Fall Break Northern California

 For Fall Break this year we decided to go visit Grandma Glover and see some more sights in Northern California.

We drove to Quincy on Wednesday and was able to get there in time to do a short hike to what we thought would be a waterfall only to be disappointed that the drought is so bad that there was no water.  It was still a fun and very pretty hike though.  That night we had pizza with Grandma and Grandpa Jim and had a fun night talking and catching up.

The next day we hung out with Grandma and Grandpa in the morning and then headed over to watch Quincy High School boys soccer game (just happened to be a weekday, middle of the day game)  We only stayed for 1/2 of it because they were killing the other team.  We then stopped by a park and then decided to hike the big Q that is right above the High School.  That night we had dinner and hung out.  The kids loved stacking cards across the living room and were very entertained for a long time with that activity.

The next day we woke up early and headed towards San Francisco.  We stopped at the Jelly Belly Factory and took a tour.  It was fun for the kids to see an actual factory and how things go through all the different stages to get made, packaged and shipped.  We of course bought some jelly bellies and enjoyed a little train ride around the parking lot.

After that we headed into San Francisco.  The kids were super excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge but like it is so often, it was covered in fog that day.  So we drove across the bridge but unfortunately didn't get to see how big and amazing it is.  We then drove down Lombard street and then walked around Pier 39 watching the Sea Lions, eating Donuts and seeing Alcatraz from afar.

The next day we spent the day at The Great America amusement park.  We got some really cheap tickets but apparently so did everyone else and it was so super crowded.  But we rode some fun roller coasters and had a good time.  After we left we drove to a hotel just outside of Yosemite.

The next day was a long day but we had a great day in Yosemite.  We entered on the south end and exited that night on the East end.  We started with a walk around the Giant Sequoia's although the kids loved looking for chipmunks more I'm pretty sure. Then we drove into Yosemite Valley and saw El Capitan.  The kids loved watching the rock climbers and we had just shown them the movie Free Solo right before we left on our trip.  We ate lunch and then we hiked to Vernal Falls.  Siena didn't want to go to the top as it gets very steep with lots of steps so we stopped at the footbridge but the others kept going and made it to the top.

The last day we drove home but stopped at Great Basin National Park.  It's known for their cave tours but since we had just done the ones at Mt. Timpanogos last month we didn't do that.  We ate lunch, took a drive and a short hike to a very low lake but had fun splitting our drive home up a little.

We had a great trip.  It's always fun to see Grandma as she isn't able to come visit us since Grandpa Jim doesn't travel well and shouldn't be left alone.  So we love being able to see her.  The trip was a lot of driving and the kids did great.  We were happy to see some new sites as well.