San Francisco trip

 Alex had a business trip in San Francisco last week, so we decided to go with him.  It was the first time we've joined him and maybe the last?  I'm not sure Alex will want to take us with him again...   it wouldn't have been so bad if Nathan and Owen hadn't gotten sick (puking) the first 2 days.  Anyway, we planned on driving the scenic coastal highway on Monday to get there, but most of it was completely foggy.  And on the return trip on Saturday it was about the same.  Bummer.  But we did get a few peek throughs during the afternoon and a beautiful sunset.  We loved this little waterfall, and the other hike involved a tunnel so the boys were really excited to use their flashlights. 

 One of the evenings we ventured out into the city (our hotel was downtown and we weren't very comfortable walking around alot - for the most part, it seemed like the city just had a bad spirit about it).  Anyway, we ate at a place called Mel's Drive-in.  The boys loved eating their burger and fries out of a cardboard car and the balloons on the way out was also a hit.  We enjoyed the lights of the city and saw a huge Christmas tree in one of the stores. 

 Owen's birthday fell during the middle of the week, and on Alex's busiest day, so I took the boys out to the Aquarium of the Bay and Pier 39.  We even took the public transit to get to and from (yes, I'll take the "way to go" and "you're a supermom" for this... because it was so hard to do by myself).  But it was Owen's birthday, so we had to get out.  We ate at Hard Rock Cafe for lunch and ended up sharing the $12 nachos (have the burgers always been $22 at Hard Rock??  - wow.)  The boys had fun I think.

Here's a few other things from our trip (minus the one in the post to follow).  We wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but again it was foggy and rainy.  We stopped by the Oakland temple and saw the Christmas lights and nativity.  We made a quick stop to a lighthouse and a stop at the beach on the way home.  The beach wasn't planned, but became necessary after a little mishap driving.  As we were heading out of San Francisco, we were driving past some cars parked along the side.  All of a sudden, we whacked into something.  I thought for sure we had hit a pedestrian.  We immediately pulled over and discovered we had only hit an opening car door.  Just bad timing.  No one was hurt and there was no damage to the other vehicle.  The only damage was the driver side mirror, which shattered.  However, my mind had already told my body we had hit someone, so I went into a mild shock and started hyperventilating.  It took a while for me to calm down and start breathing right again.  Thus the stop at the beach.  The boys didn't mind playing around while I tried to recover.