San Francisco

We usually try to do at least one family trip each summer when the girls are out of school.  We usually go camping somewhere for a few days, but this summer has flown by.  We have been so busy with work, the business and swimming that we haven't been able to plan anything.  For one reason or another our schedules just don't line up! 
Tuesday we found out that Ashlee needs to have sinus surgery.  Ashlee keeps having sinus infections and her left sinus is 90% blocked.  She has had chronic sinus infections since she was pretty young and they seem to only be getting worse.  Ashlee is scheduled for surgery on Friday and after the surgery she won't be able to do any lifting, bending, swimming, running, etc for 3 weeks.  Yikes!
 We had planned on going on a camping trip for a few days before the girls headed back to school, but that had to be cancelled.  So we decided we better do a quick family weekend trip.  The plan was to go to Santa Cruz for the weekend.  But we could not find a hotel room or a campground in Santa Cruz.  After spending 4 hours on the internet, I found a hotel in Brisbane ( about 10 miles south of San Francisco) so we decided to go to San Francisco for the weekend.  Both the girls had been to San Francisco for field trips, but that was all they had ever seen of the big city. We decided to show them around the big city.
We arrived Saturday morning and there was a Farmer's Market going on at the Embarcadero.  John wanted to see what the Farmer's Market was all about (mainly he wanted to see if anyone was selling rabbit, chicken or eggs and how much they were selling them for).  One of the vendors had a fruit called a pluot.  I am guessing it's a cross between a plum and apricot.  Let's just say it's DELICIOUS.  We all tried it and we all liked it.  Time to find us some pluots around here!

We spent half the day at Pier 39 and Fishermans Wharf.  I should probably say we ate our way through Pier 39!  We had lunch, lots of salt water taffy, cookies, icee's, churros.  I think we probably gained 5 pounds each!  At least we did lot's of walking.  We walked from 10am to 6pm.

Saturday afternoon we decided to go to Union Square.  We were looking at maps, using our phones, reading bus signs, trying to figure out how in the world we were going to get from Pier 39 to Union Square.  John decided to walk up to taxi and ask how much it would cost to get to Union Square.  The taxi driver told him $12.  So a taxi it was.  I have to admit we were a little scared.  The girls sat quietly and kept looking at me everytime the meter changed.  We were stuck in traffic and the meter kept rising.  I was ready to get out.  The $12 taxi ride was going to be a $30 taxi ride if we didn't start moving soon.  John said something about the meter and the taxi driver reset the meter, did a u-turn in the middle of stand still traffic and took off in another direction.  We had one close call with another vehicle, but we made it to Union Square for $12.85.

In the taxi headed to Union Square

John thought it would be fun to put hats on Mikayla and I at Old Navy.  I told him he put the hat on me wrong.  It looks dorky.

We spent a couple hours in Union Square, got the girls a few clothes for school and then we got out our maps and phones and tried to figure out how we were going to get back to our car at the wharf.  Mikayla wanted to ride a cable car so we decided to look into that.  The cable car line was long.  John asked a couple in line how long they had been waiting, they said over an hour!  We didn't want to wait that long.  John wanted to catch a taxi again, the girls and I really didn't want to go the route again, so we caught a bus instead.  We were packed like sardines in the bus, but we were able to get a free bus ride back to our car at Pier 39.

Sunday we went to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  We saw the Golden Gate, walked across a portion of the Golden Gate, touched the Golden Gate and saw the underside of the Golden Gate.  We also went to Fort Point while we were at the Golden Gate Bridge.  All four of us were taking pictures, so there are lots!

Looking down on Fort Point from above.

Fort Point

 Saturday night we wanted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, but we couldn't find it and the city traffic was driving me nuts so after driving around for a while we got on the freeway, headed to a Taco Bell and couldn't get into the parking lot.  The only other resturant we could find was a Denny's.  So that is where we ate.  It was late and that was all we could find.  Sunday on our way home we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory in Pleasanton.

As we turned on to our street Mikayla said "Whew, no more honking horns, traffic or people.  I never want to live in the city."  I guess the country girl never will be a city girl!  I have to agree with her.  24 hours of that hectic crazy mess is enough for me!