Blog Entry
Mackenzie’s 13th Birthday Trip
Posted by Mackenzie Alldrin on October 24, 2010 to Family Life blog
My first-ever blog post, about my 13th birthday getaway.
(click any image to enlarge)
The Crowne Plaza Hotel
The Crowne Plaza Hotel was the nicest hotel I had ever been in!
Steel Cable
The cables on the bridge are huge!
The Golden Gate Bridge
We watched this tanker go right under the bridge.
Me on the Bridge
My Dad (the ever talented photographer) took this picture.
At the Exploratorium
This light exhibit was very fun. You can see your shadow on the wall in lots of colors.
The Flag of the Pier
I waited for quite a while to get this shot.
Seagull and Boats
This could be my favorite picture I've ever taken.
Sea Lions
This year marks the sea lions' 25th anniversary since coming to SF bay.
Hello--Mackenzie here! I am going to post about a very special trip I took on my 13th birthday. I'll let you guess where I went. This city has a huge science museum, an island prison, and a famous bridge. It has some really good Ethiopian restaurants, too. You guessed it! My dad took me on a surprise trip to San Francisco. My wonderful grandma let us drive in her BMW. It was awesome! It felt like riding on a cloud, compared to our 15-passenger van. (No offense, Sheba.) The Beemer had a sun roof, good audio, and shifted gears automatically, which is good on the SF hills. On the long drive down, we listened to our favorite music, (we have a lot of the same tastes) and talked. I was grateful for the sun roof, because the weather was beautiful.
Once in the city, we used our GPS to find a couple of Ethiopian restaurants. The first one we drove to was closed. We drove around the second restaurant for about twenty minutes trying to find a parking spot. It was well worth our time. The Café Ethiopia had a nice atmosphere and great food. We then drove to our hotel and checked in. It was the nicest hotel I had ever been in!
We got up early the next morning and went to Starbucks. Dad got coffee, I got hot chocolate. Then we drove to the Golden Gate Bridge and parked at the viewing area. We walked to the sidewalk and started going across. Dad let me use his huge camera and I took hundreds of pictures. I photographed everything I saw! I just finished pruning all the pictures I took. (I'll add some of the best ones here.) We walked halfway across and turned around. We took more pictures once off the bridge, and I purchased some souvenirs at a small gift shop.
We got back in the car and drove to the Exploratorium. If you've never been there, it is well worth seeing. It has dozens of exhibits and all of it hands-on. I stayed as long as I wanted at the exhibits I liked and skipped the ones I didn't. We ate lunch at the café in the museum and walked around some more. We left early afternoon for the wharf.
I really wanted to drive down Lombard Street, so we made that a priority. We waited for quite a while, but it was worth it. It's very pretty! I also got to play around with our new GPS on the way to Pier 39, which was fun. When we got to the pier, we tried to find a restaurant that had a bread bowl with soup other than clam chowder. (I don't like clam chowder.) We decided on Boudin's, but it wasn't dinner time yet. We passed the time by looking around for souvenirs. I bought Mom some chocolate and got Anneliese a birthday present. We saw the sea lions and lots of boats and seagulls. The ocean was beautiful!
Dad ate his clam chowder and I ate my tomato bisque, then we headed for home. We did a lot more talking and I thanked him profusely! I am so blessed to have a Dad who loves me so much and cares enough to do nice things for his kids! So thank you again, Dad, for everything!
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