Thar she blows! My goodness – the drive from Yosemite to San Francisco was not only long, it was wet and bumpy.
The first hour of our drive took down a vary wavy, bumpy road. I’ve never been so happy to see a highway. Unfortunately, while the road straightened out, it was still filled with bumps and holes (hey, California, I thought we talked about this).
Along the way, we something unusual – a pile of chickens. Yup – a couple dozen chicken sat on various areas of a pile of trees, which created this pile of chickens.
After a quick stop for lunch, we continued onto our destination of Olema Campground, located in an adorable seaside small town about an hour outside of San Francisco.
When we checked in, our hosts informed us that there was a large rain storm coming that evening and we should expect some flooding in our site. Now, I’m a Floridian. When you say enough rain to flood – I expect a down poor.
Ya, not so much. We enjoyed the sound of the rain all night (and I loved that there was no wind!). By morning, there was a river of water by our site and some deep sections of water, but nothing horrible (we call that a summer Tuesday in Florida).
Not one to let a little water to stop us, we ventured into San Francisco to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum – a place I’ve wanted to visit for years.
Our drive took us over the famous Golden Gate Bridge and led us to the famous Presidio, a former military base, and current home of the Walt Disney Family Museum.
O.M.G. I loved this place. Each room progressed you through different periods of Walt’s life, starting with his youth in Marceline to his first days in Animation to his lasting impact on the world. Each room had vibrant, interactive displays that everyone could enjoy – including the kids.
My favorite room was the transition from the second floor back to the first floor via a beautiful, curved ramp highlighting Disneyland and the Carolwood Pacific railroad.
I wish we could’ve stayed longer, but we really needed food. It was such a beautiful day we headed to the pier and found a In&Out Burger. In the short trip from the museum to the pier, both boys passed out. So Damon walked over to get food (down and up a very steep hill) while I stayed with kids.
Since the boys were still sound asleep, we decided to head toward the thrift stores to do some shopping. And what better way than down the famous Lombard Street. I’m not sure what was harder – driving the road or avoiding the tourists.
We had some luck in our shopping. While, sadly, we didn’t find any more Lego Dimensions characters, we did find some cute toys and a new baby gate!
Some of our shopping was to give us something to do while the infamous California traffic died down. As we headed to our last store, we serendipitously passed a Chevy’s. Perfect – timing for dinner.
Although we went to bed late, we all slept pretty solid and ready to go back to San Francisco.
Mini-man’s been obsessed with a book about fish lately. So I thought it be a good idea to take him to an aquarium. I found one in the tourist area called Pier 39.
After taking some time to do a few projects (i.e. play video games 😝), we piled into the car and headed off.
Unfortunately, our fancy GPS took us the long way. This beautiful, scenic route to San Francisco posts 55 mph zones, which, in theory, would make it faster than the main road in traffic. However, this road winds through a mountain, along a cliff. No one was doing 55. This route added an extra hour to our drive – thank goodness little-dude slept most of the way and mini-man had Curious George.
Then onto the aquarium. I handed mini-man a brochure during lunch and he would not put it down – he loved looking at all the fish. Once we got inside, we spent a good amount of time just in the first room, with mini-man going from tank to tank.
It took some coaxing, but we finally convinced mini-man that there was more. We headed to the second floor, which had a fish tunnel and a shark tunnel. Yup, you guessed it. We spent a good amount of time here as he went up and down each tunnel several times.
Then he found the aquarium that you can pop your head up in.
I think the only way we got him to move on was the fact that he could ride in an elevator. Back on the main floor were less enthralling to mini-man, so he walked back over to the first room 😄
At this point, both boys were getting tired – little-dude fell asleep while I was nursing him. When Damon took him, mini-man grabbed my hand a started walking to the exit – his usual sign for ‘I’m done’.
Both boys slept on the way back – with mini-man waking up pretty quickly (I think he was hungry). I spent the rest of the evening trying to get him to eat. Something must’ve worked ’cause he was asleep by 10 without a meltdown (a first this week).
Although it was our last day in San Francisco, we opted to stay in to get work done rather than go out again – paperwork, vehicle maintenance, and some cleaning.
Now we’re all set to hit the road to Ft. Bragg. Onward!
Heartswell Adventures 