northern california trip

We flew into Oakland on Thursday and spent the evening with Laura's grandparents and her uncle David. Friday we took BART into San Francisco for a little overnight vacation. Our first destination was to the Ferry Building (above) right next to the Embarcadero stop, which has a really great market of local farmers/vendors.

There were some shops with basic produce or breads, others were more specific.

We found a gelato shop and had to give it a try. Laura gave the mango sorbet two thumbs up.

Right outside the Ferry Building was a great view of the Bay Bridge.

After the Ferry Building, we walked up the piers to the wharf where we were planning on having lunch.

It was cool to see all the boats parked together.

We went to the Boudin factory for lunch -- Austin had his heart set on a sourdough grilled cheese sandwich. Unfortunately it was a little underwhelming and a little expensive, but Laura had better luck with her salad and sandwich.

After lunch we walked up Taylor Street to catch a cable car up to Union Square. Austin's iPhone was a great travel companion -- we had GPS-accurate directions (either by car, walking, or public transit) at our fingertips the entire time.

We waited for about 45 minutes along with a line of fellow tourists to "catch" the cable car.

We rode on the back and had a good view.

It was Austin's first time* on a cable car!

*(Austin may or may not have been on a cable car when he was really really really little)

This was the view from our hotel -- pretty awesome. We dropped our stuff off here after the cable car ride, took a nap, and then did a little shopping and had dinner.

The main objective of SF day two was the Golden Gate Bridge. This was another first* for Austin. And we thought it would be a great place to take Laura's 30-week tummy photo!

A really nice guy offered to take a picture of our "family" which we thought was very sweet and thoughtful.

It was pretty foggy by the bridge, and made for a very fitting photo.

Sometimes Laura gets feisty when her husband takes too many pictures of her. :)

It was foggy enough that even on the bridge it was hard to see the top.

We had a great view of the bay and the city from the bridge.

It was a little chilly, which we didn't mind at all coming from 90+ temperatures in Utah.

Sunday we went to church with Laura's sister Mary for a baby blessing. Our new little niece Jane is adorable!

She loves to smile -- Laura was good at getting smiles.

Laura's parents and two youngest siblings made the trip up for the blessing as well. We were very excited her dad could come even though he had to take an early flight the next morning to get to work.

Monday we spent the afternoon with Mary and our two cute nieces. We enjoyed playing at the playground with Livia.

She loves playing with Emily and David, so Laura knew the only way we'd get good Livia time would be to visit by ourselves. :)

Livia had just been to Disneyland the week before and loves her Minnie Mouse hat.

We enjoyed holding Jane -- she is a cutie!

Sister picture time!

Monday night we went with Mary and Chase and Chase's parents to the Giants–Dodgers game at AT&T park.

We had awesome upper deck seats behind home plate with an amazing view. We recommend the garlic fries -- they were as good as we'd heard.

We had more playground time on Tuesday.

It's the Self girls!

One of many cute Laura shots.

Austin really liked these numbers that were stenciled on the asphalt at the elementary school. It's a nerdy designer thing, don't worry if you don't think it's cool.

Austin and Uncle David had a great time playing basketball at the school.

We finally were able to come through on our promise that we'd visit Laura's grandparents in Concord. We had a great visit -- we enjoyed playing games, watching family movies, eating great meals together and we even were lucky enough to be part of their weekly tradition of watching the Lawrence Welk show with them on Saturday evening.

It was also the first time we'd been able to visit Mary and Chase and their little family in Mountain View. We really enjoyed spending time with them and our little girl is going to have lots of fun with her cousins when we get together with them!

We had a great trip to the Bay Area. Laura made the comment that the next time we pack our bags it will be for a trip to the hospital! Crazy! We enjoyed spending time with family and we also enjoyed our time in San Francisco together.