I Left My Heart in San Francisco

Jonathan's grandmother, Nettie Leonard, died early last week and her funeral was on Friday. This was Jonathan's last living grandparent. Since Jonathan was going to be going to the funeral in Oakland we decided we might as well go, and since this week is Spring Break we decided we might as well add a couple of days and make a little vacation out of it. We left on Thursday around 12:45 and got to Fairfield, CA about 10pm that night. Friday morning we met up with Jonathan's family at his grandparents house in the Piedmont area of Oakland.


The funeral was held at The Chapel of the Chimes, it's a mausoleum. Instead of his grandparents being buried in a cemetery they are inside a wall in the mausoleum. Jonathan's grandmother served in the Marines and stayed active in military organizations most of her life, so the American Legion had a large part in her funeral. The most moving part of the whole thing was when a solo trumpet played Taps.

Waiting for the funeral to start

After the funeral we went with family to a park on Lake Merritt for the kids to play and then out to dinner. We then headed to our hotel that was in the Presidio area of SF. Sleeping in one room with 7 people is not that much fun for the adults, though the kids like it. It was an acceptable hotel for a good price in SF.

Saturday morning we went to the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. It was very cool with lots of stuff to see and do.


Then we walked part of the way across the Golden Gate Bridge and drove up to see Coit Tower.


Sunday we went to Jack London Square in Oakland. There was a Farmer's Market going on a women had a bunch of hula hoops that the kids had a great time playing with.


From Jack London Square we took the ferry over to San Francisco. Emily wanted to ride on a boat and this was the cheapest way. In San Francisco, we walked all over Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39, etc. We even got sunburned. Let me tell you, after winter it was nice to get sunburned. We then rode the ferry back to get our car and went for a drive to visit where we used to live in Moraga. I even found a house for sale in Lafayette we could buy if we only had $1.1 million.


It was a fun trip even with a lot of whining from the kids and a lot of time spent in the car. It was beautiful weather and just plain amazingly beautiful with all the hills in brilliant green and flowers and trees in full bloom! It was very sad to come back to snow on my front lawn and a forecast of highs in the 40's and rain/snow in the next couple of days. Too bad living in a 2 bedroom/1 bath apt. with 5 children for a rent that it is more than my mortgage is not a real working option.