Family Road Trip!

We've been trying to plan a road trip for the family for some time. We kept waiting for Rob's work to give him the time off. Summer's pretty busy for them, so it's not easy. They gave us about a weeks notice, so we threw together some plans and were off! The boys did surprisingly well on the road. The first day was the longest. We drove up north and stayed just east of San Francisco in Pleasanton. While we stopped for gas, I noticed just across the street there was Pea Soup Andersen's. I told Rob that he needed take us over there just so that I could get a picture of the boys by their famous sign. (OK, so maybe it's just famous to me!) When I was a kid we used to take a family road trip every summer and we would stop here for lunch. We have many pictures of me and my siblings in the sign! So although Rob didn't quite understand why we needed to do this, he took us over.

We got into Pleasanton by dinner time, so we made a quick stop to pick up some pizza, and then headed over to our hotel. We spent the evening hanging out in the spa. The kids really wanted to swim, but the pool was freezing.

Monday morning we headed into San Fransisco. We took the Oakland bridge over. The kids thought the double decker was pretty cool, while I was having flash backs of the earthquake that collapsed the thing!

Once in the city, the boys LOVED the up and down of the streets of San Fransisco. They would hold their hands in the air like they were on a roller coaster.

We had done some online searching for something the boys would enjoy, and we found an awesome hands on museum called the exploratorium. Sounds cool, right? Well, when we got there we found this...

I was totally bummed. I guess I didn't read the fine print somewhere! We decided to check out the palace of fine arts it was right next to.

This place was pretty amazing! Just the size of it was impressive!

Next we headed to the fisherman's wharf.

Rob just had to sample the clam chowder!

We saw the sea lions at pier 39...

Lincoln thought that they were hilarious. His impression of them was even better!

Then we stopped at a pirate magic show for a bit before our parking expired.

Leaving the city we had to drive down Lombard Street...

and then took the Golden Gate Bridge out.

Originally we planned on taking the boys up to see the coastal redwoods for our trip, and then decided that it was just too far to go. We were pretty excited to find out about the Muir Woods just north of San Fransisco that had some. We headed straight there and had the afternoon to walk/hike around.

I've been telling the boys about the redwoods, but they were still not prepared to see their actual size!

The boys found a hollowed out tree, and spent quite some time playing in it.

The boys were in heaven exploring the woods, and honestly so was I! I have so many fond memories of family trips to the redwoods. This was truly the highlight of the trip for me. It was just so peaceful, and the boys were in their element!

After we were done at the Muir Woods we headed back to our hotel. Tuesday morning we got up and headed out for another long drive east over to our campsite on the June Lake Loop. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains. We even saw three deer!

Once we got to our campsite, the boys were dying to go fishing. There wasn't much time before the sun went down so I agreed to stay back with Lincoln while they got their poles wet! :)

Lincoln and I spent the time checking out the campground. He rode his scooter while I walked. It was good for him to get out some energy after being in the car for so long!

When the boys got back both Ethan and Porter had caught their first fish! They were pretty excited about it.
The boys enjoyed the camping. Rob and I, not so much! It was so stressful trying to keep the boys away from the fire, but it was so cold that night that we all wanted to be close to it. We did not anticipate it being as freezing as it was through the night, and it made it pretty miserable and impossible to sleep. I've never before prayed for the sun to come up! Once the morning came, the sun warmed us up again. We packed ourselves up and headed to the lake for some more fishing. We rented a little fishing boat for the day. I loved watching the boys on the bow of the boat.

A mother duck and her chicks found their way over to our boat, and Lincoln was happy to share some bread with them.
We didn't end up catching any fish, but the boys had a blast anyway, especially when they got to drive the boat. All Ethan wanted to do was drive it in circles. I thought I was going to be sick, and he thought that was funny.

Lincoln enjoyed just running his hand in the water as we went slowly along.

I think it was a pretty good day for the boys!

After a day on the boat we drove into Bishop and were never so happy to sleep on a cheap hotel bed!! We spent Thursday doing some stream fishing. Rob was determined to catch his own fish! He finally did and Porter was happy to help him show it off.

We spent the afternoon in the pool at our hotel, and then settled in for the night.

Before heading out Friday morning, Rob wanted to take the boys shooting for the first time. Not growing up around guns, this worried me. But the boys were very good, and listened carefully while Rob gave them some safety instructions.

Ethan got to go first...

and then Porter.

Ethan got some good shots on the empty milk container, and was proud to show it off.

After they finished, we headed out to my parents house. The kids did really well in the car. The whole trip was a success, despite being planned so quickly. I hope that they will have fond memories of this vacation like I have of mine growing up.