pre disney

we are back from our trip, rested and wishing we could go back again! 

here are some of the highlights.

we figured since we were driving down to california we may as well see all that we can on the way down. i suggested san francisco because none of my family had ever been but me. we left friday morning and our plan was to drive to reno, spend the night and drive into san fran on saturday. we got to reno about 4 and our hotel was less than stellar. pool was closed, room was too small to fit the roll away and it was in a pretty shady part of town. after being in the room for five minutes, literally, we decided to find a different hotel. in the process of finding a new hotel we decided that since san francisco was only three hours away we would just head there and skip the overnight reno stay. by the time we were gassed up, fed and on our way it was 6:00 but knew it would be worth it to have all day to spend in the city.

then we woke up.

to rain.

a forecast of rain all day.

boo!

there were so many things i wanted to show everyone.

pier 39

fisherman's wharf

the golden gate

lombard street

the seal lions

alcatraz

i was super bummed but we decided to make the best of it and head out anyway and try to stay dry.

first we hit lombard street, the crookedest street in the world.

the city streets are all crazy steep but this one had to have curves put in it cause it was too steep for a car to drive straight down. i think this is when i remembered that we were supposed to have the brakes done before we left home...

then we decided we would go to the aquarium. it's indoors and since it's right on the water it should be really great right? not so much. it was expensive and not great at all but it got us in out of the rain for a while.

after the aquarium we thought it would be a good idea to walk around pier 39. 

it wasn't.

it was raining even harder now and we were all miserable.

after lunch we headed to the end of the pier to get a better view of alcatraz.

and then went to ghiradelli square to warm up with some hot chocolate. i must say that it was a close second to the hot chocolate we had in argentina. what's not to love about four chocolate squares melting in a hot cup of milk?

 since it would be a sin to go to san francisco and not see the golden gate we decided to drive across.

again, i was disappointed that it wasn't sunny but the kids thought it was fantastic so it made me feel better.

the $6 toll to get back across did not.

after this we decided we'd had enough rain and were ready to call it a soggy day.

tomorrow we get to drive the pacific coast highway all the way south!

and i will let you know now that we woke up to beautiful blue skies for our drive out of town.

figures.