Our jam-packed weekend

So I am rather late on posting this since this was actually almost a full month ago! But oh well at least I am finally posting! My mom had some work stuff to do out here in the San Jose area, but this time she brought Kayla with her, and they stayed for four fun filled days! So here is the recap:

THURSDAY

On Thursday my mom and Zac had to work so it was just Kayla and me. We started the day by driving out to Santa Cruz. We thoroughly enjoyed the boardwalk! We rode all the roller coasters, and the Double Drop, and the twisting twirling sky-high Fireball. Then we went to the oh so fun: Mystery Spot! Zac and I went there when first moved here, but Kayla had never been and she wanted to go so, thus we went. Yep, it's still a hoax. . . but a cool hoax. Then we came back to San Jose and went to the San Jose Tech Museum. Its like OMSI for anyone who has been there with my family, which is a big science museum with lots of cool interactive exhibits and an IMAX theater. We went and saw the Alps movie. It was awesome! I love IMAX movies. Then we drove through little Mexico, which was a little scary, to go to Target to get me some cute athletic shorts that Kayla found, that I decided I needed too. And since I got them on sale, it ended with her being jealous of me, so that was sweet.

FRIDAY

So Zac took the day off, and my mom didn't have to work, so Friday was our first day to go out and do fun stuff! We started off the day by going to the Japanese Gardens in Saratoga. It was really beautiful and we had a lot of fun walking around and goofing off. This picture would be of me feeding Kayla Coy food.

We then continued on our way up to San Francisco. Our first stop in the city was Lombard Street. It's the curviest street in San Francisco, MAYBE EVEN THE WORLD. . . maybe not though.

Then we went to Coit Tower. Luckily my mom drove us to the top of the hill instead of making us walk up. Last time I was in San Fran with my mom she made me go on a "little walk" which involved walking all the way to Coit Tower then all the way up the hill... then all the way back! Needless to say I was seriously sore the next three days, so I was really grateful that my mom let us skip the stair-stepper butt work out.

Our next stop was Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf, where we had an awesome seafood lunch. Then we went out to look at the bay, which was windy and slightly cold as usual, but still beautiful. Then we went out to see the noisy Sea Lions, and watched them play king of the pier.

After that we headed out of town, and on our way we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. However, our impeccable timing had us driving over the bridge at rush hour so we decided it would be best not to stop at the tourist spots at each end because it would take too long, so we just opted to take pictures of it while we drove over it. Lovely huh?

After that our next stop was Muir Woods. Of course the first interesting thing that Zac found was in the parking lot. We walked past this car, and Zac just thought it was hilarious! In case you can't read it, it says "I wish my wife was this dirty." It was pretty funny. Then we walked through the woods, which were beautiful as always.

Then we made the long drive out to Point Reyes National Seashore. Of course as we drove in the fog rolled in as well, which was unfortunate, but we were undeterred and kept on our course along the small windey roads- I mention this since I got rather car sick, luckily I didn't throw up or anything. We were going out there to see a light house that we had seen pictures of, and it looked really pretty. Of course when we got there we had two problems. One the lighthouse was closed. But we were undeterred. We decided that since we had driven two hours to get there we were going to see that lighthouse! So we parked the car and walked the rest of the way. Our second problem was the fog had rolled in quite thick so we couldn't even see the ocean from the top of the cliff. When we got out there luckily we could see the lighthouse, but we couldn't walk down to it because an even bigger gate than the one blocking the road was blocking the path down. It was too dangerous because of the fog I guess, but oh well. At least we got to see it, right?

After that we drove along more tiny windey roads (I'm not sure that's how you spell windey, or if windey is even a word; I guess they were streets that were full of wind . . . not wind as in a blustery day, but wind as in a clock; windy? - Aughhh, English). So we took some CURVY roads to Santa Rosa where we stayed at the Marriott Courtyard. We had dinner at IHOP then went back to the hotel where my mom and I went to the Hot tub, and Kayla and Zac watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics. It was a good, long, eventful day!

SATURDAY
So the next day started on the drive, which was right through Napa valley- wine country. There were vineyards everywhere! It was beautiful!

Our first stop was at the Old Faithful Geyser of California. It goes off about every 45 minutes. They had a little goat petting farm, and we found a hole that some little rodent was digging out, it was pretty cute, so we watched it for a while. Also while we were waiting Zac went to go use the bathroom and when he got there he discovered an entire line of Asian women lined up in front of the men's bathroom. Of course Zac found this hilarious so he had to take a picture of it. The picture doesn't really do it justice; there were about 10 Asian ladies in the line but most of them scattered when they saw Zac with the camera. Then they all came back and gathered around Zac as he showed them the pictures he took of them. He tried to get them all back in the line again, but it was like herding cats; Asian cats. They probably had no idea what Zac was trying to accomplish. When the geyser finally went off it was definitely small in comparison to the Old Faithful geyser in Wyoming, but it was still pretty cool, and it lasted a really long time. My mom and Zac enjoyed standing in the spray to cool off, since even though it was only 10 o'clock in the morning it was already quite hot.

After that we drove to a petrified forest that was only about 5 miles away from the geyser. It was pretty cool. I've been to other petrified forests before, and they have had more colorful logs/ rocks but this petrified forest had really really big trees. It was a fun walk around the complex, and amazing to see how many huge petrified trees there were.

So after the geyser and the petrified forest we got back in the car for a very pretty drive through more of Napa valley on our way to Vallejo. We were headed for 6 Flags Discovery Kingdom! We had a ton of fun there. We rode all the huge roller coasters, which took forever since the lines were really long! Since the rides were actually really similar to the rides at Great America, I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see any animals while we were there. I really wanted to see a dolphin and a whale show, but oh well, I guess that means that Zac and I will just have to go back sometime! So as the park was closing my mom and I decided that we needed a funnel cake, so we ended up waiting for like 45 minutes- as long as some of the rides! Yes ridiculous I know, but once we started waiting we couldn't stop otherwise it would all be a waste!

So after Discovery Kingdom it was pretty late, so we drove back to San Jose, Zac was kind enough to offer to drive back, since it was about a two hour drive, and my mom had done most of the driving.

SUNDAY
So the next day we took my mom and my sister to our ward out here. They got to see how odd it is that our church is about a 20 minute drive away even though we happen to drive right past another ward building on our way there. We think that ward building is probably a Spanish speaking ward building. Our ward is really nice and super friendly so I was happy to have my family visit and get to meet them. So when my mom was in Chicago with my sister a while ago they got me this outfit that matched my sister's, so naturally my mom wanted a picture of us in our matchy-matchy outfits. Don't worry, we didn't actually go to church all matchy, I changed when we got home for the picture! Unfortunately I couldn't convince Zac to dress to match us- he thought it was too lame. Oh well. Zac made us an awesome pot roast for dinner (which he learned how to do from his mom- thank you so much for that Ann! We have pot roast almost every Sunday!) then we had to take my mom and my sister to the airport. Well I guess they had to go home at some point right? I was sad to see them go, but I was so glad they could come visit, it was so great to have them out here! It was a really great, really fun, really busy weekend! I am my mother's daughter so I can't imagine it turning out any other way!