San Franny Fall Break

We were going to be outdoorsy and visit Bryce National Park for Fall Break. A few weeks before, our senses kicked in (and remembered we’re not at all outdoorsy) and we instead booked a trip to San Francisco. Sure am glad we did! I am a big city kind of girl through and through. I’m not sure Dave enjoyed it as much since he was the driver in that crazy city, but we all had a blast!

Our first night there we had just enough time to visit the Oakland temple and visitor’s center. Gorgeous grounds! Like...breathtaking. After the temple, we hit up the famous Fenton’s Creamery (as seen on Disney’s “Up”). There was a heckuva lot of people, ZERO parking, and an awful long wait, but it was totally worth the experience.

Day 2: We got our “OUTDOORSY” on and hit the forest: Muir Woods, which is small redwood forest. Siri got lost navigating us there (like the turd she is), but we eventually found it! We did get to see some unique multimillion dollar homes in the mountains of Mill Valley so getting lost was bitter sweet.

The redwoods were tall and majestic and we got to enjoy some hot chocolate in the middle of the forest. No huge, drive-thru redwoods here, but we were impressed still. Also impressive, was how this place looked EXACTLY like the forests of Endor. We didn’t see any ewoks, but it still was mine and Dave’s favorite part of the trip. The only downside was the lack of parking. We had to hike with 3 little people, mind you, like a mile of roadage to get to the entrance. A national monument should have a national monument-sized parking lot, don’t you think?

Following those glorious trees we went the the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. They’ve rescued like 20,000 some odd sea animals I think they said. Cool as all this sounds, it was a bit of a snoozefest. Nothing too fantastic about this place, except that it was FREE dollars.

Lunch at the Outback, and then on to the aquarium. Max loved the fishies. I loved watching him love the fishies. Not a bad aquarium for being so small space-wise. We got to pet sting-rays, hold a skink, and see sharks so we’ll give the place 2 thumbs-up.

Next was Pier 39, Kate’s favorite part of the trip. Who doesn’t love the ocean breeze in their hair, tourist shops, souvenirs!?!

Everything today was magical, including the drives over the Bay and Golden Gate bridges. To finish off a great day, we hit the BEST pizza restaurant in South San Francisco. I’m still dreaming about it (see in pics above).

Day 3: the Sabbath. Like all other vacations before, we visited sacrament meeting to start off our day. It was an unfortunate ward, with odd characters, and even a man named Joseph Smith. No joking, folks. Still a good experience, but made me grateful for our home ward.

Afterwards, we changed our clothes, and made mom her happiest by eating crab cakes at Houston’s like the good ol’ Pasadena days.

We forged on with full bellies and played at the Exploratorium, which was Cole’s favorite part of the trip. This is a hands-on science museum right on the coast (it actually lends out many of their exhibits to Thanksgiving Point as a matter of fact). It was a little huge and exhausting doing experiment after experiment, but the kids enjoyed themselves.

 

A cow's eye ball we got to watch being dissected...
AND a mash-up of Ashley and Dave…Dashley, if you will.

 

Next we went to the original Ghirardelli for some more treats. The line was long, probably not worth the wait, but hey, we can check it off of our to-do list now. After eating, we took a stroll along the nearby beach, which really made the visit worthwhile.

We finished the day with a boom, seeing Alamo Square and former residence of the Tanner family (Full House). Oh, how special this was for my current 8-year-old daughter, and my former 8-year-old self! Anyway, fun experience. Then, with a little
take-out from the hotel’s restaurant for dinner, we called it a night.

Last Day: The Golden Gate Park (kind of like New York’s Central Park). First, we tried to visit the Conservatory of Flowers, which was closed. Boo. Instead, we visited the San Francisco Botanical Gardens there, but drooled over the Academy of Science Museum that was just across the way and cost $40/person (instead of the free admission we enjoyed at our less cool attraction). I swear the yells and squeals of delight from that place were echoing through our ears no matter how far away we walked. Didn’t matter that we were poor anyway, we didn’t have time to explore it. Our flight left in just a few hours. So we enjoyed the fearless squirrels coming right up to us, the geese poop on our shoes, and the pretty gardens around us.

Lunch at In-n-Out, a flight next to the drunk dude that blasted his own music through the entire duration of the flight (“Love Is On the Way, I Can See It In Your Eyes…”), and we were home! Such a fun, successful, memory-filled weekend with our little people! San Francisco is really so much better than a national park!