California - No Doubt About It...was AWESOME!

Thanks to an awesome Christmas gift from Blake and Sara, and two wonderful sets of grandparents, Chad and I were able to take a trip to California this summer.  It was a much needed and enjoyed get-away! 
We told the kids about our vacation in advance and said they should wave at any airplane they saw in the sky and we'd wave back at them!  We woke up that morning to this:

Look at his right eye!

 Luke walked down the stairs with a shiner!  He says he fell out of bed, but we think he hit it on the bed post.  Who knows?  We ruled out a bug bite and quickly went on with our day.  We packed our stuff and spent the morning with the kids before we flew out.  

We flew out to Orange County to visit with my cousins for one day/night.  They have a beautiful set up and the weather was perfect.  We went whale watching...

 On the catamaran before we took off - we posed for a few shots.  We were all a little skeptical at first...

 But, we saw them!  The whales were huge - almost as long as a football field.

 It was awesome!

I know Jayci had a good time, the excitement was clearly shown on her face!  And, Chad talked about it for days!  What a great first day in California.  We left a parting/thank you gift at their house and have been told they went back to the ocean to have a proper burial at sea...

We thought this beautiful arrangement from Grandma B's decor was perfect.  Wonder why they wanted to throw it in the ocean???

We then flew into San Francisco.  We were up and at them early the next morning.  We jumped on our tour bus to see some sights.  Our first stop was a vendor for our first souvenir -

A sweatshirt for this macho man!  Apparently when your body is accustomed to 100 degree weather and humidity to boot, the air in San Fransisco, a windy, warm cold 68 degree day is a shock to the ole system.
We continued on our tour, saw Lombard St,

the Full House houses,

and all the big sights to take in around the city.

We ate at the wharf.  Delicious seafood - we were both in heaven.  Saw the sea lions,

And, Danielle Steele's house too!  (the very top house)

We saw these on our way to Ghiradelli Square:

After Ghiradelli Square, we decided we'd done enough in one day and were ready to board this to take us back to our hotel.

 

The next day we were ready to see more sights, specifically this:

The Golden Gate Bridge

 

So...being our smart selves after just hearing there are 40+ hills in San Francisco, we decided to rent bikes to cross the bridge.  One mile into the 8 mile ride that is advertised as being so simple a beginning rider can do it, we were talking about riding the ferry back!  We continued on and made it across the bridge.  It was an awesome experience and looking back, I'm so glad we did it.  The next day was painful on the derriere, but that's what makes memories!

Making our way up to the bridge...

We made it across!

The ferry ride back was full of 100+ bikes, we weren't the only ones who had this idea!

After running for two days:

ha..couldn't resist, Forest Gump!

We decided to tour Sonoma.  We had fun, but learned that the wine is much drier than the wine back home.  We enjoyed our last day together in California and have lots to look back on and smile about!  

The kids didn't miss us at all, they were so busy.  But, I'm sure they think we're crazy...they think we stayed at the airport the entire time!