A Trip to Oakland

With rain in the forecast for the entire day, we decided to suit up and head to Oakland to play tourist.  The first stop of the day was the Botanical Gardens.  My father is a lover of botanical gardens and trains so we were just in time to see the new winter show.  

I spy something with my little eye ... a 90's troll

And a flower which looks like a goldfish

And some space aliens

Here we have the most dysfunctional family with the inability to take a "normal" family photo.  Ask my father to smile and it automatically ruins the photo (sorry Dad).  As a result we always get him with this quasi smile.  This was take four and we decided we best stop there.  

Elise in the desert room under some Chihuly glass.

This year's Garden Railroad theme is fairy tales.  

Stories included Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzle and Peter Pan.  

We headed into the rainforest section and were surprised to find koi.  

Here we have Elise blending in with her environment.

After grabbing a late lunch, we headed over to the Cathedral of Learning so everyone could see the Nationality Rooms.  As it was a Saturday, I figured we would be able to get into all the rooms, but for some reason most on the first floor were closed.  Each of the rooms were filled with traditional holiday decorations, so even though I have visited several times, this visit had a different twist.  

Elise holding court!

In other news, my sister is a complete ham and has dominated my photos over the last few days.