For those that don't know, Christy and I took the kids to San Francisco with our friends Bryce and Amanda, and their little girl Emmee. We loved every second of it. I took lots of pictures of all of our adventures. I tried to fit as many on our blog as I could, but I literally took about 500 pictures. Anyway, they won't all come up on this front page so be sure and look down the right hand side of our blog at the September archives to see more, like Alcatraz, muir woods, and jelly belly factory.

Our last day in San Francisco

we walked along the beach out to the pier that is right by the Golden Gate bridge. It was saturday, and so there were a lot of people out having fun.

The beach was lined with cool globes like this one and they each had some kind of "save the earth" theme.

Here we are pretty close to the Golden Gate Bridge. I was amazed at how big that bridge really is.
Here we are out on the end of the pier. The wind was blowing and it was a little chilly, but a lot of fun. There were a lot of people fishing and netting crabs, and Carter thought that was pretty cool.

more Winchester mystery mansion pics

This is me walking up one of the many cool, little stairways.

This is the organ in the "grand ballroom" of the house.
outside in the gardens

Winchester Mystery Mansion

On one of our days in California, we drove down to San Jose and visited the famous Winchester Mystery Mansion. "In 1884, a wealthy widow named Saray L. Winchester began a construction project of such magnitude that it was to occupy the lives of carpenters and craftsmen until her death thirty-eight years later. The Victorian mansion, designed and built by the Winchester Rifle heiress, is filled with so many unexplained oddities, that it has come to be known as the Winchester Mystery House."
"Sarah Winchester built a home that is an architectural marvel. Unlike most homes of its era, this 160-room Victorian mansion had modern heating and sewer systems, gas lights that operated by pressing a button, three working elevators, and 47 fireplaces. From rambling roofs and exquisite hand inlaid parquet floors to the gold and silver chandeliers and Tiffany art glass windows, you will be impressed by the staggering amount of creativity, energy, and expense poured into each and every detail."

Here is one of the crazy doors in the Winchester Mystery Mansion. You can see that it is only about 4 feet tall. Everywhere we went there were weird doors and windows just like this one.
This was Sarah Winchester's bed. This is where she was found when she died.
Bryce and Emmee coming through a doorway

Here is the famous door to nowhere.

Coit Tower

Coit Tower is a tower that was built as a tribute to firefighters. That is why it was built to look like a giant fire nozzle. It stands high up on the hill overlooking San Francisco. We had a lot of fun visiting it. We actually didn't go to the top, because it costs 5 dollars a person, but we got to see everything else.

Christy & Calee sitting with Amanda & Emmee
Carter and Cambree playing around at one of the lookouts
This is looking out at Alcatraz from the steps at the bottom of Coit Tower.

Lombard Street (The crookedest street in the world)

Here is a view of Lombard Street from the top.
Here I am at the bottom of Lombard Street.
We were amazed at how beautiful Lombard street was.
Here is Bryce & Amanda (in the grey Honda Civic) coming down.
Here we are (in our red pathfinder) coming down. We actually drove down it several times. It was a lot of fun. One time when there was no one in front of me, I tried coasting and scared the crap out of Christy and the kids.

Cambree's first pearl

We stopped at the pearl factory shop at Fisherman's Wharf and got Cambree her first pearl. She had fun picking out an oyster and watching them crack it open. All of the women that work there are Hawaiian, and they were all so cute with Cambree. We all had to say "Aloha" to the pearl and then they rang a bell a bunch of times. They then cleaned the pearl, drilled a hole in it, and put a stud in it so Cambree can where it on a necklace. It was a lot of fun.

Fisherman's Wharf

Here is a picture of the "Famous" Fisherman's Wharf sign
There are all kinds of cool statues along Fisherman's wharf. I just had to get my picture taken by the Fireman, and Carter wanted his by the Police Officer.

I always call Cambree a "little monkey" so we just had to take her picture on this monkey bench
These guys were awesome. They would stand totally and completely still until someone put money in their cup and then they would do robotic movements and dump the money from the cup into the metal can on the ground. Then they would go right back to the same position and stand totally still again. The kids thought that they were pretty cool.