Road Trip

The Second Annual Family San Fran Road Trip!!!!!

So, we had a great time and we took a lot of pictures. I probably have posted way too many here but I really had a hard time choosing just a few. So please be patient with me and indulge me just a little....Please?

While we were traveling to San Francisco we discovered a new feature in our car, one we never knew we had, otherwise, we would have used it way before now. It's a ....... Laser. It seems to be located where-ever this boy (below) is setting. It sounds really good but really doesn't do much damage. I guess that's good for the other drivers, but it would be handy to use to blast the cars out of our way in heavy traffic.

Really he's getting very good at sound effects and we got a kick out of hearing them coming from the backseat.

Much to her chagrin this is how she had to experience most of our trip. If she had her way she would have been running free on the streets of San Francisco. We let her get out at every park we stopped at and she discovered slides.....she loves 'em!

Here the kids are playing at St. Mary's Square in China Town.

So little in such a big place.

So we rode a bus from the hotel to China Town. When we got on the bus there was hardly anyone on it and I thought, "This is going to be fun."

You see I tend to freak out in crowds with my kids. Seriously, I become a basket case with these 5 little ones wandering around when I can't keep my eye on all of them at once with all of these other strange people around then I have to keep counting to make sure the kids are all still with me. Really it's pretty rough.

As we got closer to China Town the bus got more and more crowded as well as the sidewalks. By the time we got off the bus I thought I was going to have a full on panic attack. Lukily the kids seemed a little intimidated by the crowds as well and stayed right with us. Also my husband was very sensitive to my needs and kept little S- right with him at all times. So I was able to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds and I really did!


The weather was perfect...not too hot or too cold. I loved getting to see the blossoms. It made me very anxious to have spring here.

It's so hard not to feel like you're in a movie when you visit a place you've seen in the movies so much.

This was taken at a fun kite shop in China Town. There were hundreds of interesting, colorful kites jammed into this little shop.

She just wanted out of this thing so she could run through the shop and grab everything.

Sorry Baby you're just going to have to stay put.

What is Nose Disease any way?

Fun buildings in China Town off of the beaten path. We strayed off the normal touristy part and that's what we enjoyed the most. We visited a fortune cookie factory. It was really just a room with a big maching putting out round disc cookies. Ladies would grab them off the machine and fold them with a fortune while they were hot. Those cookies were very hot and the women were just grabbing them. They must either have major callouses or numb fingers, maybe both. We bought some fortune cookies and almond cookies. We also tried lemon rolls and other asian goodies -YUM -

Cool dragon painted on a wall, of course the boys wanted a picture!

Another park we visited in China Town was Portsmouth Square. There were litterally hundreds of Chinease Senior Citizens hanging out with their grandkids. While the kids played the adults played cards. There was deffinetly some gambling going on. We pretended not to see though and it was fun to be the only caucasians (or as C. says the only people of European descent) there. Our kids really stood out with their blond and red hair. I loved it. Before leaving China Town we ate at a Chinease restaurant - So good.

Really, when we travel it's all about the food.

Our hotel was so much fun. We stayed at the Marina Motel on Lombard Street. It was built in the 30's and had this fun kind of Tuscan style courtyard. There were little garages to park your car in and then your room was directly over them. We had a two room family suite, the kids stayed in the room that faced Lombard st. It's a really busy street and when the busses would go by our room would shake. In the morning we asked the kids how they had slept. The only thing Big S- had to say was "There were cars driving on that street ALL night long." That's the thing fun memories are made of...RIGHT? At least the hotel had cable and they got to watch an evening full of Disney.

Saturday we played at the Golden Gate Park - It's HUGE-A-MONGUS!

The kids loved the "Children's Quarter" There was a fun sign that said ,

"No adult alowed unless accompanied by a child" then a city ordinance #.

The kids thought that was pretty cool...I should have taken a picture. We didn't have the heart to tell the kids it wasn't something to be funny nor did we have the desire to explain to them why.

There was this gigantic rope tower the kids enjoyed climbing on. J- made it to the top. We thought it would be fun to put one in up at West Gate. (We took detailed pictures so we could)

While the kids played and my wonderful husband trailed our 4 year old I got to sit and watch for a little while. Occationally one of the kids would come say something to me and then be off again. After a short time the lady setting next to me on the park bench and I struck up a conversation. She and her husband were there with their grand-daughter. I was enjoying talking with her about the city when she commented, "So, you have 4 children."

I replied, "No. Actually I have 5. My husband is chasing one around here somewhere."

"Wow, 5, really?"........"But you seem so calm."

At this point a plethura of retorts went through my mind.

For example: "Yes, and you seem so lucid for a Senior Citizen." (I really don't feel this way though) Or "Why do you say that? Do you think I have to be crazy to have this many children?", "I guess that means my medication is working.", "I'm only calm because the kids aren't all right here."

What I truely felt and said was, "Well, thank you. They really are good children and it makes my job very easy."

Then she continued, "Really, how do you do it? Do you take them all to restaurants? What about hotels how do you work that?" When I decided she was truely curious and not being condescending then she really got an earful of my philosophy of raising children and how the church ties into all of that. Probably more than she wanted to know...but she asked.

Then we rode the Carousel.

I got a kick out of seeing which animals the kids chose.

This weekend was all about dragons for little S-. He even picked out a plastic Chinease dragon for his souvenir. It hasn't left his side since he picked it up at the shop in China Town.

Can you believe he found a frog? Perfect!

We ate lunch here on the lawn of the Flower Conservitory in the park. Isn't this a beautiful building with amazing grounds.

Silly Boys!

These were also taken in the park. Not far from where these pictures were taken was an open air art show. We were enjoying wandering through looking at the paintings until I caught sight of the price for one of the paintings.....it was BIG BUCKS! I promptly told the kids not to touch anything and we walked away. They were beautiful paintings though.

Our final stop in the park was this observation tower at the art museum. The top offered a great view of the city and a couple of the kids discovered they are a little scared of heights.

Next we visited the beach aptly named Ocean Beach. We decided that they must have run out of other good names or just got tired of thinking of names and that's why it's named Ocean Beach.

Here's our catch of the day....a giant sea star.

Really it's a fire pit. Fun hu?

That's C-in the distance with Sweet Cheeks on his shoulders.

The last time she was at the beach she was 6 months old. She didn't care much for it but she loved, loved it this time. You should have heard the wheeping and waling when it was time to go.

Good-Bye beautiful San Francisco. We had a great time and hopefully we'll see you again soon.