August Travels, Part 2

After going to Utah, we were home for about a week before taking off again.  This time we headed to Northern California.  We left Aberdeen on Friday night and had to be in Oakland for a wedding by Saturday evening.  That left no time for sightseeing on the way down (12 hour trip).  We couldn't leave any earlier because of Josh's work.  We booked it, but we made it there in time to enjoy Josh's friend Jonathan's wedding.  Josh got to see a lot of his high school friends (and once again, we forgot the camera), and I got to meet many of his friends I had never met before and see some that we've enjoyed time with in the past.  We had a good time, and we owe many thanks to my sister Bronwyn for taking care of Eli while we were at the wedding.  In fact, she had just moved to San Lorenzo (about 15 minutes from Oakland) a week earlier, so we were very blessed.  We got to go to a great wedding, and we got to see her and her family.  It was perfect!

My sister Bronwyn with Paxton and Cadence.

I love this picture of Paxton!  He and Eli enjoyed playing in the backyard together.

While spending a couple of nights with Bronwyn, Toni, Paxton, and Cadence, we went to church in Fremont where Josh grew up.  Since Josh's parents moved to Gig Harbor before Josh and I were married, I never had the opportunity to visit Fremont.  It was interesting to see the house Josh grew up in and the schools he attended.  Since we went to his old ward on Sunday, I also got to meet some of the people that he knew.  I could tell that Josh especially enjoyed it.

Since I had never been to San Fransisco before, we spent a couple of days touring the city, one of those days being my birthday.  It was a lot of fun.  I think I'll let the pictures narrate some of what we did.  

This is Pier 39.

Eli had a good time in the mirror maze until he smacked his cheek into one of the mirrors.

Josh got called up to the stage during one of the juggling shows.

The sea lions were fun to listen to and watch.

It was funny to watch this guy with the foreigners, who didn't understand that you had to pay if you wanted a picture with him.

This is inside the Musee Mecanique, which housed hundreds of antique arcade games.  Eli chose to play whac-a-mole.

This is the only picture we got of all of us together, and Eli decided to be a little silly.

We walked part of the way across the Golden Gate Bridge. 

On the second day of touring the city, we took a ferry from Alameda to San Fransisco.  Eli loved it, and it was much quicker than driving across the Bay Bridge.

Here we are in Chinatown.

The lady behind Eli is making fortune cookies.

Grant Street happens to be the main street of Chinatown.

We went to the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

Josh said he used to ride this carousel when he was younger.  It's located inside Golden Gate Park, and Eli chose to ride the ostrich.  Later Josh told us that he used to always choose the ostrich too.  It was actually Eli's second carousel ride since he also rode one at Pier 39.

They had some concrete slides in Golden Gate Park in which the kids rode down on a piece of cardboard.  Eli had a good time doing it.

A picture of the Bay Bridge at sunset.

We took so many pictures and there were so many more details I didn't add, but this will have to suffice.  We had a very enjoyable time, and I appreciate all the calls I got on my birthday.  I'm sorry I didn't answer most of them, but at least you now know I was having a good time. :-)