San Francisco

Hello from sunny San Francisco! What a fabulous day! It started out cool, but was warm and sunny for most of the day. It was so clear and we saw some great vistas.

I'll start by telling you about yesterday. Lola and I dropped Grace off and then went to Target for some last-minute shopping. Then I ran around packing and cleaning. Then we rushed to school for the Easter party that ran long due to an ill conceived egg hunt. We then drove through the Arby's drive thru and went home to eat before I dashed around doing all the last minute things.

We left the house by 1:30 and were at the airport in Allentown in no time. Rich pulled right up to the front and we unloaded, took the bags to the counter, checked in and took the bags to security. Then he went and parked the car. That was easy! We then went through security fairly easily and then went to the gate.

We found out that our flight was delayed so Rich got in line to try to come up with a back-up plan in case we weren't able to make our connecting flight in DC to SFO. The flight finally took off around 2 hours late and fortunately Rich had gotten us booked on a flight to San Jose since all the SFO flights were booked for the night.

The skies were rough and the touch down was the worst I've ever experienced, but we got in and hurried to our gate. After a bit we found that our gate had been changed and had to hurry a long way to get to the new gate. Of course, our new flight was delayed, too. Oh, I forgot to mention that on our original flight we got on the plane and then had to get off and then got back on again later.

Anyway, we finally boarded and had to deal with having seats in two different rows, none next to eachother. Luckily we worked it out so that we all could sit in one row together. The nice man that moved from the window to a middle seat got an upgrade to first, which we were very glad about since he was so nice to take a worse seat for us.

Well, to make a long story short, the flight was 6 hours and very long. Grace slept briefly, but was awakened by Lola who could not sleep at all and who cried for a good deal of the flight. Finally she slept for a bit, but was awakened by a beverage service. A nice woman came to us and said that she understood our situation and wanted to help. She had some homeopathy called "Rescue Remedy," which she said were herbs that helped with distress. Sure enough after several minutes Lola calmed down. We still don't know if that was the reason, but I will be buying some to have for the flight home.

We got to San Jose and Rich ran off the plane because he worked out for us to get our rental car from this airport instead of SFO. However, they close at 11:30 and they said they'd stay open til 12:30 for him. So I stayed on the plane til everyone deplaned and then got off leisurely. It was strange to be the only ones left in the terminal! We then went to baggage claim and got our bags after everyone else and I piled them on the Smarte Carte. Rich pulled up after not too long and I wheeled out the cart. Of course, all the stuff fell off -some even into the road! There were a few people there helping, though.

We brought our navigation system and had no problem getting to the hotel, which took about 40 minutes. I looked at my watch when I got in bed and it was 2:10 am. That was 5:10 am for our body clocks!

I awoke at 6 and then Grace and Lola were both awake by 7. So much for sleeping in! Rich went down and grabbed us breakfast provided by the hotel. We then got out and went for a walk to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. What a gorgeous view of the bridge and bay and marina! We then walked through Fisherman's Wharf and had lunch at the Wipe Out Cafe at Pier 39. Amy met us there for the end of our lunch and then walked back to the hotel with us. We did make a pit stop at Ghiradelli Square for some free samples and ice cream!

We then all tried to take a nap, which didn't work out very well. The girls couldn't sleep, which meant we really didn't sleep much. Thankfully we have two tvs and put them on for the kids to buy a little time.

After the "nap" we called Amy and she came back over and took Grace to the pool. Then Erin came later and Grace was too tired to go to dinner. So, Amy and Erin watched her and we took Lola and set off to Union St to find food. We got some menus from the hotel and found a tex-Mex place and brought that back. We ate out in the courtyard by the pool. The kids played with Erin and then we went up to the room for stories and night night.


We'll call Amy and Erin in the morning and plan to go to Muir Woods. There are things that I'm remembering now that I forgot to write, but it's time for sleep! Also, sorry, but I don't feel like proof-reading this!