Another Roadtrip!!!

That didn't take long did it? I just can't sit still for very long!

I had been wanting to get out of town for a long time but just didn't know how I could manage. I had 9 days off of work but Corey had girl's camp. Erika only had 3 1/2 weeks off of school and Colton was taking summer school. I called Marques (my cousin Susie's son) and asked him if he'd be willing to keep Rico and he said sure.

So I planned this trip in a matter of just a few days. It didn't turn out too bad though. I wanted to go to San Francisco because there are 3 Hard Rock Cafe's between here and there.

We got kind of a later start than I wanted to on Saturday and we drove ALL day! We went through South Lake Tahoe which was very beautiful. It would have been nice if that had been our final destination. We went to Hard Rock there and just walked around for a bit.

We continued on to San Francisco and got there about 10:50pm local time, it was about 14 1/2 hours in the car. We stayed fairly close to Fisherman's Wharf in a nice hotel. It thankfully had parking available but it was tight and kind of tough to get the Suburban into the tiny stall.

We took off walking in the morning and went through Chinatown. We made it to Fisherman's Wharf hoping to get an Alcatraz tour but they were sold out for the whole next week. We bought a ticket for a cruise that went around Alcatraz and underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. So, Colton and Corey didn't listen when I said to bring a sweatshirt and WALKING shoes. Colton only had shorts and flip flops. Corey wore my jacket but then I was freezing so of course we had to stop and buy sweatshirts! It was much colder than I thought it would be.

The highlights at Fisherman's Wharf were lunch at Hard Rock, Aquarium of the Bay, The Wax Museum, a bike taxi (the kids talked me into taking it), the hour and a half boat tour, and dinner at Rainforest Cafe. We spent all day taking in as much as we could because it was really the only day we had. We got a taxi back to the hotel about 10:30pm.

The next morning I decided we needed a GPS, I should have bought one a long time ago with as many trips as we like to take. The one I wanted was sold online only so I ended up getting one that wasn't quite as good. Oh well, it did the job and we had fun playing with it. We drove to Muir Woods to see the giant redwoods, however the parking lots were full and Erika decided she needed to go to the bathroom and couldn't hold it another minute. I finally just left without getting out of the car. I was disappointed that they didn't get to see them, it is one of those vivid memories I have from my childhood.

We stopped in Sacramento at the Hard Rock and then we made our way to Winnemucca, NV. I was hoping it was a little farther than half way home. It was just a little town in the middle of nowhere. It was late and we drove through quite a thunderstorm for about an hour or so. The next morning we still had 6 1/2 hours to drive home.

The kids were actually really good and we had a lot of fun. Can't wait to go again!


Salt flats in NW Utah - I hadn't ever seen this before, pretty weird.


South Lake Tahoe


Heavenly Resort at Tahoe, now Colton wants to go back to snowboard.


Aquarium of the Bay


Aquarium of the Bay


Hard Rock Cafe San Francisco


Golden Gate Bridge


San Francisco from the water


Alcatraz in the background


I paid this guy so I could take pictures of Corey and Erika with his iguana. He was creepy!


The bike taxi, taken with the cell phone so not too clear.


Abraham Lincoln at the wax museum. My camera had died by this time and so I took pictures with the phone. They aren't the best. Donny and Marie were also in wax, that made me laugh.


Muir Woods


Hard Rock Cafe Sacramento

Baby Kangaroo

This 6 month old kangaroo came to visit the ER today. She is used as pet therapy for Alzheimer patients. She was very sweet and didn't mind as every passed her around.
We were told that the facility "borrows" the kangaroo until it starts to hop too much, when that happens it is then returned to a type of breeding facility.

Utah Museum of Natural History

Today we went to the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah. On the first Monday of the month they have free admission. There were several different exhibits, but the dinosaur bones are always a favorite. Some of the other collections were Anthropology, Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Paleontology, Vertebrates and DNA. It was educational and the kids had fun.


Shelbi, Erika, and Preston


Keaton and Corey





Corey


Digging for dinosaur bones
Erika, Keaton, Shelbi, Preston and Corey


Mammoth
Erika, Shelbi, Preston, Keaton and Corey

Independence Day

Grandma and Grandpa were still here on the 4th. They watched the fireworks from our yard, we had plenty of people in our neighborhood with illegal fireworks. I went to work at 7pm and was pretty bummed out about it. Then when I got to work realized I would be in triage all night. I was almost convinced it could be a good thing because we were right across the street from Murray Park where there was a big fireworks show. No such luck, we were even busier when the fireworks started. Shouldn't people have taken a break from going to the ER during the fireworks show? You would think so!! I think I saw about 4 out the window.

We actually had our fireworks show on the 5th. We got together with our neighbors, the Cederholms and the Pedersons and lit off our fireworks. We didn't have any illegal ones though, nothing that explodes in the air. In Utah it is legal to light fireworks 3 days before the holiday and 3 days after. We still have some left and on the 24th of July (Pioneer Day - an actual paid holiday here) we will light the rest.



Corey, Cody, Erika, Preston, Tyler and Shelbi

Fishing

My Mom and Gordon came to visit this week. Gordon bought a 3 day fishing license and has been taking the kids fishing at Daybreak. It has been great to get some time alone with my Mom.

Erika was the photographer and there aren't any pictures of her but she was there and had a great time too.


Colton


Gordon


Corey feeding a duck


Corey caught a big catfish and had to show the whole neighborhood before they filleted him. She will be eating it for dinner tonight!