Sunday, April 29, 2012

The City


We were definitely due for a weekend excursion.  It was time to get away from the apartment for a bit and explore our surroundings.  On Friday night Dan and I were trying to decide what to do.  I had done some research on Santa Cruz so we thought it would be fun to visit the beach…our favorite place to be.  Dan woke us all up on Saturday morning…bright and early….to get ready to leave.  He even packed all the girls’ clothes and packed the beach bag.  Now I know how to motivate Dan to get up and get moving in the morning….send him to the beach (or the mountains).  Typically on family vacations my husband is the last one out of the house (right Donatini family??), so it was fun to see him begging for me and the girls to get moving.  We all lingered in bed while he packed us, and I really enjoyed it.  Anyway, back to our adventure.  The day started off great and we were on the road by 8:30 am.  Santa Cruz is about an hour and a half away.  We arrived there and saw a cute little beach town and a boardwalk with fun rides.  The girls were pretty excited.  The only negative part was the air and water temperature.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, but the air was so cold.  We stayed on the beach and explored for about an hour and decided that was enough.  Dan and I have also decided that we don’t like sand anymore when we are carting around three kids, a stroller, snacks, and all the other things that kids bring along with them.  It is just too much work.  Now if it were a warm day with warm water we might have a better attitude about that.  We still love the beach, but not so much with all the kids.  So we headed back to the boardwalk and let the kids each pick a ride.  Mya chose the swings and rode with Dan and I took Sara on the sky ride.  It is always such a joy to see their faces when they are having fun.  I love to see them laugh and get excited.  So precious! 

The second half of our excursion was driving to “the city.”  San Francisco was our destination and it was an experience.  The drive was beautiful…we drove the coastal highway to the Golden Gate bridge.  The ocean was breathtaking.  Then we spent some time at the lookout points for the bridge.  Once that touristy activity was done, we decided to drive to Lombard Street with the super curvy road…8 curves to be exact.  But en route to this street we came upon the very steep roads of San Francisco.  Our stomachs were a bit (okay…really) nervous climbing these streets in our car and then going down them.  We are not optimistic about our brakes being in very good shape by the time we get home (sorry Marky….that’s our mechanic).  We are afraid he might wonder what we have done to our car this past year due to all the mountain driving and the one curb that I drove over (which knocked some meaningless plastic cover off the bottom of the car).  Now I am getting sidetracked….so after the steep hills, we regrouped and found the curvy road.  I was the navigator, of course, and got us a little lost, but we did find it.  Wow!  What a sight!  There are 8 curves and it is a single lane road…one way.  The road is set on a very steep hill and beautiful townhouses are on both sides of the street.  The turns are narrow and tight and surrounded by gorgeous green landscaping.  The best part was our three girls in the back seat who had their windows down and yelled “hi” to all the tourists taking pictures.  Driving on that street made us feel like we were in a parade.  It was congested with cars and tourists. 

And finally, we parked at Fisherman’s Wharf and took the kids to Joe’s Crab Shack.  Dan and I had seafood and the kids had….pizza.  And we got a free dessert because they took too long to get our meal to us…and we didn’t even complain about it.  Then we headed home and bathed the whole family.  Good times!

Beach pictures....








Amusement park pictures....





Golden Gate Bridge pictures....
















Curvy road pictures....




3 comments:

  1. This looks awesome! Miss you guys so much! I am glad you guys are able to do and see such cool sights. Love you!

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  2. I miss Cali!!! But can't wait til you come home. Maybe if Brad,Leslie and I go back next year, you guys can go with us!!

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  3. Julie, You and Dan soooo need to geocache while you are out there! www.geocaching.com (if you have a smartphone). Check it out! Michelle Arron

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