San Francisco

I'm in a hurry to write this blog because I don't want any detail to be forgotten.

About 2 weeks ago my friend Wendy called me about some $9 tickets Jet Blue was promoting. She called and said Craig, her husband, is about to book some cheap tickets for her for the following week and she wanted me to go with her. Hesitantly, I say “OK”.

Now the night before I'm about to leave. I am feeling guilty. Irelyn is pretty sick and I'm uneasy leaving my sick baby, but Jake in his greatness reassures me he would be fine. I also met up with some awesome friends for dinner who all encouraged me to go, so off I went the next morning.

I picked Wendy up and headed to John Wayne, but to my surprise half way there we are flying out of Long Beach. I can tell already this was going to be an adventure. I couldn't expect anything else from Wendy! We get to the airport just in time for Wendy to convince the security she was only seventeen, so she didn't have to show ID (she had lost it). Oh Wendy! But it worked and we were in. With Jet Blue you have assigned seating and so we sat down in our seat next to a young surfer looking guy. Wendy in her seventeen year old (she is really 25) ways asks the the guy, “do you mind if I eat a banana, I know the smell can bother some people”. Little did we know what would come of that simply question.

Meet Jonny Boy. We ended up talking to Jonny about pretty much all things concerning the Heavens. He turned out to be a devout Christian and knew a lot about Mormons. He was very interested in our doctrine and of course Wendy and I didn't hesitate to share. But it didn't end there. He ended up driving us to our hotel, Treasure Island, and out to this little delicious hole the wall diner. He turned out to be a producer and knew a whole lot about everything. He clearly was a rich kid from SD. It was interesting. I personally found this experience to be so WEIRD, but Wendy thought nothing of it. Looking back, my logic said, this is not smart, but deep down I knew this guy was harmless. I wouldn't have done it otherwise. He turned out to be a very nice guy.

Here we are at Treasure Island. Jonathon offered to take our picture of us and then a lady came up and said, “no, no let me take the picture so he can get in. You don't want to forget that he was with you”. We all kind of chuckled.

What a clear beautiful day in SF, but boy was it still cold. I am not a fan of Northern Cali for this reason. Its always chilly!

I have lots of phobias but bridges are one of the worst. Ask Jake! Well…while searching for our hotel Jonathon missed our exit and we ended up on a bridge. To my amazement I did pretty good and ended up taking pictures to distract myself.

I had to take a picture of my families livelihood. Jakes employer-US Bank.  The city is pretty magnificent!

I mentioned the hole in the wall diner we went to for breakfast..here is a picture of the inside. I had to get the waiter in the picture because he was so nice and soft spoken. This was my first dose of the urban culture in SF. From the outside, the diner was disgusting looking. Then you get inside and the atmosphere completely changes. Another lesson on not judging a book by its cover. The food was fabulous!

After we departed from Jonny Boy. We made an appointment to get Thai massages, but because of the lack of rental car we used the free bike rentals provided by The Good Hotel (our environmental friendly hotel).

Yes we looked like nerds, but the helmets are a must in the city.

I loved our bikes. They were green and even had shopping bags and baskets attached.

Of course we had to lock them up everywhere. Aren't they fun?

I LOVED my Thai massage! It was much rougher then your ordinary massage, but I loved it. Wendy thought it was too much. Those beds on the floor were actually very comfortable. Its a good thing we got these massages because the rest of the day we rode our bikes 15 miles all around the city. We did all the tourist stuff. The piers, shops and restaurants. We had a blast. We did have one scare…

As we were riding around we saw a whole lot of homeless people of all kind. Well when riding along the bay a bigger homeless man smiled at me and I thought wow he has a great smile, so I smiled back. Well, Wendy who was 50 feet behind me didn't get a smile from this guy. Instead he grabbed her arm while she was riding. She screamed and he let go and just started laughing at her. I'm pretty sure he was mentally disabled. This was a little scary, but it passed and we were on our way.

The next morning we didn't have the bikes, so we walked the city and shopped till we almost dropped. 4 story Old Navy, Anthropology, and China Town. We also took trolleys. Oh I cant forget the yummy restaurants we ate at. Good Pizza, Thai food and Custom burger. YUM!

It got so cold while in China Town and by then my feet were killing me but,

Wendy bought a head massager for Craig and..

we rode trolleys, my first time.

After trolley hopping we started heading back to the hotel to get our bags so we could head out to the airport. Of course we were late and ended up running to get on the Bart. We got to the airport just in time for Wendy to pass as 17 again and we were on our way home. Whew!

So on the plane I really wanted to relax and not have to talk to anyone, but of course on this adventure I ended up sitting next to young man who was just kicked out of rehab and was running away from his family to stay with a friend in Long Beach. I felt inclined to tell him of the love a mother has for her child and how she was going to worry about him and miss him. Whether or not this made a impact on him I may never know, but I know I was suppose to have this conversation with him. He was a so lost in his life. I hope A-bomb is doing ok. (His name was Adam, but his friends called him A-bomb). He told me I warmed his spirit. I was surprised by that statement because he talked like a punk teenager.

All I have to say is this trip to SF was a just that, a trip! It was very adventurous and is so not what my normal day to day life is like. It made me very appreciative of my safe little life in the OC and boy was I happy to see my family. I missed them SO much and I has only gone 48 hours!