San Francisco Heart Treasure Hunt

This post is sponsored by Galileo Learning. All opinions are my own.

Summer may seem like a long way off right now but in actual fact it's creeping up on us. Before we know it Summer will be here and with that comes the kids being home from school for weeks and weeks on end. Eleven long weeks. That's a lot of time to fill with activities to combat boredom.

One of our favorite things to do over the Summer break is explore San Francisco. We're so lucky to live on the doorstep of such a wonderful city full of amazing places to visit. Some days we'll spend the day visiting a particular museum or gallery, some days are spent at playgrounds and other days are spent just exploring with no particular destination in mind.

"Abstracting Sights" now located at Dataway, 255 Golden Gate Ave (private)

Today I've teamed up with Galileo Learning to bring you a fun San Francisco exploration idea.



If you've been reading Little Hiccups for a while you may be familiar with Ava and Lola's love of the heart sculptures dotted around San Francisco. I've written about them quite a few times before (you can see some of my earlier posts here and here). The hearts are created by local artists and auctioned off as a fund raiser for San Francisco General Hospital Foundation. Some of these hearts are displayed in Union Square, while others can be found in various locations around the city, often in the lobby of office buildings and banks.

"Be Inspired" located at Besphil & Co, 160 Pine St

On days when the girls and I explore the city we like to make it our mission to track down more of these beautiful hearts. I found a handy map online created by another heart lover and we use this to help us on our treasure hunt. You can find the map here.

So what do we do when we find the hearts? Well, after we pose for photos we like to draw them! Sometimes we draw the hearts right then and there but other times we draw them later at home, using our photos as inspiration. To make this easier for the kids I created a template page that the girls use for drawing the hearts. This really helps Lola who loves to color but hasn't quite caught the hang of drawing hearts. You can download a PDF of the heart template here.

Ava and Lola's heart drawings

"Diamond Jubilee" now located at Visa, 800 Metro Center Blvd, Foster City (private)

"Eyes of the Heart" located at Wells Fargo, 1 Montgomery St

Here's a look at some of the hearts we've found when we've been exploring. Most of these are in office buildings or banks. For those located in private buildings please make sure to seek permission from the concierge or security staff before entering. Some locations will not allow photography on site.

"My Heart" located at Wells Fargo, 333 Market St

"Heroic Hearts" located at the Visitor's Center, Macy's

"Paradise" located at Chevron, 345 California St (private)

"Heart Beat" located at Carlson, Calladine & Peterson, 353 Sacramento St (private)

"Heart Beat" located at Carlson, Calladine & Peterson, 353 Sacramento St (private)

"SF's Bounty" located at Union Bank, 400 California St

"Street Life Greek Vase" located at Alaska Permanent Fun, 100 Pine St

"The Heart of Gold Country" located at Wells Fargo 464 California St

"Bless Your Lil' Heart" located at Wells Fargo, 2 Grant Ave

"Classic San Francisco" now located at Visa, 800 Metro Center Blvd, Foster City (private)

"Classic San Francisco" now located at Visa, 800 Metro Center Blvd, Foster City (private)

For more fun ideas for filling the long Summer break check out Galileo Learing. Here you'll find information about their fantastic Summer camps which offer fun themes such as Culinary Arts, Builders and Makers, Mount Everest Expedition, High Technology, and Destination San Francisco.

Little Hiccups readers can receive a $30 discount when booking a Galileo Learning Summer camp by using the promo code 2015INNOVATE.

Plus, register for a camp by March 2nd, and you'll save $20 per week at Camp Galileo and Galileo Summer Quest, or $10 per class ($20 off a full day) at Summer Camps @ The Tech. Early bird savings apply automatically to your camp purchase and can be combined with the multi-session discount.

My girls have never been to Summer camp before but I can tell you now that they are pretty keen to go. Growing up in Australia we didn't have Summer camp so to me it was just something I saw on television shows and in movies. I've got to say that I'm pretty excited at the prospect of sending my girls to camp. It will be another American experience to cross off our list!

In the meantime we're going to keep exploring San Francisco. There are still plenty more of those hearts for us to find!