The year (2008) we spent Christmas in California with Debra and Kent. We went north to Sutters Mill to see where the gold rush of '49 was started. We stopped in Sacramento on the way to see the temple. They have a very nice museum to commorate gold's discovery in California.
We also visited China Town in San Francisco and rode the cable cars up and down the hill. We stopped at Fisherman's Warf.
We went to Half Moon Bay to see the Tide Pools. The first visit was with the tide in. We saw a lot of seals on the beach. The second visit was with the tide out and we saw the pools with the varied forms of sea life.