Thanksgiving in NorCal, Part 2

Wednesday in San Francisco was much colder and rainy.  We started off by waiting in a cold, wet line to get on a cable car.  We rode it to the end of the line, the kids rang the bell once everyone had disembarked, then they helped turn the car around to begin again.  We rode the car back up the line and got off at the stop for the Cable Car Museum, where we learned about and saw some of the network of cables under the streets of San Francisco.  It was also fun to peruse the gift shop and find a few souvenirs.  We got on another cable car that would take us to lunch, but then we felt like we got a bonus experience for our Day of Cable Car: we got in a wreck.  A car turning left tried to cut in front of the cable car and even though the driver pulled the emergency brake, there was still a small collision.  We waited on the car for a while, filled out an incident report, checked my nephew's bit lip (the worst injury sustained in the accident), and were finally told to find an alternative method of transportation.  A few minutes later a couple of Lyft cars picked us up and we went to a mall with a big food court and a cool curving escalator.

Our last official San Francisco activity took place as we left the city: we drove down Lombard Street, then across the Golden Gate Bridge and into Sausalito.  This detour added two hours to the drive back to Andy's house, probably largely due to holiday traffic, but the kids were happy watching movies in the car so that made it a lot easier.  We stopped for dinner once we were back in Andy's town, Andy and Amy got the last of the groceries they'd need for Thanksgiving, and we were all happy to crash at the house that night.

The womenfolk worked on pies and fixin's Thursday morning, while the menfolk supervised the smoking of the meat, except for that brief episode when Andy let Sawyer play with pie crust dough in the middle of the pie-making zone during crunch time.  Oops.  (A note about the meat: Andy wanted to smoke something for our big meal and we all thought pulled pork sounded good, so we went with that.  But Jack continued to insist that we hadn't had a Thanksgiving meal even days later, since we didn't eat turkey.)  Other than cooking, we lounged around the house, talking, watching TV, coloring, kids playing with toys, and adults playing games after the kids were down.  It was great.

Our last full day in California was mostly spent hanging out around the house again.  It felt good to do a lot of nothing.  We did get out of the house to see "Ralph Breaks the Internet" (but took a picture with the fun "Grinch" display instead).  And Grammy gave the kids hair chalk, so Eliza had a blast doing her own, and the younger boys' hair in bright colors.  They don't really show in the last picture, so you'll just have to trust me that she did a fabulous job.  That night the adults stayed up and watched a movie, then Grammy and I stayed up even longer having a good chat.  One of the highlights of the trip for me.

We found out that there was a severe snowstorm in Utah the day we were leaving, which gave us a good excuse to linger a little longer in the morning.  But finally we knew we needed to get on the road, so we did.  The ride home seemed to take longer (in a way, it does, since you gain an hour when driving west and lose an hour when driving east) but we got home without any problems.  We sure enjoyed our California Thanksgiving adventure!  (And writing that reminded me that it was the second Thanksgiving we'd spent with Andy and Amy in California - the first one was in 2012 when they were not yet married and I was pregnant with Luke.)

Saying goodbye to Andy and Amy was much easier, since we knew we'd see them again in December AND January.  Alas, we'll be waiting until summer to see Grammy again.  Darn 2000 miles.

Thanksgiving in NorCal, Part 1

Cat and I arrived home Saturday night from her soccer weekend in Arizona.  Then we left at about 8am on Monday for California to spend Thanksgiving week with my brother and his family, and Grammy, who flew in from South Carolina.  The kids were really excited and we actually got on the road at just the right time, and then made good time as we drove.  We arrived earlier than expected - which never happens - and spent some time at my brother's house, eating pizza and hanging out, before trading out Cat and my nephew Sawyer.  Sawyer came in the van with Ben and the younger kids and me, while Cat stayed with Andy and Amy to pick Grammy up at the airport before heading to SF.  We had an easy drive into San Francisco and started getting the kids to bed, hoping they'd be rested enough to have a fun day of sight-seeing on Tuesday.

Our first stop was breakfast at Sweet Maple, a restaurant I loved when I was in San Francisco with the TabChoir over the summer.  I even ordered the exact same thing I had in June.  And everyone who wanted to tried out the signature item: Millionaire's Bacon.  It did not disappoint.

Then we went to Alamo Square Park to admire the Full House Painted Ladies, let the kids play, and have a little photo session.  And by the way, Cat enjoyed being photographer for most of this trip.

Next we went to CandyTopia, an interactive candy appreciation experience.  Mostly, it was 3D and 1D art made of candy; candy handouts - more than we could eat; and lots of photo ops.  We had a great time.

That afternoon we were supposed to go to Alcatraz but the air quality was so poor due to the smoke from wildfires in the area that all tours were cancelled that day.  (We happened to think the air wasn't that bad, but oh well.)  I found it ironic that the tour was cancelled, since the Alcatraz tour was literally the main thing we wanted to do in San Francisco and we planned everything else around it.  All of the adults in the group had been to the city multiple times before but only one of us had ever been to Alcatraz.  We were pretty psyched up - I'd even checked out library books about California and Alcatraz and read them with the kids on our drive out the day before. But we chose to go on a Bay Cruise as a substitute, and that ended up being a great activity.  Nobody had to walk anywhere, none of the kids got scared, and we still learned a lot about Alcatraz as we circled the island.  It was cool to go under the Golden Gate bridge and get some pictures there too.  So, it worked out just fine.  And now we'll just have to go back to San Francisco to tour Alcatraz another time.

  

Mom decided to support a local businessman after that and hitch a ride for herself and three lucky youngsters so we could have dinner at Boudin just past Pier 41.  Dinner was delicious.  The kids enjoyed the hats and complimentary Sourdough Teddy Bears.  The adults appreciated the seafood, in various forms.

After dinner we took in some of the nightscene by walking to Pier 39, then driving back to the hotel and checking out the view from the lounge, and finally, those of us who had enough energy walked to the nearest Ghiradelli ice cream shop a block away and enjoyed one more San Francisco treat for the day.

It was a full, fun day, blessed by great weather.

More about our trip coming soon!