San Francisco '13

In June, Kevin and I went on a little trip to San Francisco, CA with my mom and Wayne! It was so much fun and we really enjoyed our time there.  We decided to drive as that would be much cheaper than flying 4 people.  On our way there we split the drive up since we left after work one night; we drove to Elko, NV.  We drove the rest of the way the next day and arrived in Windsor, CA about 5pm.  (Windsor is about an hour north of SF) We stayed at a Worldmark by Wyndham resort just off the interstate and it was super nice and quiet. We had a small condo with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and a kitchen, dining room and living room.  Our patio looked out over the pool and it was so nice to sit out there when it wasn't super hot! That night we got some groceries, barbequed some dinner and went swimming! The pool wasn't heated much so it was chilly but still fun! Kevin and I are fish so we love the pool! My parents really enjoyed the hot tub haha. Then we stayed up late playing games and we always enjoy that!



Our first drive over the great Golden Gate!!

The next day we ventured down to SF with our City Passes in hand.  Our first stop was pier 39, but before that we got to drive across the great Golden Gate Bridge! This was Kevin's first trip to SF but we were all excited.  We went there as a family when I was 13ish but the bridge was so much more remarkable to see as an adult, for whatever reason.  Driving in SF is almost impossible and according to the GPS it takes 30 minutes to go 8 miles! We finally made it to the pier and our first adventure was going on the Blue and Gold Fleet Bay Cruise.  This took us out on the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge, around Alcatraz, over by the bridge connecting SF and Oakland, and back to port. We even got the see a bunch of seals! It was an amazing cruise and we had so much fun!  When we were packing, I told Kevin to grab a jacket and he didn't think he'd need it until we got out on the water and put it on. It was chilly but amazing! That day in SF the skies were blue and and it was pretty warm so we picked a PERFECT day to go on the cruise we that we could see everything around us!

Next we explored the shops at pier 39 and found a place to eat some lunch, where Wayne and Kevin could get some fish, before we headed over to Candlestick Stadium where we took a tour of the SF 49ers stadium!  Even though I'm not the biggest sports fan out there, seeing things like this are amazing! I was worried Mom and Wayne might be bored, but we all thoroughly enjoyed it, especially Kevin!  We walked out on the field, in the locker room, sat in the players chairs and got to enjoy the view of the field from luxury suites that are quite spendy, $25,000 per game! We learned a great deal about the history of Candlestick and the 49ers.

By the time the tour was over we were all tuckered out so we decided to head back to the resort and swim! It took about 2.5 hours to go 60 miles because the traffic was horrible.  We left SF at 4pm, right in the middle of rush hour!  Once we arrived at the resort, we went swimming but all ended up in a small hot tub and had it to ourselves for the night and it was great! The temperature was perfect and allowed us to sit in there til our skin wrinkled haha! We all slept sooo good that night!

The next day we went back to SF and headed to Golden Gate Park to explore the California Academy of Sciences musuem! This museum had so much cool stuff like an earthquake section where we actually got experience an earthquake in a simulator they had; we watched an awesome video in the theater room about earthquakes and fault lines and the screen was so amazing, it felt like we were in the video. 

Next we went back to the pier to shop and eat before heading back to the resort.  Due to traffic and difficutly getting around we ended up not making it to the last museum that night, so we made plans to come back the next day.  That night we swam once again, surprise surprise!

The following day we were treated to a breakfast at the resort and then we headed to SF one last time to the Exploratorium.  This museum had all sorts of hands on activities that people had invented and we got to play with them.  Some of them were things for kids and we could've spent all day in there but after a few hours we decided to head back to the resort to spend the rest of the day swimming and preparing for our trip home the next day. We stopped next to the GG Bridge to take some pictures and we got to walk out on the bridge too! It's a pretty amazing thing!

We made it back home in about 13 hours and it wasn't that bad of a drive at all.  I took 5 books with me and read 3 of them and plenty of candy crush was played on our trip haha! We broke a lot of laws while driving in CA with those crazy Californian's but we came home with no tickets! Some of those broken laws include speeding, and making left turns when there was a no left turn sign, and that's just the 2 that come mind.  We had many many good laughs with my parents and we all thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the time we spent together.  We  managed to get lost A LOT even with GPS but between my GPS and Wayne's, we managed to get around pretty good!!