California Trip Day 7 - An American Girl Goes Hollywood

Hollywood through the smog

Girl of the Year 2010

Felicity and her set-up

This is what Sam does as soon as he is seated.

Gabby and Felicity enjoying appetizers in the Cafe.

American Girl Cafe

Sam had to borrow a boy doll so he had something to play with

Yummy dessert.

American Girl Place LA

View from the Griffith Observatory

James Dean

The Griffith Observatory

Matching PJs.

We spent our day in LA mostly at the American Girl Store. Yes, I know, not very "local" but it made Gabby happy and was good enough for the rest of us. We all enjoyed lunch in the Cafe. Then Gabby and Felicity had a photo shoot and got to pick out something. Sam and Daddy did wander to the fountain and to ride the free bus a bit after lunch while we shopped and did our thing in the store. It was fun - at least for Gabby, Felicity and I.

After that we rode up to the Griffith Observatory where you could (kind of) see over the city and (kind of) see the Hollywood sign. You could definitely see the air. I am not a fan of that. We spent a little time at the Observatory but it was hot and we were all tiring out so we left to battle the traffic back to our hotel. We spent a long time in the pool that night, since it was the first hotel that had a pool.

California Trip Day 6 - San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach

My kids love a fountain

Misson San Luis Obispo

Gabby was the only one brave enough to stay in the water for more than a few seconds.

This day ended up being a bit unplanned. We were attempting to go to the Channel Islands but at the last minute they cancelled the boats due to the condition of the stairs on the island so we had to shift the next couple of days a bit. Even after we left we intended to go to the Discovery Science Center in LA that afternoon but opted instead to go to Pismo Beach and relax a little. We slept a little later after discovering Sam sleeping happily on the floor under the pull-out sofa. We toured the mission in San Luis Obispo for a little California history and then headed for the beach. It was cold, to say the least, but sunny and nice. The sand was warm but the water sure wasn't. Only Gabby's intense love of the ocean kept her in the water for quite a while. Sam was done after a few minutes and liked playing in the sand with me better. After a nice, relaxing few hours we headed out to get right in the middle of LA traffic so it took us quite a while to get to our hotel for the night. Oh well - life isn't perfect!

California Trip Day 5 - SF to San Luis Obispo via Hwy 1

Walking on the bridge

Pacific Ocean from Highway 1

Dancing in the gazebo

This is what happens after five days...

Lazy elephant seals

Two otters and an elephant seal

We headed down to the bridge to walk on it a little. The engineer can't resist. Still foggy around the bridge that day but we could see enough of it. We then headed out of town toward Highway 1 and the views of the Pacific Ocean. The morning was beautiful but the clouds did start to roll in late in the afternoon. While standing at the overlook looking at the elephant seals and otters, eagle eye Robert spotted a whale spout way out in the ocean. We were able to see them blowing for quite a while but never saw any part of the whales. By the timing of the blows, there had to be at least three of them. We headed on to San Luis Obispo where we stayed in a nice little locally owned hotel called the Peach Tree Inn.

California Trip Day 4 - San Francisco

There is a large bridge in there.

Watching the cable cars turn.

Sam on the cable car.

Gabby trying out her chopsticks.

Sea lions.

Gabby in the new outfit she got in Chinatown.

We spent Day 4 in San Francisco. We started out catching the bus behind our hotel down to where we could get on a cable car. Sam was a happy, happy boy over the cable cars! He loved watching them turn and then getting on one. He didn't want to get off! We did, though, and walked over to Chinatown where we ate lunch and did some shopping. Gabby ended up with a whole new outfit. We rode the cable car back and walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 where we saw the sea lions and ate some supper. We took the trolley bus from there back to catch the bus to our hotel. Gabby loved Chinatown and Sam loved all of the transportation, just as I thought they might.

California Trip Day Three - Redwoods to the city

What a drive!

Tight squeeze.

Sam can touch on his side...

and Gabby can touch on her side.

Inside a redwood tree house

Big tree cross-section

Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands

Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge

Lombard Street

Coit Tower

On June 21 we left Eureka and headed south once more. We took the Avenue of the Giants to see just a little more of the redwood forest. We caved to tourist mode and paid to drive through a redwood. It was a 7x7 opening and we barely made it side-to-side. Good thing the side mirrors fold in! They also had some cute little treehouses made from redwoods that we played in.

After leaving the redwoods, we drove down through Sonoma county, enjoying the vineyards and reminiscing about Germany along the way.

As we came in to San Francisco, we decided to stop at the Marin Headlands to see the bridge with the city behind it. Good thing we did - the bridge was covered fog the rest of our stay there. Unfortunately they were repaving the road (not mentioned on the national park website) and it was down to one-lane with half the parking spots blocked off. It too forever to get up, find a place to park and get back down.

We then headed across the bridge to our hotel. We stayed in a nice little hotel called the Cow Hollow Motor Inn. The block behind it was full of stores and restaurants so we walked for a while and ate supper. We then decided to drive on down Lombard Street to the curvy section while traffic was lighter and then up to Coit Tower so the next day could be a no driving day.

California Trip Day 2 - Redwoods: Big Trees=Big Fun

Doing a Junior Ranger walk and learning about habitats.

Tidepools

It was a big tree...

So was this one.

And this one.

Those too.

Gabby loved to catch the millipedes. Sam did not want to hold them.

Bulldozing the beach.

We left Crescent City and went in to Redwoods Parks - there is a chain of state and the national park and you go from one to the other all day and from forests to ocean views. We did a hike and learned about habitats from a California State Park Ranger. The big huge enormous amazing redwoods just went on for miles and eventually you lost a little perspective on them. But those were some big ole trees. We hiked a couple of short hikes enjoyed ocean views when we came around to those, too. We spent our second night at a KOA Kampground in Eureka, California. This was was up on a windy hill so not quite as cozy as the first but we still enjoyed it.

California Trip Day One - Travel to the edge of the Redwoods

Our cabin in the Redwoods

They were standing on one side of the trunk. I was standing on the other side of the same trunk.

Swinging on the porch

Saturday we left DuPont and drove all the way to Crescent City, California. This was the first night of two that we stayed in a KOA cabin. These cabins were scattered about right in the redwood trees, which was very neat. I had been wanting to try the cabins out but never have been at the right place, right time. I figured it had a large potential to be miserable with having to make the beds and go to the bathhouse, especially with a newly potty trained three year old. In reality, it was nice. This campground was a little bit nicer than the second one we stayed in but they were both nice. I won't say that we saved much money by doing this, which was disappointing, but it was nice to park right at the door and have a playground for the kids. After going for supper, we came back and they played till they had all the riding out of them. We had ice cream and then went to bed. We did find the simple style to get us in bed earlier and up and out earlier the next morning. No distracting TV, everyone hurried in the bathroom, and the kids were ready to try out the bunkbeds each evening. We did have to carry bed linens, pillows and towels with us to use these but we had plenty of room for them so that wasn't a problem. All in all, we will probably do it again if the opportunity presents itself. We were ready to hit the Redwoods the next day!