November part 1

I have so much for November already that I figured I better split it into 2 posts. Plus being the old person that I am I need to write the stuff for SF down before I forget.

So right after Halloween we were still rocking our Halloween gear. I'm not sure if I ever said 'I'll never take my kid to the grocery store in their pajamas' BUT how can you not when he is this cute?! And that mean mug; kills me.

This is an important picture because I've been trying to wean JJ off the bottle since he turned 1. Right at 12 months I told his daycare I wanted to cut a bottle out and she told me no. LOL. So we waited a few weeks and then cut 1 bottle. Waited a few more weeks and cut a 2nd. Then we've been rolling with 2 bottles since. We've had a hard time getting him to drink milk from a sippy so this picture was one of the first times he finally really drank it! We are down to 1 bottle as of this past week. So we are getting there.

It finally cooled down but not only did it cool down it got cold! To run at 4:30 in the morning it has been in the 30s. I don't have the right clothes to run in that and every time I try I feel like I make myself sick with a chest/head cold. So I have been running 1 or 2 times a week after work. It is hard to motivate myself at that time, but also to get home, keep Bug happy, get changed, try and get something started for dinner, and get out the door by 5:25 so that I can be back by 6 at the latest so Bug doesn't eat dinner too late. I get frustrated sometimes with it because I can't go as far as I want, or I don't get stretched good before going and hurt myself, or Bug gets fussy, or it's a little cold when it gets dark and then I worry about getting him sick. I can't seem to win on that front. These pictures were taken one day when we were chasing another mom with a stroller and then Bug will sit there and clap for me sometimes.

Ok, so the majority of this post will be my trip to San Francisco. About a month ago I said to my mom that we needed a girls trip because it has been a long time since we did one. We quickly picked and planned a trip to SF. We left Wednesday and flew into Oakland. My mom got to experience her first Uber ride and while she may have found it weird she didn't know how weird it could be until our Uber ride back to the airport on Sunday.

Anyways, we were staying at The Donatello in Union Square. Thanks to Juan and Kerry for the hook up there. Since we got there about 830 I think we just got checked in and then wandered around the hotel and down the block to a Walgreens for some snacks. I was thrilled with the TV in the bathroom mirror. If we had moved the fridge into the bathroom there would have been no reason to leave that room.

Looking out from the top of the hotel. Mom wanted to climb out on the ledge but I didn't let her.

Thursday we had tickets for Alcatraz. It was really close from our hotel to a major pickup point for the mass transit. We did pretty good with that as a means of travel. We really only went the wrong way once, but more on that later. 

Coit Tower

We were afraid we weren't going to make it to the pier in time, but we did. We choose to go on Thursday hoping it would be less busy. I don't think it was too bad.

So once we got off and went through the little introduction speech at the dock we headed up to start the tour. You get a headset and it gives you the narrative by former guards and inmates and directs you through the tour. It was really neat and interesting. I am a bit of a weirdo when it comes to stuff like this; probably part of the reason I did a psychology degree. I tend to research and read a lot on serial killers and the like so this was right up my alley.

The prison showers

My mom in one of the solitary confinement cells

#cellfie

Looking back at the city from Alcatraz. I found it interesting that they said there were certain times you could hear the noise of the city carry over and how poignant it was for the inmates.

There was a group of inmates that dug an escape hole and shimmied up between the walls. Overall I really enjoyed Alcatraz. I bought one of the books written by a former guard. I just started reading it last night but I think it's going to be very interesting.

After we got back to the pier we decided since we were close that we would go to Coit Tower. We asked the girl in the shop how to get there and she said to walk 2 streets over and we'd see the stairs. She told us it was a lot of stairs but I think we may have underestimated her because she was bigger.... Anyways we walked in that direction and found a random staircase going up between the houses. We stopped an out of breath, sweating guy and asked him where these stairs went and he told us Coit Tower. That should have been our warning.

The first of many flights of stairs

More stairs

I don't think the way we went is the 'normal tourist way' but it for as many stairs as it was it was neat to see the homes and the architecture. I love, love, loved looking at the houses and trying to figure out the layout and the design.

 

Once we got to the top we paid the money and went up the elevator to the top. It is certainly an amazing view. We also lucked out with some amazing weather the whole time we were there. 

Alcatraz from Coit Tower

Golden Gate bridge from Coit Tower

 

After Coit Tower we took the bus down to Fisherman's Wharf. We wandered around down there for a little bit and then walked over to Ghirardelli. Then we walked back to the wharf and took the trolley car back towards our hotel. 

This is how they turn the trolley

It was a long line for the trolley but we figured we needed to do it at least once. They were also packing people on like sardines so we asked if we could stay on the back and they said yes. So we rode the Powell Mason line from the back. We got to visit with the brakeman and he was very nice.

Lombard Street. It was hard to see the curves from the angle we were but we didn't want to get off and have to wait for another one to get back on.

We knew where we were going for dinner but we didn't really know where it was. Well we were cruising along on the trolley and I said, hey look, there is the restaurant. So we hopped off and went to eat at Sears. I can't remember what I ordered but here is a picture of it and it looks delicious just seeing it and it was delicious to eat.

This was the apple tart dessert we ordered... along with the pumpkin cheesecake dessert we took back to the hotel.

Friday morning we decided to go to Sausalito. We had talked about riding bikes over the bridge and then taking the ferry back from Sausalito but I was worried about dealing with a bike all day and taking it on a ferry. So we thought we might be able to take the ferry over and walk to the bridge and back. Well... you could do that, but I wouldn't suggest it. Anyways, our day started back at the wharf and a churro for breakfast. NOT as good as Disneyland churros.

So we got to Sausalito and upon seeing how far it would be to walk to the Golden Gate we decided to rent bikes on that side and ride up to the bridge. The guy told us it was a 2 mile ride from this side versus a 7-9 mile ride from the other side and then he told us 'it's steep'. We said 'how steep'? and he said 'steep'. He wasn't kidding. It was 2 miles all uphill. There were some areas of the road that didn't even really have a spot for bikes so it was a little unnerving.

We made it though! I think it was worth it too. We had such a nice day again for weather that the views were awesome.

 

After the bridge we took the bikes back. I think we were done with bikes and stairs for a while. We did a little wandering and shopping and I saw a restaurant with some people eating some chips and salsa and it looked so good so we went in for a snack. I had their ceviche and it was delicious. Flora's was just as good though. 

After the snack we decided to head back and we were glad we because the line for the ferry was very long and I think some of the people didn't make it. I don't know if the people we were meeting were locals or tourists but overall we met/interacted with some very nice people. We chatted with a mom and daughter from Texas while we waited for the ferry and I was facetiming John and JJ and because it was so loud I had a gentleman offer to let me use his earbuds so I could hear better.

We came back to the Ferry Building which we quickly walked through and didn't see a whole lot of it. We decided to do a little shopping that evening and went to the Disney Store and Crate and Barrel. The city was doing a lot of decorating for Christmas so I took a picture of a small area of it.

We weren't out too long shopping and when we got back to our hotel the road was all blocked off. We found out that a tour bus lost control and hit some cars and a biker, etc. It came right down the street that our room looked out onto. They had the road closed pretty much all night which cut back on the street noise considerably! I never heard what they determined the reason for the wreck; be it mechanical, or something happened to the driver, etc. We went to a diner down the road that night for dinner called Pinecrest. It was ok.

Saturday we didn't really have anything planned so I decided we would do the segway tour of Golden Gate park. As we were planning out how to get to the park we were concerned because originally we were told to take a certain route that it seems would have left us with a 1-2 mile walk in and we were worried about time. So we went a different way and unfortunately we missed our stop by a few but not too bad. We made it there with plenty of time.

So before you can go on the tour we had to go through a short training or stop, start, turn, etc. After the training we were off. It is supposed to be 2 hours including your training time but we figure we were gone almost 3 hours. I honestly couldn't tell you everywhere we went as it seemed like we were going in circles but seeing different stuff. It definitely gave us an idea of just how huge Golden Gate park is.

We stopped a few different places to rest our legs. We stopped at the Conservatory and by the lake or one of the lakes.... Anyways, yes, I got off at one spot to rest my legs. The segway made my legs go numb.  I don't know why. So I was getting back on and adjusting my feet and the stupid thing started to turn on me and it knocked me off and started to run over me. So yes, I fell off the stupid thing.

 

 

 

It was a really fun time overall. I think my mom was glad we did the tour. We decided it was the best way to see a lot of the park in a short period of time. Our group did get chased down the trail for a moment by a mentally disturbed person who liked to say F. 

After the tour we didn't know what to do. We were off in search of food I think as well as to see the Painted Ladies. This is where we took the bus the wrong way. We were on the right but it was just headed the wrong way. So we rode it out until they kicked us off and said we could catch the bus going the other way in about 15 minutes. As we got off the bus I said, isn't that the ocean over there? It was so we walked out to see it. There was some sort of warning about the riptide and the waves were huge. It was still pretty. I love the beach and ocean anytime, anywhere. We also could see the Dutch windmill and the Cliff house from where we were. So that was an unexpected bonus. 

We wandered back and caught the bus going the right way and went down by the Painted Ladies. As we were walking to them we saw this painted on a shop security door. I liked it.

Besides the Painted Ladies there were several other beautiful homes around that area. I couldn't help it. I got onto Zillow to see if I could find some pictures of the inside of some of them. So fascinating.

The Painted Ladies

After seeing the ladies we still hadn't had food so we headed back towards the hotel. Being that we were in SF when the attacks in Paris happened I saw a picture of the SF city hall and sort of wish we'd gone down there to see it in person. I hadn't gotten some of my shopping done and wanted to go back down by Fisherman's Wharf so we headed that way for dinner and shopping. We went to Hillstone. We have a Hillstone's in Phoenix and we love it but my mom had never been so we went there and after a forever long wait we were starving! After dinner we went and finished off the shopping and headed back. We went to the hot tub in the hotel 2 of the nights and I ran one night as well. So that is part of how we spent our evenings also.

Sunday morning we were slow getting going but we got all packed up and checked out. We checked our bags and went to find some breakfast. We went to a place around the corner which had crepes. It was quite a wait but it was really good. I wish we'd found this place sooner because I would have gone back more than once.

After breakfast we decided to head to the airport. We didn't really have anything left to do or anything we had time for and we wanted to be sure we had time. We went Uber again and got an interesting driver. He wouldn't shut up! He also seemed to think that traffic was horrible and it was going to take us 2-3 hours to get to the airport (it's a 45 minute drive). I think it took us... maybe an hour. We made it there just fine with plenty of time to spare. Not only did we get there really early but there was no one in security so we breezed right through. So we had some time in the airport to relax and visit. It was an uneventful flight home and we even got in a few minutes early.

John picked me up and Nick came and sat with Boo, who was actually in bed. When we got home Nick told me he wasn't asleep. At first John said I couldn't get him up but a few minutes later when he started calling RA-RA! to the dogs John said I could go get him up. I don't know if he was happy to see me or not, but I was happy to hold him. We sat and cuddled for a few minutes and then I laid him back down.

One of the pictures I received while in SF. Missed my boys.

Now being back for a week we're right back into our routine. Boo still isn't walking, but he's so close. He is talking a lot. He says doggies, ra-ra (ruff ruff), wa (water), ker (cracker) and hi.

We've been trying to get the right clothing for his sleeping. It gets a little cold but he hates having stuff on his feet and the long sleeves on this were too tight for his liking.

We have lemons on our tree which have been JJ's new favorite toy. He wants to go outside and pick them all the time and then he carries one with him everywhere lately. He takes it to school and he has it when I pick him up to come home. Silly boy.

Last thing! I burned my hand at work the other day. This is what I get for trying to clean up after all the lazy butts and make new coffee. I get fresh hot as hell coffee right on my hand. I got it good. I'm still having to put cream and stuff on it to keep my skin from cracking. That's it for the first half of the month! It was a fun trip and I can't wait to go back!