Sunday, April 27, 2014

Spring Break

 

Ok, for most of Spring Break, mom and dad worked, and the kids just had days off for school. But we did want to do SOMETHING, so we turned to our favorite day trip area – the bay area. There is always something to do there.

 

We started out with a walking tour of Fisherman’s Wharf, more of a behind the scenes type thing and it was pretty good and we learned some stuff about the area that we never knew.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were walking around the area, you always see people trying to make money by singing, dancing, being a mime, etc.  But this was a new one.  Some guy sat next to a garbage can, and had branches that he put in front of him to “hide” behind.  When people would walk by, he would yell out with a growl and move the branches and scare the people.  It worked, because he had a jar full of money!  And we saw people who were scared, and then laughing, pull out their wallets! 

 

 

We went to the world’s only Pez Museum in South San Fran, and saw the world’s biggest working Pez dispenser.  The museum was a little underwhelming, but it was something we’d never done before!  He claims to have every Pez dispenser ever made, but we aren’t so sure. He didn’t have a BYU Football one that Jacob has.

 

 

 

Here is the view from our hotel, which of course, we got on a screaming deal – $50 a night for Hilton…can’t beat that!  And since there were only 4 of us, nobody had to sleep on the floor or the hard sofa bed!  Yahoo!  Although we did miss Meghan and Marissa GREATLY!  Our family adventures are not the same without them!

 

 

The next day we went to the coast along Highway 1, and first stop was a Marine Preservation Center where there are huge areas to tide pool. The tide was coming in when we got there, but we had a blast tide pooling. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove up Highway 1 to Devil’s Slide where the road often would have land slides that closed the road.  Finally, they built a tunnel through the mountain and the road portion was turned into a hiking and biking trail.  It had amazing views and the weather was awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After that we stopped at a homestead thingy, (that was a tad dorky), and then on the way out of San Fran, we stopped off at Treasure Island, the island in the middle of the bay bridge and drove around.  Amazing views from there too, but it was SUPER windy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for dinner on the way home, the car automagically drove us to guess where?

 

 

We had a great little break and had a lot of fun!

Just wish Meghan and Marissa were there with us!!!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Museum Day

 

Time for the annual Museum Day, when 30+ museums are free in the Sacramento Area.  We visited two, one we were not allowed to take photos at, but it was awesome!  It was literally MILES of artifacts and interesting pieces of history that is just sitting in a warehouse.

The second museum we visited was one that we haven’t ever been to, because well, it really didn’t sound to exciting.  It’s the Auto Museum in Old Sac.  We were wrong about this place. It was amazing. It was very well organized, and they had so many cars in there!  Hundreds and hundreds. It was pretty interesting and we were glad we went!

Before leaving Old Sac, of course we had to stop by the River City Bar, which kids are allowed in before 6pm, and get the free peanuts and 25 cent very yummy sarsaparilla's.  Um Um good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Folsom Zoo

 

Towards the end of January, we headed out to the Folsom Zoo, which we haven’t visited in many many years.  It’s not a “normal” zoo.  It’s for rescued animals – mostly from people who had the animals as illegal pets.  It’s a nice zoo, and well kept up.

 

Before the Zoo, we visited a GeocacheTravel Bug Hotel.  It was in someone’s yard on the fence, and it just looked like a birdhouse.  There was a lock and we had to figure out a puzzle to open it up. Inside it was amazing!  They take all the travel bugs they get, and clean then up, label them, and put them in their own bags and assign them a “room” in the hotel, and get them ready for their next adventure.  It was quite the geocache!  We left a few and took a few.

 

After the zoo, we hit the trails for a short little bike ride – all this in the middle of Winter.  Try that in Utah!  HA!