Northern California Trip

Resting in the hotel


Visiting with the pilot in the cock-pit..very exciting!


Watching Cars on the plane


Boarding the plane


At the airport

We flew up to Oakland on Wednesday 8/12/09 for a mini family vacation. Nicholas did really well on the plane and after watching Cars for about 10 minutes, he fell asleep. (It's only a 45 minute flight). Nicholas got to meet the pilot and sit in the cock-pit of the plane when we landed! We met some HN friends in Oakland for lunch and went to visit the office for a few hours. Then we drove to our hotel (The Westin) in San Francisco and rested for a few hours. Silly us, left the stroller in the rental car and decided to explore the city with Nicholas in tow without the stroller. Big Mistake! He did not want to walk and wanted to be carried the whole time. We ventured off to China Town and ended up eating down there too which was fun. At least the table next to us was entertained..lol. Nicholas didn't really want to eat (what's new) and after drinking a cup of milk, played drums on the table with the chopsticks. We couldn't get out of there fast enough. And then the long walk back to our hotel. You think we would've learned, right?!

Well, the next day we had planned to go to Alcatraz, and got up early to take the Muni (Light Rail) to Pier 39, again without the stroller. Nicholas did great on the boat (and even ate some of my bagel, impressive). We got to the island and started the tour around snack time and he was being a pill. When everyone started to stare, I took him outside of the penitentiary and tried to calm him down and feed him. Once he ate, he was happy (takes after me, of course) and then we started the tour over again. Shortly after he fell asleep and Jimmy carried him around for a little while. The only thing, was that now it was lunch time and I was getting hungry. So we ended up leaving, not getting the full experience (and Nicholas woke up when we stopped by the gift shop, so we have a picture with him and the Last Guard Out author Jim Albright) ..we'll have to go again next time we come out, at least we'll be better prepared.

We went back to Pier 39 and met up with Ben and Susie. We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and walked around the pier. The kids started to warm up to each other towards the end, but it was getting late, so we said our good-byes and took the Muni back to the hotel. Later that night we took the trolley (which was a lot more crowded than it was last time we visited) down to Ghiradelli Square (this time we brought the stroller, thank goodness!). We walked around, got some yummy coffee and bought Nicholas a brownie bear (stuffed animal) from the Ghiradelli store and I got to go into a Dali art gallery (always exciting). We stopped in at a Crazy Shirt store and met the nicest San Franciscans we have ever met. We went to Scomas for dinner (I wasn't impressed) and had a nice dinner, of which Nicholas drank his milk, ate some bread, and had carrots dipped in tarter sauce; although I don't know if he ate any of the carrots. We walked around for a little while and had a cab take us back to the hotel.

The next day we checked out and went to this cute little coffee shop in town (we should've gone to Denny's) and overpaid for breakfast before heading out to the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped and took some pictures and drove over the bridge and took a few more pictures and then headed off to Redding. The drive wasn't too bad overall, we got there in about 2 1/2 hours. This was the relaxing part of our vacation..lol. We visited with Jeremy & Dusty and the kids, and got to hang out and visit. We did go to Turtle Bay the next day and got to see Sue (the largest preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered) and some other neat things while we were there..and had a great day! The next day, Sunday, we got up early and made the drive back to Oakland (to the airport) and then we flew back home. We did get lucky and Nicholas fell asleep on the plane again on the way home, and then it was back to reality.

Now I just have to figure out where we go next?!