California Dreamin', Part 1

"People who collect experiences are happier than people who collect things." 

This little saying popped up on my Facebook feed from a friend and I totally agree. Money spent on vacations either with just me and Tyler or with the entire family has been absolutely worth every penny. Some days I sure wish I had more pennies to spend on seeing more of the world.

Way back in January we decided to head to northern California for spring break. Ever since we announced it to the kids, Alex was on the countdown.

"Ashie's birthday, bowling, California."

We've been home two weeks and he's still looking for California on maps. Funny boy!

I am a weather watcher and definitely missed my calling in life. If I were going to do college all over again I would be a weather gal. Not sure what I'm ever going to do with my BIS degree.

Okay, with that out of the way I was watching the weather for our vacation. I knew I did NOT want to pull a Donner-Reed party fiasco and get caught in the Sierra's. There was some stormy weather forecasted for our vacation so instead of using Monday as a travel day, we left immediately after church and used Monday as a vacation day, the warmest day of the week.

Monday we left Reno and our first stop was the Jelly Belly Factory: free tour and free jelly bellies at the end.

Next stop was Muir Woods and hiking among redwoods. I'll admit this was my reason for our vacation. I wanted my kids to see these tall, beautiful trees.

This vacation we branched out and tried an Extended Stay America after our botched attempts at securing a vacation rental. But you can read all about that here. We ended up about 20 miles north of San Francisco which meant we got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge every day. Our hotel was on a bay, with a fabulous walking trail that led to a Super Target. I considered that our best find for the groceries we would be needing. It was the ideal place to stay and if we ever went back, we'd definitely stay there again. I loved that we only ate out a handful of times during our 5 1/2 days we were gone. It was still an adventure to eat out when we did.

Tuesday was Chinatown and The Exporatorium. Rain was headed our way so we headed out early and managed to find an open meter in Chinatown. Our first experience was when we stumbled on a truck unloading pigs.

Somehow we ended up in the market section but eventually made it to the little shops to purchase t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and trinkets.

As the rain began to fall our final stop for the day was an indoor, hands-on science place. I can't really describe it other than there are so many exhibits to try out that we paired the kids up and told them to explore where and what they wanted and meet at the front in a few hours. I felt it was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Nate was the only brave one to try the toilet bowl drinking fountain.

To cap off our Chinatown experience we ate dinner at real Chinese restaurant that night. Our kids only know Panda Express as Chinese food. I was a little nervous when they set us around a table with glass goblets and a lazy Susan in the middle. There was only one mishap when that turn table hit Kiersten beverage glass.

Stay tuned for more.