More to come

During this summer we have been to a few places and have not had the opportunity and time to blog, we have also posted a few times unsuccessfully, including on our most recent trip to San Francisco. Next week between Aug. 17 and 21 we hope to catch up with our blog.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Our final day of our mini S.F. vacation came so quickly! We decided that we wanted to stretch our vacation as much as possible, so as we were headed home on Wednesday Aug. 12. We made that final stop the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in Monterey CA. A detour well worth the our time. We had anticipated spending a couple of hours there, but it turned out to be an amazing aquarium with the largest tank we had ever seen (about the size of a movie theatre screen) with a myriad of fish, sharks and other sea creatures. Alec absolutely loved it, and we were just as impressed! This aquarium provides children (and adults) the opportunity to interact, learn and remain engaged in the preservation of sea life on our planet. We certainly recommend visiting this aquarium, specially with children.

Happiest Day!

Today was one of the happiest days in Alecs' life! What constitutes the happiest day for a 9 year old boy? Visiting Ghirardelli square and having a heavenly "Mint Bliss" as well as hanging out perilously out of a cable car down the steep, STEEP streets in S.F. We could not believe this kid was not afraid of ridding on the step of a cable car, but would not go up the Eiffel tower (which is so much safer!) He says it's the altitude! Go figure. Seeing him happy makes us very happy as well. Guess we all had a "happy day"!

Pursuit of Happyness

It seems it takes a few visits to really appreciate a place. This time on our visit to San Francisco we kept seeing new things and finding the place where they shot the movie Pursuit of Happyness. Without a doubt the media has tremendous influence on us because every time we saw a cable car the Rice a Roni jingle would also come to mind, even though it hasn't been on for probably over seven years.

During the day we got a chance to go to Fisherman's Wharf (pier 39), Lombard Street, Chinatown, Alamo Street (where the row of Victorian Houses is), and the foggy Golden Gate Bridge (very Leyva like to have rain and fog). We had planned on taking pictures of the city at night but we could see nothing across from Sausalito, hence no pictures! Hopefully on our next entry we will be able to share some of the bridge

Atlantic vs Pacific

Our family took a vote and the Pacific won 3 to 0. Not long ago we had the opportunity to travel up the Atlantic Ocean Coast from Miami to Key West Florida. On Sunday August 9 th, we had the opportunity to travel the Pacific Coast, from Los Angeles to San Francisco (San Mateo area). As we traveled we were impressed with the beauty of the unspoiled view of nature at it's best. Although California is our home state and we had already traveled up the coast before, we felt as though we were tourists in our own home. After traveling earlier this month to Florida and experiencing that coast, we have decided with a vote that our own state is much more impressive in beauty. Sorry Florida, our state has much more to offer!