Here is a little something you might not know about me…I am a terrible traveler! By that I mean I really don’t enjoy travelling, which is why I do so little of it. Despite this wee fact about me, as I type this I am sitting in a hotel room in San Francisco, USA! Greg and I have wanted to see this city for a long time and the price was just right, so we took a trip. I have talked to many, many people who have travelled to San Francisco and every one of them raves about this city! I may be wrong, but I think we just saw all of what is considered the tourist part of the city in about 4 hours! I am sure there is more to see, and we are planning on going on a city tour tomorrow, along with Alcatraz. We walked from our hotel over to Pier 39 and had some wonderful fried chicken for me and shrimp for Greg at “Bubba Gumps” – a restaurant dedicated solely to the movie Forrest Gump – and let me tell you, it is a good thing I don’t live in the South and eat that fried chicken every day...it was GOOOOOOD!! After supper I made Greg walk and walk and walk until we reached (more like found) Ghirardelli Sqaure! Before we found it though, we were stopped on the sidewalk by a friendly man from New Orleans who was a shoe shine man who got chatting with us asking us if we were honest and if we thought that he was honest (the thought that he was not honest definitely was crossing my mind at this point!). After he shook both of our hands and I checked my purse to make sure nothing was missing (he was that sketchy), he laughed and told us he fooled us, so we looked down and there he had squirted some goop on Greg’s shoes. As I tried my best to not look like I was some tourist who just got duped, Greg had his shoes shined…for a ten dollar tip – and the shoe shiner tried to get twenty dollars out of Greg – we walked away with our heads hanging low until we were in the clear and we just kept on walking and walking until…we finally stumbled upon I Ghirardelli Square, and it was like I had died and gone to heaven as I have been dreaming of this day for a long time! We bought a few bags of chocolate (I got 72% dark for myself) and decided to come back another day for the Ice Cream Sundaes, as there was a line-up out the door.
Now that I have told you about the four hours we have been here, let me tell you about getting here!
We had a great flight – 1:13 p.m., which meant we didn’t have to leave our house until 9:00 a.m., so we got to get up at our normal time, spend some time with the kids before leaving, said good-bye to them and left for the airport. We arrived in the city with lots of time to spare and parked the truck in the park’n’fly lot. We were picked up by the shuttle and a few feet from our pick-up spot we stopped again to pick up some young ladies…and all I can say is thank God they were going to Mexico and not San Francisco…they were wearing matching shirts that said “Krista’s Bitchin’ Bachelorette Bash”…and they were giggling and talking about tequila and sunshine!!! I have gotten so old lately, because the thought of having to spend any extra time with those girls made my skin crawl! Once we got into the airport, we had some lunch, had a visit with a woman from Vermilion who was travelling to Dallas, and got into line to board our plane. The plane was so old I was surprised that there were not ash trays built into the backs of the seats. This plane only had two seats on either side of the cabin, which was good that I didn’t have to sit squished between a stranger and Greg, instead I found out that being squished between a wall and Greg is not much better! Those seats are not made for the two of us! Not only were we squished into these little seats, we were sitting directly on top of the plane’s engine. It was so noisy that I thought my head might explode! I couldn’t hear anything Greg or the flight attendants were saying to me and that only got worse as my ears started to fill and pop. Did I mention that a plane older than my parents doesn’t come equipped with T.V.’s or movies to watch…nope, all I had to do for the three hours that felt like eight was to read or try to sleep even though I was in such cramped quarters and the noise was so intense, there was no point in even trying to sleep! When we finally arrived in San Francisco, we had a text on Greg’s cell phone from Natalie, asking that we call home as soon as we land! When I called her she said that Grace refused to go to dance class and she didn’t know what to do about it (Natalie was keeping the kids with her for the day until my Dad and Step-Mom were off work, where the kids will be staying while we are gone), so I told her to just leave it alone and let her miss the class. Then I made the mistake of getting Grace to take the phone so I could talk to her and I made her cry her eyes out! She said she missed me just sat there bawling…and Natalie was the only one to comfort her and Grace did not want any part of it! By the time we reached the hotel however, she was all better! When we left the airport, we caught a shuttle to the hotel and the driver made me second guess my choice to not wear my seatbelt! They are crazy drivers here on the very steep streets of San Francisco!! By the time we arrived at the not-so-luxurious Holiday Inn Express, I was so crabby that Greg was calling all the Crab Shacks around “Sara Shacks”!! A little fried chicken and chocolate fixed my mood though!
SJ
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