A week in bullets and San Francisco
Okay... let's see if I can get enough of this down before I start to forget it all.
*Monday - Much laundry and errand-running. There was a lady at Target speaking French to her little girl. I was standing close enough that there was no way I could pretend I hadn't heard, so I said (in French, bien sur), "It's so nice to hear French. You don't get that chance much here in Utah." She looked up, a bit surprised, but very friendly and asked me if I was French. Hooray! I can still pass as a native! She was actually from Tours, which was in my mission, but I was never there. It made the francophile in me very heureuse.
*Tuesday - Got up at 6:30, showered, dressed and packed. We had to wake Cooper up at 9:15 to say good-bye to him. It took me a long time to get enough squeezes and hugs from my boys, and there was some welling of tears, but no actual falling, so it doesn't count! On our way. Flew out at 12:15, got to Oakland at 1-something California time. Took BART into the city and checked into our hotel (the Ramada on Market Street -- totally reminds me of the hotel in Tower of Terror at Disneyland!). Then we went in search of lunch. Ended up at Mel's Diner and had a fabulous cheeseburger. Aaron headed for geekworld.... I mean, Macworld, and I headed for Union Square. I bought the new Yo La Tengo album at the vast and beautiful Virgin Records store there, and then browsed around until I ended up in Borders reading the first few pages of Lolita. Aaron called when he was done and met me at Urban Outfitters. We sauntered and decided to play full-on tourists and take the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. It was actually really fun. We went to Cost Plus World Market, scored some super cute earrings and a toy for the kids, and then bought mom some Ghiradelli goodness. We ate a late dinner at the Buena Vista bar and grill and discovered the best fish and chips ever. And I don't even like fish! Then back on the trolley to Market, and we walked back to the hotel with a brief stop for some starbucks hot chocolate.
*Wednesday - I kept waking up during the night wondering why Alex hadn't started squawking. Aaron (let's be honest here) and I got lucky and then got breakfast. He went back to the Moscone Center, and I braved BART on my own and headed for Embarcadero Center. I paid homage to Bono and the rest of U2 at Justin Herman plaza and thought to myself, "Rock and Roll Stops The Traffic." I was sorely tempted at Papyrus, but didn't purchase anything because 1) the line was insane and 2) I was holding out for something else, to be mentioned later. It was crazy-cold and the wind was getting awfully chilly, so I picked up another hot chocolate and deftly managed to dump some down the front of my very light pink sweater. So... back to the hotel, changed clothes, and went back to Union Square. It was more fun anyway. Then Aaron and I met up and got on BART again to go out to Dublin (where he grew up) and have dinner with Kevin and Heather at the always delicious Casa Orozsco. It was so good to see them again! We went back to their house and chatted until about 11pm and headed back to the city. There are very interesting people utilizing public transportation at that hour in that city. Hotel, sleep...
*Thursday - Up, showered, BK breakfast in the hotel thanks to Aaron the breakfast runner. Packed and stored our luggage. Aaron had to go back to MacWorld for about an hour, so I just went back to Borders. He showed up and we decided to go exploring for lunch. Ended up at a Kosher Deli called David's. Meh. We should have gone French at the Grand Cafe. Oh well. Then we stopped and got this: http://www.fossil.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=36393&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=1020&iSubCat=1028&iProductID=36393
Isn't it pretty? I know, there are Fossil stores here, but it's cooler because it's from San Francisco. Then we picked up our bags, and headed back for Oakland International. We checked in and were told that our flight was going to be delayed at least half an hour due to snow in SLC. Actually ended up being about 50 minutes late, so we sat in the airport for like, two and a half hours. Which sucked because we totally could have gone to Pier 39 or something had we known, but was okay because we both got to sit and read, which was kind of nice. Got home (barely made it up the hill) just before midnight and crashed.
Now I'm just getting back into the groove and we're all kind of vegging out and taking it easy. And it's really cold. Brrr...
*Monday - Much laundry and errand-running. There was a lady at Target speaking French to her little girl. I was standing close enough that there was no way I could pretend I hadn't heard, so I said (in French, bien sur), "It's so nice to hear French. You don't get that chance much here in Utah." She looked up, a bit surprised, but very friendly and asked me if I was French. Hooray! I can still pass as a native! She was actually from Tours, which was in my mission, but I was never there. It made the francophile in me very heureuse.
*Tuesday - Got up at 6:30, showered, dressed and packed. We had to wake Cooper up at 9:15 to say good-bye to him. It took me a long time to get enough squeezes and hugs from my boys, and there was some welling of tears, but no actual falling, so it doesn't count! On our way. Flew out at 12:15, got to Oakland at 1-something California time. Took BART into the city and checked into our hotel (the Ramada on Market Street -- totally reminds me of the hotel in Tower of Terror at Disneyland!). Then we went in search of lunch. Ended up at Mel's Diner and had a fabulous cheeseburger. Aaron headed for geekworld.... I mean, Macworld, and I headed for Union Square. I bought the new Yo La Tengo album at the vast and beautiful Virgin Records store there, and then browsed around until I ended up in Borders reading the first few pages of Lolita. Aaron called when he was done and met me at Urban Outfitters. We sauntered and decided to play full-on tourists and take the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. It was actually really fun. We went to Cost Plus World Market, scored some super cute earrings and a toy for the kids, and then bought mom some Ghiradelli goodness. We ate a late dinner at the Buena Vista bar and grill and discovered the best fish and chips ever. And I don't even like fish! Then back on the trolley to Market, and we walked back to the hotel with a brief stop for some starbucks hot chocolate.
*Wednesday - I kept waking up during the night wondering why Alex hadn't started squawking. Aaron (let's be honest here) and I got lucky and then got breakfast. He went back to the Moscone Center, and I braved BART on my own and headed for Embarcadero Center. I paid homage to Bono and the rest of U2 at Justin Herman plaza and thought to myself, "Rock and Roll Stops The Traffic." I was sorely tempted at Papyrus, but didn't purchase anything because 1) the line was insane and 2) I was holding out for something else, to be mentioned later. It was crazy-cold and the wind was getting awfully chilly, so I picked up another hot chocolate and deftly managed to dump some down the front of my very light pink sweater. So... back to the hotel, changed clothes, and went back to Union Square. It was more fun anyway. Then Aaron and I met up and got on BART again to go out to Dublin (where he grew up) and have dinner with Kevin and Heather at the always delicious Casa Orozsco. It was so good to see them again! We went back to their house and chatted until about 11pm and headed back to the city. There are very interesting people utilizing public transportation at that hour in that city. Hotel, sleep...
*Thursday - Up, showered, BK breakfast in the hotel thanks to Aaron the breakfast runner. Packed and stored our luggage. Aaron had to go back to MacWorld for about an hour, so I just went back to Borders. He showed up and we decided to go exploring for lunch. Ended up at a Kosher Deli called David's. Meh. We should have gone French at the Grand Cafe. Oh well. Then we stopped and got this: http://www.fossil.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=36393&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=1020&iSubCat=1028&iProductID=36393
Isn't it pretty? I know, there are Fossil stores here, but it's cooler because it's from San Francisco. Then we picked up our bags, and headed back for Oakland International. We checked in and were told that our flight was going to be delayed at least half an hour due to snow in SLC. Actually ended up being about 50 minutes late, so we sat in the airport for like, two and a half hours. Which sucked because we totally could have gone to Pier 39 or something had we known, but was okay because we both got to sit and read, which was kind of nice. Got home (barely made it up the hill) just before midnight and crashed.
Now I'm just getting back into the groove and we're all kind of vegging out and taking it easy. And it's really cold. Brrr...