My San Francisco Treat

WARNING: long post

What an amazing three days I had! My time in San Fran was so great and I am so glad I got to go. Of course there was a little drama involved with me getting there, it started to snow. I was planning on leaving at 3:30am on Wed. morning to drive to Salt Lake to catch my 9:15am flight. That night as I'm dropping of kids at my sisters it's started to snow. Of course I'm paranoid about driving this by myself as it is and now to add not so fabulous road conditions was a little much. So I decided to leave that night as soon as I got home from dropping off the kids. I was out and on my way by 9:30pm. And let's just say I NEVER want to do that again. I am barely out of Rexburg and the truck in front of me suddenly swerves out of control and into the ditch. So here I am ten minutes out and already extremely stressed and tense. I also encountered really bad roads in Pocatello and of course the pass from Blackfoot to Malad. Once I got a ways into Utah things got better. I am so thankful for prayer, I know I only stayed on the road because I was protected.
Anyway on to the fun stuff. I arrived in San Fran around 2pm and Todd was there to greet me (& Holland). I got to experience the Bart to get to downtown and the fun walk of the city. Well the walk to the Hotel wasn't far and to my surprise we were staying at the Westin on Market, smack in the middle of downtown. It was an amazing hotel and we had an amazing room.

This is the view from our room. We were on the top floor and could see most of down town and the water.

Todd and Holland enjoying the very comfortable bed.

After we checked in and had a little break we headed out to check out downtown and the amazing shopping that it had to offer. (unfortunately Tiffany's didn't have what I was looking for in my size-LOL).

Even Macy's was amazing, found a cute Easter dress for Ellie marked way down, woo hoo. Ya just don't get the same kinda shopping in I.F.

This is Union Square park right in the middle of the city. Love those palm trees! We also ate at the Cheesecake cafe and I had a great dinner and brought cheesecake back to the hotel for later.

Thursday we did a LOT of walking.

Todd found some friends.

Sometimes I really miss being able to go to the city. Reminded me of Seattle.

I truly experienced the San Francisco hills. We saw some amazing row houses and great views.

We walked to China town and saw all the fun stuff there. They had a ton of jewelry stores with some of the most gaudy stuff I've ever seen. Also lots of small shops and markets. very interesting to see.

Later that afternoon we headed out to the Golden Gate bridge. We rode the city bus most everywhere. We drove right by Fisherman's Warf which also reminded me a lot of Seattle's waterfront. The bridge is an awesome sight and is awe inspiring to see. We could also see Alcatraz Island from the park.

Most days were really windy and even more so near the water.

Later that night we went to the Asian Art Museum and wandered around there.

Friday we did some more walking and bus riding. We went out to Golden Gate Park and went through the de Young art museum. We used to go to the art museums in Seattle and have missed being able to go. It was great to go again and we had a good time taking our time going through and enjoying the beauty there.

Right next to the museum was the Japanese Tea Garden. We have also visited other Japanese Gardens in Seattle and Portland and this one was also very beautiful. Some day Todd would love to have his own little tea garden. We spent a lot of time here too. It made me more anxious for spring to come here in ID. Loved the cherry blossoms! I also realized while walking through that I miss the sound of the breeze in the trees. Ya just don't get that here were there are so few trees for the wind to blow through I didn't even know what I'd been missing since I've been here.

Todd also took me to see where his apartment was and we went and saw what are called the Painted Ladies. If anyone knows the show "Full House" from the 90's you'll recognize these from the opening shots of the show. They were really pretty row houses with a great view of the city. We ate lunch on the hill overlooking these houses and enjoyed another sunny day.

That night we were changing hotels to one near the airport because of our 6am flight the next morning. So we went and gathered up our luggage from the Westin and headed to the airport to catch a shuttle to the hotel. Well when we got there Todd had a message that our flight had been canceled and we'd been re-booked on a flight for Sunday instead. GREAT! not really, I was anxious to get home and see my kids. Weiland had had a hard time with both of us gone and all three were counting on us being home by bed time on Saturday, not to mention my sister had six kid in her house and I didn't want to make that any longer than needed. So long story short, ok I know too late, they put us on a 6am flight out of San Jose instead so now we needed to get ourselves out there. Thanks to Todd's dad for rearranging hotels for us so we had somewhere to catch a few hours sleep. It was a very long day of traveling and I am very glad to be home and even more glad to have Todd here and know he's not leaving again. It was a fabulous time and just the break I needed after having been here for the last almost three months without a husband.