Welcome to San Francisco

At the last minute, my sister decided to visit us during Thanksgiving Break.  She has the least seniority in her new job, which means that her coworkers got first choice to take time off around Christmas.  Sarah knew that no one would be wanting American Thanksgiving, so she decided to head on down.  This worked out great for our family since all of us had the week off. 

We went to pick Sarah up at the San Francisco Airport on Sat. morning. Our kids have never been to San Francisco, so we decided this would be a great weekend to be in the city!  Since it was raining off and on, our first stop was the California Academy of Sciences.  At Grace's school carnival last year, we bid on a family pass to the Academy at the last minute and won.  Our family got to go for $40 instead of the $120 it normally would've cost!  Wow!  Our kids had a great time as we explored the rainforest exhibit, the aquarium, and we even saw a show in the planetarium.  There were baby ostriches on display and we even got to experience their current Earthquake exhibit.

On Sunday, we did all the usual touristy things that a first time visitor would do- went to see the sea lions, Pier 39, looked at the naval submarine/ship at Fisherman's Wharf, discovered Musee Mecanique (museum of antique arcade games), ate clam chowder at Boudin's, had amazing sundaes at Ghiradelli's, rode a cable car, and shopped!

Before heading back to Fresno on Monday, Jason wanted to take some time to drive around the city.  He has signed up to run the San Francisco Marathon in June, and he wanted to have a visual of the route.  So, we drove the course and discovered an area on the west side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We never did find the name of that area, but it had old bunkers and an amazing view!  We drove across the bridge and ended up walking partway across.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect! 

Before we left the Bay Area, of course we had to visit an Ikea.  Jason even stopped at the outlets in Gilroy for a little shopping (in which he came home with tons more than I did) before we drove home to Fresno.