CA trip

We had so much fun on our first big road trip.  I planned plenty of activities to keep the kiddos content on the long drive, and things went better than I expected.  Here they are a few hours in to the trip:

The first day we made it about 11 hours, and stoppd in Elko, NV.  We had dinner at Roundtable Pizza, one of Alex's favorites from when he lived in California.  

The second day we had a slight delay as we got a flat tire while pulling off at this travel center for a bathroom break.  So grateful it happened here and not in the middle of nowhere, and very happy they were able to patch the hole.  Otherwise, we probably would have had to backtrack to the previous town and buy a new tire.

Once we got into Sacramento, we met up with friends for a yummy dinner and a huge ice cream sundae for dessert.  Can't believe I didn't get a picture of it!  Look at all those sweet kiddos :)

We were especially excited to meet our godson, Frankie! Got a few pics of Juliana and her little godbrother.  They are only a month apart!

On Saturday we took a ferry ride from Vallejo to San Francisco.  We planned to walk around San Francisco, but the return trip for the ferry wasn't secheduled until 4pm that afternoon, so we turned around and came back.  We got a great view of the city though, and the kids loved being on a boat.

That evening we met up with some more friends for some park time and dinner.  So good to see friends we haven't seen in so long.

 Swimming at the hotel pool :)

Lawrence Hall of Science, with a huge whale out front, and a breathtaking view of the bay area.

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After the meseum we stopped at St. Mary's College.  It is a beautiful campus, and it was neat to see where Alex did his undergrad.

Monday was the 4th of July, and we had a yummy brunch at the home of our sweet friends.  We relaxed in their beautiful backyard and visited while the kids played.

Thank you, Luppinos, for the yummy picnic in the park.  And thank you Helena, for driving up to see us.  SO good you see you all!

On the way home we pulled over to take a picture on the salt plains in Utah.  It goes on for miles and miles and looks like snow!

We stopped in Park City for our last night.  It is a fancy ski resort town, and the scenery was beautiful.  And thanks to a Hotwire mistake, we got to stay in a fancy Hilton, with the best breakfast we had all week!

75 cent cones from Little America on the way home!