I ❤ California, Part Uno

Boy, does time fly! I can't believe it's already the end of July - half of summer is gone! And, I didn't even write anything about our awesome CA adventure that kicked off our summer! So, here goes.

For several years now, we've been wanting to go down to CA over the July 4th holiday to join Grammie and Grandpa in the Sierra Madre parade. We finally decided to do that this year, and had planned on driving up to see Way and the family afterwards. It turned out that Samantha and my mom were going to visit Way the weekend before July 4, and since it coincided with Ian's birthday, we decided to reverse our plans and join them up there! It worked out great to spend the weekend exploring SF, then we took our time driving down the coast and spent 2 nights in Cambria, before making it to Sierra Madre for July 4!

Our trip started off rocky. We almost missed our flight - I blame Scott for going long on a work call, then our Uber driver being EXTREMELY slow and taking the wrong "short cut", and the epic-ly long line at Pre-check. The TSA precheck line was seriously longer than the regular line. WTH? anyway, we got to the gate after the door closed but luckily, there were about 5 other folks who were in our same boat and since the plane hadn't left the gate yet, they opened the door for us and let us on. PHEW!

Nora is transitioning out of her nap but she still catches a snooze once in a while.

On Friday, Scott had to work so Way, my mom and I took the kids for the day to an outing in Eastbay. First up was eye exams with Dr Yu! The kids were enthralled with getting tested and were fighting to go first. I have to hand it to Dr Yu - not sure how she can stay so patient with little ones being squirmy, but she was a pro at getting them still enough so that she could actually check their eyes.

I got my eyes checked too and bought some new red glass. Can't wait to get them!

Everyone wanted to check out this eye scanner.

Doesn't he look like he has an alien head?

Evie has perfect eyesight!

After exams and a yummy dumpling lunch, we went to Adventure Playground, this really neat park where kids are encouraged to build things and use their imagination to play. The kids were timid at first, but after they saw other kids hammering and painting things or rolling down the hill in a barrel, they started to perk up and enjoy themselves.

Goofers

Not really sure what they made but this kept them entertained for a long time.

Park was right on the water!

That night, we had a great bbq and wished Ian a very happy birthday! I think the kids were mostly just super happy to be together, hanging out and playing.

Some TV time

Happy birthday, Ian!

The next day, we drove over to Muir Wood and did a little "hiking". I have never been to this National Monument (yes, it's a monument. Look it up!) before so wasn't sure what to expect. What it was was a lot more people than I expected (we had to get reservations to park, and still parked in a spot past 3 full lots!) but also these really big, majestic trees. We had fun walking the paths and surprisingly, the kids didn't do too much complaining! Owen wanted to be held a lot, but the older ones were pretty great about the "hike" we did.

Lots of photo ops!

Cool tree, right?

Owen really looked up to Evie.

Going off the beaten path

Sunlight through the trees.

On Sunday, we headed into San Francisco for some fun in the foggy city. Brunch was at Park Chalet, this restaurant set right up against (in?) Golden Gate park. Too bad it was chilly outside because it would have been nice to sit outside and let the kids roam around. They got to do that afterwards and scampered up trees and then explored the old windmill in the park. Afterwards, we went to Stowe Lake and rented a family paddleboat. Us adults agreed that this was about as much fun as when we rented a surrey on Coronado Island - it's a lot of work to power the fun! The kids enjoyed it though and everyone wished their legs were long enough to have helped paddle. =)

Tree huggers

Kidds in front of the wind mill

Evie, Owen and Ian played a game where they held hands, ran, and fell. Again and again and again.

They had so much fun falling down and laughing.

Nora preferred to hang out with her parents!

Walking around the park

Oldest kids get to hang out by themselves in the back!

Ahoy, matey!

Are we having fun yet?

Afterwards, we walked to the top of a man-made waterfall and watched our paddeboaters go by.

Afterwards, we had an exhausting 2 hr drive, mostly stuck in traffic, to get to our hotel. The hotel was neat though, especially because it was all lit up for Pride week. It was also fun to hang out in the city, get a drink after dinner (Thanks, Mom, for watching the kids!), walking to dinner or breakfast and just generally feeling a part of the hub bub around. Back in Seattle, I am mostly in my little bubble in Bellevue and don't get to enjoy 'city life' as much as I used to, so hanging out in SF was a fun excursion.

We capped our SF portion of our trip with a quick visit to a local park for the kids to play, while we caught up with a friend from college who I haven't seen since she transferred out in 1999! 20 years have gone by since I've seen Anupa, and she looked exactly the same as I remember, and was a sweet as I remember as well. It was a coincidence that she was in town visiting her sister-in-law who just had a baby. I'm so glad it worked out that we got to see each other even if it was only for a little bit. After some girl talk and lunch, we jumped in the car to start the second leg of our trip - a drive down the coast to Cambria!