Trixie Saves The Day!

The fog was heavy. From the windows of Alex’s second floor apartment we couldn’t see any of the markers that would indicate where we were in San Francisco based on the maps we had been studying for the last two months. Alex pointed at a cloud, “Sutro Tower is there.” I nodded as if completely understanding its distance from the apartment’s windows. Then the rain began: gray, gloomy, drippy, and obviously wet. We walked a long and soggy ten minutes to the nearest BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station.

“Ryder, we are going to ride the BART to go to the Exploratorium.”
“What?! We are going to ride a FART?!”

Whelp, needless to say the BART underground station is a bit loud when the trains arrive.

A few stops later we were tromping through the financial district to the Ferry Building to catch a bite to eat. Crossing blocks intersecting with the famous Market Street, the beautifully painted heritage streetcars rolling by with tourists, we made our way in front of the clock tower.

The Cowgirl Creamery was our noshing destination of choice. Ryder and I split a salami, arugula, and fresh mozzarella sandwich on a twinkle roll, downed with a raspberry spritzer. The seagulls were huge, guarding the ferryboats and framing the San Francisco Bay Bridge in the distance. We settled between the crowds in wooden chairs surrounded by books of quirky titles.

Ryder was thoroughly impressed with the lunch vittles, declaring it the “best lunch ever!”. On to the Exploratorium we went! Umbrellas inverting, shoes sloshing, and attitudes starting to become murky as we counted towards our destination at pier 15. I worried that the crowds of guest taller than Ryder and droves of kids vying for the exhibit wonders would burn out his excitement quickly. It did.

Within twenty minutes of paying $58 for the three of us to enter, he was already asking to go back to the apartment. Equipped, as any seasoned mother would be, I took us back out to the lobby, opened the knapsack and divvied out the leftover lunch, two rice cakes, a handful of walnuts, and a bottle of water. A few rounds of Angry Birds Go! and all snacks consumed, Ryder was just barely convinced to return to the Exploratorium.

The first spark lit with the Down Hill Race exhibit. He spun them and chased them down their tracks. Again and again, observing their speed and intensity based on his push. We then moved on to pulley systems.

Then the spark ignited into a fire of imagination and innovation at the marble works wall. A simple pegboard wall equipped with buckets of marbles, pegs, copper piping, and other gadgets to tinker, Ryder was in his element.

The fire turned into a blaze as he organically buddied with another four year old, the adorable redheaded Trixie! (and her super chill and joyfully fun Grammy).

Ryder and Trixie were inseparable for the next three hours: pegging and puzzling, zipping to pin ball exhibits and robot acrobats adjusted into a sort of penny movie wheel.

After studying each other’s faces as afterimages appeared in their eyes in the dark booth, one spicy red head darted to an exhibit, the other would pull in the opposite direction vying to choose the destination. But like the many magnets in the Exploratorium, Trixie and Ryder would soon feel the pull to be near each other again and search each other out. As if on a single wavelength, much like the monochromatic room, they were in sync.

Separating them wasn’t easy. They posed like their robots for a good-bye picture. Both coming up with ways to elongate the goodbye: Trixie asking we walk her and Grammy to their car, Ryder asking her more questions and pulling her to other exhibits.

If it wasn’t for the Exploratorium closing its doors, we would no doubt still be there. Needless to say Trixie saved the day! The redheaded duo stayed charged longer than any batteries on display.

After leaving Trixie and Grammy, we couldn’t end on a sad note, so Alex took us to ride the cable cars from Union Square to Fisherman’s Warf.

The cable car is a wooden historical wonder, circa the late 1800s. They are manually controlled by their conductors that look as though they are riding giant scooters mounted within the trolley’s floorboards. Pulling cranks and pushing giant pedals that operate the speed of the trolley connected to the ever-moving cable in the street’s surface. Ryder was fully satisfied with his historical ride on Cable Car No. 9.

The night was concluded with Chinese take out and an introduction to Super Mario with uncle Alex. The day that started out foggy and gray ended in more ways than one as sunny and bright with excitement.