To most, it may seem like I’ve been a bad blogger these past five months, but to me, I’ve been sticking to my new years resolutions and doing more things for myself (well, if you count sleeping as doing things for yourself). You may have noticed on Instagram that we are expecting our second child! We found out in early December and suddenly staying up late or waking up early to blog was low on my list of priorities. I just wanted to sleep! When working full time and being a wife and mom, you definitely have to prioritize things . . .  and for the last several months, sleep was on the top of my list. So forgive me as I play catch up here and share with you what we’ve been up to.

Another item gets checked off my new years resolution list with our recent travels to San Francisco in January. Logan and I celebrated our eight year anniversary together and decided to take a road trip with the kid! We took five days off and traveled to San Francisco and some other cool places along the way. I’ve sorted through hundreds of photos and compiled our trip into a two part series for your reading sanity.

On our first day in San Francisco, we took a boat tour over to Alcatraz (the bus tour was not currently in service).

I found this man, William G. Baker, to be very interesting. He is a former inmate on Alcatraz and wrote a book on his time here, Alcatraz-1259. He comes back to visit, talk to the tourists, and sign copies of his book. He was imprisoned for check counterfeiting and just recently got out of prison in 2011! He is still on parole.

Inside Alcatraz. I enjoyed listening to the audio tour and hearing stories from former guards and inmates. Easton enjoyed pretending to be an inmate. Apparently Alcatraz was known for having some of the best food for the inmates. So glad to know our tax dollars are put to good use.

They also showed the escape route of the three men that escaped in 1962 and are still unaccounted for.

Logan and I set a goal back when we first got married to visit as many national parks as we could. So we were excited to include Easton in that goal as well. My mom bought Easton this awesome National Park Passport Book so that he can keep track of all the national parks we get to visit! Easton may not have been as excited as I was about it, but I know he’ll appreciate it when he gets older. How cool will it be to take it in for show and tell one day??

Here he is getting his first official stamp! The park ranger on Alcatraz was super nice and although it’s hard to tell from his face, he was quite excited when we produced the book from our backpack. If you like visiting national parks as much as we do and you have children, I highly recommend purchasing a book. The ranger also gave Easton a sticker and a park ranger badge to wear. Score!

After the tour, we ate some deliciously overpriced seafood chowder on a pier before heading back for naps. That afternoon we headed downtown via a cable car, or train as Easton liked to call it. This was definitely the highlight of his trip. They were pretty fun to ride and it was cool watching them change directions on the turnaround. We took the Powell-Hyde cable car that stops at the top of Lombard street, the “crookedest street” in the world and got to look down it. Although our Alcatraz boat operator informed us that it actually wasn’t the “crookedest street” in the world . . . that honor belongs to Wall Street. 🙂

We explored the many piers looking at all the boats and made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf. This seemed to be the area where we should have eaten lunch. The restaurants were not as upscale or as expensive, but the food looked and smelled delicious. People were ordering bread bowls filled with chowder and peel and eat shrimp and grabbing a spot to sit down by the pier to enjoy it. If we ever go back, I’ll definitely be eating there for lunch! We held strong though and enjoyed a romantic seafood dinner at Scoma’s on the water, complete with crayons and sippy cups.

The next day we set out to explore and mark some things off of my San Francisco “must see” list. This is the actual home where Full House was filmed. Most people think it’s the home seen on the interlude, which happens to be one of the “painted ladies” homes.

So we drove to Alamo Square and walked around the park until we found the “painted ladies”, which is what they show during the interlude. Can’t you just hear the Full House song playing as they all hold hands and run up the hill?

Pretty, huh?

Next, it was off to the Golden Gate bridge where Easton got another stamp in his National Passport Book. It was a pretty hazy day but still beautiful to look at. Maybe one day when our kids are older, we can take them to bike across the bridge.

Easton sporting his ranger badge!

We drove over the bridge to find Muir Woods. All I could think about was how the city just seemed to disappear and give way to a beautiful forest once we crossed the bridge. Logan informed me that this is where they filmed Planet of the Apes.  Ahhhh, yes of course!

We could have spent all day here. The giant redwood trees are mesmerizing. It was so quiet and peaceful walking around the park looking up at the giant trees. It almost felt like you stepped into another world when you entered. We kept saying we wished we’d planned an entire day there to hike. We will definitely be planning a longer visit for when we visit the Redwood National Park.

Easton enjoyed stretching his legs and saying hello to everyone that passed by.

The beauty in the many cracks and crevices of Muir Woods.

After Easton got another stamp in his passport book, we drove the rest of the day until we ended up in Monterey, CA. We enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner at a local dive before retreating to our hotel in Seaside. I’ll be sharing our next few days in part:2 of our California road trip, so stay tuned!