Meeker Moments: Meeker Family Vacation 2012--Part 1: San Francisco

July is our most favorite month--I take the month off from piano and Chris amazingly has NO trips:) So we try to take advantage of this every year. Chris is the ULTIMATE trip planner--of course that's what he does for a living:) So he planned this whole week-long road trip for us up and back down the California coast. The kids were super troopers riding in the car all that time and THEN having us run them ragged:) Chris and I LOVE LOVE LOVE to travel. We are always up for a trip! And we do our best to cram in as much as we can--our hotel rooms are just places to put our stuff and sleep is optional:)

On Sunday, July 8th, we headed out to Pasadena, CA which is about a 6 1/2 hour drive from Phoenix. We slept over night there and woke up on Monday to head up to San Francisco--which is another 6 1/2 hours away. As soon as we arrived in San Francisco, we headed right for Pier 39 and hit the ground running!

Kids on Pier 39

Chris and I went to San Francisco 12 years ago (when Carlie was 3 months old--she was with us too) and we were really excited to hit Alcatraz! Well, 12 years ago we walked right up and bought tickets. Apparently, it doesn't work like that anymore! They were sold out of tickets through August!!! We were SUPER bummed!!! BUT we did find a cruise that went around the island so we jumped at that! I actually really enjoyed this cruise. It was very informational and even though we didn't get off on the island, we did cruise around it and hear lots of stories about the prison. Not surprising that Alcatraz was Max's MOST favorite part of the cruise. Just ask him to tell you some of the prison stories--he's still telling them all a week later:)

Cute litte binoculars the kids got:)

Alcatraz Island

We also got to cruise around the Golden Gate Bridge:

Golden Gate Bridge

After our cruise we walked ALL OVER Pier 39 and saw and the sights of San Francisco. We headed to our hotel around 8:30 pm that night. After getting a good night's sleep, we were up and running again the next day!!! On this day we bought tickets on one of the red double-decker buses. You buy a ticket and then hop on and hop off all day long--great option because there is NO free parking anywhere!!!

Our ride for the day:)

Here we are on America's 2nd most crooked street--Lombard Street (apparently there is a street more crooked than this?!) And oh yeah, we hiked it:) The kids thought they would die:)

At the bottom of the hill

Apparently parrots are "wild" around here--no cages for these two:)

View from the top of the hill

Fountain in Ghirardelli Square

Boys at the beach on Pier 30--there were SWIMMERS in this FREEZING water (w/out body suits)!!!

The boys made a new friend:)

We then let the kids pick something to do. And what did they pick??? The Wax Museum:) It was a fun place to visit. Carlie and Ethan really liked it. We thought Max would LOVE this place but he was super creeped out by how REAL everything looked! There was an optional path in the museum that would allow you to bypass the "Horror" section which Max wanted to take. But HECK NO!!! We paid for these darn tickets and we were going to see EVERYTHING:)

Carlie with Beethoven:)

This is Ethan getting electrocuted:)

Ethan was REALLY into this place:)

Carlie and Ethan are joking--Max is actually SCARED:)

Our next destination on our handy dandy double-decker bus was Chinatown!!!

We tried to convince Max that he needed this--didn't work:)

We finished the day off by driving up to Twin Peaks which is the highest point of the city. Absolutely breath-taking views! Even with the fog:)

So we wore the kids out once again. Headed back to our hotel around 9 pm this night:) The next morning was our last half-day here so we of course had a few more things to squeeze in like Golden Gate Park!!! Most BEAUTIFUL park I've ever been to!

The kids with Beethoven's statue--Beethoven is my personal favorite composer:)

Monkey see....Monkey do:)

Max in his Alcatraz shirt and his cool "Oliver" hat. I thought he looked like a real prisoner back in the day:)

We of course had to go see "The Painted Ladies:" (The gorgeous houses in the background)

And finally we took our kids to see Les Miserables. I know...not a whole lot of good family values going on in this show but theater is kinda a big thing to us. As predicted, Max and Carlie LOVED this show--Max's new goal in life if to be "Gavroche." Ethan tolerated it and Tatum slept through it (a REALLY expensive nap in my opinion:)