Spring Break Day 6: Golden Gate Bridge, Muir Woods, Napa Valley & Ad Hoc

Today was our ten year wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge and up to Muir Woods to start our adventure.

The entrance to Muir Woods. Jeff learned about a fun little treasure hunt the kids could do while going through Muir Woods. They had to find the answers to clever poetic and educational clues that were all around the park. Of course Muir Woods is pretty amazing on its own, this kept the kids even more engaged in learning about Muir Woods. 

Some really tall trees!

10 years of marriage and 3 beautiful kiddies

We copied another dad who took a similar photo with his kids. 

Bear with a bear

Banana slug

After several hours at Muir Woods, we headed up to the Napa area, well further north, to the Rombauer winery to taste some delicious wines. We tried the classics that we know we love, but also tasted some new varieties to enjoy. 

After our reasonably quick wine tasting, headed down to Napa for our dinner at Ad Hoc. 

The drive is stunning

All dressed up for our dinner at Ad Hoc. They were great there. Kyle & Emily were great through dinner and Aaron even did a reasonably good job. He sat in his chair, ate very well and got to color. He also got to watch his video from Alice of her coloring a balloon picture for him which got him through any thoughts of acting out or being too loud at the table. This was a great cap off to a wonderful 10 year anniversary day. 

Spring Break Day 5: San Francisco

Our first full day in San Francisco, we decided to be true tourists. We all wanted to ride a cable car so that was first on the agenda. And on many other people's agenda as well. Nonetheless, we got a spot on a car and took it for a ride down to Fisherman's Wharf. Aaron LOVED riding the cable cars and any other bus, trolley, public transportation for that matter. 

On the cable car

Aaron kept saying "more" whenever we would stop. We rode it to the end of the line at the wharf.

For those of you who know San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf is not close to the Exploratorium. It was the cable car that we caught without really caring where it took us. We walked along the wharf for a little bit and then found the trolley to take us to the Exploratorium. It was certainly nice to just wander and enjoy the city. 

On to the Exploratorium. What an amazing museum. Kyle and Emily were so engaged there all day. Aaron and I stayed just until lunch time. Jeff, Kyle & Emily went to an amazing Greek lunch and then returned for more exploring there. 

The toilet water fountain. Don't worry, it's clean and was never used for toilet purposes. It's about how we have a hard time overcoming our preconceived notions. 

Foggy bridge

After spending the rest of the day at the museum while Aaron slept, we all reconvened to meet up my friend Nicole from college for dinner. We met up over in her neighborhood where all the restaurants are and had a fun Indian food dinner while we got to catch up. It had been about 4 years since I last saw her when she was in San Diego for a conference. 

Some more train rides. 

The kids finished the evening with a little reading and then it was lights out on a busy day. 

Spring Break Day 4: Monterey to San Francisco

After our hike, we left Monterey to drive the 1 up to San Francisco. 

We had a great lunch at Phil's Fish Market just outside of Monterey. While we love San Diego's Point Loma Seafoods, Phil's was pretty spectacular. They have a huge variety and everything we ordered - which seemed to be a little bit of everything - was thoroughly enjoyed. What I do remember was cioppino, crab cake, clam chowder. 

Aaron's meerkat helping Jeff drive. Aaron woke up during the drive and was in a very bad mood. His meerkat driving helped him calm down a little bit. 

Pigeon Point Lighthouse

Beanie State Beach

We made it to our hotel in downtown San Francisco in the pouring rain, but we made it and just hung out the rest of the day. 

Spring Break Day 3: Cayucos to Monterey

Day 3 we left Cayucos for Monterey. We were able to drive that beautiful, windy road to get from the 1 back to the 101 to head up to Monterey. Aaron was pretty spent and fell asleep on that road again. 

Monterey is such a cute little city. It is certainly bigger than Cayucos and more bustling, but still very charming. We stayed right by the aquarium since that was our main attraction there. It started to rain while we were there, but we were so close that it didn't matter. And we borrowed umbrellas from the hotel.  

We checked into the hotel and it was time for Aaron to take a nap. Jeff stayed back with Aaron and took a nap as well while Kyle, Emily & I headed for the aquarium. Since we hadn't had lunch yet, we hit up the cookies store and had sandwiches, ice cream cookie sandwiches. 

While the entire aquarium was absolutely amazing, I think the most fascinating thing we learned was about skates and their egg case. "A mermaid's purse holds baby skates. You're looking at living skate embryos. A female skate laid the leathery egg case after mating. These prongs anchor the egg case in seaweed or sand. After almost a year, one edge of the case opens, and the miniature skates flap their wings and swim away." Check out the next picture of the mermaid's purse with little, live skate embryos. Mind blown. 

Kyle, Emily & I covered the aquarium (what we wanted to see, which was most of it, but we did speed through some parts) in about 2.5 hours. By then Aaron was waking up so Jeff took Aaron to the museum and Emily decided to go back with him to show him some of the highlights we had seen. 

Penguins for Papa

After the aquarium, we went over to a little wine bar and had what we thought would be small appetizers before a later dinner, but they were substantial enough to be dinner. It had an amazing view over the ocean and bay. We watched a pair of sea lions play in the ocean in the rain. 

After Aaron took a shower, Jeff gave him the Daddy towel look. What an adorable little guy!

The next morning the rain had stopped and dried up a little bit. We headed up to Jack's Peak for a stunning view of Monterey from what I think remember it saying was the highest point. Even if it isn't (yes, I know I can just google it), it was high enough for a stunning view. And a fun, easy hike for the kids that I believe was about a mile round trip. Easy enough for the kids for sure. Aaron even walked most of the way too (he did have a lot of energy though).