Monday, March 31, 2008

City By The Sea!

So Bill was telling me that he has to go to Oakland for a business trip and he hadn't had a chance to tell me the details. So during a conversation with JJ and Shalantie they asked him how long he would be gone for and that's when he gave me "the look. You know the look that say's "honey I am sorry that I haven't told you but I am going to be gone for a week and can you hold the fort down and I'll make it up to you later" look. Then I shot the "dream on don't you dare leave me alone with the kids for a week" look. ( I Know, I shouldn't complain, because there are a lot of other women who have it a lot worse than I do, but when you aren't used to it it doesn't make for a very pleasant surprise). A few days later Bill called me from work and said, "You have to come with me" I said, "What! there's no way I can come with you... Who will watch the kids? blah blah blah...but being a big proponent of investing in marriage I decided to bite the big one and go with him. After all his company was paying for most of it and there would be no way we could go for this price again and I was definitely getting "burned out" w/ the monotony of the same thing day in & day out.
I left on Thursday and I wouldn't bore you with the details of this day except that It was just hellish and if you have ever been a mom you can probably relate to this! Emma has had a terrible rash for the last few days and I just thought that it was eczema but I'd rather be safe than sorry so I had our home teacher come over early in the morning to give her a blessing. He told me the signs of eczema and said that that didn't look like eczema. So I got her an emergency Dr's. appt. You know how that is. That took a good 3 hrs. I ran out of the house w/no makeup on & practically in my pj's. At Walmart I even joked with this older guy (while waiting for my prescription for her terrible rash and unexpected ear infection.) "would you believe that I have a plane to catch in 3 hrs." He just laughed. ( This is the point where I probably should have been driving to the airport). But I still had to wait for Branson to come home from school, pack and get ready myself. So I am getting a shower and decide to confirm somethings and ended up having to rearrange my babysitter for one day. No I'm not a little stressed at this point. I just have to not only pack myself but pack for my kids now. So by the time I am actually hit the road it is like 4:00. My plane leaves at 5:20 and I am still 45 min away!
I get to the airport and there is a nice old man that offers me his luggage cart (that was a blessing the Lord knew I needed) so I accepted it and I am so glad I did. I finally get through the awful line to get my boarding pass and the and the guy slaps on a big ol' LATE sticker on my bags & informs me that because I am so late he wouldn't even guarantee that they would be there on my plane when I got to Oakland followed by the news that he wouldn't give me my boarding pass because he said "according to this you aren't going to catch your plane". Ya think? Maybe if you would give me my boarding pass I would have a better chance at catching my plane! So of course I am frantically trying to get through security, dumping out my BABY"S WATER from her bottle and juggling unzipping my boots and explaining that "really, It's just baby food in my bag". Fortunately, a few people in line let me go ahead and that is the extra minute that I needed to catch my plane. At this point I had 10 min to get to my terminal and BONUS pick up my boarding pass. Could my terminal be at the front of the airport? No that would be too easy! It was at the very End of the airport- B-13! So I am bookin' it-my sick little Emma in one arm and my carry-on on my back, pant legs tucked into my unzipped boots- and I found out how out of shape I really am cuz when I got to B-5 I started hyperventilating and crying because my legs couldn't carry me any faster and I was so out of breath! I finally reached the escalator and I still had another 4 -5 terminals to go, but I knew I was going out! My eyes started going blurry and everything started to spin. I am still running but It felt like I was in slow motion. I'm crying and saying over and over again in between breaths, "I'm going to miss my plane, I'm going to miss my plane." I just about fainted when a guy came over to me and asked me if he could help. He offered to take my bag but I think that's when Emma started slipping out of my arms and he grabbed her instead. I just kept saying I gotta get to B-13. That's when another guy grabbed my back pack and I finally got there and slapped my cards down on the counter and said here, what do you need? "Well, Ma'm you need a boarding pass you are going to have to get one over there"...see I told you my boarding pass would have come in handy! I stumble over to the other counter and I hear the man ask them if they can take one more. I thought that he was just meaning ...Can you take one more before you go on break or something. It wasn't till I was on the plane that I realized he meant can you take one more PASSENGER to GET ON THE PLANE. I just stood there thinking that I could board the plane after all these other people get on cuz they were here 1st. (I wondered why no one was moving and looking at me weird.) I didn't realize that I was the reason they hadn't taken off yet. That is how out of it I was. Needless to say I tried to recover for the duration of the flight and to be honest I am still dizzy. Maybe a good week's worth of sleep will help. Ha ha dream on!
Well, I finally made it to

Bill and I had such a great time. When we 1st got in Bill met us at the airport and then we went to a great place called "Scotts" for dinner. We had a beautiful room but the BEST part was the View! This was a picture from our balcony.
The next day Emma and I went on her 1st ferry ride to Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco. I had Emma in the baby bjorn and we walked around all day! 1st we went to of course Pier 39. That was fun! There is just a ton to see! We went to Ghiradelli Square, walked up and down street after street. There are so many art studios and little clothing boutiques not to mention all the vendors selling everything to sunglasses to ivory statues. It's amazing how much stuff is crammed onto one sidewalk!



So as you can see from the slide shows our highlights were the cities with in the city- China Town & the Italian district. We tried Dim sum. That was interesting. We still don't know what we ate. (some kind of meat, veggies & even peanuts in rice wontons). Bill clearly loved it! Then Bill made me try on a dress at a Chinese shop. The lady was so nice and really wanted me to buy it. I tried to let her down easy. We tried some pastries and had an Italian soda just like Bill used to do in Italy. Then Bill just wanted to try some pizza so we found a "hole in the wall" with people lined outside to get in. It was clearly San Francisco's best kept secret because that was the Absolute BEST pizza I have ever tasted!

We had a great time window shopping and going into stores that I have never been to. Like Tiffany's and Louis Vuitton. I tried on a leather jacket that was oh, $2,100 just for fun. Bill said, "No matter what they say just say you don't really like it!" They were very willing to alter anything. I know because I was looking at a white shirt and they didn't have my size but they offered to alter it for free. For a $500.00 shirt I would hope they would alter it for free! Boy after that Old Navy isn't looking so bad!

After that we happened upon "Castro Street" which is the gay capital of the US. Bill goes, "Well, you don't see that in Utah."


Then we went to Alamo Square that is where the famous Victorian houses are that you see in pictures. I think it suits us! There is a beautiful park in Alamo square so we pushed Emma in the swing over looking the city.

Thanks to my gracious brother and neighbor for taking care of our children, we had such a woooonderful time enjoying the sights and sounds of this eclectic city by the sea!
I have to laugh because Bill has to go back for another week. He said, "well, if we were made of money I would have you come back with me." That is one city that will break the bank in a hurry! Oh well. We were very blessed to go!

6 comments:

Shalantie said...

holy canoly I do not envy you! that is so sad- jj and i are over here feeling bad for you because you actually got to the point of TEARS! and a baby with unzipped boots running down the terminals. I am so glad you made it though. Now i just can't wait to see pictures and read posts about the GOOD stuff on your trip. Love ya!

Shalantie said...

to respond to your comment on our blog- I didn't go shopping. I already had the dress, I bought it last year at Maurices. Well I guess I did go buy the heels. That's my first pair of heels ever. Can you believe that?

It's all about the "Crew" said...

Aw! That sounds just horrible, I'm glad you made it! Well, I feel the same way about airports, which besides cost is why we never fly anywhere. Hope you have a wonderful time on your trip! --Sybrina



--Holy Word Verification Letters, Batman! There's 8 letters! Sheesh!

Nikki said...

well once you got there it sounds like you had fun. man that would have brought tears to my eyes too.

Shelley said...

Wow! What an adventure! I'm so glad you guys had such a great opportunity for some fun bonding.

Mighty Mighty Rudds said...

Why does going on vacation have to be so hard?! aren't they supposed to be relaxing?! Maybe someday huh--we can only hope! San Francisco is so fun and it's cool that it was a business trip so kind of "free"! that makes it even better!
Bethany