My California Adventure

Well, we made it through our vacation! It's always a crapshoot when your vacation involves 2 fourteen hour drives with a 3 year old. The drives went well, though. Here's the low down:

We ended up not leaving home until a little before 5pm by the time Matt got home from work, we got the house all shut up, and got out on the road. Hunter hadn't taken much of a nap that day, so he was starting to fall asleep by the time we got to West. We stopped there for dinner so that Hunter could sleep on a full tummy. He actually didn't end up going to sleep until after we stopped for gas in Blackfoot, ID. That was an amusing gas stop, too. LOL I took Hunter into the store to let him use the bathroom, and on our way out we ran into a guy that I used to work with at Pizza Hut. How random is that?! 300 miles from home in a small town in another state and you run into a guy you never even see in your own town - where both of you live. LOL Anyhoosie, we drove until we got to Boomtown where we stopped for breakfast. Hunter had a blast in the casino, he even won 15 cents! LOL He was so excited to watch 3 shiny nickels clink into the tray. We finally got to my mom's house just a bit before 9am.

Mom threw Hunter a dinosaur birthday party later that evening, and he had a blast. He loved seeing all the family he never gets to see and playing with my stepdad's nephews. He got lots of neat gifts to play with, too. It's still hard to believe that my baby is 3!

Matt & I went to San Francisco for 3 absolutely wonderful days. We saw everything we could possibly cram into that time. We stayed at a cute little boutique hotel in Cathedral Hill. The weather was gorgeous. Upper 50s-lower 60s with a nice breeze. The only bummer was we had scheduled to go out to Baker Beach on the 2nd day to take pics of the Golden Gate Bridge, but the bridge was nearly completely fogged in that day and the next. I kinda wish that we had gone the first day that we were there, but we had tickets to go out to Alcatraz that day. Oh well...it's not like I'll never get out there again! LOL

So yeah, San Francisco: Day 1. I love going out to Alcatraz! The history, the preservation, the views, everything. Then we checked out The Cannery, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, the Municipal Pier, Coit Tower, and North Beach. Can you believe in all the times I have been to San Francisco I have never been to Coit Tower? It was really neat. You can see the entire city from up there! We ate at a fairly new restaurant in North Beach, Mojitos. I was really excited to go there based on the reviews and such I had read, but I ended up really disappointed. It was supposed to be a tapas bar, but it turned out to be a bar that happened to have $2 appetizers. It also had incredibly lousy service. Lousy to the point that our total was $19.96 and we put a $20 bill in the check envelope and walked out.

San Francisco: Day 2. We got up early and went to Golden Gate Park, saw the Japanese Tea Gardens and the Conservatory of Flowers. There isn't a much more beautiful sight than the sight of mist floating through the trees in the park. I love it. We ate at this awesome Himalayan restaurant on Lombard near the Presidio called A Taste of the Himalayas. Totally awesome. Better than the reviews! Friendly, accomodating staff...we were waited on by the owner himself! He has an orphanage he started back in Nepal that he funds with the profits from the restaurant. Wonderful man. We hit the Presidio, Baker Beach, Haight, Alamo Sqaure (the park with that gorgeous row of Victorian houses that you see during the opening credits of the show Full House), and then had dinner at Citizen Cupcake. Also, somewhat of a disappointment. I had checked out their menu (from their own website) and already had my heart set on some things to eat and drink...only to find out that they don't make everything on the menu everyday, not mentioned at all on the website. Oh well, live and learn.

San Francisco: Day 3. We went through Chinatown, the Financial District, Nob Hill, and we relaxed in the park in front of Grace Cathedral. We ate lunch at this awesome dim dum restaurant in Chinatown, Y Ben House. It's not on the beaten tourist path through Chinatown, in fact, Matt & I were the people in the restaurant who were not Chinese! It's this huge room with lots of big round tables that seat 8-10 people. Your party is seated at whichever table has the space for you, which means you sit with complete strangers if you don't have a 8-10 person party. I thought that was really neat. Servers roll carts with all sorts of delicious goodies on them around and stop at each table. You just select what you want off the cart and the server stamps a number on your receipt. Matt & I got huge portions of chow mein and barbequed rice, a plate with 3 large pork buns, and a plate with 4 little lemon custard tarts. Total cost, with tax? $11.70. Incredible. The sucky part was we were supposed to get on the 2:50 Amtrak bus to meet the 3:40 train...and we weren't picked up. We were at the stop and 3, count them 3, buses drove right past us without stopping. I was pissed! We could always catch the next bus, but the point was that only the 3:40 train went all the way to Rocklin. All the other trains stopped in Sacramento, and then we took a bus the rest of the way. Matt & I REALLY wanted Hunter to be able to see that big train roll up and stop just for him to let his Mommy & Daddy get off of it. Oh well, I guess there is always the next time.

I ended up getting a surprise bridal shower thrown for me by my mom and sisters. I was incredibly surprised! It was cool. I had no idea that it was coming. Lots of delicious desserts, fun games, and some really thoughtful gifts.

Ash's graduation went well, too. It was at 9:30am, lasted about an hour and a half, and I got completely fried. I even put sunscreen on! I don't know why I bothered with it at all. LOL Oh well.

All in all, we had a great time. We got to hang out with our friends Brook & Scott a couple different nights, having drinks and playing pool. I can't wait until we can hang out with them again. They're coming out for the wedding, so it should be fun.

It's nice to be back home...now to get back into the swing of things!