Around a month ago, we made a somewhat spur of the moment decision that we wanted to make a family trip to visit Ben and Emily in California. This is the second such trip we’ve taken with Ashley to go visit them. Last time we flew on Allegiant Air and it was a good experience, so we did the same flight again. It goes out on Friday morning and comes back on Monday mid day. This time we decided to get a rental car to give ourselves a little more flexibility. We ended up getting a Kia Soul. It’s a funny looking little car, but we actually really enjoyed driving it. I’ve driven quite a few rental cars on my travels around the country, and this was actually one of my favorite cars.
One of the really nice things that’s changed since the last time we made the trip is that Ben and Emily moved out of the little one bedroom apartment and into a nice house. Having a guest bedroom was a real enabler for the trip.
We flew into the Oakland airport and got the rental car. From there we headed north towards the Muir Woods National Monument. On the way there, Kathryn found a close by In-N-Out. It turns out it was brand new and had opened only the day before. It did not disappoint. In-N-Out in Utah is okay, but this one being in California, on a family vacation, and being very hungry, was fantastic! After our refuel, we continued on our way to the Muir Woods. It was a very scenic drive taking us over the impressive Richmond San Rafael Bridge and through the Mill Valley. It was fun to get out of the city and into a rural part of California. We really enjoyed walking around the park and learning about the history of the place and beautiful scenic views.
After enjoying the park, we made our way back down the mountain and South on the 101, across the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Francisco. Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge has been on my bucket list for a long time now. Last time we came to visit Ben and Emily, we had a really fun day in San Francisco. One of the fun things we did was go to the Cowgirl Creamery in the Ferry Building and get some fun cheese. We thought it would be fun to go some more of the cheese to enjoy with Ben and Emily since we were close by. We were close by in distance, but it took just shy of an hour to drive across town to the Ferry Building. (I am glad that I don’t have to deal with that kind of traffic here at home.) I dropped Kathryn off at the curb and she ran in and got the cheese while I circled around the loop with Ashley. With cheese in hand, it was time to finish the trip down to Ben and Emily’s house. Ashley was a real trooper and was a very good girl on the trip.
Hanging out with Ben and Emily was a lot of fun. We packed in a lot of fun activities in our weekend. One of the definite highlights was our trip to Los Gatos to canoe on the little lake they have. This was Ashley’s first time being out on the water. She was really cute in her huge life jacket, riding along in the canoe. She really liked dragging her hand in the water as we skimmed along. After canoeing, we went into the town and ate at a little restaurant where we tried Lobster Bisque for the first time. After watching Studio C and their funny skit about Lobster Bisque, we definitely had to try it. Between it and the red and white clam chowders we tried, it was the favorite.
One of the other fun things we did was visit several of the great parks Ben and Emily have near by. Ashley was a big fan of the swing. She thought it was so funny to swing with her arms tucked in. We also had a great time flying Ben’s quadcopters. We flew in his backyard a bunch and at the parks we went to. I have a quadcopter that the brothers gave me for my birthday last year that I’ve flown some, but I really got a lot better flying on this trip. I kinda got bit by the RC bug a little bit and bought a couple more quadcopters since getting home from the trip and have continued to practice flying.
We also ate some great food on the trip. We made homemade pizzas, had banana bread french toast with real maple syrup, and tried swordfish for the first time.
The trip home was as smooth as you can expect when traveling with an 18 month old. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. Thanks Ben and Emily for being amazing hosts!