Travel Journal: Pacifica / San Francisco

Our trip to Pacifica and San Francisco really started two days earlier, since my grandma insisted on having a big family dinner to greet our relatives. She had spent the whole week cleaning the house and preparing meals. When they drove in from LAX, we ran out to the driveway to greet my TIo Heraldo, Tia Amy, and cousin Michael, and also to meet my younger cousins Ella and Reese for the first time. Michael is a little under a year younger than me, so I still have lots of memories of us play fighting with my older cousin Elizabeth, but I haven't seen Ella, a 3rd grader, since she was 12 months old and I had never met Reese.

They were shy at first, but once I showed them where Auri and Alex hid their toys, Reese was glued to my side for the whole trip. The next day I had to take my Spanish final early, which was not fun, and then I raced home to finish packing.

The first day was mostly spent driving. We stopped at the Santa Cruz Pier for lunch, but were back on the road within an hour. When we got to our Airbnb, we got settled and then took a walk on a hiking trail that was surrounded by wildflowers and hilltop views around the corner from our house. I walked ahead with Reese, who was on a mission to "karate chop" some trolls. Michael, Caro, and Ella were right behind us, throwing rocks into bushes trying to scare poor little Reese. We came home and ate burgers and hot dogs my dad grilled on the balcony. I sat next to Reese, or "Snacky Reese" as her preschool classmates call her, and helped cut her burger in half.

We woke up early on the second day so that we could drive out to the pier and catch the Alcatraz ferry. After our drive we parked in the lot on pier 23 and got an $80 parking ticket, which my dad was not happy about. The ferry was freezing but peaceful as we watched the San Francisco skyline fading away and the hauntingly beautiful island drew closer. Once on the island we were given headphones and an audio device for the self guided audio tours. I found the tour fascinating and especially appreciated the way the audio included the ambiance of a prison to make you feel like you were really there. You could walk along the cells and really imagine what life was like there, unless you’re like me and you had to keep stopping to reset your little cousins audio so she wouldn’t keep getting lost. Snacky Reese slowed me down a lot but it was adorable when she got scared of the empty, dilapidated cells. She kept squeezing my hand and whispering “I’m scared” whenever we would turn a corner.

After the tour we rode the ferry back to the pier and found a pizza restaurant on Pier 39. The girls ran all around the table while we ate, taking samples from everyone else's pizzas. I could have stayed in the city exploring all day, but the kids got sleepy after eating all that pizza, so we headed back to the Airbnb and took a nap. About an hour later we introduced our family to Stranger Things and rewatched the whole first season together. Tia Amy made some fresh artichokes and Snacky Reese gave us all a tutorial on how to eat them. For dessert we had homemade brownies with ice cream.

The next day started with a game of hide and seek with all five of us kids in the vast two story house. I found my cousin Ella in a kitchen cupboard and Michael in the washing machine, just to give an example of how seriously they took this game. The funniest part was when I was hiding in a tiny upstairs shower and Reese came running and knocking for me to let her in. I asked her, “Why can’t you go hide somewhere else?” and she responded, “BECAUSE YOU’RE MY COUSIN AND I LOVE YOU”. Obviously I let her in, and not even 5 minutes later Michael bounded up the stairs and saw us hiding in the shower. Me and Reese yelled at him to hide somewhere else but he yelled “There’s no time!” and hopped in. It didn't take long for Ella to find the three of us, crammed into the tiny shower.

After we got dressed and ate breakfast we headed out towards San Francisco again, this time to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Sadly we didn’t get to see to much of the bridge, since Karl the Fog almost completely blocked out the iconic red landmark. However it was really enjoyable to just stand there in the fog and take in the weather. We don’t really get weather like that at home, so it was really nice to be freezing in July. After the bridge we drove farther into the city and stopped to see the painted ladies. The hill across the street was full of tourists taking pictures for their Instagrams. I know people get annoyed when people are constantly taking instagram pictures, but I thought it was really sweet to see families and friends goofing around and trying to get the perfect keepsake of their trips. The hill also had a giant park so we stopped to let the girls play for a minute. Caro and Ella, who were best friends at this point, were hanging from the monkey bars trying to top each others tricks. I had to push Reese on the baby swing, but I got a really cool picture of her swinging over the skyline, so I was very happy about that. When the girls were done, we walked from the park to a very hipster brunch restaurant, and I ordered the only thing that didn’t have egg in it: the bbq pulled pork sandwich. It was so good I’m still thinking about it a month later. Caro and Ella disappeared for a while and I was sent to look for them. I found both of them on thier knees using a bobby pin to try and get quarters out of the Pac Man game. They both looked at me and said “Nothing!” when I asked what they were doing. They had gotten at least six quarters out of the machine by the time I got there, so I made them leave the quarters as tips. After lunch we walked back to the cars and split up, taking my cousin Michael with us to explore the city some more. We drove down to Union Square and started to walk to Chinatown. Chinatown is one of my favorite parts of the city because of all the bright colors, packed streets, and smells of delicious food. That day there was some kind of festival going on so we got to watch dance groups performing while we ate our lotus cakes from the Eastern Bay Bakery. We looked through a couple of gift shops, and Caro was excitedly looking at all the anime merchandise when there was suddenly a big crash. She had dropped an armful of anime figurines and immediately burst into tears. Luckily they were all plastic so we put them all back together and left, but her day was already ruined. On our way out of Chinatown we stopped and bought a ticket for a sampling of all the Chinese restaurants that were participating in the festival. They gave us a little tray and stamp card, and we got to walk down the street and try authentic Chinese dumplings, fried rice, chow mein, orange chicken and more. Afterwards we heading back home and started season two of Stranger Things. We made more brownies and Caro, Michael, and Ella played fooseball until bedtime.

The next day was our last, and we sadly packed up our bags and played hide and seek one last time. Snacky Reese tried to follow me to our car, and I had to explain her that she had to go with her family and we would see them again in a little bit. We stopped in San Jose to tour the Winchester House since it has always been on my mom’s bucket list. It was a really fascinating tour and the house was gorgeous but it was really sad thinking about the poor old Sarah Winchester. She had everything she could want and spent money like a drunken sailor, but the prized possessions she kept hidden in not one but two safes, was her husbands and daughters locks of hair and obituaries. Michael was really afraid of ghosts, so we all kept messing with him during the tour, tapping his shoulder or whispering behind his back. We got back on the road and drove all the way to Cannery Row where we stopped for a delicious seafood dinner. I love Stienback so I was having a ball imagining what the beach town must have looked like to Steinback when he was there. Michael stopped at a candy shop to buy some treats which he gracefully shared with us, but only because they were extremely shower and popped in your mouth, as we soon discovered. He gave the most sour candy to poor little Snacky Reese, causing her little face to twist up and she spit out the candy, and she refused to eat anything else he gave her. This included the ice cream we got from Ghiradellis Ice Cream Shop. Reese refused to take a bite of the ice cream. We joked around and enjoyed our sundaes, until Ella tickled Michael and made him laugh so hard he sneezed ice cream out of his nose. We rushed to clean up, and get back on the road.

It was a great trip, but I was really happy to sleep in my own bed. The next day we met up at my uncle John’s house for a big family barbeque that included all my cousins and my grandparents. My grandma was really excited for everyone to be in the same house together and made us take a lot of family photos. Reese and Alex were like peas in a pod but Ella and Auri seemed to butt heads, but it was a lot of fun to all be together one last time before they went back home.