Of course we had to stop at In-N-Out first for some yummy burgers and fries.
Not sure what part of California this was, but I love sunset pictures, so I couldn't resist taking one as we were driving along. 
Her nephew Andrew. He would drag his blanket and pillow out into the hall and just lay down like he was so exhausted that he was just going to sleep right there. Of course his older brother decided that it wasn't time for him to bow out of the pillow fight just yet.
Annie's nephew Alex, winding up for the attack. 
The kids won this round after Annie hit her head. Sunday we went to sacrament with Annie's sister and brother-in-law and their ward is ridiculously huge. They said that they get all the tourists in the summer months because their ward starts at noon. Chad, Annie's brother-in-law said they had over 600 people in their ward that day. After sacrament, Annie and I headed back to their apartment to get changed and get ready for the Boston Red Sox vs. Anaheim Angels game.
Angel Stadium
Waiting in the hot sun for the game to start. I think it was in the bottom of the first inning that we had these two guys come up to us and say that they were supposed to be in our seats so we were getting our tickets out to make sure we were in the right spot. Before we could even say, "Oh, sorry we didn't realize we were in the wrong spot," this security lady showed up and started yelling at us, "come on girls, move right now!" Sheesh, it was a simple mistake. We had the right seats, just not the right section.
Driving down Balboa Blvd. as we were trying to find Newport Beach
Annie soaking up the sun
Some of the beautiful beach front property on the boardwalk. As cool as the beach houses were, I'm not sure that I would want people constantly walking past my house.
This is on the other side of the pier from where we were
Annie with her nephew Andrew, after we had gotten back from the beach.
This is where the really bad part of our trip came. We found out Monday night that one of Annie's nephew's had tradgically past away. I felt so aweful for Annie and her family and pray that her family can find the strength and peace they need to move on from such an aweful situation. I debated finding a flight home because I felt awkward being in the middle of a family matter when I only knew one of the family members. I decided to stay and support Annie, not to mention that I didn't want to pay $250 to fly home, and I didn't want Annie to have to make the long drive home alone. We also had tickets to Wicked and a hotel in San Francisco that were non-refundable, so I had hopes that we would still be able to do those things.
Wednesday we babysat some of Annie's nieces and nephews while the rest of her family worked on moving her sisters family. I was impressed with the work they were able to get done. They moved all of her sister's family's belongings and got the house all cleaned in 5 1/2 hours. We didn't have any problems watching the kids, they are all pretty well behaved. I feel bad cause I didn't get any pictures of Annie with her nieces and nephews that we were watching besides the ones below.
Andrew fell asleep on his Aunt Annie
Aunt Annie got a little worn out and decided to take a nap with Andrew.
We were able to make it to Wicked Wednesday night, which made me so happy. I've been looking forward to seeing this musical since I heard the soundtrack a year or two ago. It was an amazing show and I highly recommend anyone to go and see it.
The Pantages Theater in Los Angeles
Hollywood Blvd.
Me and Annie just before going into the theater
The seats that we had ended up being way closer than I thought they were going to be which I really liked, but I wish that we would have been in the middle instead of off to the side. I didn't miss any of the important stuff, but I still like being able to see the whole stage. The theater was much colder than I was expecting it to be and my legs were frozen by the end of the evening. We also had a lady that was sitting behind us that smelled like pee, so that was another drawback to the evening. It was good to get out though and try to enjoy what little we had left of our vacation.
Friday was the funeral for Annie's nephew and it was a very sad day. We went to the wake afterwards and then packed up our things to drive to San Francisco where we had our hotel reservation. Annie, trying to be a nice friend and trying to make sure that I got something out of our trip asked if I wanted to stay on the freeway to get to San Francisco or if I wanted to drive up the coast on the Pacific Coast Highway. I made the stupid mistake of saying let's drive up the coast. (stupid, stupid, stupid) How I wish I could turn back time to that moment and say, stay on the freeway. So instead of a drive that would have only taken us about 5 hours it took us about 8 hours. The Pacific Coast Highway stopped at one point and we had to get on the 101 and decided that we would stay on that instead of trying to find our way back onto the PCH. We ran into stop and go traffic at one point and decided that we should get back on the freeway, but at that point we were already so far west that it would have taken us just as long to find a route back to the freeway that we had no choice but to stay on the 101. It was a miserable drive because we couldn't go as fast, we were both tired, I didn't want to drive with the crazy Californians so Annie had to drive the whole way. We were both very exhausted when we finally got to the hotel.
The coast off of the Pacific Coast Highway, this is where the 1 ended and we realized we had to get back on the 101.Saturday morning we slept in to try and catch up on some much needed rest that we hadn't had the whole trip. About 11:15 we had a knock on the door and it's the cleaning lady asking if we are done in the room yet. We told her we would be done at noon, when check out time is. Then she proceeded to stand outside our door talking on her walkie talkie, telling who ever she was talking to that she was waiting for us to get out of the room. Then at 11:45, the front desk called and asked when we were going to be out of the room. Who does that?! If I pay good money to stay in your hotel and check out time is not until noon, don't bother me until then. I can understand a call from the front desk checking to see that we will be out at noon, and then leaving us alone, that would be ok, but waiting outside my door, that was just not acceptable. When we did leave the room the cleaning lady was still there waiting, and she had this look on her face like, it's about time you finally get out of there. Does she not have other rooms to clean? It was very frustrating.
We went into the city so that I could see San Francisco and get some pictures. We parked at Pier 5 and walked all the way to Pier 45. Annie had seen a sign that said the parking was closed down by Pier 45 so we decided we would get a little excercise in for the day and boy did we. Our legs and feet were so sore by the end of the day.
The Bay Bridge
The aquarium at Pier 39
Some of the shops at Pier 39. It was a really cool Pier with lots of fun shops.
This is the Crepe Cafe where we had breakfast/lunch. It was delicious. Allison, you would love this place.
The carousel on Pier 39
Alcatraz!
This is where the sealions hang out on Pier 39
They're cute, but they sure are stinky
Fisherman's Wharf
Ghirardelli Square. We stopped here for some ice cream and it was super packed in the shop and we had to wait for ever in a hot, crowded, small store. Not my idea of fun, or refreshing. The ice cream did taste good at least when I finally got it.
A ship off of Pier 45
Walking down the Embarcadero back to the car
I just thought this was a cool shot of Pier 23
Lombard Street - The Crookedest Street in the World! It's not the best picture, but it's the best I could do as we were driving past trying to find our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. I was amazed at how many cars were lined up to go down this street. It was definitely causing some traffice problems.
The Beautiful Golden Gate Bridge
So this picture has a story to go with it. It was the end of our day in San Francisco, we were both tired and sore from walking all day, but I still wanted some pictures of the Golden Gate bridge. I could tell Annie was getting a little grumpy and was way beyond ready to get out of this city, but she was kind enough to swing by the bridge so I could get my pictures. She stayed in the car while I ran out to take my pictures. When I got back to the car I decided that I wanted a picture with her with the bridge behind us. So I asked a lady that was standing to the side of us. OH HOW I WISH I HAD ASKED SOMEONE ELSE! On my camera it doesn't have the little view finder that you look through to take the picture. The screen is what you look at to see what is in the picture. However, this lady proceeded to hold my camera up to her face and kept saying, "well I can't really see anything, but I think I have you and the bridge in there." Then on top of making a spectacle of herself, she took the picture while the wind was blowing all my hair behind me and my mouth is open. Annie was too grumpy and ready to leave that she didn't want to take another one, so we got in the car and left. As I took a look at the picture, I realised how horrible it was, but it was too late to do anything about it. So enjoy a good laugh on me. :) 
Steep hills, one way streets, and non stop traffic = very crabby people
The streets of San Francisco
Saturday night, after we had left San Francisco, we decided that we would stop in Sacramento and stay over night and then drive the rest of the way home Sunday morning. I decided that we deserved a little more upscale hotel the second night, so we splurged on a 4 star hotel and it was worth every penny. Neither one of us wanted to find a place to eat, so we were going to order room service, but I started looking through the menu and looking at the prices and thought, this is way too expensive, let's just find a place close by that we can go to. So I pulled up the restraunts that are close to the hotel on my phone and gave Annie the options. She decided on Morton's Steakhouse, neither one of us had heard of it before, and it sounded good and it was only a few blocks from the hotel. When we got there however, we realized that this was a fancy restaurant, and here I was in my plaid shorts and t-shirt, and Annie in her basball cap and jeans. We could have easily turned around and gone somewhere else, but we were both so hungry and tired that we really didn't care. This is the kind of restaurant where everything on the menu is about $30-$50 and it's a la carte. So you're buying the meat and the sides to go with it, they don't come together. The waiter looked at us funny when we said we were spliting the $50 filet minon and that was it. It tasted oh so delicious, however, I don't care how good the steak is, I don't think a slab of meat is ever really worth $50. We also split the creme brulee for dessert, and that I must admit I've had better. It was quite ironic considering I wasn't willing to have the expensive room service, and yet, we chose the most expensive restaurant to eat at.
Sunset outside on our hotel balcony in Sacramento.
Fortunately the bed was exceptionally comfortable, and I really enjoyed the shower. We ended up ordering room service for breakfast and I was pleasantly surprised with how good it tasted even though I had to spend a little extra for it. We did get another knock on the door by house keeping, this time around 11:30, but she was very polite about it, and once we shut the door she left. No loitering and huffing and puffing outside our door. That made me very happy. The downside to this hotel is that we had to pay $17 extra for parking, which I thought was pretty lame considering I had already paid a fair amount of money for a hotel room. On top of that, Sacramento charges a $1.50 tourism tax. What is that about? Thanks for stopping by to visit our city, now you have to pay us? I'm not sure if they do that in all their hotels or what, but I thought that was a little funny.
Our Last stop at In-N-Out. Oh how I'll miss those delicious burgers. 
