San Francisco Days 1 and 2

Sweet T and I spent five nights out in San Francisco for our 7th wedding anniversary.  This was our first visit to the city and Northern California.  The weather was fabulous!  It was sunny and the temperature was in the upper 60s during our entire stay.

We took a super early flight on a Wednesday morning and arrived in San Fran at 6:30 a.m. local time.

This was not smart.  We had been up since about 4:00 our time, and  we had about a 4 hour direct flight there.

Our first day in the city was LONG.

We dumped our bags the Sir Francis Drake hotel, which was our home for our stay, and headed to Chinatown.

It was charming and mostly deserted at about 7:30 a.m.  

We decided to walk to AT&T Stadium for a Giants game.

We walked a ton in San Francisco, which may have been my favorite part of the trip.  It was just so easy to get everywhere.  The hills were crazy though.  Hello calves! Trinity paid $7 each for our nosebleed seats that were in the shade.

This is definitely my new favorite ballpark!

The view was incredible.  

There was a splash hit during our game.  Someone hit a home run into the water.  The crowd went nanners.

I was content to eat my garlic fries.

We got back to the hotel, checked in, and enjoyed a recovery nap.

We dined that evening at Leo's Oyster Bar.

The decor was so chic.

The oysters were great, according to my husband.

I don't eat those nasty things.

That is the face of a happy oyster eating man.

My seafood was delicious and my champagne cocktail was called "The Bubble Bath."  

I felt like Doris Day sitting in a tub full of bubbles in a pink bathroom while arguing with Rock Hudson about the party line use on my pink rotary telephone.

I really should have lived in an earlier era.

We ate an early dinner (still 9:00 Indiana time) and then were in bed not long after.  

We woke up at a decent time and walked to Mr. Holmes Bakehouse for donuts and cruffins.  A cruffin is the love child of a croissant and muffin.  

Duh.

They were amazing!

We took a boat tour ofAlcatraz Island where we sailed around the bay.  

We walked from the pier to Fisherman's Wharf and had a traditional lunch of clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  

I claimed that I was painfully full until I got closer to the Ghirardelli chocolate shop.  

Then suddenly I was ready to eat more.

We shared a $12 hot fudge sundae.  

A $12 fudge sundae??? 

San Francisco doesn't fool around when it comes money.

You need to bring it and be ready to spend it.

Or go home.

We went home after 5 days. 

But before we did that we met the "$10 dollar... founding father without a father..."

HAMILTON!!!!!

It was beyond description.  

Trinity got tickets for my birthday and it was the best gift.

Courtney actually procured the tickets with her American Express early access, since she is fancy like that.  

We likey the musicals.  I credit Court for playing the soundtrack of Miss Saigon to me and starting my love affair with Broadway musicals at about age 10 or 11.

It was a cassette tape.

At least it wasn't a record.

We attended the play with some of Court's friends and Trinity practically had to arm wrestle people and throw his bony elbows to get a picture of us in front of the sign.  

After he got us all lined up some kind fellow music nerd offered to take his picture too.

Which one of these is not like the other ones?

Which one of these does not belong?

He's a gem.

His only other play experience was Phantom of the Opera in the late 80s.  

This play was better.  

Although I have to applaud Christine for showing kindness to her mask-wearing stalker.

That wraps up our first two days.  

Florida!

My family went on vacation for a week in Destin, Florida over the 4th of July.

Trinity had to work, so Genevieve and I traveled with my parents.

I felt like a teen mother with my child.  

My parents are slow drivers and they don't like to go very far in one stretch.  We made it to Northern Alabama the day we left, which was about 6 1/2 hours of driving.

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  Mother follows  a strict gluten free diet, so her dinner consisted of wine.

I'm kidding.

She had tortilla chips too.

We stayed at our neighbors' condo for the week.  It was absolutely beautiful and was right on the beach.  That was perfect for my beach bum mother and my equally beach bum child.  

Katie, Chip, and Caroline met us there on Saturday.

I compulsively covered and sunscreened my daughter.

She loved it.  

The water was stunning.

Robby X2 and Meghan arrived on Sunday.  Everyone immediately commenced baby squeezing.  

MY NEPHEW DOES NOT CRY.

He coos and smiles.

Constantly.

G was a very good baby.

Robby is beyond perfect.

He even let us put hats on him.

I was very concerned that Genevieve would be all peanut butter and jealous of Robby, particularly when YaYa loved on him.

I was shocked that she was not at all PB&J.

She paid attention to him and was actually a big helper.  She fetched toys and diapers and played with him a lot.

One morning Chip retrieved the paddle board for me to try.  I paddled around a bit last summer at Jamie's lake house, but the ocean has quite a bit of motion in it.  

I probably played with it for about 30 minutes, and it was hard as hell.  

When I practice yoga, balance is definitely my strength.  Not so here, people. I got up and stayed up many times, but also took more than a few topples into the waves.  After that I decided I had exercised more than enough for the week.  

Since I was in Virginia for my 38th birthday, Bob wanted us to celebrate my birthday with a dinner out.  

We went to a restaurant in Baytowne Wharf that I did not realize was all outdoor seating.  My peeps were about to pass out and Li'l Robby appeared to be quite uncomfortable, so G led the way and found a little diner with air conditioning.  

Everyone was much happier with that option.

Sister braided my hair as a birthday gift.

As if!

I received Nordstrom gift cards from my siblings because they are great like that.  

G found a carousel and it was game on. 

My mother practically pitched a tent on the beach.  She rarely left.  We even brought her a baby to tend to.

The waves made a sandbar each day.

Isn't that water incredible?

We watched fireworks on the beach for the 4th.  

Some of them were a bit loud.

We took a break from the beach one day and perused the outdoor shopping mall.  We had lunch at Tommy Bahamas and it was seriously good.  

Our waitress brought macaroni and cheese with an umbrella in it so G was pretty excited.  

Babies like Bob's mustache.

Little known fact:  I have never seen my father without a mustache.  He has had one my entire life.  

Genevieve found the splash pad fountains and had a ball.  It was so hot outside!

Every morning we beached it, 

and then we had lunch and Genevieve and I did this for at least 2 hours.  Then back to the beach!

We enjoyed an evening in Rosemary Beach, site of two former family vacations.  

I broke my no exercise pledge and yogacized in the entry hallway one morning.  Mother sat on the bench with Robby and watched.  G  stuck stickers on me, so it was totally zen.  

Sister's family left on Tuesday, and the rest of us did not leave until the following Saturday.  Mother was bereft and said no less than a dozen times, "I can't believe I didn't get a picture with my grandchildren on the beach!"

Oh, but you did, mother.

Other than the major issue of missing Caroline, she totally nailed it.  

It was a wonderful trip but we missed Trinity.

Our next trip is to San Francisco!