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