2017 Trip to the Bay Area (California): Day 1-3

Todd, Lucy, Cece, & I spent all last week out in the Bay Area (Oakland/San Francisco) in California visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.  We hadn't seen them since they came to Columbus for Thanksgiving so it was so great to spend some time with them and see how big William is now!  We stayed at their house which worked out perfectly because once all the kids were in bed, we were able to stay up and hang out with Jeff & Meghan.  The girls were such troopers and adjusted easily to the 3 hour time change.  We crammed a lot of things into our week and it flew by!

Day 1 (Saturday, July 1, 2017)

• Direct flight from Columbus to Oakland at 3:45 PM
• Arrived in Oakland at 5:45 PM local time

California, here we come!

Day 2 (Sunday, July 2, 2017)

• SoulCycle class at Walnut Creek with Meghan & Julie
• Drove to Menlo Park, CA (about 30-40 min south of San Francisco) to see Todd's friends
• Snack at Delucchi's Market & Deli
• Played at park
• Late lunch/early dinner at Amici's
• Stopped at Facebook headquarters on drive back

First time taking a SoulCycle class; I went with Meghan (my SIL) and one of our friend's, Julie, that moved to the Bay Area a few years ago from Columbus

Cece & William playing

All the cousins playing (Lucy & William played together so well and I can't wait for Cece to start walking and moving more so Lucy can play more with her)

We stopped at Delucchi's for a quick snack before meeting up with our friends (Todd has a bunch of friends that used to work at Honda that moved out to the Bay Area for other jobs)

Lucy wanted to play at the outdoor play area at the market

Posing on the giraffes

We met up at one of our friends' houses and then walked down to a local park so Lucy & our friends' daughter, Vivi, could play

The girls played together great!

The adults (and Cece) standing around at the park and catching up

From the park, we walked to "downtown" Menlo Park and had a late lunch/early dinner at Amici's

Todd & I got a pizza which was half fried eggplant (so good!) and half philly cheese steak

Lucy & Vivi posing for a picture before we left

Emily & I 

On our drive down to Menlo Park, we drove past what we thought was the Facebook headquarters and after asking our friends, we were right so of course I wanted to stop on the way back for a picture

There was actually a line of people (mostly Asian tourists) to get their picture taken so Todd stayed in the car with Cece and Lucy came with me--and she was the one that actually took the picture of me which turned out great!

Day 3 (Monday, July 3, 2017)

• Workout at Sweat Strength + Cycling 
• Drove into San Francisco for the day: rode cable cars, went to Lombard Street, walked along the Embarcadero, saw sea lions at Pier 39, got bread at Boudin
• Lunch at Lori's Diner
• Hung out at Jeff & Meghan's

I ended up signing up for a month of ClassPass so I could sign up for classes in San Francisco for a much cheaper price than if I bought single classes from each studio; I started my week with a circuit class at Sweat

Every morning, the kids would all play together

Since Jeff & Meghan were hosting a 4th of July party the following day, they stayed at home to get ready while Todd, Lucy, Cece & I drove into San Francisco to do all the touristy things

Waiting in line for the cable cars

This was the one that we rode

Lucy posing in front of Ghirardelli Square

Almost our turn!

Lucy was loving it!

Cece wasn't so sure

Riding up and down the hills of San Francisco

Lunch at Lori's Diner

Todd and the girls hanging out in the booth

Lucy requested a strawberry milkshake...

and a Mickey pancake

We hopped back on the cable car and then got off at Lombard Street (the "crookedest" street in the world)

View from the top of Lombard Street

Lucy walked down to the bottom with me so we stopped halfway to take a selfie (which, I need to totally brag about Lucy here--we didn't bring a double stroller and this girl walked miles around San Francisco (uphill too!) and never once complained about being tired)

At the bottom of Lombard Street 

Lucy posing

After Lombard Street, we got back on the cable car and went back to where we started the day along the waterfront and walked down to Pier 39 to see the sea lions

Cece fell asleep in the stroller and this was when she got sunburned; as you can see from what we're wearing, it wasn't that warm so we totally didn't think to put sunscreen on the girls.  Well, when you see the post up for the second half of our trip, you'll notice Cece's pink cheeks which eventually started peeling--we felt terrible!

Before we drove back over the Bay Bridge to Jeff & Meghan's house, we stopped at Boudin Bakery to get a snack

I'll have the second half of our trip up in a few days!