Big travel to San Francisco

Day 1, March 4th 

Starting this trip can't be done without traveling there. Waking up at 4 AM in the morning is not exactly my cup of tea but sometimes you have to make sacrifices if you want to do something fun. Luckily I had my best friend who was willing to go with me to the airport (along with my sister and dad). After the big goodbye I went alone, for the first time, on a big trip. Going on an 8 hour flight to New York where I, after 2 hours of ESTA controle and confusion on where the bagage went, took another flight to San Francisco that took me 6 hours. After an whole day of traveling I finally arrived at the San Francisco airport where Tom and Nancy, the family I'm staying with the first week, picked me up and brought me to their home, where I could finally sleep after more than 24 hours of traveling. 

Day 2, March 5th

After a long rest we planned an uneventful day where we just drove along the coast, with some amazing views. Later that day, Nancy and I went to the beach to look for starfish, which sadly we didn't find. We did find some beautiful corals and sea anemones . After that we went home, made some dinner, and had a quiet evening.

Day 3, March 6th

On day 3 we went to the science academy of San Francisco. This museum got a recreated rainforest inside with all kinds of birds, butterflies, fish and other amfibies such as lizards and gekkos. After the rainforest, which actually got a whole sealife world ondereath it, we got into the planetarium where the whole universum was explained, which I thought was rather interesting. We went home before the traffic jams got really bad and made a casserole, which I never had before. 

Day 4, March 7th

Day 4 was a little break inbetween all the busyness. But little did I know that this day would be busy afterall. Babysitting some kids, starting with just 2, ending up with 6! Had a little break from the kids by walking to the beach of Half Moon Bay, which was nice and quiet. Coming back to the house to the smell of freshly baked cookies! Overall this day was nice, a little busy break.

Day 5, March 8th

Because this day was suppossed to be the only sunny day we headed to Santa Cruz, a nice surfer town south from San Francisco. We had lunch at the eagles nest (a roasted pineapple burger, yum!) this place had a really nice view over the ocean. After lunch we watched some surfers and went to the lighthouse which is now a surfer museum where the history of local surfers is displayed. Next stop was another science museum, although it was more about the ocean life in the area. This museum is located on an university campus, so they also showed a bit of the research they're doing on the dolphins, otters, whales and other sea creatures. The tour that we did was fun but the museum itself was more oriented on kids.

Day 6, March 9th

We wanted to go into San Francisco but because this day would be rainy again we decided to go to the Walt Disney museum. This museum was all about Walt Disney his life, and how Disney as it is today started off. This museum was right behind the Golden Gate Bridge and had some nice views on the bridge. We spend a good 5 hours (if it wasn't more) in this museum, very interesting if you're a disney lover!

Day 7, March 10th

This is already the last full day in Half Moon Bay with Nancy and Tom and damn the time flew like it was nothing. On this day we finally went into San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge from up close and even drive over it to Sausalito, where we lunched and took some pictures with the bridge. After this day it was time for me to do some laundry and pack everything up to take an early bus to Los Angeles where I'll be the next 2 weeks.  

And this so far has been my first week in the USA, meeting up with family, having good talks and laughs with them. It was lovely to see Tom and Nancy again, but it's time to go further on this trip on my own, at least for now.