Smithsonians: Lost in San Francisco

We rode the bus and BART into San Francisco with Mike today. We couldn't find a seat, but Preston didn't mind. He rode the entire way like this. He did not want to stand by me he wanted to be with Jorja. He is like that a lot. He idolizes her.

Jorja & Preston, Stockton, Mike

Our first stop was Chinatown! I was hoping Jorja and Preston would love this, but they weren't too impressed. I guess they see Chinese writing all the time. Preston did want one of those lucky cats, but I know you can get them at the Chinese store here. I had no desire to lug a cat statue around with me all day. My dad got some cool pictures with the kids at the gate to Chinatown. My pictures are lame. Oh well. Better that than nothing!

Maysen, Jorja, Preston

Jorja & Preston ~ Stockton is so excited to be here!

Stockton Street is in Chinatown, so that was cool.

Preston & Stockton on Stockton Street

Stockton

We then walked all the way back to the first trolley stop. We had gotten off the BART here. There was a small line. When we came back the line was huge! It went pretty fast though. I think we were in line around 40 minutes.

Turning the trolley

Very high tech

Stockton, my dad and I all hung on the ends. I was grateful Maysen, Jorja and Preston were inside. Mostly I was grateful Preston was inside and the girls were looking after him. It was fun to stand on the end until the trolley in front of us broke down. Someone had pulled the emergency line so the trolley was stuck until an official person could do whatever they needed to do. Unfortunately that meant we were also stuck.

View from the trolley

The end of the line just happened to be a block away from Ghirardelli Square. We went again and ordered the giant dish to share. The one with eight scoops of ice-cream. I remember my brothers and I loving this when we were here years ago! I ordered various flavors, one of them being strawberry. Preston loves strawberries. He loved it so much he decided to share the joy and spread the strawberry ice-cream around the entire dish. Stockton put his spoon down and refused to eat it. Pretty soon it was up to my dad and I to finish off the entire thing. We are heroes.

Jorja in front of a creepy fountain. There are frogs there, I promise!

We then walked to the Maritime Museum, or something like that. They had three different ships that we could board. My great-great-great grandparents (Abraham Coombs and Olive Olivia Curtis Coombs) and their three children sailed on The Ship Brooklyn. The Ship Brooklyn left Brooklyn Harbor in New York and arrived in Yerba Buena 5 months and 27 days later. Yerba Buena became San Francisco. The United States had taken possession of the territory three weeks before they landed, so they were the first group of immigrants that landed in that United States Territory. Anyway, we were hoping we could find some kind of a marker, but the guy said that the 49ers destroyed everything. The real 49ers, not the football team.

My dad went to get a pass so we could board the ship. He bought the life time senior citizen pass that will get him and a few other people into national parks for the rest of his life. Sounds like a good deal. Dad accidentally left his camera at the booth where he bought his pass. He noticed it was missing three minutes later, maybe even earlier. He went right back for it. The lady said that someone left a camera, but they had already come and picked it up. We are pretty sure that it was my dad's camera that someone else claimed. Stinks! My dad had so many beautiful pictures of this trip!

Preston

Preston and Jorja

Maysen loved being aboard the ship. She is writing a story right now where one of the settings is a pirate ship. Maysen took a lot of notes and pictures. It was really cute.

After we left the boats, there was a souvenir shop on the corner. I wanted to go in and look for a towel. The kids came in with me and were helping me look. I decided not to get one, so we left. I immediately noticed that Preston was not with us. We frantically searched the store, which was quite large. We could not find him anywhere. My dad decided to look for him outside. After about five minutes I called to see if he had any luck. Nope. I told him I was going to talk to the store people to find out how to get help. My dad said, "Wait! Wait! I see him! He is walking back to me!" I started crying and crying. I was so scared! My dad said Preston ran up to him and gave him a big hug. He could tell he was holding back the tears. Preston had gotten all the way down to the Fisherman's Wharf sign before he turned back. He thought we had left him and he was trying to catch up to us. SO SCARY!

A little while later Preston was wandering off again. I caught him and said, "Don't do that! You have no idea how scared I was when I couldn't find you!" He indignantly said, "Oh ya! You don't know how scared I was!" True. Love him. Glad we found him.

My kids have been loving the biscoff spread lately. We brought some on the trip, but ran out. At Fisherman's Wharf they had a biscoff coffee shop where they sold the spread. I bought the regular size jar, even though the giant one was tempting!

Jorja

I was worried it would take too long to get back to the motorhome park. I talked my dad into taking a taxi. We waited in line, but no one would take us. We waisted at least thirty minutes doing that. Finally we just had to walk all the way to the BART. Mike picked us up in the motorhome at the BART station. I do regret not walking down to the water at the motorhome park since we were right on the ocean. Oh well.

Our next stop was Peggy's house. Peggy's house is crazy! The house is more like a castle. So much fun. Peggy and her sister's made tacos for us. They love making their mom's taco recipe. Annabelle's tacos. They are deep fried and delicious. Peggy's twins were there. Amy and Hailey have grown so much! Shea was there, I haven't seen her since she met us for dinner in Seattle years ago. Eric, his wife and their three kids were there. So much fun! Eric is going to be in Salt Lake doing the call for the BYU/Utah baseball game. I actually have tickets for the game but can't go. Hopefully my dad can take Preston. Eric said to come up to the box and say hi. That would be so fun!

Preston golfing with the statue's club

That is not Peggy's house in the distance, it is the barn.