Road Trip to San Francisco

Just before going off track for a couple of weeks, I was talking to my mom and telling her that I wanted to do something fun and out of the ordinary during my break. As mentioned in my last post, I have created a California Bucket List to keep track of all the uniquely CA things I want to see before I potentially move someplace else. Among many other things, I want to do a session in each of the California temples and my mom suggested that I could go to a couple of the temples in Northern CA. So, I decided to go for it! Then, my dad suggested that I might like to have some company on the trip and suggested that my mom go too...and that's how it became a mother-daughter trip! I had never really been to San Francisco before (at least not that I can remember), so I was really excited! We didn't do tons of sightseeing, but we had a nice relaxed trip in which I got to spend some much needed and appreciated quality time with my amazing mom. We had stuff to do on Monday during the day, so we decided to leave around 5 pm and head up to Fresno. It was supposed to be totally clear, but as soon as we got out into the middle of nowhere it started to pour huge drops of rain! Argh! BUT we arrived safely in Fresno about 3 and a half hours later. We checked into our hotel and, to our surprise, we got a huge and very nice room for way cheap because it's off-season. Score! : ) After we put our stuff in the room, we went to see the Fresno temple because I wanted to see it all lit up at night! It was so beautiful!My poor mom was freezing cold!The next morning we went back and got to do a session.
Afterward, we headed up to the Bay Area and stayed in a place called Hayward. We dropped off our stuff and we drove to San Francisco. I was SO excited because I got to drive on the Bay Bridge, which looks super cool! I am way easily amused and made my mom take a picture of me driving across the bridge like a big kid! HA!We went to Fisherman's Wharf and walked around a bit and saw some cool stuff! We also had dinner at Boudin's Bistro and had some delish clam chowder in fresh sourdough bread bowls. Yum!




Then, we drove by the Oakland Temple so we could see it all lit up. I had always thought this was a little bit of an "ugly" temple because I thought the golden spires looked odd, but in person, it is absolutely breathtaking!
The next day, we went back to the temple and got to do a session there!
The Oakland Temple has a terrace that you can go up on and walk around. There are pretty gardens and more amazing views of the San Francisco Bay.Here's the view of the Bay from the temple. Below, is the view of the landscaping in front of the temple, as seen from the terrace.
Next, we went and changed clothes in the visitor's center and then drove back to San Francisco. I wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, since we couldn't really see them in the dark the night before.Here's a picture of the cool Bay Bridge that you take to get into the city.The Golden Gate BridgeI was excited to see it, but I was a little disappointed because it looked WAY cooler on the opening credits of Full House!
Here's Alcatraz Island My mom and me on Pier 39 right next to the ocean
When we were done here, we went to San Jose to tour the Winchester Mystery House. It was pretty cool, but the lady who had it built was crazy for sure!



We decided that before we started on the next leg of our trip, we'd get some dinner, so we found a Denny's and ate there. We thought that our next hotel was just a couple of hours away, but when we put it into the GPS, we discovered it was actually about 5 hours away and nearly 300 miles down the coast. However, I was tired and got us there in about 3 and a half hours instead. We stayed at a Days Inn by Solvang and it had a cool windmill in front of it and the room was super cute! We started out by visiting the Santa Ynez Mission, which is in Solvang. It was pretty, but all-in-all...kind of lame! I'm told that other missions have a little bit more to see.The scenery was really pretty, though!
Then, we walked around Solvang a bit.As my souvenir I bought a cute clock that is almost exactly the same as the one that my parents have. It hung in our living room my entire childhood and when I saw it in the store I knew I had to have it! After Solvang, we drove to Santa Barbara to see the Santa Barbara Mission. We didn't get to tour it because we got there too late, but we did walk around it and take some pictures.

We had a great trip and saw so many cool things! Coolest of all, however, is the time I got to spend with my mom!