A trip to San Francisco

Last week Natalie was going out of town for the week, so we planned on doing some activities around here on Tuesday and then heading for LA on Wednesday.  It was a toss up between Monterey and San Francisco.  Of course Andrew wanted to go to the aquarium and Claire wanted to go to a zoo.  So we compromised and sort of did both.  We headed to the California Academy of Sciences.  It has both zoo and aquarium animals to see.  We went there a couple of years ago around Thanksgiving, but the kids didn't seem to remember that.  Andrew used to be really into dinosaurs, so he liked the large T-Rex replica in the lobby.

Andrew really liked this huge sting ray in one of the aquariums. 

Checking out more fish.

I couldn't seem to get a picture of them looking at the albino alligator, but they thought it was really cool looking.

Grant liked getting up close to the fish in the aquarium. 

Claire was nervous to touch anything in the touching pool, but she finally touched it when Andrew did. 

In the amazon underwater forest. 

Claire would not pose for a picture up on the living roof.

Andrew and Danny went to an exhibit on earthquakes where you go into a house that actually shakes.  I took Claire and Grant into the play area for little kids.  I think that both of them could have stayed in there all day.  Claire was content to play kitchen on this boat.

A picture in front of the fountain outside.

Since we were so close, we decided to head over to the Golden Gate Bridge on the way home.  Andrew has been asking about going there for a while.  Here he is with Alcatraz in the distance.

A cross section of the cables. 

Yeah, a family picture!

Then we decided to walk onto the bridge.  Andrew really wanted them to do this, but Grant did not like the noise of the cars so I took Andrew and Claire. 

It was really windy on the bridge and we had to navigate all of the other walkers and the bikes.  Andrew wanted to go all the way across, but we didn't have time.  We asked a ranger and he said it was 1.7 miles across.  Maybe next time!

A view of the city on the way back.

I try so hard to get a picture of all of them looking at the camera.  I got pretty close this time. 

Once we got back in the car Grant fell asleep really quickly and we headed home to pack for our next adventure.