Life At The Circus

I love big cities. D.C., New York City, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia…  So, it probably doesn’t surprise anyone, Scott included, that when I was plotting our road trip from Pinnacles NP to his Nana’s north of Sacramento, I insisted we “swing by San Francisco” for lunch on our way.  It was an hour drive out of the way (plus whatever time we spent in the city) but I really, really wanted to do it.     San Francisco is one of my favorite cities.  I knew we couldn’t do it all with the kids in a few short hours, so I made a short list of what I wanted to do.   We had to be quick because our main objective was to get to Nana’s… We started with a drive down the crookedest street in the world, Lombard St.      From there we headed to Pier 39.  We all enjoyed seeing the sites and walking around in some of the specialty shops.     The Golden Gate Bridge was covered in fog.     We LOVED watching the ...

During our trek across California, we wanted to also make time to see some of Scott’s family that live here.  Scott’s aunt, uncle, and his cousin and her family live a few hours from Pinnacles National Park and graciously offered to meet us there and spend time with us at the park.    We met at a restaurant called Togo’s … we had never heard of it before, but Scott’s cousin described it as “like subway only better.”  She was right!  It was delicious.  Every time we have passed a Toga’s since the kids call out, “TO-GOs!!”  with great excitement.  I wish we had remembered to snap a picture during lunch but we were too busy chatting and eating and having a blast.  Just imagine 13 people gathered around small tables talking and laughing and eating and catching up on life.  It was great.   After Togo’s we drove to the the park (about 40 minutes away) and found ourselves taking an extended time at the visitor center talking and catchi...

  Scott had been hoping for us to take a hike down from Glacier Point to Yosemite Valley.  It would be our longest hike, but it would have been all down hill and we would pass both Nevada and Vernal Falls.  Given our kids fascination with water falls, this seemed like a fun hike.  Unfortunately, we learned too late that there was no shuttle from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point, and the only way we could do this plan was if we had pre purchased tickets for a special shuttle that left early in the morning.  So, we opted for plan B, which we weren’t as excited about, but ended up being great. We took advantage of our campsite in Yosemite Valley and hiked through the woods behind our campsite to the beginning of a trail which would lead to Vernal Falls.  Unlike plan A, this trail went UP from the valley to the falls.  Because it was an upward hike, we were planning to go to the footbridge at the base of Vernal Falls and then maybe see about hiking all...