San Fran part 2

Saturday was a lazy morning in the hotel room. With the hour time change, we were up early and had to wait until 7:30 to go get our continental breakfast, which consisted of otis spunkmeyer danishes and muffins, breakfast of champions! We were grateful for the milk and cereal we packed with us in the cooler! The boys and myself were still a little queasy, but feeling more energized and much better than the day before.

We got everyone looking their best and drove to the church for the wedding of Marc's cousin, Gary. We pretty much crashed the wedding. We weren't invited, but went anyway, figuring it would be rude if we came all the way to San Francisco and then didn't come when everyone knew we were there.  We were all waiting for the "kiss" to pronounce Gary & Hope man and wife, and it never happened! He kissed her on the cheek after they exchanged rings, but even that was pretty weak, lol.

The reception was at a park afterwards, so we changed into more casual clothes and went and spent the rest of the afternoon visiting with Marc's Aunts, Uncles and some of his Cousins. One of his cousins, David has a little girl named Emma who is the same age as Tyler & Bryce and they were inseparable. Emma told her mom she just "couldn't choose which boy to marry". We caught her & Tyler kissing as they were getting ready to say goodbye, so maybe she made up her mind.We found a little bread/sandwhich cafe which reminded me of Panera for dinner. When we got to the hotel, "Second Hand Lions" was on, so we let the kids cuddle in and watch it. It was a little over their heads, but they enjoyed parts of it. Thankfully, it was a peaceful night. Everyone slept well and woke up with appetites.

Sunday, we tried to make the 9:00 Sacrament Meeting at one of the local wards....however, when we showed up, we learned it was their stake conference that day and wouldn't be starting until 10:00. Since we wouldn't be getting the Sacrament at stake conference anyway, we opted to have our own little lesson and songs back in the hotel room. The boys got to play with Emma one last time, we grabbed lunch at In and Out then sought out to find Muir Beach. We had to drive up and down some nice windy, steep roads to get to the beach parking, then had to stalk people coming out to get their parking spot. The kids LOVED the beach. It certainly wasn't the warm swimming water like we got to enjoy last year in Orlando, but they loved playing in the sand and the water as it went back and forth. It was probably the most relaxing and enjoyable time of the trip. We loved not having a schedule that day nor anything pressing to worry about getting to.

We eventually packed up and went to back to the Golden Gate Bridge to walk across it. Unfortunately and or fortunately, we were only able to go about a quarter of the way across it from the side that we picked because of construction. I hated the swaying motion of the bridge, the vibrations from the cars and trucks crossing, and my fear of heights kicked in as we looked down and saw how far we were from the water beneath us, however, the boys loved being on and were disappointed when we had to turn around and go back.

Afterwards we ate dinner with Bob & Deb, said our goodbyes and went back to the hotel to settle in for the night. We were able to get on the road by 7:30 California time the next morning, and despite our 45 minute hold up in Sacramento, we were able to get home by 5:30 California time and get the boys a good night sleep before going back to school on Tuesday.

Overall, San Francisco and Northern California was Beautiful! I had no idea what to expect, but I was surprised by all the contrasting scenery of hills, and bay, pine trees and tropical greens, even some marshlands and plains. We had a great time, were glad we went, but if we get to go to San Francisco again, we'll leave the kids at home :)