San Fran with the Fam, Part 3

We have had an unbelievably gorgeous week in San Francisco.  Friday and Saturday were probably the height of the beautiful weather we got to experience during our stay.  On Friday, Doug took the three big boys across the Bay Bridge (Tav was dying to cross that feat of engineering!) to visit the USS Hornet Museum.  The USS Hornet is probably the most famous air craft carrier in US military history, serving in WWII and Vietnam.  It even was the craft that rescued the Apollo 11 space capsule upon its re-entry to Earth!  At the museum site, they had plenty for the boys to take in and explore.  Here are the pictures I got from Doug (with what I can remember of what each of them show)...  That's the USS Hornet (and you can see how gorgeously clear the weather is!).

They have a hangar full of aircraft to see.  Look how little Penn looks in comparison (K and T are to the right of Penn's left hand).

On the deck of the Hornet at the tail of a fighter jet.  Pretty cool!!

Penn was apparently super nervous crawling up and down the very steep stairways throughout the ship.  Look at his face...definitely uncertain!

The chart room.  Doug was explaining to me that the Hornet had a GPS system on it that was developed around 1920.  It uses the Earth's magnetic pull or something.  Every naval vessel still has that type of GPS system on it today!  Pretty amazing they had that figured out 100 years ago!

Here they are at the bridge, all getting a turn at the wheel.  You can also Tav in the headphones.  They had a free audio tour, so they all got to listen to their own tour of the ship (the boys were big fans of that experience).

Here's the capsule form the Apollo 11.  Amazing! 

They got to go in to the CDC room.  I forget what that stands for...sorry!  They have all the monitors and charts set up like it was for a battle in the Pacific in WWII.  

Penn in the radio headphones (shout out to Grampa here!).

Very cool outing.  I'm so glad the boys got to check that all out.  Very important things happened aboard that ship, I hope experiences like this will start to instill in them an appreciation for those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.  

After that morning adventure, the boys met Jansen and I back in the city for a picnic lunch outside our place.  It was too beautiful to spend much time indoors that day!  After lunch, Doug swept the boys back out for another adventure.  He had done some research and found there are some amazing playgrounds in this city, so they went to check a few more out.  That's a pretty great dad. =)  They were up near the Cable Car and Firehouse Museums, so they made a stop at both of those as well.  Here's Koen posing for Grampa in the telegraph office at the old fire station.

And then here they all three are checking out the workings of the cable car museum, where the cables that actually still pull the cable cars up and down the steep streets of San Francisco are turning.  A classic must-see in San Fran!

When the boys got back from that outing, we let them chill for a bit and then I prepped a dinner picnic and then took them all outside to soak up the last bits of sunshine before the sun dipped behind the skyscrapers for the evening.  We ate burgers on a picnic table overlooking sailboats (while trying to keep pigeons and seagulls from attacking our meal and one even pooped on Doug's back!).  What a full, beautiful day.  Special shout-out to Daddy-extraordinaire!!  He really keeps these boys busy and they need it - boundless energy!

On Saturday, we had another more family-filled day (Jansen had needed a good day of naps on Friday after a family day on Thursday).  The boys headed out in the morning pretty early on to hit a few more awesome city playgrounds, but then we all met up for lunch.  I walked with Jansen all the way to Fisherman's Wharf (3 miles from our place).  There we had some local seafood.  The boys were favorites of the wait staff there.  How could they not be?  Look at the ring leader of cuteness!

After lunch we walked around to see the ships docked there.  I had no idea, but they have a working boat shop.  We wandered in and got to talk to the sweetest volunteer who was so passionate about their work.  It's the centennial year for the National Park Service, so in honor of that they are getting the Thayer (pictured below) ready to set sail again after decades of just sitting docked at the pier.  

Here's the little shop where they do the work for the smaller-sized boats.  They are currently working on building a replica of a workboat that was seen in photos of the Thayer when it was originally used (it was used in the logging industry I believe).  It was really neat getting to see them work on it!

After walking around a bit, we split back up (me on foot for another 2 miles with the stroller and Doug in the car with the boys) to meet up at Crissy Field, a public beach.  It was gorgeous and there were tons of sailboats and ships out in the harbor.  Really fun to watch and the boys were ecstatic to be back at the beach yet again.  They just keep busy running around, wrestling in the sand, building structures with sticks and their hands, etc.  It's so great!!  Look at this beautiful view with my big boys running in the foreground!  

We stayed there while Jansen fell asleep on me (oh so precious!!) and then we took off around 4:30pm.  I walked partway home while Doug drove all the boys home.  Then I took a train the last few miles.  I think I got in 7 miles of walking.  A vacation dream for me, especially with the ocean vista at my side for the majority of it.  What a treat!

On Easter Sunday, we got to go to my cousin's church in Daly City.  Her husband is the pastor there.  It was a privilege to get to attend church with them and finally see their ministry there.  The boys did quite well in the service and I was just happy to be with family and to sit there appreciating the huge family of God and how having Him in common is such a blessing.  I had packed up lunch for Doug and the three older boys so that after church they could head out on one last afternoon adventure.  They of course went to the beach.  One last picture of them being creative in God's creation with the big, beautiful bridge in the background.

We are off to the airport tomorrow morning.  It's definitely time to get home to the routine, but this has been a lovely break, a special family time and a great adventure.  Thanks to our friend who got us here and put us up and to my cousins for their car all week.  We've been so blessed by this amazing trip!!