Week after Christmas

We had a fun trip to California! Sat. Dec. 26th we left to go to SLO to see my grandparents. We spent a couple days there, we got to visit with Aunt Barbara and see her house as well. We spent some quality time with grandma and grandpa Jones-we went shopping downtown, went on the cliff walk at Los Osos, ate fish and chips in Morro Bay (not our usual spot though-but still good). It was a nice visit. I'm glad that we got to visit with them. Grandpa just loved the kids! Then we left on Tues. 29th and went to Santa Cruz and walked the Boardwalk!! Then we headed up to San Francisco and ate at Mel's Drive-in. Chris wanted to eat there because there were pictures from the movie American Graffiti on the walls-which is Chris' favorite movie. The atmosphere was neat, but the food was terrible!! Then we stayed in San Fran. and then spent Wed. 30th sightseeing! We went to Strawberry Hill-where there is the Japanese gardens, De Young museum where we went in the tower and got a panaramic view of San Fran., we went to the Academy of Science museum where we spent a couple hours-the kids liked that because there are animals to see and an aquarium. Then we went and ate at Tommy's Joynt-which is famous for great, beautiful sandwiches! We really liked the food there-they have the best Pastrami sandwiches and the place is really neat. Then we drove on Lombard street, went up and down the streets, walked around on Pier 39, saw Alcatraz, ate clam chowder and sour dough bread and chocolate!!! We drove past a lot of the sites-we only had a day there-so we obviously couldn't do everything! Drove over the Golden Gate Bridge-which Holly loved!! Then we went to Petaluma which is the town where American Graffiti was filmed. We had a map of the streets where certain parts of the movie took place (which was only about 3 streets). So-we walked around the streets and Chris had fun pointing out where parts of the movie was filmed. Then we went and ate at Johnny Garlic's in Santa Rosa because the owner is Guy Fieri-who is the host of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. The food was excellent and it was a really nice place!! Then we spent the night in Petaluma and in the morning we went out to Paradise Road- which is part of American Graffiti where they race at the end of the movie!!! I ended up making a DVD (my first one!) of Christmas Vacation since we saw so much. I only posted highlights-but I ended up taking about 500 pictures on our trip!!! We had a fun 2 weeks of Christmas Vacation and we thank our families for your love and gifts. We hope you all had a great holiday season as well.