The Sans (Francisco/Jose/Ta Cruz) Days 1 1/2

When we traveled to Florida for Christmas last December, we had a somewhat trying time, ending up with a three-day delay. But in return, we received a voucher flight to anywhere in the US so long as we used it within the year. With time running out, and a strong desire to avoid flying during the holidays again, we decided to make a whirlwind trip to San Francisco and the surrounding area before Keith had to start school again. We just got back and have loads of fun pictures to share with you all.

We flew into San Fran on a Wednesday afternoon, picked up our rental car and immediately got lost. But it turned out all right because Keith has relatives in San Fran and they directed us via a lot of dropped phone calls (cell service in that area is sporadic due to the hills) and we ended up taking Market Street straight (almost) to their house. Market Street, apparently, cuts right through downtown and so we got to see a lot of the city right then and there. Aunt Peggy and Uncle Gil live on a high hill that overlooks a large portion of the city and just a short drive up Twin Peaks ends in some spectacular views.After a lovely evening of wine, cheese, dinner, and homemade pear crisp, Peggy and Gil led us to our hotel. We got to drive down Haight Street and see the ornate, beautiful old houses that cost gargantuin amounts of money to live in. Once we got to our hotel, we were surprised to find that our room was not cleaned. It was twenty minutes to 8 in the evening! The poor hotel clerk was all alone (housekeeping had left long ago) and he quickly gathered up linens and started getting our room ready while we went on a walk to kill time. When we finally got into our room, we noticed that indeed the linens had been changed, but that's all. The bathroom was not cleaned, nothing had been vaccuumed, and we were pretty tired. I was tempted just to let it go, but left-over soap and hair in the shower stall convinced me otherwise. I requested a bottle of cleanser and some rags and cleaned the bathroom myself. Once that was taken care of we actually had a nice night. Charlie, proving our fears futile, slept wonderfully right next to us in a pack/n/play and we drifted off to a better night's sleep than we anticipated.


The next morning, after getting lost some more, we decided to drive down Lombard Street and across the Golden Gate Bridge while Charlie took his morning nap in the car. (A lot of our planning surrounded Charlie's naps. We had to time it just right so we could do something, and then drive around so he could sleep. Fortunately, a lot of places took a while to get to because we'd get mixed up or confused by one-way streets, so Charlie got decent naps. :-) ) We drove over the Bridge in the fog, which bummed out Keith but I liked it, got a coffee on the other side in Saucelito, and drove back over (still in the fog and still with Charlie asleep).
See how the fog makes it look like the bridge is just suspended mid-air? Or as if the cables go up forever? Makes it rather mysterious and eerie. At least, I thought so. Keith still wanted the fog to lift.

We finally stopped at Golden Gate Park, which is huge, and found some fun things there for Charlie (including a carousel which, according to the guy at the hotel, is the second oldest one in the world). We also found a picnic table that gave us a close up of the wild-life: namely a bold blue bird that ate some of our goat cheese and a gopher that fearlessy popped in and out of his hole, hard at work making things difficult for the park groundskeepers.

When we'd had enough of San Francisco nature, we tottled on down Fisherman's Wharf. We'd been warned it was a tourist trap and that was no foolin'. Yikes! (We heard later that American Idol auditions had been held in SF that day, so that might have made things worse than normal.)Crowded beyond belief, we managed to walk down a good portion of the area and ended up in a sweet little arcade with odd games and, well, I don't know what you'd call them really, but we spent a few quarters there. My favorite part of the wharf.

After grabbing some chocolate at Ghiardelli's, we made our way to San Jose to visit some former Moscovites and spend the night. Sadly, we realized we'd taken no pictures of our time there. Perhaps because we weren't wholly impressed with Silicon valley... Still, dinner was delish and the company most welcoming. So ended our first whole day in California.