Day in San Francisco

On our last day in California, we took the train into San Francisco so that we could see what it is like when there aren't millions of people there to watch planes.

We got off the train and walked along the bay.  Here is a picture of the Bay Bridge.  We never did get over to the famous Golden Gate Bridge, oh well, I guess we will have to go back sometime.

After stopping to taste some of the bast chocolate I have ever had at the TCHO factory, we made it back to pier 39.  We walked along looking at all of the fun stores until we reached the end where we could see Alcatraz.  Another place that we will have to get to on our next trip.

We look at the sea lions again.

After a yummy crepe lunch we went to the Aquarium, and were able to see many different fishies.

They also had an area where we could walk under and through where the fish were swimming.  The kids really liked a skoal of small fish that were swimming around.

They also liked the really big fish.  Jaime didn't like seeing the mouths of the sharks as they would swim over him.

 

They also had a petting pond where we could touch sting rays, skates, and a baby shark.  Of course the kids were not interested, but I thought it was fun.

On our way back to the train we walked by the marina.  I love seeing boats all together!!

I also couldn't resist taking of picture of the famous Coit Tower.

It was a great day and a great trip.  I hope that we will be able to visit our family there again some year, hopefully with less plane delays.  We were delayed three hours on our flight home due to the weather.

California Here We Come!!!

At the beginning of the month we got the chance to take a trip to visit San Francisco.  Brian got to work there for a week and the rest of the family went to play with my brother's family.

We had quite an adventure getting there.  Our plane was a little delayed.  After we all got on the plane they told us that there was a problem with the air conditioning and that we would have to stop to get more fuel, because we couldn't carry all that we needed with the problem.  We then took off and after about a half an hour they told us that there was a greater problem and we needed to land back at the airport that we had been circling.  Some noticed as we taxied after landing that there were fire trucks following us.  They quickly found us another plane.  As we were waiting to get on the plane we found out that the air conditioning was not working in the cockpit of the first plane and all the instruments would have stopped working because of the heat.  Thankfully, the second plane worked great and we were able to get safely to our destination and we were only three hours late.  We got welcomed by some very anxious family, who were very happy that we had finally made it.

The next day was Lizzie's birthday.  My dear sister-in-law made Lizzie an Elmo cake, as she currently loves Elmo.

Lizzie sure liked having cake, and her cousins really loved getting celebrate with her.

 

Jamie had a hard time figuring out how to eat the cake, but he finally figured it out.  How he did it was so cute that I just had to take a video.

Lizzie loved being with her cousins.  They had lots of fun read to her.

(Jamie loves to get his picture taken.  I was trying to get a picture of the girls reading together, but Jamie wanted his picture taken too.  This is the best on that I got even though Jamie is a little blurry.)

or just generally playing with her.

Jamie was very much out numbered by girls, as we were visiting three girl cousins, but he still seemed to enjoy himself. 

I don't know when the last time was that I heard my kids laugh so much.  I wish that I had taken more pictures and videos of the good times that they had together.

We did get sick the first part of our time there, but when we were starting to feel better we went to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum.   

They had many native wild animals (mostly birds) that unable to live out in the wild either because of physical problems (like broken wings that didn't heal right or a missing wing), or because they were to humanized and didn't have the skills to survive in the wild.  I was amazing to see these and to hear of there stories and why they were there.  We were even able to see a bald eagle, a beautiful bird.

They did have other animals there also like lizards and snakes (Lizzie really liked one of the snakes), a bobcat(I think) and a bunny.  In the back they also have a hospital where they treat wild animals that get injured in hopes to get them to be able to go back to the wild.  

Saturday, My sister-in-law took most of us into San Francisco, while my brother and one daughter stayed home because she had gotten sick in the night.  It was a crazy day as the Blue Angels were to fly that day.  We drove around for a long time looking for a place to park as we saw planes flying above us.  We finally found a spot and I was able to get this picture of the planes before the show ended early due to low fog on part of there flight path.  I guess the planes we saw while driving was a different group.

We then walked down to Pier 39 where we saw many, many sea lions.  

After that we got back in the car to see some more sights of SF, including a crowded cable car (a little blurry as it was taken from a moving car.) . . .

and the steep roads . . . 

such as this section of Lombard Street which may very well be the steepest section of SF where they decided to put a road.

This is the view top of Lombard street

And this is looking back over what we just went down.

After see the roads we figured that this sign was very important.

It was a great day even though the traffic was terrible and it was far to busy.  It did make us want to see more, but that is for a different post.

Turtle Back Zoo

I had heard about a zoo that is pretty close to my house, but had never made it there.  Then one morning my neighbor called me to see if I would like to go with her and her kids to the zoo.  So off we went.  It is only about ten minutes away and I was very impressed with it.

They have a little train that goes through some trees and by a lake.  After a ride on that the first animal that we saw was the monkey and he had a great playground to get all of his energy out.  This picture doesn't show it well at all though.

There were cougars . . .

and leopards.

There were also barn animals.  Jamie was crying at all the animals so I didn't stay in the barn very long, it was just worse in there.  Then they had a aviary with lots of little free flying birds.  We all really enjoyed it.  Our neighbor and her son got little sticks to feed the birds, but I didn't know how Jamie would react to them so I didn't get them incase if I ended up just running out with them.

The kids like the plastic animals the best though!!!

It was a fun day out and I really enjoyed getting to know my neighbor better!!

Getting Lizzie's Shoe On!!

Well it is nap time and I can't think of what I should be doing to I decided that it must be time to figure out what pictures I haven't posted yet and get them up for all to see.  Here is a video that I found that I just think is really cute.  I hope that you enjoy it also!!!!