Earlier in July, we all went to San Francisco for an old High School friend's wedding. I (Andy) had only been to the Bay Area once before, and that was ten years ago. My friend (Jeff) had just moved out to the area and was renting a flat above a liquor store in a very shitty part of Oakland. At the time, I wasn’t sure if it was safer to sleep on the floor of Jeff’s apartment or in the back seat of my 1975 Cadillac which I paid $500 for.
Fast forward ten years, Jeff has built up quite the resume’ working for all the major CGFX studios around the world. He’s now got a nice little place in Berkeley and ready to settle down with his lovely lady Bonnie. I figured it was finally time to make another visit rather than his standard annual visit to my place when he’s in town visiting family.
We arrived on Thursday morning and checked into our Bed and Breakfast up in the fancy-schmancy neighborhood of Tiburon. After unloading our luggage, we headed out to Berkeley and had dinner with Bonnie and Jeff. After dinner, Jeff and I broke out into one of typical hour long death metal / progressive / noise jam sessions. While it brought back all sorts of memories, the ladies weren’t impressed and we wrapped up it around 11PM.
While in the Bay area, we partook in all sorts of fun activities. We drove up to the top of Mt. Tamalpais, rode the ferry from Larkspur into the city, took one of the historic cable cars to the Fisherman’s Warf, ate lunch on Pier 39, visit the beach, and many more fun activities. All this while taking in Jeff and Bonnie’s beautiful commitment ceremony.
Becki and Andy at the Marin Headlands
Daddy and Maggie on the Ferry into the city
Mom and Maggie on Pier 39
Maggie enjoying the fresh air.
Maggie asking Mom and Dad "Can we PLEASE stay a little a longer? Mayne an hour or so?"
After a long two week test drive for work into the cold northern wilderness, it was decided that a nice impromptu driving vacation was in order. Without any sort of concrete plans or expectations, we packed up the family car and drove out to our nation’s capitol.
In route to Washington DC, we stopped at the Kalahari Resort and Hotel in Sandusky Ohio to bask in their clear blue (because it’s chlorinated) waters of the world’s largest indoor water park. Maggie wasn’t a huge fan of the water park, but she did have fun sitting back and watching Daddy come down the big slides.
We were welcomed to the capitol with unseasonably warm weather. Just five days prior, the city was shut down for a snow day. However, we were treated to temperatures in the lower seventies all weekend long. Even better, was that our hotel was two blocks directly north of the White House. We started the day off by posing for pictures in front of the north lawn.
After the White House, we meandered over to the Washington Monument and gazed upwards.
Maggie also did a few laps around the monument... just because.
From the monument, we explored the Air and Space museum.
The day concluded with a visit to the Capitol building. Maggie loved running up the stairs, sitting down and then posing for a picture.
After her first picture, Maggie remembered her hat that she received from the Hershey chocolate tour the prior day, ran back to her stroller, grabbed the hat, ran back to the stairs and then posed for a second set of pictures.
...and finally, what trip to Washington DC would be complete without a ride on the Metro.
