San Fran!

Our final leg of our vacation was San Francisco. Notice I didn't say "sunny" San Fran...cause it was cold most of the trip - but that's okay - we were facing 95 degrees at home, so we didn't mind the chilly air. Our time in San Francisco started on Saturday, June 13th. We got there around 2:00 in the afternoon and we headed straight to downtown - specifically, the museum district. Our first adventure was figuring out how to get where we needed to be without making a left turn - apparently, those aren't allowed. The traffic was insane! There are electric buses and trolley cars that have taken over the road and a hundred million cars going in every direction (except left turns). We finally found a parking lot and headed out on foot. Our first stop was the Cartoon Art Museum. This small building housed comics and cartoons dating from way back to current day. It was interesting to see the different artwork - especially for Matt because he is a comic book fanatic! We ventured next over to the Zeum. This place was so much fun! The Zeum is a technology filled children's museum. Here you can create claymation videos, graphic artwork and music videos, as well as, a host of other really cool things. We focused on claymation and music. The pic above of Jack and Matt singing "Folsom Prison Blues". There was a green screen behind them and the video had a background. We brought home a dvd of all their videos. It was truly a fun experience. We hung around downtown some before checking into our hotel. I found a local diner and ordered food to go. We chilled out in our beautiful hotel suite (they upgraded us for free!) and enjoyed an evening before our busy next day. Sunday morning was brisk and beautiful. We got up early to enjoy Sunday service with our sister church in San Francisco. They were meeting in an outdoor amphitheater on the south side of San Fran. As we were walking into the service, we saw one of my good good friends (Paige Walters) from way back. She and her family moved from Houston to California about 9 years ago. I was hoping I'd see her that day. We sat with them and all the kids really hit it off. We made plans to hang out with them the next day. After an inspirational service of "Dreams", we grabbed lunch via a drive-thru and headed way north to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. It was fairly uncrowded and we enjoyed an afternoon of crazy rollercoasters and churros! Yummy! Exhausted from a day outside, we headed back to the hotel and relaxed. Monday morning started us early at Union Square. We had 9:00 reservations to rent "Go Cars". See the pic above of Matt and Bill. These little "moped" motored cars sat two people and were GPS guided tours around the city. I was scared to death to drive this thing (remember the crazy SF traffic?). We were driving in the same lanes! But, after a few blocks, it was easier and we thoroughly enjoyed this special tour of the city. We drove all along Fisherman's Wharf, by the huge Baseball Stadium and back through Chinatown. Yes...people were pointing and laughing...but it was a blast. Now, we had to wear helmets and my hair was never quite the same the rest of the day. The next plan on the list was to ride the infamous Trolley Car down to the wharf. We purchased our tickets then went to the line. Let me just tell you that the line for the Trolley Cars was wrapped around a couple blocks. It was going to take forever to get on this "ride"...so we asked some locals which direction to the water. They inquired if we were walking and we said "yes". They said "it's a long way and it's half way up hill". We thought, "we're up for the adventure"! So we headed towards the water. The walk was awesome! We had just climbed up mountains in Yosemite, we can handle the crazy streets of San Fran. Well, 27 blocks later, we were at the wharf! Remember it was chilly outside, so we survived. It was fantastic and we felt like such adventurous people. Once at the wharf we jumped on the boat and got a fantastic tour of the bay. We saw Alcatraz, the bridges, the islands and learned so much about the city of San Francisco. We loved it. See the pic of Matt and me with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Oh...did I mention it was cold. We made it back to shore where we went to Pier 39. We ate at a yummy restaurant on the water called the "Wipeout Grill". The pic above of Jack and Matt is at the table. Now some of the tables were surfboards - we couldn't get one of those, but we had a great view of the bay. The food was delicious!! Next on the agenda was the Aquarium - "I know - how many aquariums can one family visit while on vacation?" But, we had to go to an aquarium on the bay - it seemed only natural. This aquarium was really nice and we enjoyed the shark exhibits a lot. The pic above is Matt touching starfish. They were quite beautiful and squishier then you'd think. We had tickets for a 4:30 trolley tour around the city, so we had some time to kill before that began. We just hung around the main street at the wharf - there were street performers all up and down and they were quite entertaining. One that drew a lot of attention was "Frisco Fred". He did magic and was really funny. Bill was even pulled into the show and if you know Bill, he just loves that kind of attention :) Jack got to help, too. Our trolley arrived and we had the most enjoyable tour guide who drove that giant trolley around those crazy streets. We saw places in SF that we never knew were there and were grateful we found this specific tour. Now it's about 5:30 and we need to head back to our car by 7:00 pm in order to get the better rate on parking. We still needed to go to Ghiradelli Square for chocolate and ride the Trolley Car back (so we thought). Matt and I went for the chocolate ice cream, while Jack and Bill got in the crazy long line. We realized quickly that there was no way we would make it back by 7:00, so we needed to figure out plan B. We were at least 34 blocks away from our car and by now it's 6:15. Walking was not an option either. So, we asked some questions and walked two blocks to the bus stop. We hopped on bus #30 that would bring us pretty close to our car. This was quite an adventure as well - that bus driver was crazy as he swerved and dodged cars. He picked up all of Chinatown on one stop and we were so crammed in on the bus, that even when we got to our stop, we weren't sure if we could get off...but we did and it was a blast. Our kids are so amazing - they just go along with it as we figure it all out. We managed to get to the car with 25 minutes to spare - no problem! We got back to our hotel in plenty of time to await our guests - remember my friend, Paige? Well, she and her family came over for dinner and swimming. The kids swam and the grown-ups caught up. It was so encouraging! We didn't want them to leave - it's so great to have friends all over - especially friends that you can just pick up where you left off and it's like you were never apart. I loved it. She has a daughter who a few months older than Jack - they've been texting ever since :) Anyway...bedtime again - we had our final day still to come. We woke up Tuesday morning and packed all of our stuff we've accumulated along the way. We headed back over to the wharf for our tour of Alcatraz. The prison tour started off with the ferry ride over to the island, then a self-guided audio tour of the buildings. We really enjoyed seeing all the cells and the accommodations and hearing the stories. Now, we need to watch the move "The Rock" again :) Once this tour was over we ate at the famous "Boudins" for lunch. Matt and I got the Crab Macaroni and Cheese. Oh, it was mighty fine! We bought some souveniers and headed back to the car. Our final event for the trip was finding Lombard street - the most famous street in the world (I don't know about that - but it was really cool!). We drove to the top and swivelled our way down. I took video of it - you can see our drive down by clicking "play" below. We also drove down the steepest grade in all of SF - Filbert Street. 31% grade. It was so exciting. I cannot believe how they built homes and office buildings on these steep streets...but it sure looks cool to see the angles.

We now only had a short amount of time to refuel the rental van and head to the airport. We arrived and waited for our flight. The trip was over 3 1/2 hours coming home, but we made it safe and sound. The 12 days away as a family was truly a blessed time and we are all grateful for the memories and the experiences we had. Thanks for reading about our trip and being our friends and family. We're grateful to have you in our lives. We look forward to a fabulous summer with adventures that include all of you.

Yosemite National Park

We are now officially on day 7 of our vacation - June 10th. We made this our travel day as we drove from Los Angeles to outside of Yosemite National Park. We stopped in a cute little town called Mariposa, California. Mariposa in Spanish means butterfly. There were painted butterflies everywhere! We stayed the night at a nice little hotel and walked around the town getting our dinner to go. I went to the local grocery store to purchase the items we needed once we got to the park. Our condo in Yosemite had a full kitchen, so that was nice to be able to actually eat "at home". We chilled out in our room til we headed to bed. Bright and early Thursday morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the park. We entered the west gate around 8:45 am. The lines were short, so that was nice. We first started out by just driving to the visitor center to ask questions and plan our day. We hiked over to The Awahnee Hotel - it was big and beautiful with huge ceilings and fireplaces. It was quite a sight. We then drove around on the valley floor - getting acquainted with where everything was. We drove the loop again and stopped along the route. Our first stop was El Capitan. There is a picture of it above. This "rock" was spectacular. We stayed at the base and took gobs of pictures. It was awesome. We headed down the road to a nice "turnout" where we were right at the Merced River and directly in front of us was Bridal Veil Falls. This is one of the smaller falls, but so beautiful. We parked here and had a little picnic. The river was flowing quickly as the mountains still had snow and it was melting away. After our picnic we were ready to tackle a trail. We started to drive over to the Sentinal Dome Trailhead, but stopped at the famous "tunnel view". The picture above with the whole family has the view in the background. After this photo opportunity, we continued over to the trailhead. All four of us started up the decent to the top of the Sentinal Dome. Now...the actual distance was only 1.8 miles - which isn't much when it's flat...but this trail was pretty much straight up! One of the pics above is Matt and Bill walking up the rocks. Do you notice our long sleeves? Yes...it was cold!! That was actually nice because we were hiking up a mountain...but it was cold. Our legs were so red! Okay...once we got to the top, the view was unbelievable. The pains in the legs were well worth it. We could see everything - El Capitan, the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, and the famous Half Dome. The pic of all 4 of us above shows Half Dome between us. The wind was blowing hard! We stayed on top of this dome for awhile. We just didn't want to leave. We also met the neatest people along the way. There was a mom with her son from Houston - in fact, every place we went, there were people from Texas. I guess we all wanted away from the Texas heat. Okay...it was time to head back, but Bill and Jack decided to hike over to the top of Glacier Point. Matt and I went back to the car and drove it over to meet Bill and Jack. Of course, this was another beautiful view - until it started to rain. It rained just enough to get us wet and make us colder - but we found out that this was typical of a Yosemite afternoon. After this adventure, we decided to check into our condo. It was pretty close to Glacier Point (so to speak) and we dragged in all of our luggage and took a little break. I made a quick dinner, then we headed back out. We went to the famous Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. See the pic of Jack and Matt trying to wrap their arms around them? The trees were really pretty. Sadly, there had been some fires and a lot of the trees were burned and lying on the ground. We went back to the condo after a very long day of hiking and exploring and hit the sack. Friday would come quicker than we would want. Morning came and our adventure continued. Jack and Bill decided they would hike up to the top of Upper Yosemite Falls - this was a 3.5 mile hike straight up a mountain. Matt and I dropped them off early to begin their hike. They brought a backpack and fanny pack full of water and food. Later we found out they ate and drank it all! Matt and I headed over to Bridal Veil Falls and we hiked over to the base of the falls. Again, we got wet and cold, but took a bunch of pics. We slowly walked back to the car, taking in the views all around us. We then headed over to the swinging bridge - this bridge went over the Merced River. There were tons of brave folks rafting down the river. Matt put his fingers in and shivered. Can't imagine falling into that ice bath. Anyway...we wandered around the valley floor and then headed over to Curry Village for lunch. Curry Village is where all the tent cabins and RVs can park. It was packed full of people. It made me very grateful for our quiet condo far away from the hub of the valley. We ordered the smallest, yet most expensive pizza I've ever eaten and caught the Valley Shuttle over to Happy Isle Nature Center. Matt was signed up for a Junior Ranger Walk - this was a fun little mile walk around the top of the Merced River where Matt was chosen to be the assistant along the way. They were taught a lot about Ecosystems and Producers, Consumers and Decomposers. Afterwards, Matt got his Junior Ranger book signed since he had completed all the requirements. He was awarded a patch and pin and is now an official Junior Ranger at Yosemite! Bill and Jack had just finished climbing to the top of the Falls - we got a text - woo hoo!. The pic above of Jack is at the top. They stayed up there awhile and had a picnic lunch and took a little nap before their trip down. When we got the call that they were almost done, Matt and I drove over to pick them up. By this time, it was dinner time and we headed back to our condo. We made dinner and played a family game of Yahtzee. I'm pretty sure that Jack won. Falling asleep was pretty easy and the morning came once again. Now, it's Saturday, June 13th and it's time to pack the suitcases all over again. We loaded up the van and started the final leg of our trip - to San Francisco. Yosemite was absolutely beautiful and being able to spend some time in this awe-inspiring place was the highlight of our trip.

Lovely Los Angeles

So, after San Diego, we headed to Los Angeles. We woke up super early on Sunday morning and started our drive north to L.A. Our first stop with visiting our sister church in Long Beach. We found the location and followed the crowds. The service was amazing from the singing to the sermon. We are so grateful we were able to worship with them. After church, we headed to the Aquarium in Long Beach. This was probably our favorite aquarium ever. Having it located directly on the beach, probably pushed it to the top of our list. The exhibits and the animals were beautiful. A lot of the stuff to see was outside and of course the weather was perfect. In one of the pics above, you see Matt and Bill touching the sting rays. It was great. After the aquarium, we went to on a Harbor Boat Cruise. The view was amazing...but the surprise for me was how industrial L.A. is. The piers and the docks were full of boats and carriers and cranes and industry. So much military as well. It went on for miles. After the boat tour, we made a mad dash to Santa Monica Pier. This place was bizaar! This pier was full of restaurants and people selling the most random stuff like words written in chinese art. But we saw this Japanese man make the most realistic clay sculptures of people's faces. It was completely fascinating. We rode the boardwalk rides and ate funnel cakes and listened to the street performers. The beach was beautiful! We also saw the new summer lifeguards in matching bathing suits doing their practice drills. That was pretty cool. We finally decided to find our hotel and check-in. We ordered pizza for delivery and Matt swam in the pool. We slept well that night. Monday morning came early and we hit Hollywood Blvd. This was our day to be a true tourist. As we drove to our first tour, we saw a sign for I-10 East. We had to drive on it and, of course, take a picture. Now why is this significant? Well..cause this was the exact spot that Interstate 10 begins - we were there - exit 1. This same freeway would get us home to Texas (if we were crazy enough to drive it all that way). It goes til it hits Florida. We thought this was pretty cool. Okay...back to our touristy day. We took a walking tour that showed us around Hollywood on foot. We saw the Kodak Theater (where the Academy Awards take place), we saw Grauman's Chinese theater (see pic of all of us together), we saw the Hollywood sign (see the pic of the boys with the sign in the far distance - and no, the boys were not listening to music - the headphones were from the tour guide. We could hear everything he said without having to stay super close - we loved it!) He took us down the Walk of Fame and we saw many stars' names. He took us to the Egytian Theater and so many of the hip Hollywood spots. We heard many stories where famous things took place. It was really really fun. Above is a photo of Bill and the boys on the famous corner of Hollywood and Vine. Just thought that was fun. Our next stop was the hokey Wax Museum. Now that was pretty "weird"...but we just had to go in. Now for a really fun surprise. While we were there, Kyra Sedgwick of "The Closer" was getting her star on the Walk of Fame. I was so excited - why....cause she's married to Kevin Bacon!!! And yes...he was there. I have proof - see the pic above. That's him and we were standing about 20 feet from him - of course there was a huge crowd of people inbetween us, but oh well. Jack managed to get this great picture of him. Thanks, Jack! Then, off to another tour - this one on a double decker bus. It went all around Hollywood. We saw stars' homes and learned a lot about the history of L.A. and Hollywood. It was fun. Again...we had to do it. Okay...after that tour, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to Universal Studios. The crowds were light, so we were able to ride all the rides and catch the Studio Movie Tour. It was fun - we saw a bunch of sets from several movies as well as, from Heroes (Matt's favorite show) and from Desperate Housewives (which was actually filming earlier that day). We grabbed some food at Universal City Walk and bought some chocolate at the Chocolate Loco store (featured on the Food Network) and headed back to our hotel. Whew...we're not done yet! Tuesday was Movie Studio Tour day. We went to Sony Studios first - this was a walking tour and loads of fun. We saw a bunch of sets and saw how they create these big houses with just walls and floors. It was fascinating. We explored the set of Jeopardy and saw their brand new stage for the new season (no pictures allowed). We met the casting director who's been with Jeopardy for over 20 years - crazy!! We grabbed quick bite to eat and headed over to Paramount Studios. This tour was especially fun! We had a great tour guide and he took us around on an 8 seater golf cart thingee...very cool. He told us some funny stories about older stars. We saw the sets of lots of shows that were familiar to Bill and me from our childhood and teen years. Pretty fun. But, the best part of the tour was seeing one of our favorite shows actually being filmed - "Monk". The shows' star, Tony Shaloob, was right there (well across the street and sort of behind a building), but he was there. They were filming a scene where he was rearranging some flowers that were not straight - we saw it done about 4 times. We saw the "extras" and all the people that are involved in the process. The boys really thought this was cool! (so did Bill and me!) After the tour was over...we went through the Guiness World Records museum and ate dinner at Greco's Pizza. I had the lasagna...it was pretty tasty. You'd think our day was over, but no! We had one more thing to do - watch a movie at the famous El Capitan Theater right on Hollywood Blvd. This place was over-the-top! Absolutely beautiful from outside to inside. This theater is owned by Disney and only shows one Disney or Pixar movie at a time. So, we saw "Up" in 3D. Above is a photo of Matt and me with our 3D glasses on. It was the best movie theater experience in my life (well...it should be at $16 a ticket!) But...before the show, there is a man who plays the organ - it was beautiful and very entertaining. He does a 30 minute performance (well you get there early enough to get good seats). After that, the curtain opens and the previews start - you think the movie is about to begin, but it doesn't...there is a live singing and dancing show with actors and all the Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, etc.) It was so fun! The movie finally started and it was so good! I just loved this memory...so much fun! Okay...now back to our hotel and a good nights sleep. Wednesday morning comes and it's time to pack our stuff. We ate a big breakfast at Denny's and headed over to the Page Museum where the La Brea Tarpits are. This place is so cool (and stinky). They are still getting bones and fossils out of this pit today. It's a working museum where actual digs and reconstruction was going on. The boys loved it. Our L.A. vacation was over now and we headed northeast up to Yosemite National Park. That's where the next 3 days will take place. I'll post about it later. If you're still reading this, then you are truly my friend. Thanks for traveling with us on my blog. See you soon!

Sunny San Diego

Summer is here and our vacation started as soon as school was out! Actually, we left on the last day of school. It wasn't planned that way - we booked our tickets and hotels months ago - but our school year was extended a day because of a "flood day". Only in Houston....

Anyway - we started our 12 day vacation in Sunny San Diego. Our plane landed on Thursday, June 4th at 10:30. We got our rental car and were on the beach by 11:30 am. We wandered around, found a hole-in-the-wall place called "Zo Zo's Pizza" for lunch. It was awesome! The weather was chilly, even slightly cold. We had reservations for a "surfing" lesson at 2:00 at the Wave House. This place was so amazing! Watching others surf and boogie board was kind of scary...but wearing a wetsuit in front of all the onlookers was even scarier! But...I survived. The wetsuit kept us warm and we had a blast! Bill and Matt really got the hang of it. I stayed on the boogie board :) After our surfing session, we headed over to La Jolla and rented two kayaks. We took those boats out into the Pacific Ocean!! It was so intense. Jack and I had a kayak and Bill and Matt had one. We paddled out to the 7 Caves of La Jolla where hundreds of sea lions just lounge on the rocks. We paddled about 15 feet from there. They just laid there and watched us. We took gobs of pictures, but they are on one of those waterproof cameras that we actually have to get developed. I'll post those pics later. Then we paddled to where these gorgeous orange fish just swim all under you. They were so pretty. After that, we paddled over to where 8 foot leopard sharks gather. We were sad that we couldn't find them...Matt was not sad that we couldn't find them :) We ended that day with dinner at Jeff's Burgers where Jack swears he ate "the best bacon cheeseburgers and fries in his entire life!" Bill and I think he was just really really hungry. We checked into our hotel and slept pretty soundly.

Friday morning came early and we headed to the San Diego Zoo! It's just as amazing as you have been told. The animals were so alert and entertaining. I suppose the weather makes them want to be outside as well. We saw the entire zoo by 4:00 pm. We were exhausted...but the day wasn't over. We headed over to a Railroad Museum on our list, but it had closed early. We were bummed, but we went next door to the San Diego Museum of Natural History. We imagined we were in the movie "Night at the Museum". It was fun. I drank the biggest Mocha Iced Coffee in my life. We went to In N Out Burger for dinner and headed back to our hotel.

Saturday morning started us at the Harbor. We took a boat cruise around the San Diego Harbor. It was amazing! We learned a lot about the history of the harbor and saw some incredible ships and piers. Again...the weather was perfect! After the cruise, we headed over to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park. This was similiar to the Zoo, but the animal were roaming more together. We took the train tour around the Heart of Africa and saw some really cool animals. There were lots of new babies at the park...that was fun to see. After the animal park, we headed over to Legoland. Legoland is geared more for younger kids, but we sure did enjoy all those giant sculptures made out of legos. Jack thought it would be cool to have that job!

That was our 3 days in San Diego. We packed as much as we could in those 3 days....but it was amazing and indescribable. Next stop is Los Angeles. I'll post about it soon. Hope ya'lls summer is going great!

Matt's 5th Grade Graduation

This morning was quite an eventful experience! Matt crossed the stage and got his "certificate of completion" of elementary school. He was so handsome and so excited. What we didn't know was how many awards this guy was going to bring home. Matt participated in many different "extra" activities at school. He was recognized for being in the school choir, for being an anchor for the PSE morning news and for participating in the 5th grade track meet. The first individual award was for the student who made all A's on every report card and all E's on conduct. Matt won this "distinguished honor roll" award - he was the only one!! He also won the Principal's Honor Roll (all A average in each class), Perfect Attendance for all of 5th grade, Good Citzenship Award, and the President's Gold Academic Excellence Award (all A's for 5th and 4th grade). He stood proud (as he should have). He worked so hard to earn these achievements. We're grateful for both boys and how special they are.
Now...we are excited about a family vacation to regroup after a long school year. We'll post pictures from Sunny California.