California part 2

In early August, on our way up to Washington, we took the long way through California. Here are some more pictures from San Francisco and the Redwood forest.

The boys with Alcatraz in the background Miss M and I on the ferry
Mr. J's aunt and uncle who used to live in San Francisco, told us about this great spot where we could go and watch the sunset and see the bridge. It was beautiful!
At the Redwood forest
Miss O and the stick she found

There was a gift store right past the redwoods that had a huge Paul Bunyan at it. The kids thought it was quite cool... until he began talking to them. They had someone in a secret location that was being his voice and Olivia thought it was so scary!

California part 1

We stopped in San Francisco on our trip up to Battle Ground. We had a great time. We stayed at the lodging facilities at Travis Air Force Base. Military bases are great places to stay with a family, because we had something like an apartment with 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, living room and even a washer and dryer... all for $34 a night! You can't beat that. Travis is near the town of Vallejo, so instead of driving into San Fran in the morning, we took the ferry.

The kids loved riding on the boat.
This is Mr. J, Miss M and Mr. T on a trolley! It kind of felt like we were going to fall off, with our 3 kids and a stroller, but it was fun... After the trolley ride, we stopped at China town to walk around a bit and then went to the next trolley stop. However, the wait for that trolley was like 2 hours, so we decided to get on the bus. Getting on an almost-full bus with 3 kids and a stroller helped us to understand why not a lot of people with big families live in the city....
I think this one may have been near Fisherman's wharf.
Ghiradelli chocolate factory... delicious chocolate sundae! The girls really enjoyed it, but I think Miss M was getting kind of full.

Mr. T liked it there too! There were lots of statue things out in front of stores and the girls loved getting their pictures taken with them. It was so funny.

At around 4pm, we decided to take the ferry back to our car in Vallejo and drive into the city. We wanted to drive the golden gate bridge and some other things.
We thought it would be fun to drive down Lombard St.... but so did all the other tourists in town, so it took us like 1 1/2 hours to get to the top, and like 2 minutes to drive down it. It was pretty cool. Thankfully, the 1 1/2 hours spent in the car was used for napping and making sub sandwiches out of our cooler.

Stay tuned for more pics of San Fran...

P.S. These are smaller pics than I usually post, but I think if you click on them, it will make them big.

San Diego

I thought I would post about our trip to San Diego since we went there before I entered blogland. One of the great things about military is all the traveling (I guess sometimes I think its a bad thing, too). Since we are living in the Southwest, we have had the opportunity to visit different areas of California and Arizona including Death Valley, Sequoia National Park, Grand Canyon, Mt. Charleston, Lake Mead and our most favorite... San Diego! There are many reasons we love San Diego. They include the perfect weather, the beaches, the fun neighborhoods, the great restaurants, Seaworld, Padres baseball and of course, seeing Uncle C (Mr. J's older brother).

On this trip to San Diego, we had the chance to go to Seaworld for free! They have a great program that allows active duty and their families in for free once a year. The kids loved it. We saw the Shamu:Believe show (If you click on that link, it takes you to an interesting commentary that we share from another blog...) and the dolphin show and the awesome Cirque de la Mer show. Miss M also got to experience her first amusement park rides. She went on the Journey to Atlantis ride with Daddy and Shipwreck Rapids with me (notice how WET we got). She was such a brave girl! Also, Miss O got to ride her first ride on Oscar's Rockin Eel.

The next day we spent with Uncle C and Miss A at Mission Beach. This was such a fun place! We had breakfast at a restraunt called the Wavehouse and ate right on the beach. Then we spent the morning playing in the sand, making castles and burying people. After that we walked down Mission Beach boardwalk and the kids roads some more rides.

This was another great trip to San Diego and we can't wait to return. We would love to make it to the San Diego Zoo on our next trip.


Miss O running in the sand
Uncle C and Miss A chillin on the beach
A pretty awesome sand castle

If you can believe it, the kids were cold in 65 degree weather and I didn't pack any coats.

The boys waiting for Shamu
My little flamingo
Miss O waiting for the Cirque show
Wet and cold after the Shipwreck Rapids

Oscar's Rockin Eel