Stow Lake

After reading Goodnight San Francisco before bed on Friday, Ezra asked to visit Stow Lake like the kids in the book. Tal and I decided that was and excellent idea for a Saturday outing.

I always forget how much I love Golden Gate park until we pull into it's shaded roadways and marvel at the sheer size of the ancient trees and miles and miles of green for as far as the eye can see!

As we drove around Talin and I shared happy memories of all the times we've visited the park. The renaissance festival where the professional jousting knight from Utah won the tournament (that's right...he jousts for a living), the sound project that he and Heidi created which ended up dragging us all over the park to look for unique decibel levels, the creepy picture we took of the "secret" interior of the old windmill in the rose garden, the many happy hours spent with friends on blankets, on long walks, on lazy Sunday afternoons. We have so many wonderful memories living in this park!

Once we got to the lake, Ezra was so excited to see the paddle boats in the lake that he literally did a happy, jumpy, kicky dance as he ran down the dock to inspect them. Sadly, we got there right as they were closing up, but we promised to come back again and rent one.

He seemed content with that answer but refused to leave the shore until he'd watched the little line of boats get dragged into the shed for the night.

Then it was playtime on the lawn. I'm not kidding, I think these boys played for at least an hour just running, screaming, jumping, and yelling. Of course every shot I took came out blurry except for this one. I've got to get this new camera figured out!

We fed the geese....the three canadian geese that were brave enough to come sample our stale Cheerios.

My favorite part of this picture are Ezra's arms flung wide in admiration of the beauty around him...either that or he's tossing Cheerios with all his might to the birds who've all but given up on his throwing abilities. =)

Good thing Daddy man was around to keep him grounded to that rock. We definitely would have done a little swimming were it not for some sturdy belt loops and a super protective father!
Things ended pretty quickly as the sun started to go down. We decided to drive past the big windmill in the park (also in our good night book) and ended up at Ocean Beach just in time to see...
...one of the most breathtaking sunsets I've seen in a long time. I wish we'd gotten there sooner to enjoy all of the colors and the warm spring (in JANUARY!) air.
Hooray for beautiful family outings that always remind me just how wonderful life really is!