Martin's first demonstration

We've spent a few recent afternoon/evenings "down town" (as Martin likes to tell us) for a variety of reasons.

Unsure of how crazy it would be, we passed on taking the camera to the Chinese New Year parade where we saw Chinese dragons! and trombones! and one airplane! down the street! It was a beautiful night and we could have handled the camera just fine, particularly because Martin has now decided that he likes riding in the hiking pack. I guess we know for next time.

But we did get some pictures of our attendance at a demonstration for increased school funding a few nights later (March 4th). As you can only imagine in a state that has severe state budget issues (well, most do, but CA likes to take things to extremes it seems), the budget issues in both higher and lower ed are crazy. It was really sweet to see these packs of elementary school kids out and about on the lawn in front of city hall; the demonstration was pretty tame in part due to the kid element. Too bad all those kids showed up because the budget issues are so bad that SFPSD is looking at a greater than $1k per student shortfall in next year's budget.

Anyhow, enough moaning about the reason for demonstrating. Martin was thrilled that we got to "take the train down town." We talked about it all day leading up to the event while we were making our sign and he still brings it up at least once a day 10 days later.