Our Northern California Road Trip

We were able to go on a good ol' fashioned road trip around northern California in August right before the kids went back to school.  Here's a quick rundown of everything we were able to cram into eight days...

DAY 1

We left early in the morning--as in 4:00 am--to get a large portion of the long drive across Utah and Nevada out of the way while kids slept in the car...

We stopped in Reno on our way to Cali, and took a picture of all of us in front of the apartment where Mike, Connor, and I lived for six months.  We snuck through the gate behind another car to get there too!  We didn't live here very long, but this apartment will always be a special place for me.  It was in this apartment that I got one of the most distinct answers to prayer I've ever received.  I won't go into all the details here because it would need an entire post dedicated just to it--and I may have already written it on this blog at one point--but basically, God told me that I should quit my job and we should move to Utah.  And, we did it!  It was one of those times where we just totally put our trust in Heavenly Father and stepped into the darkness.  And, He took care of us, and blessed us immensely because we trusted Him to take care of us.  It was in this very apartment that that direction came.  That's why it will always have a special place in my heart...

After our pit stop in Reno, we drove up to our first destination--Lake Tahoe...

We couldn't check into our hotel yet, so we drove over to Emerald Bay, where we went on what was supposed to be a quick hike that turned into an almost five mile hike.  Haha!  Here's the view of Emerald Bay where we started our hike..

We did the hike to Eagle Falls, but because the water is so low this time of year they didn't look like waterfalls, so we kept hiking thinking we hadn't reached our destination yet.  Eventually, we made it all the way to Eagle Lake (2 1/2 miles hike in).  Here's some pictures from the looooooong hike.  We had to pay a usage fee to hike this trail, and we were supposed to attach this tag to our backpack.  Well, we didn't have a backpack since we were planning on this just being a short hike, so we attached it to Mike's rear end.  Haha...

We did a lot of stair climbing on this hike.  The entire hike looked like this...

The kids did great the entire hike.  None of them ever needed to be carried...

See all the stairs?  It was a pretty hard hike after doing that for 2 1/2 miles...

This was the bridge where you would normally view the falls, but--as I said--since that water was so low that time of year, we didn't even realize we had made it and kept hiking...

The view got pretty spectacular as we went up the mountain...

I thought this was a cool tree, growing right out of the side of the mountain and at an angle.  The kids looked so little walking past it...

Taking a little break at Eagle Lake, after a very hard and long hike that they all rocked...

Time for a little exploring around the lake...

Then we started making the long hike down.  I'm not sure what was worse--hiking up all those stairs, or hiking down them.  It got hard on the knees after awhile.  Once we could see Lake Tahoe again, we had another hiker take a family picture...

And we attempted a selfie as well...

We made it back down to the non-existent falls...

More pretty scenery...

The kids were pretty worn out by the time we got back to the parking lot.  So were Mom and Dad...

We then went to check in at our hotel, and cooled off with a swim in the pool...

And then warmed up in the hot tub too...

That evening, we walked over to Heavenly Village for dinner.  Viv found a friend along the way...

So did Aiden and Cohen...

We decided to eat at Basecamp Pizza, but had to wait a little bit for a table, so we sat around listening to a band play...

And did a little dancing too...

Then we all crashed hard that night.  It had been a long day!

DAY 2

We started out the day with another hike.  The kids were thrilled (please note the sarcasm) to be doing another hike after the five miler we had taken them on the day before.  We promised this would be a short one, and it was.  We hiked to Cave Rock, which is supposed to be one of the best outlook points around the lake.  It was a quick, easy hike...

With pretty views...

This is cave rock, and we basically rock climbed up to the top of it.  When you hike from this point over to the rock, you're actually walking over the top of the highway that goes around Lake Tahoe.  The road goes through a tunnel that goes through this mountain, so you are literally hiking right over the top of the highway...

A panorama from the top of Cave Rock...

And a selfie too...

Our cute kiddos...

Mike looking over the edge...

That afternoon, we went to a private beach that was jointly-owned by the hotel where we stayed.  It was kind of fun to have a beach day while at 7000 feet above sea level...

There was a little playset on the beach that the little kids had fun playing on...

Mike and some of the kids ventured out into the cold lake...

We also did a lot of relaxing on the sand too.  I think everyone was exhausted--and it was only the second day of the trip...

These little ducks were certain Vivvie had some food to share with them...

We rented a paddle boat and took it out on the lake for a couple hours.  It was fun, but a lot of work--especially when Vivvie was your paddlemate.  Her feet couldn't even reach the peddles, so she was no help at all.  Haha...

After spending the afternoon there, we apparently hadn't had enough time in the water, so we went swimming in the hotel pool again...

Then we got some dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant, went back to the hotel room to watch Olympics (something we did almost every night), and then went to bed.

DAY 3

We got up the next morning, and drove to our second destination--Yosemite National Park.  We went in through Tioga Pass entrance on the northeast side.  There's not much to see on this side of the park.  We made a stop at Olmstead Point, shown here...

Then we drove to the west side of the Park, where most the cool stuff is.  We stopped at Bridalveil Falls and did the short hike there to see the waterfall...

Then drove to Tunnel View, where we got a great view of the Yosemite Valley--including El Capitan (on the left side of the picture) and Half Dome (toward the middle, peaking out from behind another mountain)...

Our family at Tunnel View...

Then we drove up to Glacier Point, where we got an up close view of Half Dome, without having to do the crazy all-day-long hike to get there...

What's with this guy and standing on the edge of cliffs?

Walking back to the parking lot at Glacier Point...

Then we got back in the car and headed for our hotel, which was 1 1/2 hours outside of Yosemite.  It was a fun day, but there was just so much driving.  We were all pretty beat when we reached the hotel, so we went to sleep quickly.

DAY 4

We headed back into Yosemite to explore the Yosemite Valley.  First stop was the hike (more like a walk) to see Yosemite Falls...

Yosemite Falls is the longest waterfall in the United States, but it's just a trickle this time of year.  You probably can't even see the water in the picture behind us because there was so little of it...

The kids standing inside a hollowed out log...

We found a butterfly on the side of a cliff, and of course, Vivvie was scared to death of it.  What isn't she scared of?

We had to take this picture while on our shuttle bus to our next stop in the park because the girl wearing the white shirt that is standing up looked just like Kristin.  I seriously kept taking double takes at her because she looked so much like her...

Next, we hiked the Mist Trail to Vernal Falls.  This was another hike that was hard because there was so much climbing. This hike says it's wheel chair accessible.  Let's just say I'd hate to be the one pushing a wheelchair up it.  It was crazy steep in some places.  I wish I had taken some pictures of just how steep it was, but I was just trying to get myself up the mountain.  Here's a picture of a non-steep part...

There were lots of fun things to explore along the way, like this little pond...

And lots of rocks to climb too...

Vernal Falls was still fairly impressive this time of year.  It's way in the background of this picture...

After that hike, we stopped for some lunch, and then hiked to Mirror Lake at the base of Half Dome.  It was a pretty easy hike...

And we found a lot of fun things along the way as well...

My husband, the tree hugger...

There were lots of caves that had been created by huge boulders that had been pulled off the cliffs above by glaciers thousands of years ago...

At the base of Half Dome...

Mirror Lake was more like Mirror Puddle this time of year.  Vivvie had fun splashing in it...

Family picture at the base of Half Dome...

After that, we took a shuttle up to see El Capitan.  We couldn't get off the shuttle there though because it was the last shuttle of the day, and we wouldn't have had a way to get back to our car, so we just looked at it from inside the bus...

Then we made the long drive back to our hotel, and did some swimming in the hotel pool...

Then we finished the day by watching more Olympics, and then hit the hay.

DAY 5

We got up this morning, and drove to our final destination--San Francisco.  To keep costs down a little, we decided to stay the first night at a hotel in South San Francisco that had a free shuttle into the city.  Once we got settled at the hotel, we took the shuttle into San Fran and went over to the Cable Car Stop...

We rode the Cable Car to Ghiradelli Square...

While there, we ate the most heavenly ice cream.  And, we eat a lot of ice cream in this family, so you KNOW it was delicious...

Then we did a little souvenir shopping at some of the stores and street vendors around Ghiradelli Square...

Aiden showing off his Pokemon Hat he bought from a street vendor...

We then walked down to the Aquatic Park...

While there, someone noticed Aiden's hat and asked him if he played Pokemon Go.  Then he told Aiden that there were lots of rare Pokemon around the park.  So, Aiden chased Pokemon, and the rest of us chased him...

Another picture of us in front of the Ghiradelli sign...

Then we ate dinner at an Italian Seafood restaurant.  It was the perfect combo for our family.  Those that liked seafood could get seafood, and the rest of us could get Italian food...

After that, we headed back to the Cable Car turnaround to take it back, so we could catch the last shuttle of the day back to our hotel.  Well, the wait for the cable car was two hours long!  There was no way we could wait that long, and still get back in time to catch our shuttle.  So, Mike came up with a plan.  They never fill the cable cars full at the turnarounds because they want to be able to pick people up along the way, so Mike decided we should walk up Russian Hill to Lombard Street to catch it.  People always get off the cable car there to walk down Lombard Street, so there should be room for us to get on.  Sounds like a great idea, right?  Ummmm, if you think so, you've obviously never walked up Russian Hill.  Holy cow!  The thighs were burning on this one!  Here's a picture of us when we were only halfway up the hill...

As you can tell from that picture, Mike carried Vivvie the whole way up.  That could not have been fun, but he didn't complain about it at all.  We finally made it to the top, and took a picture of us at the top of Lombard Street--the "crookedest street in the world"...

Since there wasn't a cable car coming yet, we decided to walk down Lombard Street, just to say we had done it...

Then we hiked back up Lombard Street to get back to the Cable Car stop.  Luckily, we were able to get on the second cable car that came by.  But, alas, it wasn't soon enough, and we missed our shuttle back to the hotel--which was seven miles away.  No problem!  Mike decided he would just call an Uber.  But, it was then that we realized all our phones were dead.  We had three cell phones with us, and they were all dead.  Suuuuuuuper awesome!  We were stranded in downtown San Francisco with four children at night.  Don't panic, Lindsay.  Don't panic.  Deep breaths.  Deeeeeeeeeeep breaths!

It was at this point that Aiden said he had seen a T-Mobile store up the road a little way.  He suggested that we go there, and ask them if we could charge one of our phones long enough to call an Uber.  Brilliant plan!  However, right as we got to the T-Mobile store, they started locking the doors.  They were closing for the night.  They opened the door long enough for us to tell them our sob story.  Thankfully, one employee named Oscar (I'll never forget him) took pity on us, and allowed us to come in and charge up Mike's phone for a few minutes while they closed up the store.  I seriously could have kissed the guy!  I was so happy!!

Mike was able to get his phone up and running, and then requested an Uber.  Just a few minutes later, Xiang from Beijing was driving us back to our hotel in his minivan.  This was the most stressful and wonderful day of the vacation.  I'm sure we'll look back on this day with fond memories, and laugh about it for years to come.  But, it was pretty stressful while living through it.

DAY 6

This day was a lot more mellow than the previous day.  Not nearly as much "adventure", but we still had a great time.  We started the day out by driving across the Golden Gate Bridge to get to Muir Woods.  It was shrouded in fog this morning, and looked a little spooky...

Once we got to Muir Woods, the sun was shining brightly...

Muir Woods was beautiful.  The Redwood Trees were ridiculously tall and majestic...

My babies walking through the Redwood Forest...

Looking at a cross section of a Redwood Tree.  It had years marked on certain rings to show how long it had been alive before falling to the forest floor...

Vivvie next to a fallen tree, and a plaque that talked about what brought it down...

A selfie of us in the "Redwood Forest"...

We had a great time.  We walked the loop through the forest, and found lots of cool trees and other awesome things to explore...

Aiden was quite impressed that such a large tree could come from such a tiny pinecone...

Don't the kiddos look tiny inside this monstrous tree?

Silly picture...

After Muir Woods, we found a fun little outdoor restaurant in Sausalito to eat lunch...

Then we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge viewing area on our way back into the city, and took a few pictures.  At this point, the fog was beginning to lift over at least part of the bridge...

Look at that huge barge going underneath the bridge...

After taking lots of pictures, we drove back over the bridge...

Golden Gate selfie.  Haha...

Once back into San Fran, we checked into our new hotel downtown and then walked to China Town, which ended up being a lot longer walk than we thought it would be.  We seriously walked so much on this trip, and our kids were troopers about it...

The kiddos at Dragon's Gate...

Walking through China Town...

Aiden and Cohen got to join a little band playing on the side of the road...

We had fun checking out all the little shops...

And then ate dinner at Hunan House.  We found it online, and it had great reviews so we decided to check it out.  It was delicious!  Best Chinese food I've ever had.  The kids loved it too...

The fortune from my fortune cookie.  Good advice that I should listen to more...

After stuffing our bellies, we made the long walk back to our hotel, and then worked out in the hotel gym.  You know, because all the walking we had done that day (and all the previous days too) just wasn't enough exercise...

We finished the day with some swimming, and then went to bed...

DAY 7

The next morning, we hitched a ride on the Cable Car again.  Here's Cohen and Aiden in line...

This time, we took the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf...

There were lots of statues all over the wharf, and Vivvie insisted that we take pictures with all of them...

We had fun shopping at the stores along Pier 39...

And had fun exploring it too...

The crazy hat store was one of our favorites...

Then, Cohen, Vivvie and I took a spin on the double decker merry-go-round...

Vivvie is such a girlie girl.  She looked at these rings for a good 15 minutes, while the boys waited impatiently...

Another statue picture...

Family picture with Alcatraz in the background...

Aiden trying to get a closer look at "The Rock"...

Viv and Connor watching a puppet show going on in one of the store windows...

And then trying out a puppet herself...

We ate lunch at the Fish Market on Pier 39.  It was yummy, and had spectacular views all around...

After lunch, we left Pier 39 and headed down to Pier 33 to catch the ferry to visit Alcatraz.  Along the way, we had to take pictures anytime we saw anything cool--like this house made out of bushes...

And all the sailboats too...

While waiting for our ferry, the kids looked at a model of Alcatraz...

On the boat...

The view of the city from the ferry...

Alcatraz as we approached...

On our self-guided tour...

My little outlaws...

This was solitary confinement.  When the door was closed, it was pitch black inside.  I don't think I would handle that very well...

The view of the city from Alcatraz...

We loved visiting Alcatraz.  The history buff in me thought it was cool, and it was interesting to learn about some of the guards who worked there, some of the prisoners who lived there, and some of the escape attempts too.  The kids seemed especially fascinated with the escape attempts.  I'm pretty sure the next time they're grounded, they are going to try to chisel their way out with a spoon.  After our visit, we rode the ferry back to the city...

DAY 8

It was finally time to go home, but we made a couple of pit stops along the way.  First, we stopped in Fairfield so Mike could see his old high school...

Mike doesn't really have a hometown because he was an Air Force Brat, but he considers Fairfield home because he lived there twice, and went to High School there.  Some of his best friends are people in met in Fairfield.  One of those people is Ryan Mahoney.  We were able to also stop and visit him and his family at their home just outside of Sacramento...

They made us a delicious breakfast, and we stay and chatted for a couple hours...

Then it was time to get back on the road and make the long drive home!  Our road trip was so fun!  It was a lot of driving (and a lot of walking), but we were able to see and do so many awesome things!!  I'm so glad we were able to do it.  What a great vacation!  --Lindsay