At the end of September, we found out about the annual Smithsonian Museum Free Day from Lance’s cousin Rick. Its a day once a year that you can get into any participating museum for free. We were so excited. Zoey was already free and with the ticket two more of us would be free, so we would only have to pay for one adult admission! We cleared our Saturday and set our hearts on the Academy of Science in San Francisco. We have been there before and couldn’t wait to get back again! The Academy is like a zoo, aquarium and museum all rolled into one big building. It even has an indoor rainforest sphere. We left early Saturday morning, about 8:30am and hit the road on our two and a half hour drive to SF. We packed the back seat with fun activities, books, crayons, DS’s, and snacks and crossed our fingers for an uneventful and hopefully half asleep drive. 
We even got to see a hot air balloon near I-5. The kids loved it. Lance and I made up stories about who might be up there and what they were doing.
Perhaps a proposal… or maybe some fun lovin’ grandmas! Who knows!
Ever been to San Francisco? How about on a Saturday? Its pure insanity. Once we hit the traffic it all came back to me why we never traveled San Francisco on a regular basis. This place has so many wonderful things to do and see, yet the traffic is enough to keep us from it.
Well, we finally got there after about two hours and the kids were still pretty happy but they were definitely on the hungry sides, snacks can only do so much for little tummies. After fighting traffic and street lights for about thirty minutes we finally saw it… The Academy of Science Entrance! We were so happy to finally be getting out of the car! Happiness lasted just as long as a blink of an eye. The cars, the people, the bikes. I just couldn’t breathe. Did we really just drive all this way to turn around and go home?! The line of people waiting to get in was about a mile long, insane! There was literally no parking, none, nada, zero.
Cars, for miles and miles and miles!
Zoey had finally passed out for a much needed nap. We had already been driving for more than an hour than we thought we would have had to. The kids were at their crankiest. They were tired and hungry for some real food and definitely tired of being in the back seat of our little Honda CR-V! After driving around the Academy for about 30 minutes with no luck finding parking, we decided to call it quits. I called my mom for directions back to the nearest McDonalds, not our first choice for lunch but the kids really need out of the car. After driving in a few more circles, we finally made it back to our original route. There just happened to be a McDonalds in a mall near by. On our drive there we got stuck in more traffic, had too many close calls, passed an accident that had happened only minutes earlier, and one sign of hope… a Zoo sign!! It just so happened that we were only two miles from the San Francisco Zoo. Was it meant to be, perhaps, we were just happy not to have to drive home after just arriving!
Our little Lion Cubs! 
They do love each other, they just pick and choose when to show it!
One of the most amazing trees I have ever seen.
My Peacock Family!
We were debating who had bigger feet, the beat or Xander!
Ain’t he cute!
We even saw baby flamingos! 
The Amazing San Francisco ocean view
I think it was just after eight when we finally got home. The worst task was unloading the car in the dark. The kids were already out cold and we decided to leave whatever we could in the car over night. Our feet hurt and our legs were tired and all we wanted as sleep, but that day was just amazing. The kids were soo good all day, through each and every little adventure of our road trip. I don’t’ recall too much after getting home, maybe we played halo with Joe, or maybe we didn’t or maybe we watched X-files, or maybe not. Either way, it was a really really great day.
So thank you Rick, for letting us know about the Museum Free Day. It definitely set us out on an unlikely adventure!!!
Go Here for more pictures from our SF trip!
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