly in Barneys of New York where I bought and awesome handbag and gloves.



The next day was spent having look around Mill Valley and it's neighbouring Sausilito (former artists/hippy commune-y place, now home of the millionaires with it's stunning views of downtown San Fran). We drove up around the surrounding areas, stopping for a few choice pics as per below v(Rocco sleeping in the car).

Naturally, every evening was all about the wine. Jamo must have opened 30 or 40 bottles of incredible wine in the 10 days we were there, he and Dave spending at least an hour each night blind tasting and analysing them (much to Dwines and my annoyance as we were forced to do the hard shifts of cooking, feeding, bathing and bedding the kids all by ourselves whilst the boys made love to a bottle of 82 Cos.... this theme of male selfishness was visited numerous times on the holiday,most evident on our trip to Pebble Beach, but more on that in the next blog)

Red, definitely Red.

Yes. There are 4 different wines in those black tasting glasses.

On one of our last days there we caught a bus into downtown San Francisco, and had an awesome day having a look around and doing a bit of shopping (I got some sunglasses and a hat and Dave and I cleared out Abercrombie & Fitch of jackets and polo shirts. Now, on an aside, I'm not a label slave and to mention it embarrasses me somewhat, but I bought a grey hooded parka at A&F, and if it could talk I would ask it to marry me. It is seriously warm - I can go out in London -3 degree temperatures and wear only a tshirt underneath and be perfectly cosy )

Where was I? OK. so we landed in downtown San Fran. walked up Market Street, had a look at union square and then proceeded to make our way up to Hayes St, a street Dwines suggested we might like. And she was right - it was an awesome little street full of locals, cafes and boutique stores. HOWEVER what we did not realise was that it was a pretty long walk there and a taxi would be the best way to get there. And that this walk would be right up there with some of the scariest of my life. Because one moment we were looking at an Andy Warhol in a gallery, we turned a corner and lo and behold were surrounded by drug addicts and screaming prostitutes. It was 10.00 in the morning. As we kept walking in the direction of Hayes Street it was obvious that were were going further and further into the Hood and no matter which way we turned, we would inevitably come across shady gangster-types and homeless people with obvious and quite threatening mental problems. It came to a point that for block after block we did not cross one person I would feel comfortable asking the time. Seriously shady. Not somewhere I felt comfortable taking my two babies, that's for sure. Even the normally unflappable Dave became somewhat tense and moved quickly. That being said, we survived and can boast a tale from San Fran that your average tourist doesn't have. Sorry there are no photos of this bit of the journey but - are you fcking crazy? an obviously well-to do white family taking photos of the prostitutes??

San Fran City Hall. The light at the end of the shady. Where the action in the upcoming Milk film takes place.

Top of Hayes street. Low on Shady

The nice end of Market Street. Outside Ferry Building which housed a lovely food market.

Oakland Bay Bridge. Dave blinking.

(Dave is guaranteed to blink in 75% of photos)

LOOKS angelic, but we know better. Only 5 minutes from a meltdown of epic proportions. Time to go home.