The Walt Disney Family Museum is located within the beautiful confines of San Francisco’s famous Presidio. They found a pretty nice spot. Breathtaking, really.

In fact, one of the best exhibits in the museum isn’t an exhibit at all. It’s a window. As you are walking from one of the many rooms to the next there is a hallway with nothing but a bench and a view. The Golden Gate Bridge sits on the other side. That experience alone may be worth the price of admission. Hence the picture above.

So what else do you get for your ticket? Quite a bit. There are family movies, personal letters, awards (including the famous Snow White Oscar), behind the scenes footage and a level of detail that some may find overwhelming and others will recognize as the way Walt would have wanted it.

I was traveling alone in San Francisco (stayed at the awesome Crescent San Francisco Hotel) and having a family of Disney fans at home I was reluctant to visit the museum by myself. I’m glad that I did. While there are plenty of interactive activities throughout the winding maze of the museum, few of them are designed to hold the attention of young children — especially those that can’t accept the fact that this Disney attraction doesn’t twirl, fly or hug them for pictures. There are no churros. I’m sure that my boys would have had fun, but it would have come at a price, that being my chance to stroll leisurely through years of Disney history. Read More »

UpTake on The Golden Gate

UpTake on Chinese New Year

UpTake on the US Capital Rotunda

UpTake on Temple of Olympian Zeus

UpTake on the Eiffel Tower

UpTake on the Empire State Building

UpTake on Hawaii

UpTake on Canadian Flag

UpTake on Indianapolis War Memorial

UpTake on Bourbon Street

Hello Readers! Here is a review of UpTake’s new blog series, ‘Things Are Looking Up!” We like to view the world with a little different perspective. Try it: Stretch your neck, gaze directly UP and TAKE a moment for yourself and all that is above you. It could be the Eiffel Tower, a flag waving in the air, a flock of birds or a light fixture. Whatever it is, literally and figuratively, have an ‘UpTake‘ today!

Better yet, if you have a camera, take a snap and send it our way, we would love to post it!

Find out more about the UpTakes above: Golden Gate Bridge; Chinese New Year; US Capitol Building; Temple of the Oympian Zeus in Greece; The Eiffel Tower, The Empire State Building; Hawaii; Vancouver, British Columbia; Indianapolis War Memorial; New Orleans

UpTake of the Golden Gate Bridge

Welcome to our newest blog series: Things are Looking Up!

I think that just about everyone is eagerly looking forward to what 2010 will bring. At UpTake we are looking up! Literally! Into the sky, up the sides of buildings, at the ceiling…

Over the next two weeks we will share a daily image from the UpTake perspective. Today, enjoy one of our favorite local icons (local for our headquarters that is). We love living in the Bay Area and in honor of it, behold the Golden Gate Bridge. Come visit and LOOK UP!

If you are interested in trying out this experiment, go for it! It’s simple. Here are the 2-step instructions:

1. Look UP

2. TAKE a photo

…and maybe a 3rd step: get a nice deep neck stretch, breathe it all in and smile.

It’s a fantastic exercise wherever you are, it’s free and who knows what you will see. The possibilities are endless, and well, it’s fun. You may see a cloud in the shape of an octopus, a flock of birds, perhaps the Sears Tower (or is it Willis Tower now?), The Washington Monument, an apple blossom on a tree, snowflakes, El Capitan!

If you would like to share one of your “UpTakes”, please submit your photo by using the editor contact link in the sidebar.

Photo courtesy of: Rick via http://www.flickr.com/photos/spine/ / CC BY 2.0

I recently posted on this blog about first-time air travel with a toddler. As I mentioned in the previous post, we encountered some successes as well as some genuine teeth clenching moments associated with our 20-month-old’s first airline travel to San Francisco. This post is outlines our actual weekend in that fair city.

Accomodations- Queen Anne Hotel. An historic Victorian 4-story hotel in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, the Queen Anne is very romantic with charming rooms and fireplaces in the downstairs common areas. It was walking distance to the trolley line and a few parks – perfect for those with kids in tow. And, while the Queen Anne doesn’t market itself specifically to families, so we were pleasantly surprised by a number of child-friendly amenities. These included a travel crib, high chairs in the dining area, a full breakfast and cookies (with brandy or the adults) in the evening. The staff, with one exception, was wonderful! If you are traveling with children, we would recommend you book a suite, which includes a sitting/living room area with fridge, sink coffeemaker and a separate bedroom with door.

Queen Anne Hotel

The down-sides to staying at the Queen Anne were few: the travel crib was older and needed repairs (which the staff saw to only after we insisted) and a few of the antiques in the room were not toddler-friendly. We didn’t break anything, but it was definitely a learning curve for a child whose own home has few hands-off zones. And, while the website says the hotel offers childcare, it doesn’t. So, don’t book thinking this service will be available and you will be able to have a “date night” in San Francisco. Overall, the hotel was very nice. We would recommend it to friends, even those with toddlers, because the location is excellent, the staff is friendly, and the few disappointments did not make a difference in our stay.

Day 1 – After a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, we became typical San Francisco tourists. We loaded our son onto his mother’s back and we set out for the nearest cable car stop. It was a beautiful day, so the 5 minute walk to the beginning of the California Trolley line was refreshing. We checked out the unique San Francisco architecture dotted with turn of the century row houses and, to these Seattleites, surprisingly few trees. Our son loves trains, so the California trolley line was a little slice of heaven. We rode the entire cable-car loop through the business district, to the waterfront, and back to where we started. Our son learned to yell “ding, ding” as we rode through town.

Cable Car at Fisherman's Warf

We spent ample time at the waterfront browsing gift shops, watching the ferries come and go, and snacking on the local fare, before boarding the F-train along the Embarcadero towards Pier 39. Pier 39 bills itself as “San Francisco’s Premier Bay Attraction, a festival marketplace with more than 110 stores, 12 bay view restaurants, and a variety of fun-filled attractions for all ages including world renowned sea lions, street performers and live daily entertainment.” We spent the rest of our afternoon wandering around, eating lunch, people watching, and riding on the double-decker carousel – which was a bit hit with our son. After leaving Pier 39 we completed the trolley loop by boarding the Powell-Hyde line at Fisherman’s Warf and riding the cable car back up the hill to where we started. Our son fell asleep on the way back, so after a late nap we had an early dinner and walk in the nearby Filmore district. We then returned to the Queen Anne for a nightcap and bed.

TIP - If you plan to go on more than one trolley ride in a day, purchase a day pass for the cable cars, trains and buses. We got ours at the gift shop of the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway Hotel on Van Ness steps from the beginning of theCalifornia line, as well as good advice on the optimal sightseeing plan from the friendly local staff.

Day 2 – This was a day for family to visit us in the city and our last before heading east to continue that visit. After a few planning calls, breakfast and checking out of our hotel, we decided to head over to Golden Gate Park to visit the California Academy of Sciences and more specifically the Steinhart Aquarium. We had heard rumors about tickets to the Academy selling out and since this was a Saturday we got there early and explored the grounds near the Academy and the de Young Museum while we waited for family to arrive. The grounds were open, spacious, and pleasant and deserved to be explored much more than we had the time or ability to do with a little one along.

Soon the crowds started to arrive in droves. Once our party of 9, including many young children, finally arrived the Academy was absolutely swarming with people. We proceeded in and attempted to enjoy the visit, however the sheer number of visitors made it nearly impossible to enjoy the quality exhibits on display throughout the Academy and the Aquarium. After a couple hours we decided to picnick out on the park grounds where we could enjoy some fresh air. After lunch a few of the party braved another trip in but the results were similar to those before lunch, so we decided to call it a day. We left the city shortly thereafter with a scenic drive across the Golden Gate Bridge , which was itself an awe inspiring experience and left us wanting to return as soon as our situation would allow.

TIP - Academy of Science tickets will run you $24.95 for adults, $19.95 for kids 12-17, and $14.95 for kids 7-11. Parking will set you back another $20.00, so come with a fat wallet, and elbow pads.

Beware of Ghosts at the Queen Anne Hotel

Things We Wished We Had Time For:

As I mentioned this was our first trip with our son.  It was aslo a far cry from the types of trips we are used to taking, where we could cram the maximum amount of touring pleasure into even a long weekend.  Yes, it was a different speed, but it was also still a lot of fun.  I think the key for us was to not plan too much, but rather to enjoy the the sights we could comfortably see without over-taxing our little guy.  With that in mind, here are a couple of things we didn’t get to this time but look forward to on our next trip to the Bay area.

San Francisco Ghost Hunt- If your children are older, you might check out this haunted tour of the Pacific Heights neighborhood that meets each evening in the lobby of the Queen Anne! Apparently several ghosts reside in the Queen Anne, as well as other neighborhood haunts. We didn’t take the tour but did see the tour guide, Jim Fassbinder, in his cape, tophat and lantern. We stayed on the third floor, apparently the most haunted on the hotel, and did see one ghost – but he seemed to be pretty friendly!

Golden Gate Bridge

 Bicycle Tour of the Golden Gate Bridge - We saw many advertisements for this during our short tour of the city and would have attempted this if we had more time. Baring that, at least a walk across the bridge would have been preferrable to the drive. The bridge was packed with walking tourists and that is also an option we will explore on our next visit.

Cable Car an Queen Anne Hotel Photos from Uptake.com
Golden Gate Bridge Photo by Rodefeld
Ghost photo miraculously snapped by the author