San Francisco - Day 1

 

Chris and I went to San Francisco for a week to celebrate our 19th anniversary!  It had been a few years since we had taken a trip with just the two of us, and Mom and Dad C. had offered earlier this year to watch the girls so we could get away.  We are soooo grateful for their help!  The girls had a ton of fun and were so proud to show off their special talents (gymnastics, choir, soccer, etc.) during the busy week we were gone.  And we had a blast, too!  Zillions of pics to follow!

Early morning flight, but free thanks to all of Chris's Delta miles!



We drove down twisty turny Lombard St. right away!  (I can't get this picture rotated...sorry!)

View from the bottom, looking up

We walked up and down both sides of Lombard St, too.  The scenery was incredible!

Then we drove to Presidio Park, and had our first glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge

We had to touch the ocean.  Sooo many sailboats out that day!

Amy and the bridge

Chris and the bridge

It was windy, but surprisingly clear

We walked out a long pier and saw people catching crab

Selfie on our long walk/hike to the bridge

Looks like a postcard

We walked under the bridge...

And to the other side!

Then we walked on the bridge

We were amazed that there wasn't much of a railing!

Cool typeface on the pillar

We walked to the first big pillar!

View from the pillar back to the city

View from the pillar to the other side of the bridge.  We decided not to walk the whole thing...it wasn't super important to either of us, and we still had a few miles to walk back to our car.

On our walk back to our car, through Presidio Park, we passed a military cemetery.  The haze through the trees was so pretty.

Snack break in Presidio Park after a long day of walking!

Then we checked into our hotel, and took a short walk to Chinatown's R&G Lounge for a delicious dinner!

We loved Chinatown!

On our walk back to our hotel, we passed Union Square and spent some time sightseeing and people watching.  It was a beautifully decorated shopping destination, and it was hopping!

They even had an ice skating rink, that was jam packed!

California Christmas tree

Day at Daddy's work

A few weeks ago, FCA held a family open house to celebrate the 25th anniversary of CTC (Chrysler Tech Center).  Chris started 21 years ago, when the building was pretty new.  It has held up well!  We only get to go inside FCA every 5-ish years, so this was a big deal!  I think it was only my 3rd or 4th time inside!

Walking in to the entrance Chris usually uses

It looks like a shopping mall inside!

We hit the design dome first.  Lots of neat cars in here...they look like toy cars in this pic!

There were tons of cool models and prototypes lined up inside and outside.  I won't bore you with all the car pics.

Chris explaining design stuff to the girls in the Jeep design studio

We got to play with a clay model of a Pacifica in the Chrysler design studio

The interior office had clays, too!

Walking down many long hallways...this building is the 2nd largest in the US, behind the Pentagon!

We got to go to the 14th floor of CTC, to the pentastar that you can see off I-75!  We're so cool!

Selfie by the pentastar

They had a great kids area sponsored by LEGOLAND.  We got to build cars and race them.

In the full scale wind tunnel.

 

In the NVH lab (noise/vibration/harshness).  Lots of cool instrumentations set up!

In a room for crazy radio bombardment tests.  There were several rooms like this, for all sorts of electrical/antenna/radio tests.



In the -20 degree room for cold soaks.  The door behind Megan leads to the next room...

...the +120 degree room for heat soaks!!

Snow room, to see where snow and ice build up on a car

Engine noise testing.  Gotta get just the right purr....

Cool screen setup at this office

A magician dazzled us!  There were bands, freebies galore, food, etc.

We finally got to see Chris' cubicle!  It was so boring!

The CTC cafeteria.  Poor Chris is way too busy to eat here, he always eats at his desk.

We saw how they plop on layers of clay to make their clay models.  The clays often weigh more than a real car!

The scanning guy explained how they can scan a car that an artist has made, and then can reproduce that car at any scale.

Milling machine at work, using data from the scanner.  So many clay poopies!!

A very nice milling guy explaining how an artist really just has to create one half of a car.  Then they scan it, and the milling machine will duplicate the other half perfectly!

It was an awesome morning, with LOTS of walking, to learn what Daddy does and where he works.  I think we also inspired some more enginerds in our family!  The girls kept changing their minds on where they wanted to work someday!