Today was my dad’s birthday. And we got to go to one of the places he wanted to see the most, Muir Woods. Lucas was up around 5 am. We ate breakfast at the hotel at 6:30. Then we all walked over to Fisherman’s Wharf to get our 9am tour with Dylan’s Tours.

We set up a guided tour to Muir Woods to see the Redwood Trees. Our bus tour started with a little tour around San Francisco. I really didn’t expect that, so that was pretty cool. Dylan drove to Chinatown and showed us some stuff. Then he showed us some very expensive houses and let us walk a couple blocks to look at them. He drove by the house from Mrs. Doubtfire and the house from Full House (even though tour buses are not allowed to drive by it). Then he made a 15 minute stop so we could take pictures by the Golden Gate Bridge. I really thought the bus would just go straight to Muir Woods so this was a nice surprise.

We got to Muir Woods around 10:50 and we had to meet back at the bus at 12:20. The trees were awesome. The walk was easy and fun. We made it to the Cathedral then we turned around. Lucas worked on his junior park ranger book and earned his badge. The woods were really awesome; I have never seen trees like that. On the drive back we had the option of being dropped off in Sausalito or taking the bus back.

We decided to get off and have lunch. We had lunch at Napa Valley Burgers. It was very good but very expensive. After lunch we walked over to the ferry terminal to buy tickets for the 3:10 ferry. While waiting Lucas played on rocks near the water and looked at crabs. Then he played in a fountain. We had asked Dylan where the ferry from Sausalito would drop us off and it sounded like it would be close to Fisherman’s Wharf. But on the ferry Don and I discovered it was actually going to be much further away from our hotel than Fisherman’s Wharf.

This stressed me out because we were supposed to meet my cousin Mark for dinner at 6. When we got to the ferry station in San Francisco it was already approaching 4. We had wanted to stop by the hotel to get a banana bread that my Aunt Patti had made for Mark, but then my mom decided let’s just go over to the park with the Painted Ladies before dinner.

So, we figured out the bus and made our way to Alamo Park. Our bus driver was very friendly. Mark met us at the park. After walking a bit and seeing the Painted ladies Mark told us we should take a Waymo to dinner. A Waymo is a self-driving car. So Lucas, Don, and I got one and my parents and Mark got another. Kelsey, Jared, and Adeline took an Uber because we were unsure about the rules for kids in Waymos. The Waymo was pretty cool and a super smooth ride. Lucas loved it.

We ate at Boiling Hot Pot. It was a really cool experience for everyone. It was good to see Mark. After dinner Mark came back to our hotel and he was able to get some banana bread. So it all worked out! He even was able to play chess with Lucas.