San Francisco

Angela (Cliff's sister) and her husband have lived in San Francisco for a few years now. They have been really great about coming up to visit everyone, but we have not been there since 1998! So we finally picked a weekend that worked for both of our families and we headed on down.

Cliff thought it would be best for the kids if we left at 3:30 am...

Yes. That was 3:30 am.

We had everything loaded the night before, so all he had to do was carry everyone out and start the car. Then we would go back to sleep and stay that way for about 4 hours.

That's not how it worked though!

The kids were so excited and it was so cold that we were all awake until somewhere South of Salem. Then we had to stop for gas in North of Roseburg and again for food in Grant's Pass. We probably could have planned this a little better so maybe the kids (and I) could have slept that whole first stretch.

The rest of the time was just a pattern of stopping at rest stops on the way down to take breaks, make the kids run, get coffee, and go potty. All of them did so well and we got some of the best pics of the kids this year... I know in a rest stop?





Cliff was doing handstands on the grass the make them laugh. I couldn't see him because I working on the "perfect shot." But apparently, he was quite funny.

Side note: Apparently Mason learned the word apparently from me, because he's been saying apparently quite often lately.

We also found some fun wildlife at another rest stop.

We haven't identified this one yet, but it is a pretty cool pic of a butterfly using its proboscis! That is one the parts of an insect anatomy we learned about in Friday school. I was excited to be able to use it in a sentence. I know... I'm a nerd.

Back in the car, everyone fell asleep except Cambria...

Praise the Lord, we made it safely to SF by about 5 pm! It was really fun to see Lila and meet little Harper Louise for the first time! Here she is at about 2 and 1/2 months:


Angela and Brendan have an adorable home in a very culturally diverse neighborhood. It was really neat to see so many beautiful skin colors when we went to the park near their home. In fact, Angela said that Lila is one of the only white kids in her little pre-school class. I feel like we have a pretty diverse neighborhood with several Asian families, a few African Americans, several Muslims, and even some Russians and French Canadians. But not everyone is out and about here the way they seem to be almost every day there. It has more of a open market feel with people buying their food for one or two days at a time instead of for a month like we do here. And it seems like they walk whenever possible. It was fun to see and experience.

The kids played pretty well together when we had down time at the house. Lila learned very quickly about sharing her toys and was very gracious to let them invade her territory and bedroom space. All the kids slept in one room (with the exception of Harper and Locke-buddy).

Angela planned out a fun itinerary for us while we were there. The first day we went on a walk down by the marina and through a bird sanctuary before stopping for lunch underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. It was good exercise, but the kids got a little hot and tired about 3/4 of the way back. We were all sweating because it was, what Ange and Brendan said, "unusually humid" for San Fran this time of year.

Down by the marina

Alcatraz

Throwing rocks in the bay with Uncle Brendan

Had to cut out the kids with the sun in their eyes...

A little fun with photography

We played at the marina for a bit while Angela fed Harper.

Then they took us up to Coit Tower, where we saw some beautiful murals on the walls but didn't pay the $5 each to go to the top...

and down Lombard Street (because the kids saw Herbie do it and wanted to try as well) before heading home again.

Wherever we went, they took us on a driving tour of the city. Up and down fun streets, through the touristy parts of town, and near where they used to live. It's so great to experience the city with the "locals!"



Then next day the Jones' dropped off our whole family at the cable cars and parked our car at our destination in China Town! So nice! We had a cranky trolley operator on a tight schedule, so we only got this photo,

but it was still fun! Then we got off at the cable car museum (on Mason street)
and found out how the whole operation worked before enjoying lunch and walking down to China Town.

It was crowded, the kids were starting to get tired, and we saw a lot of dead ducks, much to Mason's dismay, considering our most recent duck-hatching adventures. But I found it a fascinating place! Angela and Brendan took us down this little alley with laundry hanging over our heads

and showed us a little place where people make fortune cookies by hand. So fun! I really regret not taking a picture, although, they probably would have yelled at me like they did when I took a picture of this spice shop...
The kids did have fun looking around at all of the treasures they could buy with the $10 grandma gave them to spend. They eventually chose those annoying little yippy dogs that bark for about 10 seconds before sitting down and doing a backflip. They love them!

We had a very fun day of sightseeing, but everyone was happy to be back at the house relaxing again.... except Angela, who was very busy nursing, making food for us all, and being a very good hostess.

The next day we got ready to leave and on the way out of town we all went to a fun park to play in the sand. They also gave me cupcakes and gifts for my birthday. So nice! I'm so glad we were able to make the trip finally and to get a little taste of the SF lifestyle. But before we left, we tried to get a pic of all the cousins!

Thanks for the fun trip guys!

Next up was a different kind of adventure: The Redwoods!