Day Downtown

It's been a summer tradition that we take some of our free time to explore part of downtown San Francisco.  SFO has one of the country's largest Chinatowns, comprised of six blocks of stores that all sell the same inventory!  We saw everything that Ken had ever brought back from his trips to Hong Kong -- Chinese dresses, including the small ones for wine bottles; decorations for Chinese New Year; parasols; silk lipstick and eyeglass cases; wooden toy snakes; etc.

We learned never to buy at the first store because prices for the same items got less expensive with each block that we walked.  Fireworks selling for $1.99 at the first block were $1.49 at the third block.  Lesson learned.  

After Chinatown we went to Hayes Valley to try the space-age ice cream at Smitten.  There, the ice cream is crafted right in front of you as they blend cream with liquid nitrogen.  The concept is that the product's ice crystals are minuscule, so the ice cream is smoother, and Bryn said it's also colder.  The small store offers only three flavors on any given day.  Bryn and Luke both got salted caramel, and it was EXCELLENT albeit pricey.

After their ice cream Bryn and Luke played on a netted climbing structure, and Bryn goaded Luke into "posing for a cheesy catalog."  The resulting pictures make me laugh, but not as much as Bryn's uncharacteristically photobombing a couple who were being videotaped at a table next to the ice cream shop!