2017 Trip to the Bay Area (California): Day 4-7

The second half of our trip out to California was just as busy as the first half!  We celebrated the 4th of July in Piedmont at Jeff & Meghan's, went to the Oakland Zoo, the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, and the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.  It was fun to explore some different places and museums we typically wouldn't have gone to without kids and I know the girls & William had a great time.

Day 4 (Tuesday, July 4, 2017)

• Parade in Piedmont
• 4th of July party at Jeff & Meghan's

Family picture on the 4th of July on the front porch of Jeff & Meghan's house (it was always pretty cool in the mornings out there and would warm up around lunch time once the sun came out)

Piedmont has a fantastic 4th of July parade with the most random floats/people/cars and it was awesome that the parade route was literally on the street up from my brother's house so we only had to walk about 1 block to get to it

Cece & I (Lucy is right behind me holding her Target bag to try and collect candy)

Don't worry, the parade included tap dancing Christmas trees (these were adults too!)

One of the neighborhood floats

Afterwards, we walked back down to Jeff & Meghan's house and the party was just getting started

Tons of food and my brother was in charge of the grill

The tent was great to sit under with Cece since she was sunburned and the tables were lined up across the front sidewalk to avoid any kids from escaping

Lucy was all decked out her in red, white, and blue and was very excited to eat a rice krispie treat

American flag cupcakes

Todd & Cece hanging out and eating under the tent

Cousins 

Todd, Meghan's friend, Tara, Meghan, and William still going strong late into the afternoon

Day 5 (Wednesday, July 5, 2017)

• Spinning class at CRUFit
• Late morning/early afternoon at Oakland Zoo
• Afternoon at Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley
• Dinner at Little Shin Shin
• Ice cream at Cream

Went to CRUFit for an early morning Spinning class

Jeff & Meghan had some work to do in the morning so Todd, the girls, and I went to the Oakland Zoo for a few hours

Checking out the flamingos as soon as we walked in

Lucy playing in the spider's web in the kids' play area

Petting zoo

Todd hung out with Cece while Lucy & I were in the petting zoo

Lucy's one request was to see the giraffes

They just opened a gondola ride up to the top of a hill/mountain where there's currently only a restaurant but next year they will be opening a huge new animal exhibit

We were able to get a great view of most of the zoo and could even see quite a few animals as we rode up

View of the gondolas from the top

From the top, you could see San Francisco in the distance

I'll never turn down a stranger offering to take our picture

We ended our trip to the zoo in the ride section where we took a train ride through the Australian outback (I love the Columbus Zoo but its train ride is seriously lacking so I was pretty impressed with this one in Oakland)

"Driving" her pink car

Since we didn't get to hang out with Jeff, Meghan, and William in the morning, Jeff, William, Todd, Lucy, and I spent a few hours in the afternoon at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley; Meghan stayed back at the house while Cece napped

I swear, Todd has more fun at these museums than the kids!

Todd & Lucy were racing Jeff & William on bikes

Todd & Lucy flying an airplane

There was a small outdoor area we walked around and again, we had another gorgeous view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge

After dinner, we stopped at Cream for some dessert

Lucy picked out blueberry cheesecake ice cream...

which she shared with Cece

Day 6 (Thursday, July 6, 2017)

• Boot Camp class at ProAction Athletics
• Afternoon at California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco

Our last full day in the Bay Area started with a boot camp workout at ProAction Athletics; this was my favorite studio of the week and I ended up going again on Friday morning before we left to fly home

Inside the studio

In the late morning, we made our way back into San Francisco for a trip to the California Academy of Sciences

Right when you walk in, there's a huge skeleton of a dinosaur

Meghan, William, and Lucy looking down at the coral reef

Cece in front of the penguin exhibit (it's hard to tell from the lighting but there are real penguins there)

Little bit better picture of them

In the middle of the building is this rainforest sphere

Another view of the outside of the rainforest

Todd & I inside the rainforest

If you looked down from the very top, you could see down into the aquarium which was below the rain forest

Todd & Lucy looking for butterflies

Photo bomb by the catfish

Touch pool in the aquarium exhibit

The exhibit that rotates was currently about dinosaurs; they had a part where you could fly and control the dinosaur on the screen

Day 7 (Friday, July 7, 2017)

• Boot Camp class at ProAction Athletics
• Direct flight home at 10:50 AM
• Arrived back in Columbus at 6:15 PM

We flew home on Friday and pretty much traveled all day since we left my brother's house at 8:45 AM and didn't arrive back at our house until almost 7:30 PM.  The flight home was a little rough for us since Cece hadn't taken a nap and was very tired by lunch time.  She cried (loudly) for 30-40 minutes and then eventually just passed out for the rest of the flight.  All in all though, we had a really great trip and look forward to hopefully seeing Jeff, Meghan, and William again before the end of the year.