I Heart San Francisco

Ever since Chris and I had a little second honeymoon in San Francisco when Maddie was one, I have just loved San Francisco. I think it is the coolest city with so many neat sites and such unique architecture. We've been back a couple of times since when Cisco and Heather lived in the Bay Area. So when I got an email to train a dental office in Alameda (located across the bay from San Francisco) Chris and I jumped at the chance to take the kids for a quick weekend get-away in one of our favorite cities. It was conference weekend which I was a little bummed about since I was really looking forward to soaking in all the talks. We drove up Friday night and arrived at our hotel at 1 am. I had to work the next day until 3. Chris picked me up and we drove across the bridge to San Francisco. It was a beautiful day- cool, crisp and clear.

We headed over to ride the cable cars first which we thought the kids would really enjoy. The line was really long and we waited over an hour! Sawyer was impatient but when we got on it was well worth the wait. We were kind of disappointed to see the the Cable cars had become more of a ride than a form of transportation. Gone are the days of hopping on and off throughout the city (as you see in the movies). We took the cable car to the end of the line in the Union Square area of San Francisco.

Sawyer sitting in an empty cable car while we waited.

Maddie doing one of her famous poses

The view from the park where you get on the Cable Cars

Silly Carter!

Once we got to downtown there was a big line to get on the Cable Cars to ride back so we decided to walk around. It was interesting walking around in a big city with 3 little kids and no stroller. Lets just say our patience was tested more than once! When Chris and I had gone to San Francisco years ago we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory on top of an 8 story Macy's building. We thought it was pretty cool and loved it. Since we were downtown we had the crazy idea to take the kids to eat there. We put our name in and there was an hour wait so we walked around Macy's until they paged us. It was so neat because we got to sit outside on the patio right next to a glass wall where you could see down into Union Square. The kids were really good since it felt so cool to be outside up high on top of a building with all the city lights around.

Here is my camera's measly attempt to capture a view from our table.

Maddie and Carter acting Silly

Me and the kids

After dinner it was almost 10 o'clock and we headed back to where our car was parked. Which was clear up by fisherman's wharf. We were pleased to find the Cable cars still running and we were able to "hop" on the old fashioned way at an intersection. After our ride back the driver let the kids ring the bell which was pretty exciting for Sawyer. He has talked about the Cable Cars ever since.

The next morning we listened to Conference on our computer, packed up our stuff, and headed out. We stopped at the Oakland Temple which looked beautiful and the view from the temple was gorgeous.