The past week has been incredible, for both me and the Heathens. My parents flew us to San Francisco for vacation, and it was a rip-roaring adventure from start to finish.

Despite living in California for many years as a child, this was one area I never had the opportunity to see, so I was understandably excited about exploring another side of the state I practically grew up in. The prospect of temperatures under 97 degrees didn’t hurt either. Furthermore, the Heathens had never ventured outside of our tri-state area, so this trip also represented a slew of new milestones for them, including their first plane ride, train ride and exposure to a little concept called “toll bridges.”

“What do you mean we have to pay money to drive down the road??”

 

We saw some amazing things:

Including some places that the Heathens personally selected. Like the Pez Museum (*sigh*):

And the House of Air trampoline park:

Pay close attention to Rule #10

In between the Heathen-directed activities, we squeezed in a whale watch:

Museums:

And plenty of good food:

I even managed to find a local yarn shop, which I am embarrassed to admit put a nice dent in my expendable income. Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of some of our more hilarious adventures…like the time we ended up in a back alley in Chinatown so Bear could see how fortune cookies were made. Or, the moments when my mom and I had anxiety attacks driving on streets so steep, I nearly threw up just riding down them.

Traveling with Bean was a challenge:

But it went better than I hoped, thanks to the power of the Ergo:

If there is one thing I took away from this trip, other than the bucketful of memories, it’s that I really want my kids to have more opportunities to travel to new places and see new things. I was blessed as a child to travel across the country, on road trips, plane trips and everything in between. I bounced between Louisiana, Los Angeles, and Ohio, and saw everything from Niagara Falls to the Grand Tetons. I think the adventures of traveling not only build lasting memories, but also help kids open their minds by showing them true diversity.

So, we’re home again…and about 10 seconds after we got home, G-Man got a virus, Bear broke out in some type of allergic reaction, and we found out Bean is anemic. So, our house is a den of fever, rashes and other gross stuff you don’t want to hear about.