Day Two - The Drive

Eric and Laura promised us that Riley didn't keep them up all night, we sure hope so! They have to get up early for work! We followed Eric out of town. He showed us a route to avoid a nasty part of the 91 freeway. We were on the road closer to 6:00, but it still ended up not being too bad. We hit a little slowing in Pasadena, but other than that, much better than we'd expected at that time. Once we were in the Central Valley we stopped at a Jack's for breakfast and a pj change. We had John stay in his pajamas for the first part of the morning. Just as a side note, the kids are weirdos, they didn't like the french toast at Jack's. What's there not to like about fried bread?! Of course I ate more than I should have! :)

They were GREAT on the road! Riley still took her morning nap around the same time that she usually does. I had a bag of treats (food and toys) that I passed around as needed. The miles clicked by and everyone stayed happy. We were a little nervous when it started raining. It made the stops harder, but the kids really didn't need many of them! It was fun this trip to email Mom, Donna and Eric as we traveled. The iPhone was GREAT!!

John sure thought so too. He loved all the movies and apps!

Riley enjoyed her new strawberry shortcake doll. I loved the nostalgia!
We stopped at the San Luis Reservoir, off the 152. It was the perfect spot for lunch. We got there right at noon. John LOVED the huge hamburger. He thought it was SO funny!
Riley liked all the signs
Here's the ride. I thought we looked like an official family road trip, packed to the gills with the extra stuff on top! :)

Classic John! He ate his sandwich by himself on the curb. Maybe he needed some personal space after being in the car with us all day!

Staying dry from the rain while we got lunch ready!

John even took a nap! They were great travelers and this gave Louis and I a nice break too!

We were staying outside of San Fransisco in South San Francisco at the La Qinta. John loved that place! He did on our last trip too. He called it the La Qwana :) We were doing so well on time and energy that we went into the city for dinner. We heard about an ice cream shop on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network. As I was looking up the address, a review mentioned a good pizza place a block away. I was sold! This was the one thing I wanted to make sure we did on our trip... always food centered! :) The pizza place was Pizzaria Delfina and it was AWESOME!! It was right by the Mission (we didn't get to see it since it was closed for the day already). SO GOOD!! The crust was perfectly crusty and chewy... Mmmm! The only downside was it was SMALL! We sat with the kids at the counter. That was fun for John, but hard to settle in for him with his hanging legs :) We were right by the kitchen, so we got to see the chefs work. Ry enjoyed their bread sticks and the action.

Here are my boys. We agreed this would be the perfect place for date night. Yummy pizza that was just calling for a nice glass of wine... we had Diet Cokes.

A block down was the Bi-Rite Creamery. This is the place we heard about. The sundae the show talked about was the Sam's Sundae, so of course that's the one we had to try. It was homemade chocolate ice cream, sprinkled with sea salt, drizzled with olive oil and whipped cream. It was very unique tasting and SO good! The sweet and salty was a really fun taste.

John looked at all the flavors and decided on vanilla. It good and he cleaned his bowl!

Ry enjoyed her bites too!

Next time we're up there, this will be a mandatory stop again! Just thinking of it now makes me hungry! It's a good thing it is so far away! :)

It started raining on our way back to the car, so SF! John loved driving up and down all the hills. He just laughed and giggled the whole drive! He sure enjoyed the adventure! Our little travelers!