Day 23: flight home

Friday, July 18

After getting up at 5:30 we pulled out of the hotel at 6. We drove to the San Francisco Airport and returned our rental car. There was a man there who we gave our red bouncy ball, batmition set, and Tide. We got in a tram because The rental car garage is on the other side of the highway than the terminals. We got in our tram and the doors started clothing when suddenly the doors opened again and the Train started saying "Out of Service. Please Exit." Someone had left a bag on the train and the airport staff thought it could be a bomb so they hut the tram down. So we had to wait for the next tram and lost some time. At the US Airways desk we got in the Star club Priority line because Dad is a Star member. We had to wait over 110 minutes because the guy helping us kept running off to help other people. My dad was a little upset and then he told us to take two lbs out of one bag and into another one. The plane would be just as heavy no matter what bag had the 2 lbs in them. We stood there for over 20 minutes total waiting for the guy. My dad was really pissed off because now we couldn't have breakfast. So we bought some croissants to eat on the plane. We were the last ones on the plan and had to find a place for all our bags. We were in the air for about four hours when a an next to my mom passed out. Thankfully, there was a doctor on board an the flight attendants gave him oxygen and he was fine.  He had already been in a plane for 15 hours and was really tired. They moved him to the front so paramedics could bored when we landed. Just before we landed he passed out again. He was okay and the paramedics calmed him and gave hi  oxygen. We got off the plane had a little bit to eat and an intern from SAP picked us up. We dropped him off at his house and went to a Chinese place, King Chef, to eat. We got home and I couldn't sleep until 1:00.

Day 22: Tech Museum

Thursday, July 17

We woke up at 9:00 and had breakfast at 9:30. They had no ore waffles and max was disappointed. We left the hotel at 10:15 and drove to the San Jose Tech Museum. We parked our car and walked into the Tech Museum. After paying for our tickets we walked down stairs and walked through the Go Green exhibit. We saw how a indecent light bulb requires 69 watts and a florescent bulb only requires 6. After seeing how turbines work we saw our i-max on the Alps. The movie was about an american who lived in Switzerland for five years. His dad died while climbing the Agar because his rope broke while he was climbing. His son came back to Switzerland with his wife and his daughter. He decided to climb with his two Swiss friends. They decided to climb the same path his dad climbed. They all made it to the top but one of the friends, who was a mother of two small children, had to be taken down by a helicopter because he had a lot of back pain. After he made it down he knew he had finally finished his life long quest. After the movie we learned about the Internet and saw a show about Pirates. We went upstairs and were allowed to design the roller coaster and then virtually ride on it. Upstairs there were many things you could program. The museum had over 400 ands on activities! We left around 3 and went to the hotel. There we went in the pool for an hour and then got dressed. We had dinner at a nice restaurant with Dad. We went to bed early because we had to leave at six in the morning

Day 21: Raging Waters Water Park

Wednesday, July 13

We had breakfast at the concierge lounge at the Marriot and Valentin spilled his entire hot chocolate. After cleaning up the mess we went back to our room and put on our bathing suits. Around 11:00 Valentin, Viki, Max, and Mom left the hotel. Dad was already at work. The water park, Ragging Waters, advertised as the largest water park in Northern California(23 acres) was probably the only one in Northern california too. The water park was on the shore of a lake and had eleven water slides. In all it had 10 main attractions. They were the Lazy river, Wave pool, Dragons den, which dropped you down a tube into a bowl and you went around h bowl a few times until you came out at the end, The Barracuda which was boring and long. You sit in a large boat and ride all the way down. They also had a pirates cove for little kids were water was pouring out everywhere. They had an attraction with two slides called Shotgun falls where you go down a ten foot slide and then fell five feet to the water. A ride for Valentin was a twenty foot long ten feet wide water fall like slide. After you went down you were in a small lazy river and went down two more two foot water falls. The great white shark was a long slide were you where in a double tube and went through a tunnel for part of the ride. There were the great Pharoahs that was a ride that had three slides that were almost all the same. One was yellow, orange, and pink. Yellow was fastest an orange made the most people fall. My favorite attraction was the most popular one called speed slides. There were two slides, White Lightning and Blue Thunder. You went down a narrow slide for a few turns and then went almost straight down the rest of the way. White Lightning had bumps that made you fly 2-3 inches off the ground during your ride. When we were back at the hotel at 6:00, we went to an Italian place without Dad, who had a business dinner, called Tomatina. They had great food. We went to bed late at 11:30.

Day 21: Raging Waters

Day 20: Returning the RV

Tuesday, July 15

We set out at 9:00 because the RV was due back at 11:00. We drove the thirty minute drive to Oakland airport and picked up our new rental car, a blue Ford Explorer, and drove to Cruise America, just outside of Oakland. There we found two german families and gave them all of our leftovers (chairs, ketchup, gatorade, water, sauces, soap, towels, cereal, and dish cloths) and moved our bags from the RV to our car. We left Cruise America at 12:00. We drove for another 30 minutes to Santa Clara, a city outside of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. We were in the heart of the Silicon valley. The Silicon valley has headquarters from some of the worlds biggest companies like Google, Yahoo, Intel, and SAP enemy Orcale. We were staying at a beautiful Marriott just one block away from the Yahoo headquarters. They had a giant pool and soon after we checked in everyone but Dad went to the pool. We were almost the only ones at the pool. The water was great and when Dad came at 4:50 Max left to watch the All star game. Later we all drove to Palo Alto and had dinner at The Counter with one of my dad's co-workers and her husband. At the counter you can create your own burger. You receive a piece of paper and pick your burger (beef, chicken, veggie), toppings (lettuce, onions, etc.), your cheese( american, swiss, cheddar, etc.) and a sauce for over you burger(honey barbecue, pineapple, etc.) We all had a great time and after dinner we found a Coldstone Creamery and had ice cream. We fell asleep in the hotel around 11:00 after a long and fun day.  

Day 20: Palo Alto

Day 19: San Francisco/Petaluma

Monday, July 14

We left our campsite around 10:00 and drove to another KOA site near San Francisco. There they had a giant pool. We spent about one hour in the pool, when suddenly everyone had these squirt guns that you fill up under water and squirt on someone. There was a war in the pool. So Dad bought three squirt guns and the Kneis' joined the all out war. Soon kids would quit because they were tired. Later we went to the large playground and spent about one hour there. This wasn't a very exciting day and we didn't do a lot. We just relaxed and enjoyed our last day in our RV. We had the last of our ice cream, and went to bed.

Day 19: Outside of San Francisco/Pentaluma

Day 18: Pacific Coast

Sunday, July 13

We got up early and drove for 1 and 1/2 hours so we could eat breakfast in a diner. The kids were in bed for about one hour of the drive. We ate breakfast in a small diner and then headed out for the rest of the drive to a KOA campground. The KOA campgrounds are family run and have a lot of activities. When we arrived at the campground, we instantly loved it. There was a petting zoo, playground, arcade (Valentin spent over an hour watching a game run a demo), and lots of activities. They had a hay ride, ice cream social, dancing and karaoke, and a movie. The kids went on the hay ride around 6:30 but couldn't stay for ice cream because we hadn't eaten dinner yet. After dinner Viki went dancing and Max mastered the chicken dance. After karaoke (Viki sang two songs) everyone made their way to the grassy area to watch the Incredibles. We went to bed around 11:30

Day 18: Pacific Coast

Day 17: Redwood National Park

Saturday, July 12

We left Gold Beach at 10:00 and made our way down the coast to the famous Redwood trees. Once we arrived at “The Mystery of the Trees”, a giant statue of Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox greeted us. Paul Bunyan is a tall tale of a giant logger man. We started on the trail. We saw some of the biggest trees in the world. There were ceader, spruce, and three kinds of Redwoods. Redwoods used to cover the entire earth but after the Ice Age only those 9in the Sierra Nevada and on the Pacific Coast survived. There are only about 1,000 left because humans cut many for lumber. WE walked a 1 mile trail through the forest and saw many sites like the “Family Tree,” “the upside down tree,” and “the Trinity Tree.” The family tree is a tree that has 12 trees on its branches. The upside down tree grows vertically instead of horizontally. The Trinity tree looked like three trees in one, like the Holy Trinity. We got to a Gondola station that took us up the mountain. At the top we had a great view of the entire park. We took the gondola down and walked the short trip back. We then bought 1 lb of chocolate fudge and drove to our campsite. Their Valentin got in a fight with a very fat kindergartener. I thought the kid looked round and Valentin called him Mr. Fattie. The kid pushed Valentin. Later the overweight kid sat on Tino’s head. He was very rude. Dad, Mom, Max, and Viki then played shuffleboard. Max and mom were losing -6 to 40 when Mom quit to go on a hay ride with Valentin. So Max got his team(he was the only member now) back to 60 points but then Dad got points and won. Later everyone lost to Dad again. WE had sausages and potatoes for dinner and went to bed early.

Day 17: Redwood National Park