Santa Cruz, CA

After spending the day in San Francisco we drove to Santa Cruz to enjoy a beautiful sunset and some beach time for the kids.

And all it took to turn this sad face....

...into a happy one...

...was this delicious pizza :)

San Francisco, CA

This Tee Pee on a campground on the Mendocino coast in northern California would have been fun to sleep in. Except for the fact that the flap for a door wasn't really sufficient in keeping the wind out and the hole in the top may be beneficial if you are having a fire burn inside to let the smoke out, but without a fire it is also really beneficial for letting more cold air in. Even the fact that we already paid for it couldn't convince us to spend the night here. So after cooking some dinner we packed up the kids at nine o'clock at night and headed out in search for a better sleep accommodation. In case you didn't know (we certainly didn't) the northern California coast is not exactly smothered with little beach towns with lots of Hotels and Motels. So we ended up driving two hours along the coast in the dark on Hwy 1 and then on windy roads with lots of deer crossing through national forest to get to the outskirts of San Francisco. And since we didn't want to be stuck in morning traffic trying to get into SF we kept driving to stay in SF. So on my third visit to SF I finally got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge.... at 1 AM in the morning, frantically calling Hotel after Hotel to find a reasonably priced (under $250 that is!) Hotel for us to finally get some sleep. We made it and we did enjoy a nice day at Fishermans Wharf and fortunately the kids slept through all of it and woke up in beautiful SF in the morning totally oblivious of their parents nightmare the night before.... And hey, at least it makes for a good story to tell!

Redwood Forest, California

We felt like forest fairies sleeping in this cabin in the redwood forest in northern California. The tree STUMP next to it was about the same size as our cabin!

Emmi loved it. She literally thought she had magically turned into a fairy.

We drove through the National Park and the Avenue of Giant.

Looked for fairies...

...and wouldn't have been surprised if a dinosaur would have pocked his head around the corner of one of those gigantic trees.

Did you know just the bark of those trees is up to one foot thick which makes them almost undestructible even by fire?

And how about a tree house INSIDE a tree?

Lily is such a polite child....

Me: "Lily, do you need to pee?"

Lily: "No thank you Mama!"

Me: "Lily, can you please stop doing that?"

Lily: "No thank you Mama."

Me: "Lily, stop pouring out your drink!"

Lily: "I'll be very careful Mama."

....except when she is not...

Lily: "Can I watch a movie?"

Papa: "No, we are done watching movies."

Lily: "But I want to!"

Papa: "No, not now."

Lily: "Hmmmm, I am NOT gonna play with you!!!!"

And she sure gets her feelings hurt easily...

Papa: "Lilian, do NOT take your sisters toys!"

Lily (in tears): "Mama! Papa is making me SAD!"