After our visit to Yosemite, we were ready to head back to the coast. The RV park that we stayed at was in Half Moon Bay, California and it was just steps away from the ocean. It is a well know surfing spot so we got to sit on the rocks and watch surfers ride the waves. The water was freezing, but of course the kids all got in anyway.

We had ANOTHER truck mishap on our way over to the coast. I was driving when I noticed that the check engine light was on and I wasn’t able to steer very well. We were on a busy highway near Silicon Valley, so it wasn’t the most convenient spot to break down. I managed to pull over onto the side of the highway and Eric discovered that we had thrown a belt, which was why the steering and brakes weren’t working. Eric decided to drive the truck very carefully off the highway to a bit safer spot to be working on it. We called CAA to see if they could send a mechanic out to help us get the belt back on since we were pretty sure that was the only thing wrong with the truck. Apparently, sending mechanics out to work on a truck on the side of the road is not a normal thing that they do at CAA, so our only option with them would be to have the truck towed. Eric decided that he would just have to take matters into his own hands and fix the belt himself. I truly am amazed by my husband on occasion, and this was one of those times! There is a small picture under the hood showing how the belt needs to go around all the pulleys and gears, there were seriously 10 different things that it had to be wound around. Eric just went after it, climbing under the car and on top of the car and pulling on things until his hands were practically bleeding. He got that belt back on, and we were able to drive the truck to a part store where we bought a new belt and then continued on our way. Amazing!

Half Moon Bay is only about 40 minutes away from San Fransisco, so one day while we were there we spent a day visiting the city. We found a park and ride station and took a train into the city. The day that we were there just happend to be Earth day, and a March for Science rally was starting just as we arrived. We followed the crowd of people holding signs, and listened for a bit. Eric would have loved to stay all day, but the kids were ready to check out the city. We walked around near the waterfront, explored Pier 39 and a bunch of different boats at the National maritime museum. We had lunch at a pizza place that overlooked the pier, watched the sea lions fighting for prime spots on the floating docks, and held some giant insects at an earth day celebration they had set up. We had planned to ride the trolley back to the train station on our way out of the city, but when we found out that we would have to wait in line for over an hour to ride the trolley, we had to settle for a picture beside one instead.