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2013 Tour of California: days 8,9,10,11 - Santa Rosa and San Francisco


Thursday, May 30th.  As much fun as we had in Yosemite, we were ready to pack the car back up and head on to our next destination.  We slept in a little bit and then hit the road to Santa Rosa.  Rich's parents live there in the same house Rich grew up in.  It was fun to go by his elementary school, middle school and highschool.  For the kids to see his cross country meet courses, and where he had his summer jobs.  We got to the house and settled in, ate some dinner and had to break out the traditional Newton croquet game.  It was the first time in a long time the kids had played, but they all had a great time. :)


Friday, May 31st.  We all needed a more relaxing day.  We slept in a little bit that morning, and then headed over to the lagoon to enjoy the beautiful day and play in the water.  Sand, and sun are always a great combination with our kids and I enjoyed every minute playing in the water and watching them play in the sun.   So much fun and so relaxing. :)


Saturday, June 1st.  Today was our big scheduled day in Northern California.  We woke up early and had everyone out the door and in the car by the scheduled time.  We were off to San Francisco! :)

After finding parking we walked to the pier and bought our tickets to Alcatraz!  The tour is very interesting, and even though there were lots of people there, the audio tour makes it easy to see everything and really learn a lot about the island.








Even outside the prison there was lots to see.  The Island has become an aviary and there are protected species of birds all around.   Lots of fun pictures to take.


 
After we got back from Alcatraz we walked over to see another SanFrancisco landmark.  The Trolley.  We watched as they turned it at the end of the run and then we rode it up to the trolley museum and learned more about how they operate and work up and down San Francisco's famous hills.





We walked to china town and spent some time looking through the stores and picking up some fortune cookies at the fortune cookie factory.

 
And waited again in line to take the trolley car back to the pier.
 
 
Back at the pier we went to the mechanical game museum- some very old and very interesting mechanical games were there.  The kids had fun choosing which ones to use their tokens on.

 
And we had to take a drive down Lombard street before we left the city. 



It was a long, and fun day, and unfortunately Rich's parents had to view the meltdown of tired kiddo's as we got back into the car at the end of the day- but we had a good time and all the kids have decided they are not wanting to live in a city where you have to walk everywhere. lol!  They are solidly in the suburban city state of mind. :)

Sunday, June 2nd.  We were able to attend church with Rich's parents.  It's the first time I've been able to go to sunday school and relief society in a LONG time (I've been in Primary for quite a while) and we enjoyed visiting with people that knew Rich as he grew up.  We had a lot of people come up to us and comment on how much Alyssa reminds them of his sister Sharon growing up- she has a similar facial expression and temperament that they remember Sharon having.  After church we had a quick lunch and the kids got in another couple of games with Rich's parents and then we loaded the car up and drove on to our next stop on our California Adventure...

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