Spring break: Day 3- Pier 39

Lily woke up and had to give her big sister some snuggles - she missed her.

We got ready for church and took a bit of a walk through the rain to get some breakfast at the Whole Foods grocery store then off to church.  We enjoyed our juice and pastries on our way, well most of us enjoyed it until someone made Kate laugh and she spit orange juice all over Emily.  Then we were all cracking up, luckily, even Emily.

We were a little surprised to see an emotional support dog in the arms of the man leading the music, but since he was also wearing a dress it didn't seem so odd.  It was actually wonderful to see him in church with a calling.  The ward was super young.  I didn't see any youth and the oldest primary kids were probably around 8.  At some point while walking, someone noticed that the kids were dressed in the colors of the chipmunks and chipettes.  Fernando was not happy being Simon, there were a lot of jokes about the skinnest kids being chubby Theodore and Eleanor, but Lily loved being Britney.   

We headed back out into the rain to enjoy the Pier.  We took Fernando into the Hard Rock Cafe so he could see what it was all about and we could take a break from the rain.  A bath store lured us in and we all left smelling fabulous (Gucci as Natali said) with smooth soft hands.

Kate had to get a cow pic.

We made it to the end of the pier to check out the sea lions.

Suddenly one lion started twitching and bouncing his belly before he suddenly barfed while shaking his head from side to side spraying white foul smelling barf all over his friends.  They didn't even wake up but Fernando gaged and was done watching sea lions.  The barf didn't faze Emily though, she would have watched the lions for the rest of the day.  We had to pull her away but everyone else was ready for lunch.

We followed the fabulous smells to the crepe store where all the kids ordered crepes.  They were in awe as the guy made all four of their crepes at once.  I found us some seats out of the rain while Natali, Greg and I waited for our delicious soup, salad and sandwiches from the famous Boudin Sourdough shop.  Everyone was happy and temporarily dry.

We had to sample a little sourdough turtle.

Then back into the rain of walk off our lunch and find Ghirardelli Square.  On the way we found a huge bubble machine in the street.

Free hot fudge sample?  Yes Please!!!

and maybe a hot fudge brownie Sunday or three.

We wanted to ride the trolleys but after looking at cost and schedules decided it really didn't make since so we just took a pic with one.

Then we headed to the wave organ.  Natali wanted to check this out so we took a lovely little walk out to the end of a little strip of land.  

I will only include one of the many super bad selfies.

At the end there was this cool organ that creates sound when the waves move in and out.  Unfortunately, it was low tide so the organ was pretty quiet but a few pipes made some noise. But we didn't stay around long because there was a whole group of guys filming their parkour moves on the organ structure.  It was a bit awkward. 

We stopped and played in some sand.

Greg then took us on a tour of the houses his grandma lived in in San Francisco.

Here is Grandma Nani with her Grandpa Rush in front of their house.

Lily in front of the same house.

Nani and her father in front of his parents' apartment building.

Natali and Emily in front of the same building.

We dropped Natali off at the BART station so she could head to the airport then we took a drive by of the famous Painted Ladies, made especially famous from Full House, a popular series when I was a kid.  From there we hit the road to Nevato so we could sleep closer to Point Reyes.  

We had the joy of three hotel rooms, a little needed space for everyone.  There was one small problem - the girls room reeked of weed.  They hung out with the boys while Greg thankfully was able to get them a new room.  

We drove into town to buy lunch for Monday and possibly to find dinner.  It was a bit of madness with Fernando and Andrew trying to see if they could hit the hanging signs, everyone disagreeing about what to eat, and convincing the deli man to cut us some meat even though the deli was closed but we managed to exit the store with happy kids and enough food for lunch.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a gas station and Andrew examined the drink selection, " The Arizona's here (a kind of drink) are cheeper here than in the US!"  I guess California was so unique it felt foreign.  🤦🏻‍♀️. We teased him a lot about this quote but it was even funnier the next day when I asked everyone to help me right down memories and Greg said, "Fernando's first goal in the US".  It was quickly corrected to California but we aren't going to let he and Andrew forget their slip-up.

We still didn't have anything for dinner so we hit the restaurant by out hotel - girls were happy with mashed potatoes and the boys got kids meals with chicken tenders and street tacos to share.  However, we forgot to ask what the "meat of the day" was for the tacos and sure enough they were fish tacos.  Andrew couldn't do it even though he did sort of try.  Fernando appropriately called him a drama queen.

The boys room became the gathering place as we wished everyone good night.  That's when the girls realized they left their key in the room, maybe this is why we don't usually get them their own room😉.  Luckily, Greg had the second key and got them back in their room with instructions not to leave!  We were planning to hit the continental breakfast at 6:30 am when it opened so we needed sleep.