City by the Bay...and ME!

Just got back from a "work" trip to San Francisco. I had an absolute blast! The only thing that would've made it better would've been if Karl and the kids could've gone. I could even tolerate the meetings again just to see the city once more. It was great. Here's the view of the Bay Bridge from my hotel room window....not too bad...

I flew in on Sunday, leaving here in the morning and getting there in the afternoon, after WAY too many delays. So many delays actually, that I nearly missed my trip to Alcatraz that I had already bought a ticket for! I had to take a cab from the airport (MUCHO expensive!), vs the train I had planned on taking (cheap!), throw my stuff in my hotel room and RUN (and ya'll know I DON'T RUN!) down to the pier for my boat. I made it with 5 minutes to spare. WHEW! But Alcatraz was worth the run....it was very interesting and a great tour to go on. I took the gnome with me, and we had a fun afternoon there:

Once I got back from that trip, I went to Fisherman's Wharf for some dinner, then headed back to the hotel since I was tired from the walking/running (I should've probably prefaced all this with the fact that I didn't bring any gym shoes with me for all this walking/running/etc!).

Monday was all meetings...blah. My coworker that's based in Seattle, Pete, showed up at the end of the first day's meetings.....so he missed a whole day of the "fun"...lucky him! From our meetings, we took off to "see stuff"....rode a cable car, walked through Chinatown, up the steepest street EVER to see that 'crookedest street', which I still say is just stupid. Why make a street like that?

Then we walked down to Fisherman's Wharf again and went to a fancy crab place the hotel guy recommended. It was yummy!

Then we just kinda walked around some more and headed back to our hotel. LOTS of walking=sore feet for moi.

Tuesday was the day of all days......we did the meeting thing all day long.....went to a Chevy's for lunch, then after stuff ended at 3:30 (we decided our brains were "full" and we couldn't handle anymore!), we set off toward the Wharf again. Happened upon a place we'd passed several times already, advertizing to "Bike the Bridge".....uhm, yeah. Anybody that knows me know that that is SOOOO not my thing. But guess what people! I DID IT! and I survived. okay, only BARELY. BUT, I'm darned proud of myself for making it UP all those HILLS (mini mountains really if you ask me) and not getting off my bike once to push it, though I was sorely tempted and would've had plenty of company as other out of shape tourists were doing just that. But it was a lot of fun and I'm glad Pete talked me into it....

After riding the bike for about 8 MILES (uhm, never ridden that far in my LIFE) we rode a ferry back across the bay to get back to where we started. After all that, I was DEAD on my feet. Plus I hadn't had any dinner! So we grabbed some food at the Fog City Diner (I know I've seen this place in a movie.....but which movie?), then made it back to our rooms to literally crash. It was difficult to get out of bed the next morning after all that, let me tell ya!

Wednesday wasn't nearly as exciting....last day of the conference, and that part was fine. at lunch we walked down to Union Square to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.....then finished up our meetings. Then after a "refresh break" (ie a nap for Pete and some surfing/scrapping for me), we went out to dinner.......walked through Ghiradelli's square on our way to dinner, getting some overpriced candy (but they were giving away samples too, YUMMY!)......

then kept walking around trying to find a place to go, and ended up in Little Italy at some tiny cafe. Cute place and the food was excellent....then I went down the street to get a cannolli at a bakery. YUM. Then we did some MORE walking.....back down to Fisherman's Wharf, where I finally got some souvies for the kids (cable cars for the boys, a necklace for Alaina) and then headed back to the hotel to pack and get ready to head home the next morning.

And now I'm back and I'm tired and sore from way more physical activity than this ol' body is used to.......but it was a great time! I can't wait 'till we can visit San Francisco as a family...it'll be a blast!