We Might Not Be Back: 2014

Muir Woods & Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park

The next day we rented another car because our check out time was about 12 hours before our flight out that evening. We set off for Muir Woods, which as with every park we’d been to was packed. We got our 6th junior ranger book. This one was the most challenging and definitely not age appropriate for either of our kids. Nonetheless we finished! The girls were a little tired and not adequately appreciating the beauty of the redwoods so we threw in the towel and headed to Richmond, which is north of Oakland, to the Rosie the Riveter National Historical Park. This was our last badge of the trip and possibly my favorite place. We once again by chance arrived someplace at just the right time. At Yellowstone we’d been told there was a ranger here who’d actually been a rosie. The woman he was referring to was about to give a talk. I wish I’d been one of those annoying people who asks for pictures because I hope to remind the girls of this when they are older. This woman was living history and EVERYONE should hear her speak. She is almost 93 years old. She did in fact work in Richmond during WWII at a segregated facility. Her great grandmother had been a slave. Hearing her perspective was so amazing. I can’t really put into words how powerful it was to listen to this woman. After this we ate our last meal in the Bay Area. Then we about had a panic attack when we were stuck for close to a half hour in traffic just to get on the bridge back to San Francisco. Luckily even with traffic we made our flight and our crazy trip came to an end.

The redwoods grow in clusters

We were pretty done with walking at this point.

Our only picture with one of the signs.

The 5th swearing in

This ranger was super nice. She was explaining the old fashioned games everyone had to play as part of the junior ranger book.

This game was pretty intense

Swearing in #6

Ridiculousness

This ranger book was pretty advanced

All our national park souvenirs

The woman in the ranger uniform is the one who spoke at the Rosie the Riveter Monument

San Francisco

On day one of the relaxing urban part of our vacation we headed to Yerba Buena and the Children’s Creativity Museum. City Passes seem to make lots of museums opt out of reciprocal relationships much to my dismay. Luckily this place is still part of ACM and so we went for free. The girls LOVED it. I kind of thought we’d never escape. Lottie was able to make a music video. She sand Do You Want to Build a Snowman, of course. They both made prototypes out of junk. Then they made clay figures which could’ve been used for a stop motion animated film. At that point though we had to pull them away. We headed to the super cool park right next to the museum. Once again they had to be dragged away. Then we made them take a very short walk through part of the Castro and Mission before we had to find food. I wish we’d gotten suggestions for where to get the best tacos because the place we chose in desperation was only so-so. After that it was quitting time.

The next day we headed to Fisherman’s wharf to see the sea lions and eat chowder in bread bowls. We also stopped by Musee Mechanique because we love all things free. The games housed in this collection are crazy! I could’ve spent hundreds in quarters checking out the totally bizarre machines. Luckily we had other things to fit in, so I got away with only spending like a dollar. We moved onto the Maritime Museum and ranger badge number 5. Sadly the actual boats were closed off but we were able to go through the museum and answer questions to get the books done. After that we foolishly though we’d hop on a cable car. Last time we were in San Francisco it was in February. The difference in crowds in peak season versus off season are out of this world. Also with the city pass you get a muni pass, so everyone had tickets. Last time we were able to hop on and off the cable cars anytime. This time we would’ve had to wait over an hour. We opted to pass and try again earlier the next day. Instead we got back on the street car to head for home with the promise of ice cream at Smitten for the second time. We had the misfortune of sitting between an ignorant tourist and some individuals who clearly had mental health issues. I wanted to knock the ignorant woman out for almost starting an argument with the gentleman behind me over her rude son’s staring problem. I digress...

Our last day in the city we made the cable car our first stop. This time we got on right away for our obligatory ride. The very nice car operator gave us tips for how to easily get to the Golden Gate Bridge with our munipass, so we hopped off at the top of a hill and caught a bus. We then met another lovely woman who gave us further directions so we could get right to the bridge. The skies couldn’t have been more clear so naturally we and every other out of towner were there snapping pictures. After that we headed back to fisherman’s wharf yet again for more chowder and some crab sandwiches. We then caught the bus to Coit tower because we had a couple more things to cross of the list. We didn’t actually wait in line to go up. We just enjoyed the view from outside and the murals inside. After that we were pretty done, but yet we pressed on and headed out to Ocean Beach for our last evening. It was well worth it and we were pretty sad we hadn’t gone there earlier. It was beautiful. We as usual stayed out a little past our prime and nearly starved the girls, so we stopped for pizza by the slice on the way home.

Swinging at the park across from the Painted Ladies. Not a bad view in the background.

Once more "must-see" checked off the list.

This one is bigger than the capitol in Washington

I wish we'd said we wanted the DVD. She could see herself on the screen with a Frozen scene in the background. Gabby said she's an artist not a singer and declined to participate.

She was told to make a bird from her box of odds and ends.

She was told to make a machine that makes toys come to life. She had to explain her creation. I LOVE this place!!!!

Making figures for stop motion animation

FLOAM!!!!!!!

Yerba Buena Park is pretty cool

Obligatory stop at the sea lions

We pointed this out and reminded them they'd already been there.

CHOWDER AND BREAD BOWLS!!!!

Laughing Sal = the stuff of nightmares

I totally shelled out a quarter for this

Does it look like Dan's trying to cover up his answers?

This man gave Dan a hard time about becoming a junior ranger ;p

Smitten for Smitten

Cable car ride. I recommend the California line. It was less crowded.

Maritime museum

This is not enough to convince me of the stability. I HATE bridges.

Murals in Coit Tower

Ocean Beach

Las Vegas

Between Zion and Vegas we had a brief but intense drive through Arizona. All told I am claiming we were in 7 states during this trip: California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and Arizona. Although Arizona and Montana are something of a stretch. In Arizona we were going down a mountain for miles with absolutely no where to stop and all we could see were the mountain peaks around us. Dan was a little stressed by this and had I known what we were in for I would’ve driven. Instead I sat and took video and encouraged him to keep breathing while I laughed hysterically at him. Luckily the girls slept so no major damage done. After that we were back in Nevada for what seemed like forever.

Finally we made it to our hotel. Vegas is an intense place. There’s just so much happening. Our hotel was off the strip. Maybe staying on the strip I would’ve been more impressed with Vegas? I don’t know. I kind of feel like gambling is gambling. Dress it up how you like it’s still throwing money away. Also coming from a place where smoking is no longer allowed does make one a little more sensitive to it. All I wanted from this hotel was a pool and to take the girls to the bowling alley. We accomplished both so I’ll say Vegas was satisfactory. We also made it to another Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives spot, which was delicious. And we stopped by the pawn shop from Pawn Stars, so not a total loss. We were also able to tell the girls about all the people throwing their money away, so perhaps we’ve come away with some good life lessons. Two nights here was definitely enough. Then it was time for the last LONG drive. It was about 10 hours back to San Francisco. We passed a lot of fruit trees. Thankfully there was another amazing meal waiting for us when we got to Oakland and we topped off the night with some delicious ice cream before heading to our rental. Sadly we couldn’t unload the car until the next day and driving in San Francisco is not something I’d like to do again EVER. When I returned the car the next morning we’d put just shy of 3000 miles on it in about 10 days.