San Francisco

Our one Urban stop was San Francisco. We spent a night in an Airbnb house, then spent the next morning/afternoon braving public transportation to explore the city.

Popcorn in the house the night before hitting the city

Robb figuring out where we needed to go. Aaron and I are pretty much navigationally worthless. 

Being city slickers

Hays on a bus

Bloods on a bus

 We made our way to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. 

It was a wee bit chilly. Also wet everywhere. We got the impression from this trip that most of California is perpetually covered by fog or smog.

Pagoda!

Very steep archy bridge!

Koi fish that swam like sharks with their dorsal fins out of the water!

Reinforcing the image of Lakin as wonder woman

Elliot was outraged at the stones embedded in the concrete. Unforgivably deceptive!

We stopped for lunch, then bused our way to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Friends by a bridge

Cool exhibit demonstrating why the suspension towers are the height that they are

There were some very aggressive and angry bikers on the heavily congested bridge, so all the kids got to be carried

Colby Quotes: "I am sad on the bridge. This is not a good place for me."

Everybody fell asleep on the bus/metro ride back to our cars

 After departing the big city, we drove into the wilderness to stay at Dayle's Airbnb campsite.

Claire Bear

The best part of the campsite for me was the compost toilet. It was nestled in a private redwood grove, making it the single most scenic bathroom I have ever had the pleasure to use. For some reason, every one else insisted on using the porta potty option. Something about walls. Weirdos.

The Loo with a View

The bucket was full of toilet paper and wood chips to cover your business. 

They also had a solar heated shower

Aaron and I were all set to use it, but someone else had already used up all the warm water.