San Francisco

After spending a few days in Yosemite it was on to San Francisco!

The drive was fairly uneventful, though we enjoyed driving by all of the nut orchards. It was harvest time for pistachios and almonds. We ended up stopping at a farm and buying a bag of each. Yum!

Sean scored us a deal on a sweet hotel in downtown San Francisco and it was close to everything. The trolly stopped one block away and there was an enormous mall right across the street (with the biggest Nordstrom I've ever seen) :)

Waiting for the Trolly:

Fisherman's Wharf:

Oh crab... how I wish I could eat you!

Of course we had to go here:

Where we stopped here:

So we could eat this! mmmmm...

Jackson was pretty fascinated by how the chocolate was made.

He was also fascinated with chasing the pigeons.

Somehow we lucked out with amazing weather. When I think of San Francisco I usually think of it being cold and windy. Temperatures were in the 80's the entire time we were there!

We took a ferry trip around Acatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge. We had headphones and listened to little tidbits about the history of San Francisco. We all loved it.

Alcatraz

View of the city:

This is the only picture we got of the whole family in front of the bridge-- Jackson was more interested in running around the boat than posing with his parents.

Checking out the seals at Pier 39:

Merry-go-Round at Pier 39:

Where we ate dinner at Fisherman's Wharf:

The food was awesome. We looked at reviews before heading down there and we were not disappointed. We had to laugh because usually people eat clam chowder when they visit San Francisco. We are a bit of an oddity though since I couldn't eat it because I am allergic to shellfish and Sean couldn't eat it because there was flour in the soup. He ended up getting shrimp (which I can't eat) and I ended up getting pasta (which he can't eat) It was a good compromise I think! ;) Not to be forgotten, Jackson must have been starving that night because he ate every single bit of his macaroni and cheese (and it was not small) and then started digging into my dinner! I think I could live off of the sourdough bread alone.

Day 2

View from our hotel window:

Watching cartoons after waking up:

After we got going we walked a few blocks over to a place called Sear's Fine Foods. I guess they are sort of known for their breakfast. The atmosphere was cool and we all loved our food.

Of course we had to take a trip down Lombard street:

Jackson was asleep when we took this one:

We also went through Golden Gate Park and drove over to Sausalito for lunch. We finished our day with dinner at an awesome pizza place called Amici's. They had gf crust for Sean, which he said was really good. They bake their pizza in stone hearths and it was some of the best pizza I've had. Sorry for the play-by-play of everywhere we ate, but I want to remember them for when we go back!

The next morning we stopped at the ferry building marketplace before heading for home. I bought a sourdough round (which I consumed nearly entirely on my own for the next week) and Sean bought some yummy gf cinnamon rolls and focaccia bread from a bakery there. We made a quick stop at my uncle's in Sacramento and then bid adieu to the sunshine state.

I'm so glad we had the chance to take a family vacation. We had such a great time exploring and spending time together.

And guess what was waiting for us in the mail when we got home-- Sean's wallet! Some nice guy found it and mailed it to us :)