Golden Gate Bridge

My dad's waffles are one of the most delicious ways to start the day. Too bad Mike had to be at work early.  He did get a fruit breakfast - but come on!  How can that compare to waffles?

Dad

My dad's cousins, Peggy and Sally, spent the entire day with us today. My dad is extremely close to these cousins.  He only had one sibling growing up.  Gayle.  She is 8 years younger than him.  My grandma and grandpa had the RH factor thingy.  They had two stillbirths after my dad.  Gayle is adopted.  My dad became very close to his California cousins.  Patty, Mike, Judy, Janie, Sally, Peggy.  I'm not sure if I got the order right, or if I missed one.  My dad says their names so fast, almost like a chant.  Anyway, we spent the day with Peggy and Sally.  Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge.  We saw a lot of people biking and running across it.  Looks fun!

Jorja, Maysen, Stockton, Preston, Stephanie

 Dad/Grandpa, Jorja, Maysen, Stockton, Preston, Stephanie

 Peggy, Jorja, Sally, Ron

 Maysen and eyes closed Jorja

 Eyes closed Maysen, Jorja, Preston

Jorja and Preston ~ I love this picture!

Next stop was Muir Woods.  My dad wanted to go here.  It was going to be around $7/person, but Sally signed up for the annual senior pass.  It was $10.  It let her get everyone in her car in for free.  Sounds like a great deal to me!  We had only gone in the woods a little ways when Preston saw a different path that led up.  He wanted to go up it, so we let him.  We followed him.  Preston was so fast!  I heard Stockton tell him that he is going to be a great scout.  I thought it would be a short little thing, but it kept going.  Up and up and up.  We stopped at a bridge after about 20 minutes and had a little rest.

Ron, Peggy, Jorja, Maysen, Stockton, Preston, Sally

Ron, Jorja, Stephanie, Maysen, Preston, Sally, Stockton

We finally convinced Preston to come back down and then we started on the regular non-steep path.  It was really pretty.  Although it seems strange to walk on a paved path while in a giant forest!  I really enjoyed it though.

 Preston and Grandpa discussing which way to go.

 Jorja

 Dragon hole - what else could it be?

 Jorja

 Preston

Whoops.  Looks like I put the wrong pictures in here.  I put the ocean and the many faces of Preston that my dad took on the first night. Preston looks hilarious because how wiggly he is while the rest of us are pretty much the same.  Kind of made me laugh, because I had an entire series that was kind of like that, but with my dad.  I'll have to get that on a different day because it is late and I am lazy.

 Stephanie, Mike, Jorja, Preston

 Back to Muir Woods and the adorable Preston

The rode up was quite windy.  I totally forgot to bring throw-up bags, even though we had some in the motorhome.  The boys made it to the woods without losing it.  The way home was a different story.  Peggy gave us a Trader Joes bag, just in case.  Preston tried not to ruin the bag, but he did anyway.  I'm glad he had something to throw up in so that we didn't need to spend time cleaning Peggy's car!

Our next stop was the California Academy of Sciences.  They have an indoor rainforest here.  I knew Jorja would love it.  She wants to live here.  She was so happy!  She only wished the frogs would be hopping around in the open - kind of like the butterflies.  The problem with frogs hopping around would be they might get stepped on.  Porgie would be so sad!

Jorja (wearing Chester) looking at frogs

It was very humid in there, but Jorja wore Chester the entire time.  Silly silly Jorja Porge.

This place is beautiful!  I could not get a picture that captures it, but we loved it.

 Preston

 Preston and Jorja

 Grandpa, Preston, Jorja

 Preston and Jorja

 Jorja

 Look at all those crickets!

 The butterflies were beautiful!  This one is on an orange.

 Last frog

Once you leave the rainforest you enter the aquarium.  There you can touch star fish and things like that.  It looks like I just got pictures of our shadows.  I have always loved shadow aquarium pictures.

Stockton

 Preston

 Maysen

 Stephanie

I broke my pinky finger when I was in 9th grade.  I needed surgery. Not fun.  It still sticks out weird. Looks like I didn't get a shadow picture of The Porge.  She was probably still dreaming about frogs. 

We tried to get something to eat and then we watched a show in the planetarium called Dark Universe.  My dad slept through the entire thing.  He was snoring quite loudly.  The guy in charge wanted people to ask him questions after.  No one did except Preston.  He walked up to the guy and asked him, "How many tacos are in the universe?"  The answer was, "A lot!"

That was it for today.  Peggy drove us to a pizza store.  We ordered our pizza and they told us to wait at the table.  It was supposed to be about 20 minutes.  There was a Cold Stone next door, so I took the kids there. We brought our ice cream back to the pizza store.  We waited and waited and waited.  Pretty soon it had been 40 minutes.  My dad went up and asked about our pizza.  Apparently it had been finished for a long time and just sitting in the oven.  Kind of annoying.  I felt bad for Peggy and Sally who were waiting in the car!

We got back to the motorhome five minutes after Mike did.  That was nice timing.  Today was a fun busy day.