Vacation

Last week we went here:

And here:

Oh, and we saw a lot of this:

Isn't that just a beautiful picture?

Yes it was time for another vacation not to Arizona (by the way, Arizona, I think it's your turn to come here) and we decided to see California, and as much as we could of it in one week. So we headed to San Francisco first. I don't know why, but every time I head anywhere in the Northwest I just feel at home. (Is San Francisco considered part of the Northwest?) Maybe I do know why a little. Maybe because the coast is so beautiful up north and the architecture is great, the people seem so nice and laid back, yellow isn't the primary landscape color, environmentalism isn't a dirty word. (I could go on and on about how impressed I was with the environmental measures taken in the hotels in San Francisco and Cambria and how San Francisco must be the Prius capital of America.) I've just had this thing for the Northwest since my first trip to Seattle in the early '90s. Maybe someday...

So we had a good time exploring San Francisco for a couple of days. The girls decided somewhere in western Nevada that the car game they would play would be Count the Obama bumper stickers. So they kept that up all through San Francicso and down to Los Angeles. Apparently San Francisco is more Obama friendly territory than in these parts. Ha ha. The final count was 17. We took a boat tour around the bay and the kids were all very disappointed we weren't going to take the tour of Alcatraz. I should have listened to Brent I guess. Here are some more pictures of the first leg of the trip. Too bad I still don't know how to put pictures on here in a better way:

                                                                                 Alcatraz



After San Francisco we drove down the coast and stopped in San Simeon to see the Heart Castle:



We also ran into a beach full of elephant seals. There were hundreds of them hanging out on this beach where they are protected.

Next came Southern California. We are now well acquainted with the infamous traffic of Los Angeles after three hours of freeway driving and three more through the city while trying to see the sights. But it was still a great time. Disneyland lived up to it's reputation for the kids, we all had a great couple of days there and we are even considering returning some day. Not bad for people who aren't die hard Disney people. It was a great week away with the family. Now if we could somehow move the east coast a little further west so we could explore that region next time around.

A few more pics (okay a lot more):