Oh, Come On!!....

I spent Saturday through Wednesday with my sister-in-law Deanna, her brother Danny, and her two children Zack and Roz.  Sadly my brother, Mike, could not be with us =(  We spent a lot of time out by the pool swimming, especially Saturday and Sunday; we had a pool party with some more of Deanna's family Sunday afternoon.  I had fun seeing everyone again.  I think every night I was there Deanna, Danny, and I went for a midnight-ish swim--it was great =D

Monday we were delayed getting out of the house so we decided to ride the BART over to San Francisco and walk around Pier 39.  Deanna's step-brother, also a Danny, was with us Sunday and Monday.  I love San Francisco, though I do not think I could ever live there.  We looked at the shops and enjoyed the cool weather.  The day ended up being a lot of fun, and when we returned, we went swimming again.  

On Tuesday, Deanna took her step-brother to the BART so he could go home, and then the rest of us piled into the car and went up to Muir Woods.  We wanted to do the OceanView trail, but we decided to go the long way.

 A picture of the map.  We took Ben Johnson Trail to Camp Eastwood Trail, up through Camp Alice.  After a quick lunch we headed along Fern Creek Trail to Lost Trail which eventually put us on Ocean View Trail.  After the view, we headed back down Ocean View to the Main Trail and Visitor Center. 

This is where we came out at, nearly five hours later.  I took this picture at the beginning of our trip ^^

A picture of Zachary on one of the many bridges throughout the park.  This is one of the few smiles he would do for the camera.

I thought this leafless tree made an awesome picture.

On Fern Creek trail, we came across this on the path.  We just walked through and kept on going ^^

Also on Fern Creek Trail.  We stopped to take pictures, and Deanna told the kids they could have a goofy picture in exchange for a nice picture.  Most of the hike looked like the trail here; nice and easy with only slight inclines.

At the beginning of Lost trail's steps, Zachary stopped because he spotted this newt on one of the wood blocks.  We watched it for several minutes while I took the opportunity to play with my camera more =)

If you look behind where Deanna and Roz are coming up the trail, you can see a bend.  At this point we had already climbed several steps and the kids were tired.  When Roz came around the corner, she said "Oh, come on!!!!" and threw her hat on the ground.  Deanna and I both started laughing and decided we should call the trip the "Oh, come on" trip.  I am about three-quarters up this slope, and we had about five or so flights of steps after this.

This is the view from the top of Ocean View Trail.

Deanna and I wore flip-flops on this hike and surprisingly did not stub our toes once =) 

On the ride back, Zack, Danny, and Roz all fell asleep in the backseat.  Danny woke up when Roz's head hit his leg.  Both of the kids were exhausted.  None of us expected the hike to be as strenuous as it ended up being.

We had yummy nachos for dinner and watched Night at the Museum.  After the kids went to bed, we adults went swimming again.  The "weekend" ended up being a blast--I really miss spending time with them and wish Mike had been there.  It has been a long time since I laughed so much and so hard.  It felt really good.

Now I am back in Sacramento, and looking for jobs.  Dinner time ^^