Family Weekend Trip to San Francisco

The weekend before the kids school started, we decided to take an impromptu weekend trip to San Francisco where the kids could enjoy all the great kids activities found in the bigger city.  An additional bonus was the spectacular weather we enjoyed.  The family Selfie says is all, we had a great great time! 

Our fun started in the hotel lobby sitting in the big backed chairs and balancing on one very large marble.

Near our hotel was the Children's Creativity Museum.  Will (dressed as a dragon) and Natalie perform a puppet show.

However, the highlight of the event was the claymation studio.  The kids were able to build their clay figures, then film them in action!  It was lots of fun.

The giant block play area was also lots of fun...Natalie and Amanda make a seesaw with Will making a castle in the background.

We also were able to go out to dinner at a real adult restaurant and the kids were full of fun and good behavior.  Here are some silly photos of Natalie with Mom!   Don't they both look great!

Walking around the city you will run across many cool structures and large art installations.  The kids try to hide inside the colorful wind chime.

We also found these very large Easter Island figures inside a garden area.  If you look closely you can see the very scared faces on Natalie and Amanda as the security guards large loud speaker says, "Get off the garden and back onto the walkway, Now!"  ;-)

After we calmed the nerves down, we were able to capture some cool pics of the kids trying to be stone figures.

Look how crazy we are!

The next day we went to the California Academy of Sciences.  This place is amazing with all the cool stuff to do and learn, we will definitely come back.  They have a very large rain forest with birds and butterflies, a planetarium, an earth quake simulator, an aquarium, a natural history museum, unique zoo animals, special exhibits, etc...it goes on and on and on!  We started our adventure in the rain forest and we managed to stop the kids long enough for this pic.

Birds and butterflies were flying all around, and Natalie tries to charm one onto her hand.

Come here little butterfly.

This one is playing hard to get!

Mom was the lucky one to have one land on her finger.

Soon after, Natalie achieved success!

Natalie (and the butterfly) was nice enough to let Amanda take a turn. 

Amanda is so proud!

We saw lots of big fish in the aquarium.

Beautiful and colorful coral!

They even have a swamp area with an albino gator!

We next venture out on top of the building to enjoy the scenery.

Skulls!  Their special exhibit was skulls, and hundreds of them of not a thousand!  Will stands below an elephan's skull to show just how big it is.

Amanda wants in the photos as well.

Right before we started the drive home, we made a quick trip to the beach so the kids could burn some energy.  As I said, we had a georgous day and the kids loved the water.  Even though they did not have swim suits, it did not stop them from running with the waves.  Amanda is on the left, Will in the center and Natalie on the right.

Watch out, the waves are crashing in on them!  Everyone was soaked by the end, but had a great time.  We changed clothes and began to plan our next trip for more fun.