San Francisco or bust!
Another step of our pre-trip preparations has been completed - I reserved tickets for bleacher seats for the Chinese New Year parade that's happening the weekend we're down in SF. the_z is very excited for this trip, and I'm excited right along with her. This has really proven to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fulfill a few dreams of ours. It's the first time I've been to California in almost a decade. The last trip was back in fall of 1999, and that was a two-day rapid-fire business trip to Sacramento to train a client on some software. I have good memories of the trip (it was the first time I'd ever seen rugged, snow-capped mountains), but it was still a business trip, with no real time for leisure.
I will admit to having a few trepidations about driving in SF, as we have to drive a rental car from the airport to the hotel, but I have a feeling that's the extent of driving we'll be doing. Everything else we want to see is within walking distance, or at worst a short cab drive. Why take a cab when we have a car? One word: parking. I imagine that parking's going to be a commodity in short supply in the city - and with the parade on Saturday ending right at our hotel, I don't imagine that getting around by car is going to be feasible.
There's more prepwork to do, of course - I have more laundry to do tonight, and we have to start getting our luggage together (including space for souvenirs). Then, tomorrow night we drop off Andi with one sitter and Ein with another, and then it's off to the airport on Friday morning!
I will admit to having a few trepidations about driving in SF, as we have to drive a rental car from the airport to the hotel, but I have a feeling that's the extent of driving we'll be doing. Everything else we want to see is within walking distance, or at worst a short cab drive. Why take a cab when we have a car? One word: parking. I imagine that parking's going to be a commodity in short supply in the city - and with the parade on Saturday ending right at our hotel, I don't imagine that getting around by car is going to be feasible.
There's more prepwork to do, of course - I have more laundry to do tonight, and we have to start getting our luggage together (including space for souvenirs). Then, tomorrow night we drop off Andi with one sitter and Ein with another, and then it's off to the airport on Friday morning!