Single Parent Travel Guide ( Part 2)

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SingleDad.com , SouthWest Airlines, Personality Hotels and Flip Video Camera bring you the second chapter in Single Parent travel. This month we journey to San Francisco for a 10th Birthday party and play date weekend with Single Mom Seeking.com Founder, Rachel Sarah.

One of my new year’s resolutions this year was a bold commitment to my family (Life Plan 2009 , Travel Boards). I made the commitment to offer my parents and children their own traveling adventure with me as their tour guide.

Over the past two months, I have created two Single Parent Travel blogs on Single Dad, The first one was about local travel coupons that I made for my parents. The second was about my fishing trip to Alaska with my son.

I have just completed the third leg of my 2009 Single Parent Travels and I can honestly tell you that the trips keep getting better and my relationships keep getting stronger.

This month, I took my youngest daughter, Mia, on a trip to San Francisco. To understand my youngest, is to know a little bit about her personality. Mia is the kind of girl that isn’t afraid of making friends or showing her sense of style. She has older friends, younger friends, school friends, after school friends, tall friends, short friends, and friends that are every color of the rainbow. For a young lady, she exudes and unusual powerful confidence and independence. (Gee… I wonder where she got all that? Must be her mother)

All of my children are special to me; Mia is very special. You see, Mia and I kind of grew up together… that’s right, grew up together. Mia was born during my divorce in 1999. Mia gave me the opportunity to redefine my role as a father and my commitment to parenting. (In fact, I used to tell her that she "saved my life" when I put her to bed at night). Since that day, my life as a father has changed and my relationships with all three of my children and their mother are significantly better. I give Mia a lot of credit for my happiness.

Trip to San Francisco

My daughter picked the destination of San Francisco based on a past summer trip with her mother, only this time she wanted to see more of the city and have a play date. I had her design a vision board with all the things she wanted to see in the city. I then enrolled a dear friend in the Bay Area, a fellow single parent and website owner, Rachel Sarah ( www.SingleMomSeeking.com/blog), to meet up with us. Rachel has an adorable daughter named Mae and the two girls had corresponded over the past year and were very excited about having a "sleep over" in a hotel for the weekend. The dates were set and my flight was booked on a "Click and Save" internet deal through Southwest Airlines (www.SouthwestAirlines.com). Our flight was $39 each way so our complete round trip airfare from San Diego to San Francisco was under $200 dollars!

Hotels in San Francisco

There is such a variety of hotels to choose from in San Francisco. There are the mainstream franchises and there are the "boutique" hotels. These boutique hotels can offer a variety of the same amenities as the big boys, but with a lot of personal service and attention. I prefer the boutique hotel experience because I like personal touch that most mainstream places lack. Location is important to me as well. I wanted to be able to walk to just about everything my daughter wanted to do, so I chose to stay close to Union Square. Once I decided on these parameters, it wasn’t hard to find my hotel. Personality Hotels (www.PersonalityHotels.com) has a group of hotels right in the heart of Union Square and they just happened to have one hotel named, DIVA Hotel.

The Diva Hotel and SingleDad

This hotel is adult friendly, kid friendly, pet friendly and gave us a lot of personal attention. The rooms were clean and hotel sat right in the middle of everything. Even though I was outnumbered (three girls and one SingleDad), I had my own "Dad time". I walked down to the pubs to catch up on college football and enjoy an Anchor Steam Beer. If you are planning a trip to the Hotel Diva, ask if they have their kid’s suite available. This is a specially designed room that has a separate attached studio for your children. I was unable to secure the room on my visit, but was offered an equally plush two room , 1 bath suite. The Hotel Diva was more than generous with the accommodations and both Rachel and I were able to manage our kids without feeling overcrowded (despite the estrogen to testosterone ratio!)

Things to do with your daughter in San Francisco

San Francisco has just about anything and everything available for Single Parent Travel. For the most part, I like to visit San Francisco for the arts, culture, and restaurants. But my goal on this trip was to take my daughter to all the places she posted on her travel board.

Friday Agenda: Art

When you watch the video below, you will discover that my daughter loves art. We visited 3 different art exhibits and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (www.SFMOMA.com ). Then at night, it was all about being a 10 year old and playing with her friend Mae. For dinner, we had what every 10 year old wants for her birthday; SUSHI! That’s right, should I be surprised that my daughter has a penchant for the finer foods in life? Whatever happened to Chuck E. Cheese? The food was great and the evening ended with a stop at the rooftop location of The Cheesecake Factory in Union Square.

Saturday Agenda: Fisherman’s Warf, Ghirardelli Square and the Bushman

San Francisco is known for its famous seaside tourist trap called Fisherman’s Wharf. I can’t explain it, but the chowder and sourdough bread just tastes better there. I don’t care if its imported from Texas ( just kidding). I just love the fact that Fisherman’s Wharf still looks the same as it did when I was a kid and I could see my daughter enjoying all the sights and sounds of the Wharf. From the street musicians to the vendors, the city was alive. There is an arcade at the end of the Wharf that I would recommend to all families. It has over 100 antique arcade games on display that work for only a quarter. All four of us had a great time with the "Fun House" mirrors and the "Laughing Lady".

We were lucky enough to visit Ghirardelli Square (http://www.ghirardellisq.com) during a Chocolate Festival! The 14th Annual Chocolate Festival was in full swing when we arrived and my only suggestion to parent with children at this event is to limit the number of sample tickets you buy. The chocolate was amazing and the crowds were huge. The girls took pictures with Miss San Francisco and jumped on a Trolley for a Kodak moment.
Last, but not least was visiting The Bushman. For as long as I can remember, there have always been homeless people around the Wharf but there is one that sticks out because of his antics. This man can be found in various locations around Fisherman’s Wharf and I have also heard that there are a couple copy cats as well. What this man does is very special. Every day, he grabs a few tree branches, sits close to a city trash can and covers his body with the branches. As the crowds of tourists are racing up and down the sidewalk, The Bushman leaps up and often scares the living pants off of the unsuspecting pedestrians. To see this man in action is pure comedy. I am sure someday, there will be a reality show oabout him and he is going to enjoy the last laugh sitting in his beachfront condo. Anyways, our girls wanted to take a picture with him. So, for a small donation, the girls walked up to him for a photo and it made their day!

When we woke up on Sunday, it seemed like our weekend had gone too fast. Rachel and I were not surprised on how quickly our daughters bonded like sisters. They seemed so much alike in so many ways. Watching them laugh and talk about the weekend only made me appreciate the entire trip even more. We had each of the girls carry our Flip video cameras (www.TheFlip.com) and they gave us great video contributions. I hope this article and attached video diary will inspire you to share your next Single Parent Travel Adventure with SingleDad.com.

Richard JaramilloRichard “RJ” Jaramillo, is the Founder of SingleDad.com,
a website and social media resource dedicated to single parenting and specifically for the newly divorced, re-married, widowed and single Father with children.
RJ is self employed, entrepreneur living in San Diego and a father of three children. The mission of SingleDad is to help the community of Single Parents
“Make Life Happen…Again!”

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Richard “RJ” Jaramillo, is the Founder of SingleDad.com, a website and social media resource dedicated to single parenting and specifically for the newly divorced, re-married, widowed and single Father with children. RJ is self employed, entrepreneur living in San Diego and a father of three children. The mission of SingleDad is to help the community of Single Parents “Make Life Happen…Again!”