San Francisco

I love this stage of life we are in right now. In fact if I could freeze time for a while I would. Life feels full and busy as we strive to raise these 3 kids and keep them learning and growing in the grace of God but it is so rewarding too! Just seeing the world through their eyes and then hearing about it too! It is great having that relationship with our kids and it helps us understand our relationship with Christ even more so!

Note: I don't dread the teenage years necessarily but I really want to enjoy this stage just in case! :)

A couple weeks ago we woke up and decided we wanted to take a day trip and so we settled on San Francisco. Everyone got dressed, we packed a light lunch, threw in our sweatshirts and we were off.

Lunch at a small beach close to the Golden Gate Bridge



On the beach - even though the sun was shining beautifully it was quite windy. We were enjoying our sweatshirts right then!

Watching the sail boats go gliding by

Climbing on the rocks



We left the beach and headed to Pier 39. We walked the pier up the backside and came back up the middle. The seals are on the backside and draw a big crowd. With their barking and an argument between one or two it can be a fun time! There are quite a few of these docks full of seals lounging in the sun.

We rode the carousel, got icecream on homeade waffle cones, watched the daily talent show, checked a few more things out and then decided it was time to head on out. The kids remembered getting their picture taken with this seal before and so we stopped here a little while to let them play and Doug and I just people watched (San Francisco - where you never run out of people or people to watch :)

Beautiful spring flowers in the planter behind us

On the way out of the city we drove down Lombard Street (aka the crookedest street) just to say we did it again. Doug was trying to go fast between each turn and the kids were loving it but he had to keep stopping every little bit since there was a cautious driver in front of us - braking at each turn and waiting - we soon realized he was waiting for the driver in front of him to completely clear the next downhill stretch. :p Maybe his brakes were bad, maybe his wife was making him be cautious, some things we will never know. I think next time we need to walk down it and let Doug pick us up at the bottom, maybe then they will realize exactly what Lombard Street is.

There is so much to do in this city and all around it. You can't do it all in one day. There is the Golden Gate Bridge, Exploritorium, Planeterium, SF Zoo, Alcatraz, Bike Ride around Angel Island, Coit Tower, Fishermens Wharf, Cable Cars, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, Shopping, just to name a few things I have on our list. Things I have done and want them to experience. One thing for sure - I am just glad I don't have to live there every day in all the traffic and tight spaces.