After 15 days, we headed home this morning from Seattle. Some of us were up and ready to go

Others… not so much 

We left early (7am Washington time, but 10am here) for two reasons: one, we heard that the Seattle airport has been very busy so wanted plenty of time; and two, we were hoping that if we got up early and could stay awake through the trip, we could try to get back on time schedule. (As of 11pm my plan has worked… We will see in the morning)

Good gracious! I am so glad we left early! Seattle Tacoma Airport is the most inefficient airport I have ever seen!!! Thankfully, we had plenty of time, and we’re ready to board the first leg of our trip

I’m so glad the weather was clear because we saw some really beautiful landscapes

We landed in Atlanta and our gates were on opposite ends of the airport, but we made it! Even time for a burger 🍔🍟 because we do not miss meals 😀. 

So we find our gate to Greensboro, get in line, take a picture (again, some of us excited…

And some of us exhausted…)
scan our boarding passes and board the plane. We walk to our seats and there are people in our seats. There are people in our seats with boarding passes that say these are their seats. Umm, what?  After a mild panic attack, the flight attendant takes my phone (which has boarding passes) and goes back to the boarding counter. Now here we are, 2 exhausted parents and 2 children in the aisle of a commuter plane… While others are trying to get in their seats… With carry-on luggage… Nah, we weren’t in the way much!!! 

Anyway, crisis averted! They had moved us 5 rows back and just forgot to update our boarding passes. (Tell me God wasn’t right there with us- guess how many seats were available? Four. Guess how many we needed? Four. Boom!)

And here we go, last leg of this crazy journey… 

I have spent the last 2 weeks worried that something would go wrong when we were so far from home: A ticket wouldn’t work; car problems; hotel problems, theme park problem; sickness; injury;  all the things mamas worry about when you are away from home.

But it didn’t – everything went amazing!! 

We had the most amazing trip! And hopefully made memories that we will never ever forget! I know I won’t! 

Thanks for reading our dorky blog – hope you liked it as much as we did. I felt very Kardashian when my boys would say “mom, put it on the blog.”  Maybe we’ll update periodically with funny Michael and Leo stories. Or maybe just wait until out next vacation adventure – after we save some money 🤑🤑🤑

*The Brown Family would like to thank The Maness Family for running the airport shuttle service and providing milk for coffee in the morning! ☕️☕️☕️

*The Brown family also has a thank you for The Thomas Family for watching out for the chickens, cats, plants and pool – basically all the living things at our house ❤️

*Thank you everyone for your prayers of safety, weather, patience and sanity 😜
Total miles flown: 5,265

Total miles driven: 1,389

Total steps: 208,763 

Memories made: Too many to count ❤️

***completely forgot to include the laundry picture! This is what 2 weeks of laundry looks like 😳

Whew! Seattle Day 2 has been much much calmer, slower and relaxing.  We are winding this vacation down, and today was our day to relax and take it all in. We slept until 9:45 (12:45pm EST… Next week should be pleasant 😬)

When we finally got going we headed to Seattle’s Great Wheel (after a necessary stop at Starbucks). 
Oh my word! What was I thinking telling the boys we could do this???  Mike gave us a kiss before we headed up 

Okay, a promise is a promise, so here we go…
Good gracious! My stomach was in my shoes because this thing was HIGH!!! 

But these two, not a worry in the world!We went round and round at least 4 times. I finally just closed my eyes and prayed! Michael and Leo just swayed their  feet… Which made the car swing… which made my close my eyes tighter… Which made them giggle 😛

After the Ferris Wheel, we headed back to Pike Place Market to just sightsee and people watch. We cut back through The gum wall alley which just thrilled Mike 😝

yuck! The germs!

The boys found a couple of cool Seattle shirts, and we watched the fish guys. Then we descended what has to be the longest set of stairs (with the exception of the Oregon cave stairs!)

But they did give us chance for a great picture backdrop! 
For our final Seattle meal, we wanted fresh seafood. So we went to a Washington staple, The Crab Pot.

 Mike and I went with a crab boil, Michael had fish-n-chips and Leonhad corn dogs (a traditional Seattle meal, I’m sure).  We ate just about everything especially with our seafood loving boys – except for the mussels (not a big fan of these)

 Everything was delicious! Since we had a huge late lunch, we decided get some fresh food from the market and have a fresh dinner later. So we picked up some fresh fruit, fresh cheese, crackers and a must – chocolate!

This was almost like a local Gueridelli Chocolate.  Everything was made there and they had chocolate covered everything – potato chips, Oreos, salted Caramel, fruit. You name it, they’ve covered it in chocolate🍫🍫🍫 😀

When we got back, the boys got their bathing suits and we headed across the street to a local splash park:

I think they liked it 😀 but the cutest was this:

This little girl just fell in love with Michael.  She followed him around and kept asking him to play with her (dumping water out of cups).  He was so kind to her and kept telling her that he just wanted to run and splash.  But Lawd, she was persistent! 😍

When we left the splash park, we headed straight to the pool, and tried to burn off their last bits of energy. We also had to go up to the 7th floor (because I had promised) – it is the highest floor in the hotel. 

Again, makes my stomach drop, but not these two

After our 7th floor trip, we came back and had our fresh Seattle Market dinner – and it was wonderful!

What an amazing trip this has been! I hope the boys will always remember this trip was and all the memories we’ve made. If not, then they can just read all about it on the blog 😜❤️ 

Hoping and praying for on-time flights, and good weather tomorrow- and praying that everyone stays awake on the flight home so that we can try to get back on Eastern Standard Time 😳

We have 2 full days in Seattle, but for some reason we tried to do everything today! Our day started early with a tasting tour of Pike Place Market.  

It was a great tour and the food was great! The tour was through Savor Seattle food tours. All different kinds of tours depending on food tastes, etc.We started at the famous gum wall! They recently scraped all the gum off to make sure sugar wasn’t damaging the bricks. It wasn’t, but they scraped off over 2,300 lbs of gum! Roughly the equivalent of a polar bear!!  Yuck 😝

We met the baker/owner at Honest Biscuits – he’s from Raleigh, NC (Go Pack!). These cheese biscuits were delicious and they gave us coffee 🎉

Mike said this was somebody’s grandma’s recipe –  and it sure was!After this we left and found Big Foot!- 

Our next stop was to a donut shop, where their specialty was Maple Bacon Donut! It was like a whole breakfast in one donut – Delicious! I’m sure it was low calorie too 😊Leo liked it but Michael wouldn’t try it.
We visited a spice shop that I swear had every spice you can imagine!We tried smoked salmon and salmon jerky – all the boys loved both! And then… It was on to the fish throwing!

Michael found a huge salmon and Leo liked the Monk Fish

(There is a chain hooked to the Monk fish and he would “jump” every now and then. It was too funny!)

We loved watching them making cheese… But we liked eating the cheese even better!

We stopped by the Original Starbucks! So very glad they made more than one!

We had some amazing Chinese chicken pita sandwich – woo! Spicy!

And we finished the tour at Rachel’s Ginger Beer – it’s non-alcoholic, like root beer. It was a little spicy with all the ginger but when they made it into a ginger beer float – Yum!!!

When the tour ended, we toured the market on our own and saw the coolest cauliflower…
And just toured around a bit…

Then we headed over to the Space Needle for lunch at the top. The Sky City restaurant is located right below the observation deck, and it rotates!!! 

The lunch is pricey but it included your ticket up the space needle. Plus some of the wait staff (like ours) will let you split the (overpriced) brunch, so it wasn’t too terrible. This is a half portion and it’s plenty of food!

But the funniest and most memorable part of the lunch with the girl from the table beside us. Her parents would just let her wander around the restaurant, and she would just come stand at our table and just stare 😳. Seriously, it was like Mike Meyers from Halloween.  I thought well maybe something was wrong with her? Nope, she talked and behaved like normal with her parents and wait staff but we got this – and she would just stand there for about five minutes at a time…

It finally got to the point that I just started laughing uncontrollably every time she came to the table😂😂😂

The views at the Space Needle are really awesome… Even if you have to eat lunch with Baby Mike Myers. 

After the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Gum Wall… We decided to just walk around. I’m so glad we did because we found the International Fountain

The fountain was originally built for the Worlds Fair here in Seattle back in 60’s, and was redone – now it is a place for families to just spend a day cooling off – so we did!

Okay but now the problem is how do we get dry? Sunshine and a playground should do it… And look what we found…

This is the Artists at Play Playground. The playground was created by some artists for the city of Seattle to engage all the senses – there are noise pieces, large rope for touch, bright colors for the eyes, etc. But to the Brown Brothers, it was a giant ninja warrior course!

 It really was a cool place and we sat in the shade watching them play for almost 2 hours! On the way home, all that playing caught up with Leo

But have no fear! A 20 minute recharge in the Uber and he was ready to go! We headed to the activity room at the hotel – this was a huge selling point for this hotel! They are so family friendly! Boys loved having an activity room to get rid of any remaining energy 

And to get rid of those activity room germs… Chlorine!

After swimming, we showered and, you guessed it, time to eat again! Tonight we rode to another local restaurant recommended by one of our Uber driver: Lunchbox Laboratory 

Pretty good food – burgers and fries but things weren’t greasy and Mike said the tater tots were best he’s ever had – and he loves tater tots! 😍. The shakes were delicious!

I do think I have the most handsome dates – including the mountain man! 
 But as of 10pm PST, the mountain man is no more! 

So tomorrow we have our very full day of vacation 😳😬😩 I can’t believe it’s almost over! But there is still of Seattle to explore and of course, more food to eat!!! 😜

Well, here we are – Washington – the last state of our trip – we made it! Whew! And we still like each other 😜

The plan was to leave Portland and travel the 60 to 90 minute trip to Johnson Observatory, and then travel to Mount Ranier (2 hours away) and then on to Seattle. But… The Washington DOT had other plans… They were doing the strangest most inefficient road work on the ONE road that leads to the top of Mount St. Helens. So that 90 minute trip took 3 hours… So, one a positive note we had lots of opportunities to take great pictures

We stopped at the original Visitor’s Center to look around but I had read reviews that this was really dated and there is a charge for admission.  So we took a great picture, and headed to the Forrest Learning Center.

The Forrest Learning Center is sponsored by Weyerhaeuser, and is FREE.  It was really interesting and hands-on for kids. Boys loved the “Discovery Lab” where they could touch everything.

We loved that they focused on animals and how the eruption effected them

Leo liked the wearable Eagle Talon and showing daddy the difference in people vision vs eagle vision (their vision is so much more powerful like a zoom lens)

Michael and I liked the brown bear 😮 (we learned almost 600 brown bears were killed in the blast!🐻🐻🐻)

And everyone liked he helicopter model so you could pretend to be a helicopter pilot rescuing people during the ash fallout!

And then… We found the playground! Thank goodness because we hadn’t practiced our ninja warrior skills in about 5 minutes so…

We headed further up the mountain to the Johnson Observatory – named after a geologist who was camped here near the top at the time of the eruption. His last words were “Vancover, Vancover, this is it!” They never found anything from him or his camp.

Hard to imagine that an entire side of the mountain just blew off!

As we headed down the mountain to Mount Ranier, we had to deal with same traffic issues.  We finally headed toward Mt Ranier and got on highway 505 at 4! I got a little worried that since it’s a National Park , they may close at 5. The website said they didn’t BUT they did note that they were doing construction on the road to Mount Ranier… So basically we would be in the same boat just 4 hours from now. So we decided to skip Mount Ranier for now.

Instead, we decided to eat – what a surprise! Since lunch was a few peanut butter crackers, we had an “early bird dinner” at Ribeye Ramblin’ Jacks in Chehalis, Washinton 😀.  Think local restaurant meets Western Sizzler meets Shoneys with really good food. And the BIGGEST desserts ever! Here is their 1 pound cinnamon roll:

It was hokey and delicious! Perfect for us:

(Plus who doesn’t secretly want to eat in a restaurant with a giant cow on top?!?!)

We arrived in Seattle and watched a little of the Olympics and movies while having milk and our sweet desserts

Boys finished off the night with some swimming and hot tub time

Tomorrow we have a “Savory Seattle Tour” of Pikes Market and lunch inside the Space Needle (the restaurant rotates!) cannot believe we only have 2 more days!!!

Wednesday is in the books – and we took Portland by storm! Or as much storm as you can create in 19 hours 😜

After breakfast at hotel in Eugene, Michael wanted to walk out to the patio area. When we did, we saw ducks, lots and lots of ducks. 

We couldn’t figure out why they were just looking at us, and more and more ducks kept coming to us?  Then Leo looked in the stand-up cooler – duck food! They were surrounding us because we were supposed to be serving breakfast 🍳. So we got busy serving duck-breakfast! 

Before we left Eugene, we stopped by Voodoo Donuts for some sweets! (We had planned to go to the original Voodoo Donut in Portland, but our fishing guide told us to plan for a 2-hour wait if we went to the Portland store. Now, we like donuts, but I can’t think of any donut worth waiting in line for for 2 hours!!!)  They opened the Eugene Voodoo donuts last year…. So, we cruised right into the Eugene Voodoo Donuts – no wait at all 🍩🍩🍩

After getting our box-o-sugar, we hit Interstate 5 and headed north. It only took about 10 miles down the road for the donut-monster to strike…

We knew our time in Portland was going to be short and according to every “mom-blog” I researched, we just had to go to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry…

So, we did 😀

It was really a neat place, kind of a cross between Greensboro Science Center and Discovery Place in Charlotte – and add in a submarine.  Yes, I said submarine – the USS Blueback was docked in the Willamette river behind the Museum!

It was an interesting tour, and I am very thankful that I’m not stationed in a sub! 

Boys loved the sub – although the engine was a little loud

And Mike enjoyed talking to our tour guide – a former sailor on this sub! It was a really neat experience especially compared to the massive size of the USS Midway in San Diego.

Inside the boys got to become astronauts and learned all about the science used in space

Cutest astronauts EVER!
Michael loved the how to become an astronaut videos

Leo liked the gravitational pull experiments – because it was like centrifugal force that he studied at camp!!

The boys (in true boy-style) really liked the  “how do they go” in space exhibit… Especially the water part… 

Leo wanted to know if astronauts got privacy 😂

They liked the giant building blocks

(pay no attention to the woman behind the tower)

Michael liked the experiments about eating and exercise

Leo refused any help on the maze – and was quite pleased with himself when he solved the puzzle 🎉

After we shut the OMSI down, we wanted to experience a Portland original – Killer Burger

We all got in the Rock-n-Roll state of mind (Michael said we were being too silly for him 😝)

(Pretty sure I lost all rock-n-roll cool points by doing the sign for I love you instead of rock-n-roll sign 😜)

But the burgers were awesome!

And we had a great time together

And we are back in the room and relaxing watching the Olympics – well, relaxing, tackling daddy, whatever! 

Tomorrow we leave Oregon and head to Washington for a really full day – starting with Mount St. Helens to Mt. Rainer and then to Seattle.  One more state to go!

The morning we left the Chateau in Cave Junction, Oregon and headed to Eugene, Oregon to try our hand at fly fishing. But before we left, we had breakfast at the Chateau’s Cafe – an original 1930’s soda counter.  

The food was great – and the coffee was better ☕️

Then we were off… Back down that twisty turny mountain 😳😬  It wasn’t as bad going down the mountain as up.  It was fun to see all our phones and iPads come back online once we reached the bottom with 100+ emails!!!

Once we got to Eugene, home of University of Oregon – Go Ducks! – we checked in and headed out to meet Jason at Home Waters Fly Fishing 

Since the steel bottom boats only hold 3 people, we met his friend Josh at Hendricks Park, and left our car.  Josh had 2 sons,ages 7 and 9, so he was perfect for our crew. Jason didn’t have any kids, and may never want them after Leo talked to him for FIVE HOURS during our float 😂😝

This was such a cool experience! We floated down the McKenzie River fishing for Rainbow Trout (salmons run in May and June).

It is absolutely gorgeous here! We could see Osprey and Woodpeckers in surrounding trees, and see the trout jumping as we went downstream. 

Everyone caught fish! 

Leo caught 4 (but threw the last one back because he was as too small); 

Michael caught 2 (but he threw his first one back because he looked sad 😊);

Mike caught 2 fish; and

I got one – but had to throw it back because it was a wild trout. They try to throw these back to help with spawning. But it still counts! 😛

Just such a cool experience! 

But it wasn’t over yet… We landed back in Hendricks Park, and started preparing our fresh caught dinner!

What about dessert? How about some fresh blackberries?

I think we liked our dinner 😊

We tried to do like Sylvester the cat when he pulls the bones out of his mouth 

It was such a great day and so relaxing to just float and fish! Absolutely a dream day!

Thanks to Jason and Josh! 

And then a beautiful Oregon sunset for our drive back to the hotel 

Tomorrow we head to Portland for a day of sightseeing. Good night everybody!

*this is last night’s post because we had no phone, wifi, TV or AC ❤️

We woke up for the last time in California this morning. Before we started a 3-hour drive into Oregon, we had breakfast and let the boys swim for about an hour. Apparently every parent in the hotel had that same idea because the pool was overflowing with kids 😀

Anyway, we loaded up about 11am and headed north up Highway 101, the Pacific Coast Highway. It was a beautiful view and took us through Redwood State Park in northwest California. I think Mike and I said “I cannot get over how big these trees are” at least 3 times each! I just cannot explain how monumental these things are!!

Along the way, we saw beautiful roadsides… 

And some little towns that were a little scary (think deliverance in a tall forest). We just kept on rolling 😜…

We did stop to see a big herd of mother elk and their babies 

Seriously, how cool is it that along a major highway, a herd of elk are just chilling out?!?!?

We kept going and came to beautiful beach entry so we stopped. Because when are we ever going to have this chance again? Boys did a little wading into the Pacific Ocean. Two major differences with Atlantic Ocean: the sand is dark, like pepper; and Brrrrrr! This ocean is cold!

Your mom says turn around for a picture📸

And boom! Your shorts are wet 😜🌊

And of course, had to make it a family photo op 📸😀

And finally – we made it to Oregon! 🎉

We are staying at the Chateau at the Oregon Caves. We couldn’t figure out why our directions (and extremely spotty cell coverage) kept saying we were only 18 miles away but it would take up about 45 minutes to arrive… And then we started driving up the mountain to the caves… It started as a regular 2-lane road, and it got narrower and narrower and narrower! 

They don’t even try to make it look like a curve because the turns are that sharp!

By the time we arrived, the only way 2 cars could be on this alleged “2-lane road” would be 2 mini-coopers! And we are not driving mini-coopers! Yikes! 😬⛰😬⛰😬⛰

But the Chateau is amazing! It is an 82-year old building. No TV, no Wifi, no AC, and no telephones (other than old school pay phone in a phone booth) But it is just gorgeous! 

 They do close from November to May, and the halls do look a little like the Shining…

Wish I had tricycles for the boys to sit on at end of the hall 😜

But how cute are these rooms 😍

After we got checked in, we met Katie, our Park Ranger, for our tour of the Oregon Caves. WOW!

These are the longest continuous caves in the United States, and we climbed it all – including the 500 stairs! And it is always 43 degrees in the caves no matter what the temperature outside. When you get near the opening, it’s like standing in front of your fridge.

The whole thing was breathtaking, but when you think of the original explorers who climbed into these caves with flashlights and proper gear! 

The boys really liked the scavenger hunt, and learning a whole new vocabulary of stalagmite (katie said to remember you might trip on these) stalactites (Katie said to remember these are holding on tight), a cave kiss (Michael got 9 and Leo got 8 during our tour!), columns, drapery, Flowstone, Igneous, Sedentary, and metamorphic rocks, as well as the history of the caves. 

They are now officially Jr. Park Rangers!

When we finished the cave tour, we had about 90 minutes to kill before dinner and 2 boys – remember I said no wifi or tv – so we decided to hike to the top of Big Tree Trail on Mount Elijah – almost 5000 feet up. I am so so glad we did! First, we saw a doe who clearly had no fear of people! 

And then, we saw the view! 

Oh. My. Word! 

There is no way you can see this and not know that there is a God. Wow! 

Look at these 2 heartbreakers!

And of course, family pictures!!!

This was a really awesome day! The no phone, wifi and television thing really made us all slow down and take a breath! Even the boys said “I like this old timey place!” Me too boys❤️

Now we are off to Eugene, Oregon, home of the Oregon Ducks, to do a little trout fishing! 🎣

Today was our second “long” drive day from San Francisco to Eureka, California but we had some amazing stops along the way.  

We started our day on Lombard Street in San Francisco – the most crooked street in the US! I am so glad I didn’t have to learn to drive a stick shift on this street! Yikes!!

(And yes, I was hanging out of the car to make these pictures)

After Lombard Street, we headed out of San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge. We ooh’d and ah’d all the way across that Bridge! 

We headed north up Highway 101 to Muir Woods. If you ever need to feel insignificant, come see these trees – WOW! 

The boys could not get over how big these Sequoias were! But they were not happy that they couldn’t climb on the fallen ones – the park asked that you stay on the path to help with lower growth. 

But the sheer size of these giants made up for their disappointment. See if you can spot Mike and boys in this picture:

Here’s a close up:

So yea, we’re pretty much just a speck compared to these mega-trees! We spent so much time in Muir Woods (and getting another In-N-Out burger – seriously, these things are awesome), that we were thinking of skipping the next redwood forest.  However, with a little help on google, we discovered that there was a redwood forest that you can drive through – and it was “a scenic alternative” to Highway 101. Perfect!

So here we go on another detour (ball of twine 4 short hours away…)

I am so thankful that we didn’t miss this! When they call it The Avenue of the Giants, they are not kidding! The redwoods of Muir Woods were babies compared to these -AND we could climb in and on everything! 

Let the climbing begin…

This is the root of that same tree

Seriously, we couldn’t even make it halftway around this thing with all four of us!

It was just an amazing drive and so glad we didn’t take the fastest route and miss this free 😍 adventure! 

Then we tried to do one of the drive-thru trees (and I loved their entrance – depending on good ol’fashioned honesty)

But the drive through tree was only 7 feet 7 inches wide and 7 fee tall… And we were in a rental mini-SUV… So, here’s the picture

And that’s as far as we went 😜 We did drive across a redwood and see a redwood playhouse… Okay, it was hokey, but I paid $6, and at least it was Storyland! 😝
We really enjoyed the drive – stretched a quick 4+ hour drive into 9+ hours, but it was so worth it!

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Eureka (if you’re ever here stay at this one on Wabash St. It’s brand new, indoor pool and great staff). In talking with the staff at check-in, I mentioned that we would love some fresh seafood. Keep in mind it was 8:30 at this point. The lady at check-in said Jack’s Seafood is open until 9pm and food is great (her boyfriend was the cook). So off we go… On the way, I started checking Trip Advisor to make sure I wasn’t taking my children to a Deliverance-restaurant. 4.5 stars on trip advisor about food and service… With a special note that Danielle was the best server.  We arrive at Jack’s, which closes at 9, at 8:55 – whew! And guess who our server was… Danielle! And yes, she was fantastic! Boys told her all about our trip so far, even showing her pictures of the Redwoods. And the food – Oh My Goodness!  This may be the best meal we have had in this trip, and as you know, we have eaten well!

We finished off the evening with some swimming and hot tub time, and then watched the Olympics.  

Tomorrow we leave California and head to Cave Junction, Oregon. I have to admit that Mike and I are leaving California with a whole different attitude about the state and its people. We have had a blast and can’t wait to see what we can get into in Oregon!!!

Before we start with today’s adventure, I have to show this from last night… This is what happens when you have light-up light sabers and a cool mirror…

Oh my word! These 2 get funnier every day!!

Okay on to today:

WOW – Today was a great day! We got to sleep in a bit, which was wonderful 😀. After breakfast (again with a pancake maker), we headed out to Alcatraz. But before we got out the door, we were hit in the face… by the weather! Brrrr! It was 52 degrees this morning and it was so windy! ❄️💨❄️💨  Thankfully we had packed some pants and we got Harry Potter sweatshirts at Universal (we intentionally didn’t bring sweatshirts so we could use that as a useful souvenir) 
I think they like their sweatshirt! (Love them to dress alike on vacation so I can keep up with them ❤️ ). They got lots of comments on their shirts so they were tickled.

Alcatraz was so cool. 

Boys loved the boat ride to get there and then Leo informed me that “Alcatraz was cool because you can ninja warrior all over it!” And Lawd knows he did (or at least tried to)!   The audio tour was awesome and as soon as the boys put on their headsets, they were obsessed with Alcatraz history!

They loved the stories of the escape attempts and how the prisoners lived. 

And of course they hammed it up a bit!! But we found a place for them to run…

The Rec Yard! 

It was so much fun – obviously since we stayed for almost 4 hours!!  But we can say we saw every part of Alcatraz 😜

Now on to Pier 39 and by now, we were starving! San Francisco is a great city to be hungry in because there are some awesome restaurants at every turn!

The food was so good! We got the small and half portions so we could share lots of different things: dungeoness crab, fried fish, burger, pasta, garlic fries and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl. Everything was outstanding!!! (We ate so much at lunch that Mike and I had a piece of banana bread for dinner because we were still full!)

Before we could leave Pier 39, we had 2 other stops to make… The famous double decker merry-go-round:

And the sea lions

Check and check!

After lunch, we headed to Moss Beach, California. Michael watched a show, Animals Across America, that told about the tide pools in Moss Beach.  Then he did some more research and found that there are octopus, starfish, anemones and sea urchins special to Moss Beach.  Once we decided San Francisco was a stop on the trip, we discovered that Moss Beach is only 35 miles away (“or perhaps you don’t want to see the world’s largest ball of twine which is only four short hours away.” Sorry, Griswolds reference 😜) So anyway, off we went 🚗🚗🚗

I am so glad we did! This ended up being one of the coolest things we have done. We got to travel along the Pacific Coast Highway, which was gorgeous! I’ve never seen green mountains on one side of road and oceans and cliffs on the other! You take roads that lead you through a residental area, and then suddenly, at the end of a road, there is brown State Park sign.  We walked down a really steep path

The views were really beautiful…But the best thing was this face right here:

😍Michael was just in his element! He told us which animals to look for, what they were, and then made sure we did not remove any shells, rocks or marine life from Moss Beach – because it was a rule!  

We really had a great time exploring the tide pools and seeing the animals

We also got to see sea lions up close, well 300 feet away-close, because they come ashore at Moss Beach to have pups and raise them in these tide pools for a while because predators can’t get past the rocky bars just beyond the beach.

This will be one of those days we will always remember – mental picture, click 📸📷

We had an early night tonight and were back in room before 9pm! Hallelujer!  

Tomorrow we are headed to Eureka, California with stops at the Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, Humboldt State Park and anywhere else that looks interesting along the way. But we have no timetable tomorrow, so NO Alarm clock will be set!!! WooHoo! Goodnight All!

We finished our time in Los Angeles today but it took a little bit to get Michael and Leo up and going this morning…

But once they learned we were headed to Warner Bros – who had a part in the Harry Potter movies and Batman vs Superman movie. On a side note, we felt quite sophisticated taking our first Uber ride 😀 🚗

The Warner Bros Studio Tour was so cool! 

We saw “New York” brownstones in California

We got to go onto Ellen’s set (but no photos inside 😬)

Then we stopped at one of the movie museums which should have been called the Michael and Leo building! First floor: DC Comics featuring actual props from Superman vs Batman; and Second floor: actual props from all the Harry Potter movies 😊😉😍

The real clothes worn by Harry, Hermironie, and Ron in Chamber of Secrets!

The Troll they fought in the Sorcerer’s Stone

We were all “sorted” into our house by the Sorting Hat. Leo is Griffindor!

Michael was sorted into Slytherin 😬. He was not happy about this!

I’ll be heading to HufflePuff

Mike is headed to Griffindor with Leo

One of Harry’s REAL wands!!!

Then we went downstairs…

Think he’s happy? 😀

I always wanted to be Wonder Woman🌟

Uh oh! Looks like the Suicide Squad captured some bad guys 😜

Touching REAL LIVE Kryptonite 😳

Then we headed to Studio 48 to see exhibits from big WB Shows and see how the movie process takes place.  The boys designed their own cars for Batman 

We also got to see the Mobile Museum with all the batman cars, motorcycles and planes

Then we wandered into a little coffee shop… Maybe you’ve heard of it? I just hung out with my Friends 😄
And after a few tries, coming soon to a Christmas card near you…

We also got to learn a little “movie magic” like positional sizing.  By making some chairs smaller, and other bigger, closer/further away from camera, and larger smaller props you can completely change the sizing on screen

So this is with plain eye, and Leo looks a little bigger, but then on camera…

It was so cool to see.

 We also got to see what we all look like as computer images. How’s this for a Christmas card?

And then we turned around to see the Green Screen! And guess what you could do:

They then took the pictures and added the computer images and movement! Oh. My. Word! It cannot get any better!!!

Or can it?

What the what?!?! Best day ever! Just let us know if you want to see our video debuts 😀

We then headed out to one of 2 really long drives -5 hours to San Francisco… We decided to try a California landmark for lunch, In-n-Out Burger.  It was delicious!! And just to complete our full-on tourist persona… We made pictures inside and outside the restaurant! Wish I could have gotten a picture of the people laughing at us 😂😜😂😜😂

We cruised on up Interstate 5.  We decided to use the time to try our Chocolate Frogs.

They tasted pretty good – just regular chocolate shaped like a frog… And we got our collector card: Helga Hufflepuff

We tried our “Bert’s Any Flavor Beans” – oh my goodness! Some of the flavors: ear wax; boogies; black pepper; earthworm; and sausage 😝

Michael tried vomit flavored first

It obviously was disgusting but we had the best time laughing! Then Leo tried earthworm:

 Hahahaha! Apparently earthworm isn’t good – ya think?!?! 😂😂😂

We had a beautiful drive through the Central Valley of California. Boys could not get over how flat it was!

 Also saw some wind farms which we all thought were really cool. I never realized how big the wind turbines are!

Boys also like going across the Bay Bridge – we went across the new bridge since the  old one was damaged in an earthquake a few years ago.

Once we got checked into the hotel (which is a brand new Holiday Inn Express at Union square – great!- built over a bar- umm, not a great idea😬… But the cover band is pretty good 😛 right now we are rocking out to “I love Rock-n-Roll”), we headed out to dinner at a local Italian place, Cafe Mason, recommended by the front desk clerk.  It was wonderful! We have had the best food! 

Think these 2 are having a pretty good time ❤️❤️❤️We are shutting it down tonight 😆😴💤 think this crowd is sleepy enough that even a rocking cover of Jesse’s Girl can’t  keep us awake! 🎶💤🎶💤

Good night everybody 💤💤💤