San Francisco Trip, 2014

We returned last night from a wonderful family trip to San Francisco. It was completely perfect, well minus the amount of time it usually took us to find a parking spot. We were able to squeeze a ton of fun into just one weekend. Here's my recap.

 This was our first time crossing the new Bay Bridge. Maybe it's not even called that anymore? I don't know. It kind of freaked me out to look to the left and see the old bridge cut in half. The kids don't remember their previous trip to the city, because it was probably about 5 years ago for them. When we drove into the city they were freaking out with excitement over the size!

 The first morning, we ate at a restaurant called Plow. It was really good! They even had gluten free pancakes, made with almond flour. By the way, I want that sugar pourer! Most of the restaurants are teeny tiny, so we had to wait awhile for a table big enough for 6. You kind of can't be in a rush for anything in this city. Traffic takes time, parking takes time, eating takes time. Just kind of go with the flow.

 We had to park at the very top of this hill and walk down to the corner to eat at Plow. This isn't even all the way to the top.

 There was a bench part way up, and yes, the kids and I sat and caught our breath!

 Next, we went to Crissy field. It had FREE parking...HOLLA!! If you had any idea how much money we wasted on parking this weekend, you'd know why that's so exciting! ;)

I think there were more dogs than people on this beach. The kids loved looking for treasures by the water.

 It has a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. You can also see Alcatraz to the right. (not pictured)

 There was a seaplane flying throughout the bay while we were there. My observant word to the wise... don't touch the big piles of sand. I watched every dog that walked past them, sniff, then pee on them. Yuck! A little toddler was playing with a pile of sand in the distance and it totally grossed me out. This is obviously the perfect place to take your dog though! Lots of dogs playing fetch in the ocean.

 I said hello to the Golden Gate Bridge, yoga style! I wish I could always have a soft beach to practice inversions on! So much softer than the floor!

 We drove to Union City, where we had reservations for the kids and their uncle to do indoor skydiving. It's called iFly. They loved it! We got some great videos of them. Next time maybe we will try it too. Book in advance, because we wanted to add ourselves after we arrived, but they were all full. This tunnel goes really high, and you can pay an extra $10 for the instructor to take you all the way up to the top a few times.

 After that, we went to Cultivate Festival in Golden Gate Park. It was put on by Chipotle, and there were food booths, farm vs. factory exhibits, etc. By the time we got there, it was FREEZING. Thankfully I brought a couple of blankets.

 We went to the last concert of the day, Neon Trees.

 It was fun, and then after that we walked a mile back to our parking spot, which we drove around for 40 minutes trying to find yelped a pizza place. We totally rely on Yelp to read reviews, and see food photos when we're out of town. The place we chose was called Pizzetta 211 and it was SO good. Again, teeny tiny restaurant. We ended up eating outside by the heaters, which actually felt really warm after freezing our butts off at the concert.

 The next day we went to Ghirardelli Square and took a cable car ride.

 The streets are so much steeper than they look in the photos!

 We ended a couple of blocks past Union Square.

 My mother in law!

 When we got back to Ghirardelli Square, we went to my favorite cupcake place, Kara's Cupcakes.

 I had a gluten free chocolate velvet and it was delicious!

 My husband was dying for an authentic Chinese meal before we left town. He ended up asking our cable car grip (the guy who controls the brakes) for a recommendation. He told us Yuet Lee in Chinatown was his favorite.

We.pigged.out. It was really good! I can't help but think of all of the other restaurants, and what they have to offer. I think if you lived there, you could go to a different restaurant every day and still never eat at all of them.
We had SO much fun. Now it's back to reality of 103 degrees and housework. ;) I love that I can tuck away the memories of exploring, experiencing, and LAUGHING with the people I love, and use it as energy when we get back to the grind of every day life.

Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Redwood Canopy Tour

I wanted to share a bit about our quick weekend trip in Santa Cruz/Scott's Valley/Capitola. We decided to go to a city that neither of us had ever been to before. We mostly explored Santa Cruz, but stayed at the Hilton in Scott's Valley. It was a quick 10 minute drive to get to the hotel, but it was beautiful! The hotel looked like a stone caste, nestled in the woods. 

The photo above is our view from lunch, at The Crow's Nest. It was just "ok", not bad, just nothing special except for the view. We watched about 50 tiny sailboats going out for a race or something. 

We followed the crowd and checked out the Beach Boardwalk. I liked the sky ride, but it was a bit scary when it kept stopping and hanging there. Apparently some people have trouble getting on and off a ride that moves 2 miles an hour, and they have to stop the ride. Our bravery was rewarded, because at the other end of the ride (it's one way), there was a Dole Hut selling Pineapple soft serve and floats just like near the Tiki Room at Disneyland. It's my favorite! We made the mistake of riding the Big Dipper and HATED it. It's the 5th oldest roller coaster in the country and boy can you tell. It doesn't look bad, but every muscle in my neck and upper back have ached ever since, like whiplash. Seriously! It would be a fun place to take the kids, because you could literally walk down the steps and be on the beach, or playing games and riding rides. Plus there's NO entry fee, you just pay as you play or buy a wristband for all day. 

We decided after that first lunch, to attempt to find the local hole-in-the-walls with GOOD food. We weren't looking at the presentation, but wanted what you would eat all the time if you lived there. We used Yelp and searched "local favorites" and found Aloha Island Grill for dinner. It was REALLY good. It doesn't look like much, has a teeny tiny parking lot, but we ate cheap and GOOD! After that, we tracked down this old Ice Cream place we'd passed earlier in the day. It was an old red building and I loved the old sign. Ice Cream by Marianne. They have a line out the door, and every ice cream imaginable. 

 By FAR my favorite thing we did was the Redwood Canopy Tour at Mount Hermon. It was scary for the first time or two, but by the middle of the tour, you don't want it to end. See that faint rope bridge in the background of the photo above? That was actually harder for me mentally than the zip lines. You're on it with a few other people, and although you're harnessed in, the shaking of it as you walk high in the trees is kinda freaky as you're looking to the ground. If you look closely in the photo above, you'll see my husband on the zip line.

These photos show him as he was coming toward the platform I was on.

 Our guides were wonderful and really funny. We had Cameron and Brad, and they made us all feel completely safe and well taken care of.

You had to stand up on a mini picnic table for him to hook you up the the zip line each time. Your two safety straps are still secured when you move to another line. The different zip lines are different heights and lengths, so the speeds are different, and they also teach you how to cannonball and pick up speed.

My husband took this photo of me coming toward the platform he was on. You can even rent a helmet cam, but we used zipper pockets on our jackets for our iphones.

 This is the ending platform. Back on the ground. Insert frown face. It was a breathtakingly beautiful two hours, and WELL worth the money. I can't wait to do it again!

The last thing we did before leaving was hit up a store that I also found on Yelp. It's called Capitola Freight and Salvage.  This photo only shows a fraction of what they had. We spent a long time there, searching every nook, cranny, pile, and field. I could have bought a lot more, but I went easy, and just bought two old windows (minus the glass, which means they were cheap), and a really big old frame. All three for only $23. They had every window, shutter, door, cabinet, wire, metal, old wood you could think of! I REALLY wanted to buy one of those old rusty claw foot pieces to use in a new way, but they were $40 each! Actually I wanted two to turn upside down and make a shelf.

We had such a great time, I can't wait to go back and explore some more. There was so much that we didn't have a chance to see.