One Sunday afternoon I was texting with Kristi and Cassie to plan details for our camping trip, and she invited us to go to San Francisco to pick up Kellie who had been there being a nanny all summer.
It's one of my favorite places, so I couldn't resist even though I do get apprehensive about leaving my kids! I'm so glad that I went because it was a much needed break and I got to hang out with awesome travel buddies! We stopped at this beach on our way home from the airport. It's definitely not Waikiki, but it has it's own familiar beauty. I grew up visiting this type of beach most often.
I got this poke bowl for dinner full of salmon, Ahi, and tuna with a lemon ginger aoli sauce. It was divine! I could really eat this for three meals a day and be happy! Afterwards we stopped at some shopping outlets in San Leandro (where my dad used to work), and I got some great deals at Banana Republic. I was wishing that we had outlets by us, and then I realized that we do and I've never even been to them! I need to go.
In the morning we took the BART into the city with all of the commuters. We stopped at the Ferry Building which is full of little restaurants and farmers market type offerings. There was an Argentine bakery that had homemade alfahors, so I picked up a box for Caleb. He let me try one and it was so good! Google maps was amazing to have because we could put in a destination and it would give us a list of all available transportation choices along with duration and cost. We found the Presidigo to have a free ride close to our scheduled Surrey ride, and it worked out great and gave us one of the most memorable sights of the trip. This poop! We were standing at the stop and I mentioned that it really smelled, then we looked over to see this! It's got to be human, there aren't stray animals running around the city. Soooo disgusting! We were happy to get on the bus and away from the smell, and as I was looking out the window, I saw a lady also taking a picture of this grossness. I pointed it out to Kristi, and then we saw that the lady had actually stepped in the poop and was using one of the bus signs to scrape it off of her foot! How embarrassing! We laughed about it all day.
Kellie took us to the Palace of Fine Arts which is a beautiful Romanesque type outdoor park that I'd never seen before. Very beautiful!
I have always wanted to go to the Japanese Tea gardens, and we finally made it despite most of the park being closed off for an outdoor concert that day!
We ate dinner at Boudin's, and I got the same tomato soup in a bread bowl that I had last time we were there. I was sooo hungry ( I recorded 9.5 miles of walking on my phone that day), and I regrettably ate almost all of the bread bowl! I also polished off a Mint Bliss sundae at Ghiradelli! I found that their website actually offers a recipe for their hot fudge sauce and made it when I got home! I won't be making it again anytime soon because it does taste just like their sauce and I was eating it out of the jar by itself!
On Saturday we went to the Jelly Belly factory and I got one of their avalanche bars that I wanted last time but didn't get because all of the kids were with us. It was heavenly! I also bought 5 bags of Belly Flops to share! Our plan was to head to Napa for a bike ride through wine country, but Kristi got a call that her terminally ill brother has passed away. We through it best to head on to Winnemucca to spend the night and continue on home the next day. I felt so bad that he passed away while she was out of town, but the family was relieved that he wasn't suffering anymore.
Fake gambling on a Sunday morning when I should have been teaching my Primary class!
Our Surrey ride was a blast. I was laughing and smiling the whole ride along the waterfront to the Golden Gate bridge. I busted holes through the knees of my pants, but pedaling really wasn't hard!
It was a really fun way to go through city and take in the sites of the dreamy homes and parks! People were laughing at us and taking pictures, but that added to the adventure for us!
