San Fransisco

I mentioned a few parts of our trip with the pictures below but thought I'd tell a little bit more about the trip and post a link to more pictures.

We had a fabulous time! The kids did really well on the flights. We rented a dvd player and dvd at the airport for the long leg of the trip both there and back and it was wonderful to have that thing.

Once we got to SF, the first thing you notice are the massive hills! I could never drive myself around there. It's like you're on a never ending roller coaster. The first full day we were there, we rented a car and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to Muir Woods which is a beautiful redwood forest. Those redwoods are amazing. After we spent some time there, we continued driving on past cute little towns and these historic ranches with cows standing on those ever present hills out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. There's a stairway down to the lighthouse that's equivalent to a 30 story building so the kids and I stayed up at the top and tried to see through the fog (also ever present) down to the lighthouse. Then we headed back to San Fransisco and took a quick turn down Lombard Street (the really crooked part). That was fun. You have to go very, very slowly down the curves though. We turned our car in after that and just used the cable cars and streetcars to get around. The kids loved the cable cars. We rode those the most.

Our favorite place to spend time was at Pier 39 watching the sea lions. They were noisy and hilarious. A few of them would stake claim to a floating platform and then knock off any other sea lion who dared to hop up on their domain. Otherwise they liked to pile up on each other to sleep. Boy, those are some cranky animals though. Woe to the latecomer who decides to disturb an already comfortable pile.

We decided not to try getting over to Alcatraz. I didn't think the kids would really enjoy it but I'd like to go if we ever get back over there.

On the way back home, we got to take an unexpected little trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park when our plane was cancelled in Denver. They put us up that afternoon in a hotel so we decided to rent a car and drive over to Estes Park and go into the Rocky Mountains. We didn't have a whole lot of daylight left once we got there but it was just so wonderful to be there and we got to hear groups of elk bleating at each other in the darkness. That was cool, and a little spooky. Jack and I had been to Estes Park the Spring before Holly was born so we were really happy to get a quick chance to go back there. I think we'll be heading back there for a longer stay when were ready for our next big trip. It's one of our favorite places.

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