California Trip

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Our good friends, Paul and Traci, were getting married in Aptos, CA.  We decided to make a family vacation out of it and take the kids with us to California.  We started the trip out in San Francisco.  The six hour flight to California turned out surprisingly well.  Taylor stayed awake almost the entire time. but was her usual happy self.  We did spend a bunch of the trip walking up and down the aisle, but thankfully we left the plane with all the passengers still thinking she was sweet and innocent.


Our first stop was to check in at our hotel, the Fairmont Ghirardelli Square.  We had a terrific suite with a view of the bay.  The first thing Brayden saw out the window was the beach!  We took the kids right out and let them check out the beach and the bay.  

It was an unusually warm day in San Francisco and Brayden was able to put his feet in the water.  Since it had been such a long day traveling, we had an easy night in the room ordering yummy Amici's pizza.

The next morning, we woke up and went down to Pier 39 to see the sea lions.


Taylor, unfortunately, was asleep for the sea lion viewing!  The funny part was that when we took Brayden to see the sea lions in CA when he was her age he also fell asleep!



Brayden loved watching the sea lions push each other off the floating piers.   He was wondering what all the sea lions were thinking and why certain sea lions were on certain piers.  

We took the kids on a bay cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz Island.  One of Brayden's favorite books, The Little Lost Boat, is about a little boat out in the San Francisco Bay.  He loved looking for  'gone boat' and seeing all the places the little boat visits.



He also thought it was pretty neat to go under the Golden Gate Bridge.


It was Taylor's first boat ride!  She liked looking at the water, but was quickly distracted people watching and trying to pull things out of the backpack.


In the afternoon, we visited the California Academy of Sciences.  When Jon and I lived in CA, the building was being remodeled, so we didn't have a chance to visit it.  The museum had an incredible aquarium.


The exhibits were all well done and there were tons of low tanks for little kids to look at.  They also had a touch pool, which is always a highlight for Brayden.  There were many unusual types of fish that were fun for Brayden to learn about.



The kids enjoyed the rest of the museum, but the aquarium level was definitely their favorite part.