San Francisco Part 2

Saturday we decided to head to the beach and Golden Gate Park.  Transportation was difficult to figure out (trains, buses and trolleys, oh my!), so we resorted to Uber and it worked like a charm.  Chris and I walked on the beach for a little bit.  I probably could have stayed there all day with a blanket and a good book.  It was so calm, the waves were huge, and there were tons of shells and crabs to find.

Here is a nearly-complete sand dollar I found!  

The hubby and me

Me hiding in the grass

Once we left the beach we walked through Golden Gate Park

We watched some older gentlemen play with their motorized model boats.

Chris was tired of walking so we stopped to wait for about 15 min for a park shuttle that never showed up, ha! So we continued on

Then we checked out the Japanese Garden

Finally it was lunch time!  We grabbed a bite and Ubered to the mall for a bit.  Then made our way back to the hotel.  On our way we saw this little church among many tall buildings.

Once we arrived at hotel we freshened up and went to Ghirardelli Square.

We ate dinner at a The Pub which was a good BBQ place.

Then we wandered the square until our stomachs were ready for a hot fudge sundae.  We ordered the sundae to say we did it but I will have you know it was not particularly good.  I have had many better sundaes!  We can officially say we did the touristy thing though.

We started walking back and passed some wax museum.  Of course we had to take a picture of Optimus Prime and send it to the boys. (They thought it was pretty cool when they say it the next morning)

Sunday we borrowed the bikes from the hotel (We realized they had complimentary bikes after we rented ours the previous day, ha) and decided to check out Chinatown.  There were a few hills and let's just say going up hill we had to walk our bikes a few times.

Chinatown

Chris liked the name of this park in Chinatown.

Downhill

Then we went to check out the baseball park

It was just too bad there wasn't a game happening.  Next time we will plan a later trip

AT&T Park

Chris posing with Willie Mays

Hubby and me

Biking back to the hotel

Last selfie couple photo

Bay Bridge

Last good-bye picture

 I will say by Sunday I was ready to get home and see my kiddos.  It was a wonderful trip and I can't wait to go back again someday.

San Francisco Part 1

March 17-20th Chris and I took a weekend trip to San Francisco.  It was planned only about a month in advance because I was randomly looking at tickets and found some for super cheap, plus I had some free rooms from hotels.com, so we found a time that the grandparents could watch the kids and off we went.  I was super anxious, nervous, and excited.  The thought of leaving my kids stressed me out but being with my husband for a long weekend was quite nice.  We got in late Thursday afternoon and by the time we got to our hotel, we decided it was time to head out to find a place to eat dinner.  First stop was the hotel lobby where they served wine from 5-6PM.  Chris and I played a game of checkers and I DOMINATED him, not once but twice.  It was a good start to the evening.

Here is our cute little hotel

and our view from near the hotel.

Looking back from the pier to the hotel.

We continued on our journey and walked to Pier 39 which was touristy.  We ate some dinner, checked out some shops, got a view of Alcatraz, and watched the seals.  Then we walked back to the hotel and this was the view of the Bay Bridge.  It was awesome.

That night we realized that Alcatraz tickets were sold out until the end of March! I was distraught and couldn't believe I didn't think to get tickets when I booked our trip.  So we did a little research and found that they have stand-by tickets but you had to arrive quite early.  We showed up around 9:00 am and asked what time we should arrive the next day to find out when we should arrive to get stand-by tickets and the lady said she had a couple left for the night tour.  So we jumped on the purchase and continued on with our day with the plan to come back in the evening for the night tour.

We had to go see our seal friends during the day.

Alcatraz from the Pier

Then we rented some bikes and decided to bike across the Golden Gate Bridge.

On our way!

Getting closer

Pit stop for a snack and bathroom break.

Here we go!

Chris being silly

The view was AMAZING!

Looking over to Sausalito

By biking partner

We ended up biking about 11 miles total.  Once we got to Sausalito we ate lunch and then we were going to bike to a park with some redwood trees but as we started biking we realized that our butts hurt too much for that!  So we turned around, got some ice cream, and waited for our ferry.  Biking across the bridge and spending the day with Chris was by far my favorite part of our trip.

Alcatraz from the ferry ride.

When we got back to San Francisco we returned our bikes and went to wait to see if we could catch ferry to Alcatraz.  They told us to be there at 5:30PM even though tickets were for 6:30PM.  They guy taking tickets was great and let us jump on the earlier tour. The night tour was awesome.

Alcatraz is not well kept so it was pretty easy to imagine life as a prisoner there.  Here is the look out tower a guard was posted in for a 24 hr shift in (there is a toilet in the tower).

Graffiti from the Indian Occupation of Alcatraz in 1969 

Entrance

Prison cells

It was very tight living quarters

The view of the city from Alcatraz was amazing

Audio touring

Cell of one of the prisoners that escaped by widening the vent-hole in the wall by scraping the edges with a spoon!

On the night tour they opened up the hospital which was very interesting and creepy all at the same time.

It was a very good tour and they had some really neat talks that we listened to before we caught the ferry back.  By the time we got back to our hotel room we crashed!  It was a long but amazing day together.

A Few Things from March

A while back Liam and Colin were playing superheros.  I LOVE it when they play together and get along and this was one of those days.  Anyway, Colin was being saved by Liam and said "Thanks Liam, you're a superhero, a REAL one!"  It was so stinking cute!  I love these moments!

Recently, this girl is wild and crazy active and recently learned how to hang from the bar in our closet.

The kids continue to enjoy their playset a whole lot.  They have basically been out on it everyday since we got it unless the weather hasn't allowed for it.  Here they all are swinging together.  Sometimes the boys grab Amelia's swing and swing with her.  They all think it is hilarious.

A little later that same morning their cousin Nate came over to play.  It was amazing!  They all got along SO well and had SO much fun together.  Liam did spray Nate with the hose about 5 minutes before his mom arrived but he is such a sweet little guy he didn't mind and we grabbed him some dry clothes.  Here they are watching what Nate is doing while they eat lunch.  Nate wasn't hungry.

This is just a sweet picture of grandma reading to Amelia and Liam

We took the boys to see Zootopia and Grandma stayed back with Amelia.  We didn't tell the boys where we were going and they were excited when we arrived.  It was a cute movie and we all enjoyed it.  This is how Colin ate his popcorn

We have had lots of t-ball games and Colin got to be the catcher one night.  I was telling him good job which was probably the WORST thing I could have done because he looked over at me and started crying.  He hated the equipment.  The coach helped him out and he did alright but I had to walk away so he couldn't see me.  Other than that he is really enjoying his games.

Neighborhood having some snacks outside.

This girl putting her pants on her head.

I had to go grocery shopping and had all three kids with me which I normally try to avoid.  Anyway they did pretty well until the end and started fighting while in line.  Vannie, who works at Safeway, was my saving grace and had Liam come over and help her bag groceries and move the belt.  It completely separated the boys and made the check out so much more peaceful.

Liam did a really good job and took it very seriously.