Road Trip: SF, Klamath Falls, Spokane (beware--this is long)

On Wednesday, April 28th, Jayna and I--along with our friends Brad and Chris, headed to California. Jayna was heading home for the summer in Canada and we were along to help her drive and to see some sights. We decided to make a big swing over to San Francisco on our way. The majority of our trip was spent there. This was my 3rd time to SF. We left at 4:30 pm, but didn't make it to Chris' house in Stockton, CA until 6 am (Utah time). We had a little trouble once we reached Donner's Pass. They had checkpoints and were requiring people to have snow chains. We were forced to buy $70 snow chains for the tires. When we drove over the pass there was only snow on the sides of the road. It was a complete waste of money. It was frustrating to say the least. I wonder how those Californians would fare in Utah. The snow is way worse and I've never used snow chains.

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Day 1 in San Francisco only Jayna, Brad, and I went in to the city, because Chris stayed behind to be with his family. First thing we did when we arrived off the Bart was go to H&M. One of my all-time favorite stores. We quickly made Brad a fan. We spent probably a good 2 hours there, and then put our stuff on hold to buy later so we didn't have to carry it around the city. We walked down through Union Square and through China Town and then made our way to Pier 39. We took some pictures off the pier and watched the seals a bit and then ate at the Market Pier restaurant. They seated us at a window right next to the pier also so we could see the beautiful bay at sunset. After we ate and relaxed we went back to Chris' house for the night.

Day 2 in San Francisco we got a late start, but got to take the ferry out to Alcatraz island. We took the audio tour of the island, which was quite interesting. After about 2 and a half hours there we took the ferry back to meet my friend Gabe and his wife Brittany and their new little baby, cute Sydney, for dinner on the pier. It was sooooo good to see them. One of the best parts of the trip. We ate a place called the Fog House on pier 39. After dinner I said good-bye to the Keogans and Brad, Chris, Jayna, and I went up to Ghiradelli's for ice cream. Both Jayna and I got the cookie bottom sundae--except Jayna switched her vanilla ice cream out for chocolate. It's already super rich with the vanilla. You could pretty much get diabetes just looking at her sundae. I told her to put chocolate around her mouth, which she did, and then she started crossing her eyes and making weird faces. I started laughing so hard that I hit a wall and it started the niagra falls of tears. I couldn't stop laugh/crying. Probably one of the hardest laughs I've ever had--but a good one. We then made our way to our hotel out by the SF airport for the night.

Day 3 in San Francisco we went to the California Natural History Museum. It has one of the best aquarium's in the US. They had an albino alligator. Also their own rain forest and many other cool things. We didn't get to spend much time there because we wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Muir Woods before we made our way to Oregon for the night. It was my second time to Muir Woods, but still just as beautiful as the last time. Here are a couple photos from the aquarium, Golden Gate Bridge, and the redwoods at Muir Woods.

After Muir Woods we drove another 6-7 hours to Klamath Falls, Oregon for the night. Then the next morning we left for Spokane. The drive to Spokane was so pretty and green. When we got into Spokane we ate dinner at IHOP and then headed to our hotel. We hurried down for a quick sit in the hot tub before we crashed for the night. Then the next morning Jayna dropped Brad, Chris, and I off at the airport to head home to Utah. It was a super fun trip, and we were so grateful that Brad and Chris helped us with the drive. It was a huge help, and they were super fun travel partners as well. The summer will be over before we know it and that wacky Canadian will be back again. I miss her already.