Jeff and Mom take on the USA

Drove 500 miles today.  Yup thats pretty much all we did! But we made it far.  Tomorrow we will be meeting up with Janet and Dave.  Can't wait to see them!

Today we had to get up at 6am in order to get to San Francisco in time for our ride to Alcatraz Island!  The traffic here is insane!  We got to the city, were able to park the car and get to the pier at pretty much the time we needed to be there!  Our boat left at 8:45!! Alcatraz was very interesting.  We took a walking audio tour, saw great views of the city and lots of seagulls! After the island we went to see the sea lions on the pier.  There were so many of them, and they were extremely active! Finally a stop at Ghirardelli Square.  We did not buy anything because we did not save any room from lunch! All in all a good day.

Woke up to a blue, sunny sky.  I looked out on the beach and got a big surprise!  Not far off the shore was an huge rock!   We could not even see it yesterday! We had a long drive to San Francisco today so we got up and started on our way!  We stopped for lunch and were able to cross In and Out Burger off our list of things to do! As we approached San Francisco, we decided to go over the Golden Gate Bridge and check it out before we headed to our campground.

Today was the day we said goodbye to Jim.  Dropped him off at the airport and headed to Morro Strand State Park.  I was excited to stay here because we had a campsite right on the beach!  We drove for most of the day and when we arrived at the campground, it was fogged in! Such a disappointment for me that we could not go lay on the beach and enjoy some relaxation.  We set up camp and then took a walk down the beach, there were sand dollars everywhere!  Immediately, I thought of my mom who loved to collect sand dollars, but we use to have to wade in waist deep water to find them!   Here they were just in the sand everywhere!!

Today we went to Universal Studios for the day.  It was a beautiful day for it, not too hot and not too cold.  The consensus was that Universal Hollywood is not as good as Universal Orlando, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Waiting for the Harry Potter Ride Jaws and Murder She wrote Lagoon Grinch Set Bates Motel Going to the Lower Lot of Universal Butter Beer at Harry Potter World

Three weeks we have been traveling!!!  Today we went to Warner Brothers studios for a tour!  Everyone enjoyed it, the number one favorite part was visiting the set of the Big Bang Theory.  Unfortunately they did not allow us to take any pictures. After Warner Brothers, we went to the Griffith Observatory for a great view of the city and the Hollywood sign. We could not miss the Hollywood walk of fame to look at the stars on the sidewalk.  Ended up going to the Museum of Illusions which turned out to be a place where you could take funky pictures.  We also went to Ripleys Believe it or Not. Final destination for the day was the Santa Monica Pier.  Jeff and Sara rode the rollercoaster, we all had ice cream and walked the pier.  Jeff, Jim and Sara all put their feet in the ocean. It was a great day.

Today we took our time getting ready to go.  We decided to take the day driving a bit of the coast around San Diego.  The first stop was the Cabrillo National Monument which included a lighthouse and museum not to mention the beautiful views! On to La Jolla beach where we had a delicious lunch and then were given info by the owner on the must see of the area.  It was the children's pool at the beach where sea lions come in and rest on the rocks.  There were probably 50 or 60 of them and we enjoyed watching them play, swim and sleep. When we finally made it to the hotel and totally emptied our car so that we would not experience a smash and grab in LA, we took a walk to the beach.  It is a 15 minute walk from the hotel and was offering us a nice sunset.  We stayed a while and then walked to the local pizza shop for dinner.