Christmas in the City

I waited until I got our Christmas cards out to post this post.  The first weekend in December was our family vacation to San Fransisco.  It was the most fun over nighter vacation I think we have ever gone on.  It was perfect and I think will become an annual trip.  I was waiting for the most perfect time to take our family picture and this was it!!  Our weekend started off by going to Hayward on Friday 12/4.  We visited with grandma and grandpa.  We enjoyed Hawaiian BBQ, playing games and watching Home Alone 2 together.  We stayed there that night.  Saturday 12/5 we woke up really early to get a head start on our SF vacation.  Grandpa dropped us off at Bart and then we were off.  Right when we made it to the platform the Bart pulled up.  (This was the beginning of everything going our way that day!!)

 Our first stop was to the Hilton to drop off our luggage.  We arrived very early and thought we would be just dropping off the suitcase's in a storage room until check in time but since we had kids they were so sweet and got us a room all ready that early.

 Then we headed down to take the cable car to take a ride to Fisherman's wharf.  I really wanted a family cable car picture.  We ended up finding one parked and asked the conductor to take our picture he ended up being a photographer on the side and snapped some great picture, again just perfect!

After our photo shoot he let the kids ring the bell and we got a personal tour of the cable car.  San Fransisco holds a very special part of my heart.  My family has been born and raised in San Fransisco for 10 generations.  My kids are actually 11 generation Californians so that is pretty amazing.  When we were playing on the cable car I couldn't help but think about all my family members that probably went on these cable cars to and from work so long ago.

We then waited our turn to board the cable car.  Aubrey and dad went to get hot chocolate while Carter climbed on anything possible and I visited with a family from Chicago.

 It was a fun trip up and down the hills of San Fransisco.

When we arrived at Fisherman's Wharf we were greeted with clear Sky's and a beautiful view of the Golden Gate.  I was blown away by what a beautiful day we were blessed with.

The kids loved the open grassy area and ran and ran.  We also met a cute dog that they played with.

 We ran into a cable car tug a war competition which was fun to watch. 

 Then we walked to a really interesting looking Pier with lots of ships.  One being a Private ship that the kids were very excited about.  We found out that it was a National park exhibit.  Kids were free to tour all the ships so we bought tickets for Spencer and I and started exploring these huge amazing ships.

 It was fun to stumble upon this.  We all loved learning about the ships.  We watched a neat movie about cargo and what it was like 100 years ago.

We were all get getting hungry by this point.  We were all craving clam chowder bread bowls.  so we decided on our favorite Boudin.  When we walked into the restaurant they had the most prefect Santa seating there.  There was no line just a happy Santa's helper inviting the kids over to sit on his lap.  It was the cutest most perfect Santa interaction.  We could take as many pictures as we want (for free!!)  He was so jolly and fun with the kids.

There also was a concert pianist playing Christmas music in the background.

We went up stairs to put our name in and they said it would be a 20 minute wait and if we wanted we could tour their bread museum while we waited.  How perfect for a restaurant to offer an activity while you wait.  It was interesting seeing bread made in super bulk amounts.

Right when we finished with the museum our pager rang and our table was ready. 

I'm so excited that Aubrey shares our love for clam chowder too.  Her turtle bread bowl was the cutest!!

Carter went with what he was more fimilar with-mac and cheese.

Spencer and I shared a bread bowl and the best shrimp, fish, and chips lunch ever!

After our tummies were full we headed out for some tourest site seeing.  The kids loved the silver guy.

He gave the kids candy which was nice but I made sure to toss it after they handed it to me.

A huge crowd surronding some break dancers caught our attention.

This was the only strange uncomfortable part of the trip.  The break dancing was cool and the kids were excited so we stayed to watch for a little bit.  Then they started picking volunteers.  I swear we must have a sign on us that says to pick from our family because they always do.  They picked Spencer so he went in the middle.  Then the 3 dancers talked about how this was their job and by doing this it was keeping them off the streets and away from drugs.  They then stated that they were going to do a big trick but before the trick they wanted the audience to pay for the show.  They went around the circle with huge Home Depot buckets bagging for money I felt bad so I gave $5.  They would turn off the music when people gave them more money to so shoot outs.  Some families gave $20 one family gave $70!!!! It was a little much and I didn't like how they were forcing people to pay.  I wanted to walk away but Spencer was stuck in the middle.  It was just a weird situation.  I was also stressed since we had Ice Skating reservations in 30min.  Well they ended up doing their crazy flip over 5 people (one being Spencer) and it was done.

We then hurried to grab a taxi to take us back over to Union Square for ice skating.  We first did a stop at the Fairmont to see the Christmas decorations.

Then we checked in for our Ice Skating reservations.  Boy was I happy I booked that a week prior to our trip.  It was completely sold out all weekend long.  Spencer decided that he was going to be the watcher and take the pictures.  It was a bit tricky skating with both kids and as you will see the rink did get pretty crowded.  The kids did great!! It took a couple trips around to get the hang of it but once they did it was so much fun.

Nothing better then holding Aubrey's hand skating around looking at skyscrapers.  It was really surreal and I loved every minute of it.

After skating we looked at the huge tree and some other decorations and then headed for Macy's and to put our name in for the Cheese Cake Factory for dinner.

They have a whole floor devoted to Christmas.  I picked out a perfect ornament for my ornament party.  Santa was also there.  Again it was such a pleasant experience.  No line, happy helpers and they let me take my own pictures.

After some shopping our table was ready for dinner.  We sat outside under a heating lamp and had the best view possible,

Dinner was fabulous as always there and the dessert was amazing.

We then went down to view the Christmas windows at Macy's.  It was a Charlie Brown theme and very cute.

They also had some windows that were put on by the SPCA (my favorite organization).  The puppies and kittens were the cutest!! I wanted to take everyone home with me.  This was our only very scary time of the trip.  It was super crowded, dark and starting to rain.  The kids were looking at the animals and it was one of those moments were I was watching Aubrey and I thought Spencer was watching Carter.  When I looked over at Spencer there was no Carter.  We could not find him!!! I was so scared for the 1 minute he was missing.  I was screaming like a crazy lady and we found him looking at another window around the corner.  I hate that feeling of helplessness.  

After the window we walked back to our hotel and called it a night.  We all had a nice sleep and woke up on Sunday to some beautiful rain.  The kids looked so cute looking out the window.

We packed our bags up and dropped them at the storage area and then headed out for a yummy donut/bagel breakfast.

We then walked to all the shops to do some Christmas shopping.

The 2 story Disney store is so much fun.  The kids picked out a special ornament for their trees in their rooms.

We also did lots of shopping at Old Navy and Macy's that day.  We enjoyed a fun food court lunch at Macy's were everyone got their favorite things.  Spencer and I tried some new very good noddle bowls.

After lunch we picked up our bags, boarded Bart and went back to Hayward.  We got Deuce and headed back to Merced.  Like I said earlier this was such a great trip.  It was a wonderful way to start our Chrsitmas Holiday season.  We can't wait to go again next year!