By Max

11/2/2022

I am still a day behind on the posts, so this is about two days ago. On Halloween, we woke up, did school, then left for Newport Beach. We were going to go to the Santa Monica Pier, but we decided to just get out of the city sooner. We did the one-hour drive, and when we got to the hotel and checked in, we got wristbands that acted as keycards to our room. They can be reprogrammed to any Marriott room. We were told that the room would be ready in a couple of hours, but it actually took ten minutes. We drove to our room and dropped off our stuff. We heard about trick or treating at the main hotel. We each got some candy, then went swimming. We got out to get Alisa floaties, and me, Brooke, and Hailey goggles. When we got back, our food was there and there was a bingo game about to start! We all grabbed sheets and joined the game. Hailey won the first game, and I almost won the second and fourth. After bingo, we went back into the pool, and Brooke and I played a bocce ball-ish game with the dive toys. There were 5, so someone would throw one of them, then we both tried to throw them the closest to the first one. After that, we headed back to our room, got changed, then did candy trading. I ended up with the most but gave some to Alisa because she traded all of hers away. My parents went to the store to get us dinner, barbecue chicken legs that my dad grilled. I played basketball while he cooked them. I’m working on new shooting form, so I missed most of my shots. Dinner was delicious. After dinner, we got s’mores. They were hard to roast because it was on a gas fire. They were good though. After that, we went to our room, and went to sleep.

By Max

10/31/22

On the weekends, I get less time to write because I usually write during school time, and on the weekends, we just wake up, eat breakfast, and go. On Saturday, we woke up, then hit the road. We drove through Big Sur and stopped at a few places. We stopped by the Bixby bridge, made in 1932. We also stopped for lunch at Nepenthe. I got their signature Ambrosia burger. It has Big Mac sauce but was made before the Big Mac. After lunch, we tried a telephone booth that we saw, and I’m pretty sure that it would’ve worked, but we didn’t have change to use it. We drove to a redwood forest on highway one. We saw the biggest redwood there, the Colonial Tree. We drove out of the park and to a trail that went through the redwood forest. We got to touch the trees. I felt like an ant. We crossed a river that had man-made lumps for us to cross the river. We got back to the car and drove to the Julia Pfeifer waterfall. Alisa and my dad stayed in the car because Alisa was sleeping. It must be tiring for a 5-year-old to keep up with us! The waterfall was smaller than I thought, but it was cool! We went back to the car and drove for a couple hours and were planning on going all the way to Santa Monica, but there was a beach full of elephant seals, so we stopped. The way they moved was so funny. They basically were doing the worm. They went surprisingly fast. We drove the rest of the way to Santa Monica with only 2 gas station stops. Once we got to the hotel, we checked in, then went to a place called Lobster. I got macaroni and cheese with lobster in it. We went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

SANTA MONICA DAY 2

On October 30^th, we woke up, then ate breakfast, then went to the beach. It was huge! We touched the ocean, then went back to the pool. We swam for a little while, then went back to the room. We changed, then drove to LA. We first saw the Hollywood sign. We got fruit at a fresh fruit vendor. We watched him cut it. We drove to the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I didn’t see anyone that I know of, but it was still cool. We stopped at the Guinness world record building and walked through it and did activities. I got 300+ drum hits in 30 seconds. My dad got 350. We kept walking and I saw a basketball game that was fun. We left and went to the wax museum. It was cool, but they needed to clothe the statues more. We walked back to the car, and on the way got more fruit. We drove to the Beverly Hills Hotel and tried to get lunch, but the wait was too long. We drove into Beverly Hills and got dinner at Spago. We saw protesters that were protesting Dior’s leather. We also saw a lot of expensive cars, Ferraris, McLarens, Bentleys, Lamborghini Uruses, and even an Aventador! It was crazy. Dinner was great. I got duck. We also got free cookies from the nice pastry chef. Instead of chocolate chip, they had a thin plate of chocolate in the middle. They were amazing. We then went to the Griffith observatory and saw Saturn through a super powerful telescope. It looked like a picture! The observatory was cool. We also saw the moon through a different telescope. We could only see half because it wasn’t a full moon. There was so much detail that we could see a lot of craters. We went back to the hotel and that wad the end on that day.

By Max

10/29/2022

In San Francisco, we did a lot of things every day. While we are in Monterey, it is way more laid back. Two days ago, my mom and sisters went to the aquarium. I didn’t go because I thought that I had a sprained ankle. It was just growing pains. My dad, who was working, stayed at the hotel with me. We ordered lunch to our room; I got Caesar salad with shrimp. It was good. After they did the aquarium, we got ready to go play the Hay, the par 3 course at Pebble Beach. I shot 32, and hit my nine iron, which I usually hit about 110-115 yards, 125. It was a lot of fun. We ate dinner at that resort, I got a giant lamb roast. It was amazing! Our waiter said that if I finished it, he would buy me dessert. I could’ve done it, but my dad said that we couldn’t get dessert either way. That night I didn’t fall asleep until 11 o’clock because there were noises (snoring). Also, I think that it might have been something in the lamb, I started feeling sick. I fell asleep and woke up at 7. I was fine when I woke up. When we were discussing plans for the day, my dad told me that we were going to play Spanish Bay Golf Course! We got a nice breakfast, and I got French toast. Alisa didn’t order but helped herself to everyone else’s breakfast. After breakfast, we went on a walk on the beach and the kelp smelled awful. My dad and I went to the golf pro shop and got golf shoes and I got a hat. We went back to our room and changed into golf clothes. When we got to the first tee, there weren’t any junior clubs, so I just used adult clubs. They were TaylorMade Stealth! Some of the nicest clubs on the planet!  We played the first whole, I got to the green in regulation, but 3 putted. On the tenth hole, a par 5, I got to the green in two shots, a bomb drive into the correct spot, and a lucky fairway club that bounced to the green. I almost made an eagle, but it rimmed out. I got a birdie. Also, I had two different chips, one out of the sand, one the rough that rimmed out. I finished with a 96, a great score on one of the best courses that I have ever played. It was so fun! After golf, we drove to Carmel, but turned around because my calves were so sore from walking that I couldn’t walk around shopping. We got dinner, and I got an amazing NY strip steak. We got 3 desserts and split them. We went to the room and fell asleep and that was the end of day 3.

By Max

10/27/22

Yesterday was kind of chaotic. It was the day when we went from San Francisco to Monterey. We woke up, my dad worked then jogged from the far end of the Golden Gate Bridge, a 6-mile jog. When he got back, he said that someone broke into a car right across the street from him in broad daylight at 10:00 o’clock A.M. It took the people 15 seconds to do it.  After we did school, then we packed, put our laundry into the wash, then got all ready to go. When my mom went to get the laundry from the dryer, it was still wet. We restarted it, and when we went to get it again, it was still wet. We grabbed it, put it into a bag, and brought it to the car. We took a detour to see the painted ladies, AKA the houses that it shows in the Full House. BTW, the pictures below are the ones that my mom took, not from the internet. After that, we drove to a Ritz-Carlton for lunch. There was a pumpkin that was about 5 feet long and 2 feet tall at the entrance. I got one of the best burgers of my life. Also, there were a ton of birds hounding us for our food. I wacked 8 of them with my napkin, 4 out of the air. One bird stole a chip right out of the chip bowl on our table. After lunch, we got back in the car and drove until a town called Capitola. My dad said that it would be perfect if we saw an ice cream shop that had a restaurant, and then, not even a minute later, we saw Polar Bear Ice Cream, and went in. There were 56 flavors! I got cotton candy and dirty paws. Dirty paws is caramel ice cream with Oreo bits in it. We hopped back into the car and drove the last hour to Spanish Bay hotel. While we were driving in, there was a gate and a sign that said welcome to Pebble Beach. We went through to the most beautiful golf course + resort I have ever seen! We listened to the bagpiper that plays every night. My sisters got stuffed animals from the nice lady at the front desk. We went to our room, and our bags were already there! The room is enormous. It is 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom, but it has a big living area. It is nice. We went down to a dinner spot, ate dinner, then came back. When we were about to go to bed, someone rang our doorbell and asked if we wanted our sheets turned down. We went to sleep, and that was the end of the day.

TODAY

Today, my mom and sisters are going to an aquarium. I would go to, but we think that I have a sprained ankle. I don’t know how or when it happened, but it did. Also, we are going to play the par 3 course at Pebble Beach this afternoon.

By Max

10/26/2022

We had a lot of fun yesterday. We started the morning by eating cereal while doing school. Brooke kept distracting me by asking me for the answer to the math problem that she was on. After school, we walked to the local grocery store, Trader Joe’s, and got lunch to have on the ship to Alcatraz. We met up with my dad at 12:15 by the Alcatraz ship. We had to eat outside of the ship loading area because we weren’t allowed to bring food on the ship. We ate our lunch, then got onto the ship. On our way there, we got 2 giant pretzels to share; we had to throw away our lunches before we finished them. Once we got to Alcatraz, we did the audio tour and learned how some people escaped. They dug through the foot-thick concrete of Alcatraz with spoons! We learned a lot about Alcatraz on the audio tour. We barely caught the 2 o’clock ship back to pier 33. once we got back, this guy offered to pedal us to Ghirardelli Square, with his bike attachment that had a seat for 3 people, and we sat on each other’s laps. At Ghirardelli Square, we got the biggest sundaes that I have ever seen. I was the only one to finish mine. We each got to pick out 5 chocolates, and I grabbed 5 milk chocolate caramels. We left Ghirardelli Square and went to the USS Pampanito. Once we got there, we got tickets and went onto the submarine. That submarine held 80 men for 75 days and sunk 6 Japanese ships. We walked through it and saw the crew quarters, the torpedoes, and the main control room. The control room had red lights for toe night workers. There was a giant cannon on the top of the sub. Also, for some reason, there was a broom on the top. We hopped off, and we went back to the hotel. We ate dinner at a place that had award winning clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. I got it ang it was amazing. I’m pretty sure that every single restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf has clam chowder in a sourdough bowl. I think it might be a San Francisco thing. I don’t know. We walked through a cool sourdough restaurant called Boudin. They had sourdough bears and alligators! We walked back to the hotel and sorted out our chocolates, then went to bed.

TODAY

Today, we are going to drive to our next destination, Monterey, at the Spanish Bay hotel on the Spanish Bay golf course near Pebble Beach!

By Max

10/25/22

          Yesterday, we did a lot. First, Alisa (youngest sister, 5 years old) woke me up at 3:40. I fell back asleep and woke up at 7. We went to this cool courtyard in the middle of the hotel that had foam ping pong balls. After school, I played bags with Brooke (oldest sister, 9 years old), and won. We then met up with my dad, who had been working and working out. We took cable cars to Chinatown, and I got to ride hanging on to the outside. Once we got to Chinatown, we got lunch at a nice little Chinese place. I couldn’t understand half of what the lady was saying, but I’m pretty sure that she said that the people at the table next to us were eating cow tail. We got a few different Chinese foods, and my favorite was the Mongolian beef. After that, we went to a fortune cookie place. We were about to go in, but then we heard people fighting (yelling, not smacking). We walked away until the fighting people left, and then entered. Once we got in, a lady handed us warm flat fortune cookies. They were so good! They also had GIANT fortune cookies that were like a foot long and a foot wide. They were enormous! Each one costed 9 bucks. We got a 12 pack of frosting covered fortune cookies, and the lady scooped us a bunch of flat ones along with them. Then, we called an uber and went to the Alcatraz ferries. Once we got there, we found out that we were literally 4 MINUTES LATE for the last ferry of the day. So, instead, we went to a bike rental shop and rented bikes. Alisa and Hailey (middle sister, 8 years old) got these cool little attachments to my parents’ bikes. The attachments went on the back of their bikes and had one wheel—my parents’ back wheels acted as my sisters’ front wheels– handlebars, and pedals. Hailey went with my mom, and Alisa went with my dad. We went on an 8-mile bike ride, but I tracked it on my watch, and it was 8.5 miles. We went up a couple tough hills, but it was fun coming down them. But the whole reason that we did it was because it went over the Golden Gate Bridge. There were a lot of amazing views, and I looked over the edge of the bridge. It was kinda scary. We ended the ride at a town called Sausalito and took a ferry back, but my dad bought the wrong tickets. We went to pier 41 I think, but in the end, it was better because we got to see more of San Francisco, and then also it was a 1.65-mile bike ride back to the bike shop. If you do the math, then we did a 10-mile bike ride. It was a great ride. We then went back to the hotel and got changed for dinner. Don’t worry, it was too cold to sweat, and we weren’t going at a difficult pace. We went to dinner at a place called Scoma’s. they had super fresh seafood. We watched a guy cut up black cod, and I’m pretty sure that it was the one that I ate. We were going to go to Ghirardelli square for dessert, but Alisa got tired, and it was too late. We came back to the hotel and ate fortune cookies, and that was the end of our day.

TODAY

              Today, we are planning on going to Alcatraz, Ghirardelli square, and maybe visit the submarine.

By Max

10/24/22

Yesterday, we got to San Francisco. After some drama when trying to find a big enough car, we finally settled for a ford expedition, and put my suitcase in the middle row. We then went to an In-N-Out burger and got shakes. It was delicious! We went over the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to Dillon Beach. The reason that we went there was that it is the spot where my dad proposed. It was my parents’ first time back there since my dad proposed. I climbed a pretty big boulder. Also, the sand there was so ground up that it almost felt like liquid. There were steep sand dunes that I jumped down and got buried ankle-deep. We got a few pictures, and then went to the hotel to check in. On the way, we saw a lot of super skinny cows. When you go over the Golden Gate Bridge, it is like a whole new world. It went from city to farms in, like, 20 minutes. When we got to the hotel, we got ready to go to fisherman’s wharf. There were a lot of street performers. One was a man holding another man in one arm, while holding on to a pole off the ground with the other arm. We went to a dinner place called the Crab House. I got clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl, and it was so good! We headed back to the hotel, and that was the end of day one.

TODAY

Today, we are going to visit Alcatraz, take a cable car to Chinatown, visit the USS Pampanito, and maybe even go a bike ride!