Sam and Terri: Muir Woods

Day #2 in the Bay Area started with a morning visit to my Grandma. Well of course after we all managed to get ready and go. You can tell Bails has been hanging around with her silly Aunts and Uncle too much when she starts making new silly crazy faces for pictures. Thanks for teaching her this one Robby...

During this visit with my Grandma, my Grandpa showed up to see her around the same time we did so we got to see him too. The caretaker said that my Grandpa talked about, and was so excited all morning to see his 'favorite grandson' Robby. Of course Robby lit up so proudly when he heard this, but not to worry too much Craig because the next day he didn't remember who Robby was.

He did say about a million times how much he loved my Grandma though. I asked Grandpa if he remembered the day he met my Grandma and he said of course I do. He said he loved her the moment he saw her and they have now been married for 65 years, to which Grandma promptly corrected him and said 67 years. Not even a brain tumor can ruin her memory.

Captain Hook/Rachel/Boot

Grandpa just sat there and held Rob's hand the whole visit. He was looking quite dapper in his little hat and scarf.

Bails and Rachel escaped the visit for a little while and went outside for a photo shoot (a common occurrence throughout the trip). The following pictures, along with about a thousand others, is what resulted...

A little bit of peek-a-boo.

A little bit of model in the making. I would blame Rachel for teaching her to pose like this, but I know better. I am almost positive that Bails probably came up with this all on her own.

After our visit we headed up to San Francisco. We ate at this yummy restaurant that my parents saw on dives, diners and drive ins.

We had a little photo session on the red brick wall while we were finagling all the change in our cars to pay the parking meters.

I had the bbq steak sandwich and it was so good.

Then it was off to the golden gate for a little photo session. We tried hard for a good family photo, but getting us all to look at the same spot, at the same time while smiling was near impossible. Unfortunately I am to blame as much as the little girls.

After the golden gate we shifted for a shot with the skyline with basically the same results.

Then it was off to hike around Muir Woods with the rest of the Northern Californian population.

Parking was horrible. We ended up parking maybe a half mile or more from the actual trail head. We all bundled up and then started walking and almost right away, out of nowhere a bear literally jumped out onto the trail and started growling at us.

Bailey hid under the big sweatshirt that Papa was lucky to hold for almost the entire mile walk, Rachel was not amused, Rob almost peed his pants, Hazel begged to be saved...

And I of course just laughed hysterically. It took us awhile to get to the trail head and we lost a few people along the way. Dogs were not allowed so my Mom, Janet and Rachel all gave up and walked back with Rex while the rest of us trekked on.

We finally made it, only to find out that it cost $9 for an adult to hike the trail so we took pictures in front of the sign to make it look like we actually walked through Muir Woods and then we hiked back to the car and left.

One of the park rangers started calling towards us asking for our tickets. We told him we just wanted a picture so he allowed us to go on, but demanded that we didn't step foot on the wooden trail.

Aye Aye Captain.

On our way home from San Francisco we stopped back off to see my Grandma for the evening.

Hazel kept grabbing my Grandma and smiling at her trying to get her attention. Silly baby.

After our visit we headed back to Grandma Sugiyama's house and met up with Uncle Kevin, Aunt Judy, and my cousins. I hadn't seen them all in a few years so we were so happy they stopped by and we could catch up a little. They also brought enough delicious chicken katsu, rice, and edamame to feed an army and we were more than happy to eat it all up over the next two days.