san fran & the u.s. open

The week before the big move we took a little trip to California.  Now, this trip wasn't just your little relaxing summer vacation.  No, this trip had a purpose.  And that purpose was to see the U.S. Open golf tournament at Pebble Beach.  And let me just say ... it was SO COOL!  It was really fun to be at such a big golf tournament on such a beautiful golf course.  Ben was pretty much in heaven.  And the boys loved every minute of it, too.  Well, okay, Luke did say that his legs were so tired they were about to fall off, but other than all the walking, they loved every minute of it.

We saw all the famous golfers ... Tiger, Phil, Ernie, Sergio, Vijay, Mike Weir.  In fact, on the 14th tee, my boys even got Tiger's attention and totally cracked him up after his tee shot.  It was awesome!  We spent two days at the tournament, but much to our dismay, we don't have any photos of it because no cameras were allowed on the course during the tournament.  Correction, we have exactly three photos from the U.S. Open, but we didn't take them.  Here they are ...

That's us with the U.S. Open trophy

The boys with the trophy

Us next to a car that sort of looked like a golf ball

I really wish we had been able to take our camera, because it really was neat to be there.

If and when we go to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach again, there are a few things I'll do differently ...

1.  Sneak food in.  This would have prevented us from spending $65 on greasy hot dogs and hamburgers, and paying $3 per Snickers.

2.  Take warmer clothes.  Seriously, California in June?  You'd think it would be warm, right?  Think again.

3.  Don't forget to look up our good friend, Ken Musket.  He saved the day, or night, and saved us from waiting in a 3 hour long line to get on the shuttle bus!

While we were in the Monterey area, we also spent a morning at the Monterey Bay Aquarium ...

I really liked these jellyfish!

We also spent a couple of days in San Francisco, and had a great time there, too.  Here's a little run-down of the San Fran portion of our trip:

We caught a Giants game at AT&T Park (for free I might add, except for the 40 bucks it cost us to park!) ...

Of course, we drove down Lombard Street ...

We saw, walked along, and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge ...

We went to Muir Woods and saw the Redwoods ...

We soaked in the sights, smells, and street shows on Fishermans Wharf and Pier 39 ...

And we finished off our trip with a stop at the Oakland Temple ...

We were thoroughly worn out when we got home, but we sure had a good time!