I Left My Heart in San Francisco-San Francisco Day 1

Tuesday we headed into San Francisco for the day. it is about a 30 minuted drive from my sister's in Palo Alto. I decided to be adventurous and drive the whole day. Let's just say driving a 12 passenger van int he rain, on the super narrow and crowded streets of San Francisco definitely qualifies as an adventure for this mom! We were really blessed and found parking spots as close as we possible could be every time. The parking meters are quite expensive though, to the tune of $3.50 an hour. Our first stop was Golden Gate Park which is enormous. We foundhe children's playground and it was so neat. The kids had a blast playing there and we had to drag them away. Then we headed over to China Town to eat lunch and shop. Going to China Town was like stepping into another country. The buildings, the people, the smells were so exciting to see. It only covers a few square blocks but it is the most densely populated area in the U.S. I really enjoyed myself, despite the drizzly rain. I picked up paper umbrellas and kimonos for the girls. Caleb got a plastic sword and boy howdy was he excited, he even tried to sleep with it. Ont he way out of town we passed by Lombard Street and I wanted to drive down it. It proved to be hard to get to because there are all of these one way streets you can't turn down. Finally we got around and I had to drive up this super steep street that was really slick. I think everyone in the car was saying a silent prayer. I drove down and it was so fun! Next we headed over to Golden Gate Bridge. It was very foggy by this time so you couldn't see all of it. It was still an amazing sight to behold. We played hard all day and the kids were great, but also very worn out. They napped in the car on the way home. that night we went out to dinner at a local hamburger place called Jeffrey's, a 50's inspired diner. We went back to our hotel and the kids crashed.

Lombard Street, the "crookedest" street in America. Not only is it crooked, it is super steep. Cars line up to drive down it, I am sure that makes the neighbors really happy.

Hilary and Claire in China Town

Laure, Caleb and Eli in a street(alley) in China Town. Caleb has his sword drawn ready to protect us.

One of the main streets in China Town

I had to snap a photo of this!

Caleb and Lauren loved climbing to the top of this play structure. You can see the adults standing at the bottom to get a reference of how tall it really is.

Funny Story: While we were on the swings, we heard this loud siren sound. The nice lady told us that everyday at noon they check the emergency broadcast system. Sure enough booming through loud speakers over the city you heard a message. Ella hearing a voice in the sky looked around and said, "I hear Jesus talking to me."