San Francisco - Day 3

Our first day in San Francisco! We did a lot of walking. Walked every where. We started from the hotel & walked through China town eventually making it down to the Warf. By far the best China town I have been to. I bought a nice hand painted cherry blossoms painting.

(the flies were loving the fish... blech!)
From there we saw the crookedest street in the world - Lombard Street. Later on in the week we actually drove it.
That was on our way to Coit Tower. Are your legs tired yet?! If not, they will be after you are done pushing a double stroller up a hill!
While up there we discovered the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill. When we first got up there I thought I heard a parrot. After we checked out the tower we took a rest under some trees so I could feed J. A group of ladies came by to check out the birds. Turns out there are over 200 wild parrots in the trees. There is even a movie about them! It all started with a few parrots that got lose & soon they multiplied.
We continued on to the warf where we had a quick bite to eat & then got on a tour to Alcatraz. Took a lot of pictures there, too. After the tour we walked the warf. There is an area where the sea lions sun bath. Massive amounts of sea lions.
Instead of walking back to the hotel after dinner we took the trolley. That had to be R's favorite part of the trip. On the way to the trolley stop L had a run in with a parrot. L-1, parrot-0. I think the owner learned a valuable lesson that evening. Never shove a bird in a kids face. She gave fare warning that she wanted nothing to do with the parrot.

San Francisco - Day 2

We survived our night of camping! The kids & I ate a little breakfast in the land yacht while Mr broke camp down & re-loaded the car. Our first stop of the day was to Hearst Castle in Cambria. What an amazing estate. It's so HUGE that there are 4 different tours & each tour shows you something different. The smallest guest house on the estate is something like 2400 sq'. That's bigger than our house! Here are only a small fraction of the pictures I took there.
Afterward we drove a few miles to were the seals sunbath on the beach to visit them & have lunch.
From there we drove up the coast some more to Monterey.
In Monterey we visited the aquarium & had dinner with some friends stationed there.



After dinner we finished our drive to San Francisco. It's only about 1.5 hours from Monterey. We stayed at the Marine Memorial Hotel. Their rates for active duty military members, if you are a member of the hotel (which is free), are pretty good. Even includes a nice breakfast buffet. I <3 id="gwProxy" type="hidden">

San Francisco - Day 1

I've been wanting to take some time to blog about our trip to San Francisco last month. Forcing myself to sit down & do it tonight. We did this while Mr was on his leave. San Francisco is only about an 8 hour drive from us but we stretched it out do do some sight seeing on the way up. We took 2 days to drive there, about 2.5 days there & that other half to drive back.
We started off day one driving up the coast.
We stopped in Solvang for lunch. Not really a child-friendly place for sight seeing. It's known more for its wineries... I guess. We did probably the only two child-friendly activities. Lunch at the Hans Christian Andersen Park & apple picking at Apple Lane Farm. Our ride there, of course, was not with out an adventure. Poor R got car sick literally 2 minutes from the park. He would do this a few more times through out the day. He tried his hardest to have fun at the park but couldn't stomach any food & was not into the apple picking. L enjoyed herself at least.
After apple picking we got back on the road. I like to find odd places to stop & see. One being the Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo.

Day 1 of the drive up was our longest day in the car. R had been asking to go camping so we decided we would camp out on the way up. We stopped at Morro Bay Strand Beach to camp. Beautiful but C-O-L-D!! We're kinda out growing our tent, but since it was cold it was nice to all snuggle together. Poor R was still feeling sick so he wasn't too into it all. He wanted to go to bed instead of making s'mores. You know the boy is sick when he turns down chocolate & marshmallows!
End of day 1....

Here we go again...

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.” ~unknown

We started deployment #3 this week. This one is a tad different. Lots will be missed - birthdays, holidays & anniversary. Previously we knew an approximate length. This one everything is up in the air. It will be months before there is a better idea of when they will be home. I think that's harder than dealing with the actual separation. We're used to that part by now. Even the kids. They are young but used to daddy coming & going. Only time will tell, though. R is old enough to have some sense of time. Before Mr left we took a family trip to San Fransisco. Had a good time & will blog about it another day with pictures. R & L started preschool last week. They seem to be enjoying it & meeting other kids. I know I am enjoying my time to get stuff done.