Ambiance: San Jose, San Francisco, Dublin, and Carmel, California!

My family and I just got home from a fantastic trip to California. And by "just got home," I mean we rolled in at 2:00 this morning, and now I feel like I could go to sleep even though it's only 8:00pm.

We left Thursday morning at 6:00am and drove ten hours from Daybreak, Utah, through Nevada, to San Jose, California. The drive wasn't half as bad as we expected it to be. We thought it would be desolate and flat and brown and boring the whole way. We were pleasantly surprised to instead find green foliage, rolling hills, and lush forests. The recent rain has really been helping the desert look gorgeous, apparently.

We played 20 Questions as we drove. Dad stumped us for a long time with Bagheera, the panther from "The Jungle Book," but I stole the show by keeping them guessing for over a half hour with Mr. Sir from "Holes."

We also listened to a book during the drive--one of those cheesy LDS novels called "Lock and Key." I give it two stars. It doesn't even warrant a review, though Dad and I did chew it apart verbally the rest of the drive.

Anyways, we arrived at Amanda's apartment at about 4:00pm after only one pit stop, and we spent the whole evening just playing with Jackson. He is the CUTEST boy. He's growing up so fast and learning to speak so well. He enjoys chasing around the house, playing hide and seek (he has two hiding places), tickling and being tickled, and playing pretend. We got him some new toys--a bucket and shovel, and a stuffed turtle. Even though he had nothing to shovel in his little apartment, he still pretended to scoop sand and water. And he LOVES the stuffed turtle. He named it Buck. :)

That night we were too tired to worry much about dinner, so we just got some Chinese food and watched "The Others" (while Jackson was distracted with other things, of course) and vegged together. We got wiped out by like 9:00.

Our hotel was pretty cool. We stayed at an Embassy Suites in San Jose that had a really nice entryway and lobby. The hotel rooms were eight floors tall, laid out in a square around the lobby, which had so many plants and seating areas that it was more like a jungly courtyard than a lobby. The hotel room itself was pretty cheap looking, but the lobby was so cool that we forgave it. :) And they served an actual hot breakfast made to order, which was awesome.

Day 2 (Friday), we spent the entire day in San Francisco, an hour and a half away from our hotel. Chase managed to get the day off of work and spent it with us, which was so much fun.

The drive took us through the city itself which, I'm not gonna lie, was not my favorite. The streets were so windy and full of traffic, the buildings way too close together (making me claustrophobic a little bit), and everything was dirty and run down. We quickly decided that we prefer Brigham Young's city layouts--huge wide streets laid out in a grid. And yeah, Utah construction sucks, but at least our cities look so clean and nice all the time.

I digress. After managing to make our way through the crazy crowded, confusing city, we crossed the Golden Gate bridge and started on the north side. It was a beautiful sunny day everywhere else, but that entrance to the bay had a huge stream of fog coming in. It was like a living thing--a giant, smoky snake or something. We could barely see the bridge at all, but that didn't stop us from finding a tourist photo op spot and enjoying the limited view.

Then we went back over the bridge to the north end of the city, where we went to Fisherman's Wharf. We got a quick lunch at a sourdough bread place (which made us all feel sick by the end of the day--we're not big bread eaters). Then we went to Pier 39.

Pier 39 was so awesome. Can I just say that going places with a two-year-old nephew is like 1000 times more fun than going by oneself? EVERYTHING was entertaining to us. Some guy blowing bubbles kept us rooted for ten minutes because Jackson loved it so much. We fought a crowd to look at sea lions at the marina because Jackson would love it. We spent like a half hour at a carousel because Jackson wanted to ride it twice. We stared at boats docked in the marina for another half hour   because Jackson loves boats. It was so much fun!

That pier had so many cool shops and attractions. We spent a couple hours there, taking it all in. There was a shop for everything you could think of, I swear--hats, shirts, crystal, seashells, socks. We spent the most time at a seashell shop, where I wanted to buy everything in sight. I didn't. I left the day with only my traditional keychain. Much cheaper, but still a good memento.

When we got back to the car, we discovered that someone had run into the driver's side rearview mirror, smashing it apart. Now we're thoroughly convinced that we have some kind of curse--something ALWAYS goes wrong with our car when we're on vacation. Had we been in Utah, someone would have left a note apologizing and offering to pay for the damage. No such luck in San Fran. Thankfully the mirror part was just knocked out and smashed, so Dad was able to reconnect it and then sort of navigate by the fractured mirror. It was nerve-wracking, though, and Dad was so ticked.

Then we wanted to go back to Golden Gate and see if the fog had dissipated at all. It hadn't. It was SO COLD. We just went underneath the southern end of it, where we found Fort Point National Historic Site. It was a really cool old fort, though the brick walls and open rooms did nothing to stave off the cold. We braved the chill and the fierce wind to go up to the top, where we got a nice view of the city and saw some kind of search and rescue effort going on under the bridge. We think someone might have jumped :( though the boats and jet skis gave up rather quickly so we're not sure if it was a false alarm or something. Still it was pretty cool to see how fast they responded and how diligently they searched.

We went home the long way, along the west side of San Francisco, which was much nicer than the city itself. They have awesome trees in California, and once we got out of the fog we saw beach. We stopped at one right across from the entrance to the San Francisco Zoo and explored a little bit, though it was still cold so we didn't stay long.

Dinner that night was Red Robin, where Chase got a salted caramel shake that turned out to mostly be salt. He sent it back quickly after everyone but me took a sip and made a disgusted face. :)

That evening we all just talked again. Chase and Amanda wanted to play video games but we were all too tired so we just went back to the hotel.

Day 3 (Saturday), we started the day by going to see Jurassic World. I'll write a review about it later, but we all really liked it. The ending was epic!

After the movie, we went to Amanda's house and met up with the Williams (Chase got work off again! He's so fun to have around, so I'm so glad he got to spend the whole weekend with us.) We drove an hour and a half again up past San Francisco to the Muir Forest National Monument.

It was really crowded and touristy there, but we miraculously managed to find parking spots in the tiny main lot close to the trailhead instead of parking a mile away like everyone else was. It was chilly when we arrived, but the drive and the crowds and the cold were all worth it.

That place was amazing. I've seen real giant sequoias and these were just coastal redwoods, but they were still HUGE. It was a great Springer Family activity. We love hiking through forests, and this forest beat anything we'd ever gone to as a family. The trees were spectacular and that little canyon was so quiet and peaceful. We all loved it--even Jackson, who entertained himself by "tickling" the trees with leaves and fist bumping them as he rode past on his dad's or my dad's shoulders.

We spent a good few hours in there, then went through the gift shop where Chase showed a fascinated Jackson how to make pressed pennies. Meanwhile, Dad and I read some plaques about the forest's history and learned that the canyon was going to be flooded to build a reservoir until Muir and some other people bought the land and turned it into a preserve. I'm so glad they did. It's an amazing spot, and not too far from San Fran if you're going there already. I highly recommend it.

That night we had leftovers for dinner, then watched "Hitch," and then played on the Wii for an hour together. Amanda and Chase creamed us all, of course, but it was fun. I love that they have the patience to play with us even though we suck. :)

Day 4 (Sunday), we went to church at 9:00am at the nearest chapel. Then we ate a quick lunch at Amanda's place and drove two hours to Carmel. (Side note: we did a LOT of driving on this trip, as you can see. I think next time I'll just have a different hotel at each spot instead of having a home base so far from everything I want to see. It was nice not having to lug or worry about our luggage, though.)

Carmel was BEAUTIFUL. Chase found us the COOLEST spots to see. First we went to Point Lobos State Reserve, which is now my all-time favorite spot in California. You'll have to see it for yourself, but the area is just gorgeous. There's so much colorful foliage around, and then there are these trails that take you around to various lookout points, where there's wildlife all around.

We started at a random southern point and explored tide pools. Jackson loved watching the crabs, and so did we. There were crabs everywhere in those tide pools. They ranged in size, and I found the big ones fascinating as they broke open little shellfish and ate them. There were sea anemones and baby fish and some starfish, too. I've seen tide pools before in southern california, but these ones were so colorful and just seemed healthy and untouched. I should mention that that spot wasn't nearly as crowded as everywhere else we'd gone. Apparently it's off the map for most tourists, which was totally fine by me.

As we walked north, I kept my eyes on the ocean. We knew going into the reserve that there were sea otters out there, and I could see kelp forests out in the waves. That, plus all the crabs and shellfish indicated that it was ideal sea otter territory, especially since it's a protected reserve.

Finally, I saw something dark swimming out in the kelp. I got so excited and would have stayed riveted to that spot on the trail had my family not urged me along. And I'm so glad they did because then at another spot we were practically standing right over two sea otters hanging out in a little inlet below. They were SO. CUTE. and I was just so happy that I actually got to see sea otters in the wild! Their faces were adorable and their fur looked so fluffy, and they were rolling over and over in the kelp to tangle and anchor themselves there, and I was rambling like an idiot to my family about all the random sea otter facts I knew. It was a blast for me. :)

The dark shapes in the middle are sea otters!! This was the only pathetic photo I could get of the otters, but they were actually close than they look here. 

Jackson had a great time, too, of course. He couldn't really see the sea otters--they were pretty hidden in the kelp--and the seals weren't very exciting to him either. There were seals everywhere, too, but they were the exact same color as the rocks they sat on, and they barely moved so Jackson couldn't see them. We thought they were pretty entertaining, though, as they flopped around trying to find a good spot in the faint sunlight.

Those oblong shapes are seals. They had really good camouflage. :) 

More seals on that middle rock.

What we were hoping for for Jackson were sea lions because he liked them so much at Pier 39. We could hear the sea lions, but they turned out to be hanging out on a rock way out across the bay. Still, Jackson kept mimicking their "arf arf arf," which kept us laughing. We were also hoping to see some whales because apparently they pass by there pretty often. No such luck.

It was such a gorgeous spot, and we had a great time watching the sea otters play around. There was just so much nature around--the plants and animals all looked so healthy and untouched. It was one of the coolest ecosystems I've ever observed. I'm so glad that Chase picked it.

When we finally pulled ourselves away from Point Lobos, Chase became our favorite person yet again when he found the best beach spot we could have possibly found. We passed a lot of beach in Carmel as we drove around, but they were all crowded by tourists. Then Chase led us through a random suburb with gorgeous, multi-million-dollar homes along the beach, and there was actually a trail between the homes, totally accessible to outsiders, that went straight to a beach with hardly anyone on it. It was amazing. We had a relaxing Sunday evening there, playing in the waves and helping Jackson build a sand castle (he finally had a use for his new shovel and pail, and he LOVED IT). It was such a quiet, beautiful spot.

What I learned from that day was that it pays off to do a little homework. Yeah the tourist attractions are cool, but this day--when we went off the path and away from the crowds--ended up being my favorite.

Anyways, we were so riveted by Carmel that we didn't leave until around 6:00. And since it was a two-hour drive back home and we were already starving and exhausted, we decided to eat out. Yeah, yeah, we're sinners, I know. We never eat out on the Sabbath, but that day we were just beat. We couldn't wait until 8:00pm to fix dinner and eat at 9:00. So we went to this really good pizza place in Carmel.

Then it was a VERY long, two-hour drive back home. Poor Dad drove so much on that trip, I felt so bad. We were all sleeping the whole way. :)

Then Day 5 was Monday--our last little while with Amanda and Jackson. Chase had to go to work, sadly, but we were glad that he got as much time with us as he did. That morning we packed up our hotel room quickly, then spent the whole morning with Amanda and Jackson at their place. We just chilled together, playing the Wii, watching a movie, chatting, and playing with Jackson. We didn't want to leave. We ended up staying way too late, actually. Amanda made us scrumptious chicken enchiladas, and Dad was so glued to his grandson that he didn't realize how late in the day it was getting. The rest of us noticed, but we didn't want to say anything to draw Dad's attention to it. :)

But, alas, we did have to go. Jackson was napping, but we just had to wake him up and say goodbye. He gave us all hugs and kisses, then waved goodbye to us from his back porch as we drove off. We all miss that kid so much already.

The twelve-hour drive back was not nearly as fun as the drive there. We were all tired and sad about leaving. Mom, Dad, and I listened to "The Rithmatist" as we drove, though, which was highly entertaining. I was glad to finally get my family to listen to a Brandon Sanderson book together. They really liked it, and so did I. Review to follow. :)

Now we're back in Utah, and I feel like we were gone for much longer than just five days. But it was an amazing break and I'm just so glad that we got to go.