Part 2 - Exploring the Bay Area
This is possibly the least planned portion of the trip. We have a few key things that we want to do, but I think we'll try and keep this portion of the trip a little more spontaneous. My aunt and uncle live in the area, and we'll be spending a fair amount of time visiting with them. They are a little eccentric, but awesome, which makes for lots lot of fun!!!
For certain, my immediate family will be staying with my aunt and uncle at their house in Hayward (south of Oakland, just east of the Bay). Stephanie's family will be staying at a hotel in the same area, but I'm not exactly sure where. Also, I'm not sure how much we'll all be exploring as a group, vs. breaking up a bit. Probably a bit of both!
Stephanie and I took Princess to visit my uncle back when she was a baby, and they haven’t been back since.
Here they are at Muir Beach (north of SF). (I hope Stephanie doesn't get annoyed with me for posting a photo of her hair being blown all over the place by the wind... But I couldn't find too many photos from that trip.)
And of course, Buddy and Pickle have never been to NorCal before. So, for our kids, this is going to be uncharted territory for them. Which is very exciting!
Working in the software development industry, I’ve gone to some IT conferences in Silicon Valley over the years, so I have seen a bit more of the area than everyone else. But it’s been around 8 years since I’ve been back. And I feel l like I've only scratched the surface...
So, given all that, what are the "must do's" and "maybe do's" on our list?
Must Sees
Walt Disney Family Museum (of course!!!)
http://www.waltdisney.org/
This will be one of the highlights of our trip. Not only are we fans of the Disney attractions and movies, we love Walt Disney himself. From everything I can gather, this museum is amazing. Being from St. Louis, we are only a couple hours from Marceline, MO (where Walt spent much of his childhood). They have a really nice "Hometown" museum (see the trip report in my signature), but I can only imagine how many more awesome exhibits that they'll have at the Family Museum. I remember reading an interview a while back, where someone asked Diane Disney Miller (Walt's daughter) if she'd ever write a book about her Dad, and she replied with something along the lines that Family Museum "was" her book. How cool is that!
Golden Gate Bridge and Fisherman’s Wharf area
Can't visit SF without walking out on the bridge, right?!?! And then we'll probably head down the hills (Lombard Street?!?!?) so that we can visit the Wharf area and ride cable cars. (If it runs on rails, Buddy "has" to experience it!)
Here's a photo of Stephanie, Princess, and me almost 15 years ago!
Japantown
http://sfjapantown.org
This is Princess's #1 choice to see in the Bay area. I’ve been there before with my aunt and uncle, and I know Princess will love it. They have a huge indoor shopping mall and outdoor cultural sites. I've visited the Japan towns in LA, San Jose, Denver, and San Francisco and the San Francisco was by far my favorite. It almost feels like you are in another country!
We’ll have to narrow down a good place to eat too. Princess and Pickle both love sushi, so we’ll at least have that. I’d prefer some high quality sushi, but I know they have one of those places where the sushi travels around on boats and you grab what you want (paying by the plate)…. I’m sure the kids would LOVE that!
Sonoma Traintown Railroad
http://www.traintown.com/
This is one of those things that we "just have to do", even if it doesn't make a lot of sense… Buddy has had this "Big Trains Little Trains" DVD since he turned 3, he actually received it while celebrating at WDW. (That Mickey in the photos was a train buff too. He saw the DVD, and then started hand writing us notes with tips on seeing the trains at the Magic Kingdom. Never had that happen before.) They showcase Traintown on the DVD and he’s always wanted to visit it. And then Pickle watched it a lot when she was little too. So, we have to... LOL.
Things we’ll probably see
Chinatown - Japantown is #1 on our list, but I hope we visit Chinatown too. My aunt’s family is from China, and last time I visited, It was fun following her lead as we explored the shops
Muir Beach and Muir Woods - See the photo of Stephanie and Princess at the beginning of this post. It would be fun to do some then and now photos!
Fenton's Creamery (to pay homage to the Up movie)
Read about the connection here:
http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/2011/06/23/up-in-oakland-at-fentons-creamery/
Things we might see
Computer Museum in Silicon Valley
http://www.computerhistory.org
I also visited this with my aunt and uncle once after an IT conference. It was crazy cool. All kinds of history, they even have the first Google search servers on display. Would love for my kids to see this.
Here’s a photo that I took of a 1985 Pixar computer. This is pre-Toy Story... Cool!
Drive down to Santa Cruz (NHS skateboard museum)
https://www.facebook.com/NHSSkateMuseum
NHS is the manufacturer of Santa Cruz Skateboards, Independent Trucks, OJ Wheels (and a bunch of modern companies too.) They were HUGE in the 80’s and are still big today. Apparently, you can visit their facilities and take a tour.
Drive by the Apple campus.
Just because.
John Lasseter’s family winery in Sonoma
http://www.lasseterfamilywinery.com
(they don’t allow kids, so that might be difficult.)
We our big John Lasseter fan’s in our family. (He’s also a huge train buff!!! He actually owns Ollie Johnson’s old steam train and runs it on his property next door.) He seems like such a right on dude. Disney’s lucky to have inherited him from Pixar. Carsland, anyone?!?!?!
Visiting his winery sounds like a lot of fun!
Things we’ve ruled out
- Nobody is really all that interested in Alcatraz.
- Children's Museum
So, we’ll have three full days in the Bay Area (plus the evening that we arrive.) The list above is way more than we could comfortable do in that time. I probably forgot some stuff that I researched too. And I’m sure we’ll come across other cool ideas as we get closer. Feel free to share them if you have any!!!