San Francisco Vacation Photos

Trip to San Francisco with Family

As a family we took a road trip up the coast this summer. We left Saturday July 12 in the morning and traveled the first leg of the trip to San Simeon. We stopped at a few places along the way for a stretch and to sightsee including Mission's Santa Barbara and Santa Ynes. We also stopped in the Danish town of Solvang for a few hours. To end the 1st day, we stopped at Morro Bay, home of the large rock in the water. We stayed in San Simeon for the night, a very small town on the coast just south of Big Sur and Monterey. The next morning we visited Hearst Castle, a spectacular mansion built on the mountains overlooking the coast. The house was built by William Randolph Hearst during the great depression. The driveway alone was a five mile road and the size doesn't stop there. The land contains three guest houses each over3000sq. ft. and the main house "Casa Grande" which is nearly 40,000sq. ft. The house also featured the first heated pool and a marvelous, gold tiled indoor pool. After the tour we began the rest of the drive to San Francisco. By the time we got there it was after noon so we had some lunch and went to Pier 39 for a short time before returning to our hotel for the night. For the next three days we did a wide variety of activities using our San Francisco GO CARDS, a very good investment. We took two bay cruises, one under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, and then a cruise under the Bay Bridge and around Angel Island. We also took a motorized cable car tour of the city which was very interesting. We also went to a few of the many museums around the wharf. They include the Wax Museum and The Aquarium by the Bay. The aquarium had many hands on exhibits including stingrays, sharks, starfish and other sea creature. It also had a walk through tunnel where fish of all sizes would swim over, and around you. We also traveled north to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and spent a few hours there before returning and experiencing one of the best view of the Golden Gate from atop Hawk Hill on the north side of the bridge. I did research to find the best views of the bridge and it didn't disappoint. After the breath taking views of the bridge, we drove across it and went to one of the most peaceful places in the city, the Japanese Tea Gardens. The gardens are full of a wide variety of plants and an awesome arching footbridge. The next day we took a tour of the San Francisco Giants stadium, AT&T park. we were able to step into the visitor's dugout, on the field and in the visitor's locker room. We got to explore much of the city and had a great time at the Painted Ladies, Chinatown, and other places as well. On the way home we stopped in Valencia for a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain and Hurricane Harbor, which is usually fun except it happened to be extremely crowded and a little on the warm side. Overall, the trip was great. The weather was pretty fair but still on the cold side despite it being summer. If you want to see more of my photos from the trip, check out my San Francisco Video.

Welcome to my Blog

I will be showcasing my artwork, photography and other information as much as possible. Blog will be posted from my vacations, every day life, and other events(i.e sports, school). I will also have video presentations I put together in my spare time including ones from Jamaica, San Francisco, Washington DC, and much more. I hope you enjoy everything and feel free to leave comments and thoughts on how to make it better.


-Austin McKeon