San Francisco 2015

Our trip to San Francisco was a big one. Jeff had been planning it for almost a year. We started off in the girls' favorite way-- in a taxi. 

After an long plane ride, we parked our giant rental car (note to self: trucks don't fit into any SF parking spaces.) and headed to Mel's Diner for some yummy lunch. 

The first leg of our trip was Sonoma. I want to live in Sonoma. Beautiful weather, wine, parks, wine. Did I mention the wine? 

We took the girls to a Vineyard for some 'in the vine' training. It was like a science lesson- they learned about dry farming and grapes. 

 We grabbed lunch at the Fremont Diner. Everything in Sonoma was so fresh.

 We also spent some time in Sonoma's famous "Train Town". It was like stepping back in time.

 After Sonoma, our next stop was Sacramento to visit the Patton Family. We started with lunch at CFA.

And played outside a lot!

We had dinner in downtown Sacramento. (Where Maisy lost a tooth!) 

The girls got to spend the night at Amanda's house. They were thrilled. They had popcorn and watched a movie. In the morning, they ate pancakes on the driveway and then walked to the River. 

After we picked them up, we headed to Muir Woods. We could not find a parking spot. Isn't that weird. There was no parking at a forest - a national park forest. People were parking as far as a mile away and then walking to the woods, so they could walk in the woods. We decided to admire the woods from our car. And take a selfie....

We spent the remainder of the trip in San Fran. Our hotel had a really cool rooftop bar, full of really cool working professionals--- and us! 

We went down to the Pier and rode on the carousel, watched a magic show and shopped. 

Plus there were sea lions! 

We did a lot of walking. It is such a neat city. 

We rode in a Pedi-cab. 

Sampled chocolates. 

And soaked in the sunshine at the San Fran Bay. 

 We also went to Alcatraz! I was surprised at how much we ALL liked this tour. The girls listened to the 'audio tour' and followed along as we heard stories of criminals behind bars. (Stay in school kids!)

We spent a lot of time riding around in cabs. The girls never got tired of this! Cab drivers have some interesting stories. Our favorite was a man who immigrated here from Russia. He loves the USA! 

It was fun wearing jeans in August- the weather was fantastic.

And no trip to San Fran would be complete without a trolley ride. (or two)

Everywhere we looked we saw something amazing.  And there were places to play- so many places to play! 

Turns out San Fran has really good pizza. And if you are friendly enough, you can negotiate a 3 hour wait down to 45 minutes. "Texas Family" rocks!

Our big 'bucket list' item was biking the San Francisco Bridge. This is not for the faint of heart. So impressed that Afton & Maisy did it!

We went all the way across the bridge into Sausalito. 

And ate the best Turkey burger ever! 

We took a ferry back to San Francisco and these two crazies swam in the bay. It was freezing! 

On our last night,  Maisy really wanted to take a photo with the Duke. I think the girls liked the excitement of the city.

And just like that- it was all over. We headed back to Texas. 

Until next time California!