We all got ready and had breakfast at the hotel (just cold food at this hotel, but it worked out). It was a very rainy morning and I was not looking forward to driving our rental car, a Dodge Charger (I wouldn't be driving it for much longer, but more on that in a bit). It's a big car with lots of blind spots I'm not familiar with and I don't know downtown San Francisco very well at all. There are lots of one way streets with a good amount of traffic during rush hour (the time I had to drop off and pick up Brian). Normally, I wouldn't be all that worried, but now that I have Carter with me and I'm pregnant again, I like feeling safe while driving.
Anyway, we dropped Brian off a little before 8 am. Since it was supposed to be rainy most of the day, I decided Carter and I would go to the Exploratorium. It's a hands-on science museum located in the Marina district near the Golden Gate Bridge. The museum doesn't open until 10 am so Carter and I had some time to kill. I decided to drive over to the south end parking lot for viewing the Golden Gate Bridge and hope the rain stopped long enough for Carter and I to take a few pictures. Carter fell asleep after we dropped off Brian so we chilled in the parking lot for awhile while he finished sleeping.
It was still raining when Carter woke up, but I decided to drag him out to the viewing area anyway. It was also really windy which made me carrying Carter and an umbrella very entertaining for anyone that was watching. Carter wanted to get down and run around but it wasn't safe for him so we didn't stay long.
Carter and I drove around the Presidio area for a little bit trying to figure out what it was (all I knew was it's part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area). We stopped by the visitors' center for a few minutes and we got Carter's passport book for the national parks stamped.
It was finally 10 am so we made our way to the museum. We got in free with our annual membership to the AMSE we bought right before our Florida trip - I was excited to take advantage of this membership again (we saved $15!).
This museum was very cool. It'll be much cooler for Carter when he gets older though. Everything in the museum was hands-on, but unfortunately everything was designed for kids older than Carter. Carter managed to find his own way to play with lots of things.
Carter really liked the tornado machine (he wasn't too into the one at the Orlando Science Center).
Here are a couple of videos of Carter playing with the tornado ...
Carter's favorite exhibit (which somehow I missed taking a picture of) was a spinning circle with long strips of plastic hanging from it. It looked like a spinning circus tent. The strips of plastic weren't connected and Carter liked going in and out of the circle. I have no idea what this exhibit was supposed to teach anyone though.
I let Carter explore and go to whatever exhibit he wanted, but it got really tiring running after him and dragging his stroller around. Plus Carter is often clueless to the other people around him and he'll step right in front of people. So making sure he didn't get run over was also a lot of work. The museum was packed with a bunch of school groups as well.
I needed breaks occasionally so Carter had to get in his stroller. He got really mad every time I did it though. But he'd get over it in a minute or two. We've been going through a bad period of tantrums. Carter has an awful, loud scream that sounds like I'm hurting him. I'm trying to ignore it but it's hard when people are staring at you!
Carter, after accepting that he has to sit in his stroller ...
The Exploratorium is a really cool building - it's essentially one huge room. There is an open mezzanine level with more exhibits and this is where I tried to take some pictures to show off the museum (they didn't turn out very good) ...
The Exploratorium is located on the grounds of the Palace of Fine Arts. It looked beautiful, but the area was all blocked off though so we couldn't walk around when we left the museum.
When we left the museum, Carter fell asleep immediately in the car. I ended up driving around the Presidio area again and made my way up to Inspiration Point where I waited for Carter to wake up from his nap.
There are some good views from up here. That dome in the next two pictures is the same dome that's in the previous picture. The second picture shows Alcatraz.
Since the weather had cleared up, I decided to go back to the Golden Gate Bridge and walk part of it with Carter.
We made it out to the first tower before I decided it was time to head back to pick up Brian.
Downtown SF from the bridge ...
Lots of people offered to take our picture for me!
We got back to the car around 4:15 pm to pick up Brian. However, the car would not start.
The Charger had one of those key fobs. When I put it the ignition in the dash, a red light came on and it beeped. Then nothing would happen when I turned the key. I hadn't left the lights on so I was pretty sure it wasn't the battery (though I was hoping that's all it was). The car was older for a rental car - 40K+ miles so I knew it could be something worse.
I tried calling Brian a few times but he wasn't picking up. So I called Dollar's roadside assistance. They told me they couldn't help me because my name wasn't on the contract. Brian would have to call them. I didn't understand how my name didn't get on the contract. We gave the person checking us in at the airport my license and told him we wanted both our names on the contract, but somehow, he didn't add me. (Lesson learned - don't just check the rate on the rental agreement, also check that all drivers' names are on the contract!)
I tried using the fact that I had a baby with me and was pregnant to my advantage to get help but was only given the suggestion of calling AAA. Dollar's excuse was they couldn't help me for security reasons. I'm still baffled by this. If I'm telling you I have your car and you don't think I should have it, wouldn't you want to come out and get it from me?
Anyway, I called AAA and they were sending out a truck to help me figure out what was wrong. I finally got up with Brian as I waited and he also called Dollar's roadside assistance who told him to call them back after AAA diagnosed the problem. Brian tried called Dollar's customer service line as well but they apparently closed at 5 pm central time.
The temperature was starting to drop pretty quick and I only had a few more snacks along to keep both Carter and myself from getting too cranky. Luckily Carter was enjoying crawling all over the car and pushing any button he could find.
AAA's truck showed up around 5:15 pm. The guy quickly determined nothing was wrong with the battery and his best guess was that the ignition was broken and the car needed to be towed somewhere.
I called Brian with that information and he called Dollar's roadside assistance. They told him they'd send a tow truck out pulling a new car for us. They also had the nerve to say they'd have to see though if they had any full size cars available for us.
Brian took a taxi from downtown to the parking lot of the Golden Gate Bridge to hang out with us until we got the new car. Carter continued to be a champ and not fuss much about being cooped up in the car as we waited.
The new car (a brand new Impala) finally showed up around 7 pm. The tow truck driver had a lot of trouble getting the car off the truck - one of the chains somehow got stuck on the axle or something. After lots of banging with a hammer, he finally got it off and we were on our way around 7:15 pm.
It was a frustrating 3 hours for us though.
This was our first full day in San Francisco and Carter wasn't fully adjusted to the time difference yet so it felt really late to him. He fell asleep in the car as soon as we started driving. We stopped by a Chili's on the way to the hotel and got some take out. When we got back to the room, we ate and fed Carter a little dinner. We were able to get him to bed around 8:30 pm.
Because I still wasn't supposed to drive the rental car, Brian tried calling the Dollar office at the airport. There wasn't a manager there and the woman answering the phone kept putting Brian on hold and transferring him around until she hung up on him (twice). We decided to deal with Dollar again in the morning.
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