Eric's Visit

My cousin Eric has been living with his family in Melbourne Australia for the past number of years.  I haven't seen him since he left.  So when I heard he was going to be in the Bay Area on business in January, I was excited to see him and hang out. 

He flew in to San Francisco Saturday 1/30/10, but didn't have to report for his conference until Monday night.  That gave us plenty of time to catch up.  Eric was our first official overnight guest since we moved here last summer and I was a little nervous about how the dogs would react.  They loved him!  They loved being in his room and sniffing all his bags.  They were good and there were no mishaps!  Hopefully he didn't mind them too much!

Kevin had to report to the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey the next day for a month-long intense class "Security, Stability and Development", so he was not able to hang out with us. Eric had a big shopping list of items he couldn't get in Australia or were very expensive, so we headed out for a day at the mall. I'm sure Kevin was sorry he missed it ;)

Monarch at the Rainforest.  I was glad none of them landed on me.  The reality is, they are just bugs with wings!

                                                                

                                           Gotta love those Madagascar cockroaches!

I took Monday off so we could do a little sightseeing.  Eric and I headed up to San Francisco's Golden Gate Park to go to the California Academy of Sciences Museum.  The city is so much less crowded on a weekday!  The museum was very cool.  They had an aquarium and rainforest, a planetarium that we didn't have time to see, African penguin exhibit and plenty of bugs, lizards and other creatures of the land and sea from around the world.  Their focus was on conservation and they do a lot of research right on site.  It was a really cool place and a lot of fun.  I wish I brought my camera with me.  All I had was my phone.  There was so much to see, I could have gotten some amazing pictures! 

Dinner was at the Hard Rock Cafe on pier 39.  We got a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island along the way.  Even though we made a few wrong turns a couple of times, I was pretty impressed with my first drive into the city.  I'm used to riding shotgun fast asleep!

Thanks for visiting Eric.  I had a great time!