Day 3

The kids were really excited to see the Golden Gate bridge.  We drove over it as we came into the city.  It was really foggy that morning so I didn't get any pictures of it. (Thanks, Internet for the pic!)  Originally we were going to walk around the park by the bridge but the parking was a bit of a nightmare so we skipped it.

We drove down the famous Lombardi Street.  We also went up a few of San Francisco's crazy steep streets right in back of a cement truck....that gave me a few heart palpitations.

We parked the car and spent some time down on the Pier and Fisherman's Wharf.  It was extremely windy on the Pier and the first thing that happened when Natalie leaned over to look at the water on the Pier was her visor was swept into the Bay.  She was screaming and crying like someone died.  Everyone on the Pier looked over the rails and there floating was her visor just out of reach yet so close.   After a good cry we said goodbye to the visor as it was swept out to China.  

Alcatraz in the background

Saying good bye to the beloved visor

At Pier 39 we went to see the Sea Lions sleeping on the floating docks but all there was that day was two of them.  One enormous guy and one tiny guy sleeping next to each other.  Later we saw one swimming in the water and we got pretty excited.  The kids loved looking in the shops and seeing all the freaks out on the streets.

While in San Francisco we wanted to see some of the famous houses. We saw the house from our new favorite show, Full House, we drove by the house that was in Mrs. Doubtfire, and the Hotel "Bristol" from What's Up Doc. We saw the Giants Stadium and got stuck in HORRIBLE San Francisco traffic.

We made a stop in Beast Mode's (Marshawn Lynch) home town of Oakland to see the temple.  This was by far all of the kids favorite temple of the entire trip.  It really is beautiful and the grounds are amazing.

After visiting so many temples we found it interesting that all of the Visitor Centers are set up and look the same.  We really enjoyed seeing the Christus statue in these places and once you step into one of those visitor centers missionaries are all over you like a salesman in used car lot.  I kid you not!

After we left the temple we went to visit Dale in his new place in Tracy, CA.  We, of course got stuck in more traffic that was INSANE for that time of night.  I could make an entire entry on the absurd motorcycle laws in California and how I am surprised anyone can even survive one ride in California, but I will leave that for another time!

We had a nice visit with Dale and Jillian and their cute house.  The kids loved how Dale's neighbor was growing lemons and oranges.  Cameron jumped up and was trying to grab a lemon and got a piece of lemon leaf/thorn jammed all the way under his nail almost to the cuticle.  It was quite a large piece that almost covered half his nail.  Mitch and I were a little panicked after not being able to get it out and the prospect of having to take him to an out of state urgent care (all of which were closed by then) or the ER.  Right when we thought it was impossible to get it out Mitch was able by some miracle to get it out without too much trauma. After our visit, we said good bye to them and headed to our hotel for the night in hopes of getting a better start away from traffic the next day.

Night 3: Santa Nella, CA, Quality Inn, Room #115, 2 queen beds with Cameron and Lucy on the floor in sleeping bags (Which Lucy peed that night!), awesome swimming pool and breakfast in the morning.

On the road again.....