McPhails on Tour: Bye Bye San Francisco... Hello beautiful Felton!!

The kids like the combined blog, so here is another!

FROM LUKE:

Yesterday we went to Pier 39. We also went on a carousel - it was 2 stories! There wasn't just horses, there were dolphins as well. We also saw Sea Lions and they were cute... but they stank!!!

We also went on a tour. We saw houses of rich movie stars and we also saw the house of Mrs Doubtfire, the one they did the movie in. We also went near the Golden Gate Bridge, it was seriously busy!

Today we went to Ripley's Believe it or Not Odditorium. It was amazing! We also got a bag of candy and we went in the maze of mirrors.

We went to the Rain forest Cafe, I mean restaurant. It was cool AS! It looked like a real rain forest. The middle floor I couldn't believe my eyes!! They also sometimes have fake thunderstorms which makes the pretend animals move and make noises!!

The RV park is amazing, I want to stay here longer and longer and longer because it is in a forest. We crossed a freezing cold river and Jack was the last one in. I also made really good friends and my friend Emma (she is one of them), she's like me, absolutely loving Pokemon!

Well I guess I can't think of anything else, I guess this is goodbye, have a nice time everybody!

FROM BEN:

I miss you so much Nanny, we went on an aeroplane to get to America. We went past the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really cold on the bus. Then we goed to this Caravan Park. It is nice with big trees.

I love Mum, I love Dad, I love myself and I love Jack and Luke. I love this movie we are watching too - Open Season 2.

We went to the caravan park with a beach, and a pool and a playground. We went to the Las Vegas caravan park as well.

Speak to you next time.

FROM JACK:

Hulloo everyone!

We went to Pier 39 yesterday, it was crowded and we went on a 2 story merry-go-round and it looked like it went fast, but when you went on it, it didn't go as fast as it looked.

We went around the pier as well, we walked to one side and saw one sea lion, and then we walked to another and saw a whole pontoon (or at least alot!) of sea lions!

IT STANK!! (not in the bad way - I mean the smell)

After the sea lions we went on a tour around San Francisco, we stopped at the Golden Gate Bridge, we saw Lombard St, a street in the shape of a zig zag (literally a zig zag). (Herbie drove down this street in one of his movies).

Today we went to a museum that was based on Ripley's Believe it or not books. That was awesome, (strange but awesome!). They had the worlds smallest man, there was a robot made to look like a naked lady (and right next to the display there was a button that caused an alarm!)

It also had a wedding dress made of toilet paper. I measured myself against the tallest man - I am
5ft 6! They also had an art museum that had portraits of people made out of strange things and they had modern songs playing to sound like classical music. My favourite one was when they played Pokerface with the violin.

There was a tunnel where the walls rotated with a path in the middle. I could not walk in a straight line because when you went in the tunnel it felt like you were the one turning - not the walls! After crashing into the side bars so many times, I finally made it out the door!

We walked down even though we were in a dark room, then we found the exit, but then another maze started which was a mirror maze. Before we entered the maze, they put gloves on us so we didn't mark the glass. I thought it was fun, because every time I went around another corner I went to say "Hi!" then realised it was me I was looking at!

Annoyingly they had revolving mirror doors which made it that little bit more tricky to hop out meaning I got lost a couple of times. When we finally found the exit, we were told to go back through the maze to find the entrance.

When we finally got out of the mirror maze we went into a lolly shop and bought about 4 bags (not full though).

When we finished we got back in the RV and travelled to Santa Cruz Redwoods RV resort. When we got to the resort, the first thing we did was walk down and look at the river. Then we went to the club house which has a pool table, Foosball table and ping pong table.

After that we walked down to the river at a shallow part and then walked across what felt like minus 1 degree water. I eventually made it through and then when I got back through we had to get back through to the caravan.

That's basically what has happened over the past 2 days, so talk to you again another time.

BYYYEEE!

FROM SIMONE

Yep, it has been a couple of busy days! San Francisco was great - it was Mothers Day for me yesterday, the boys got me a card each and made me breakfast in bed. It was very yummy! We went for a swim in the morning - we looked a little crazy swimming at 9:30 in the morning, but the sun was out. Unfortunately the pool had not yet heated up so it was a great heart starter!! Lucky they had a hot tub that really was HOT!

Luke really wanted to go Ripley's Odditorium but we ran out of time on Sunday, so we packed up the van and drove the RV right into San Francisco and took the kids today on our way (or rather out of our way) to the next RV park. The drive was less scary then I thought, and the kids loved Ripley's. They also loved the Rain forest restaurant. It was pretty spectacular!

The trip to Felton (5 miles from Santa Cruz) was (I think I might need a thesaurus), beautiful. We drove around the coast and the shoreline was spectacular, we drove through Venice Beach, (the houses here looked a little out of our price range), and through some other coastal towns, then it was time to get to Felton.

The drive was amazing, at least I think it was because I had to close my eyes to save myself from having a heart attack!! We were in a 31 foot RV travelling around windy, forested roads, kind of what you might find around the Great Ocean Road, only narrower. I had never been so happy to see a caravan park in my life!!!

It was all worth it though, it was one of the most beautiful parks I have ever stayed in. I am hoping the photos do it justice, but I am not sure they will.

It's getting late now, so will sign off. We are heading to Pismo Beach then Malibu and need to have the van back to the rental mob on Thursday. I am hoping we will get to Santa Monica pier, but so much to do, so little time.

I know the next half of the holiday is going to be awesome, but am a little sad to be giving back the RV, this really is the life! We have met some wonderful people and seen some amazing countryside.

I think we need to start planning the next trip and we haven't even finished this one!

Love and kisses to everyone

mwah mwah!! xxoo