San Francisco Trip

Sunday-Thursday, 9/20 - 24/09

Darin was invited to go to the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. Funny that he never went the 13yrs he worked at Intel, but went the first few months working at Amazon. Anyways, with airfare so low and free hotel - I decided to tag along. We are so blessed to have Grandparents that live near us and that are happy to take care of the kids for a few days!

We got in Sunday around noon and stayed at the Hilton Financial District. The hotel ended up being in a great location. To the left was the high end shopping district, in front of us was Chinatown and to the left of us was North Beach (the Italian District) and beyond that was the wharf. We walked and walked and walked.

Here is the amazing view from our hotel room.

We heard drums drumming and looked out the window and saw that Chinatown was a buzz. We walked down and it was the Autumn Moon Festival going on. It was fun walking around and looking at the booths and stores. I was so ecstatic when I found a knock-off purse store. I bought several for me, mom and Kirstin. I later found out that knock-offs are everywhere!

After Chinatown, we headed toward the wharf and ran into the North Beach area. It is all things Italian. The people really are Italian and speak it and have the accent.....so cool! All their restaurants have outdoor tables and a really open and fun feeling. We stopped and had a beverage before moving on.

We made it down to the wharf area!
Shops, shops and more shops!

Here is Alcatraz behind us.

Crabs are cooking everywhere.

We never did ride on a trolley (the lines were too long), but I got my picture with one. :-)
It was so cold, I bought a sweatshirt to wear. Darin toughed it out because he had bought a sweatshirt in Chinatown that we left at the hotel. It was cold! It was amazing how fast it turned cold.

We ended our first evening at an Italian restaurant. We had two entrees with fig in them and they were really good....who knew! There was a heat lamp above us and a band playing inside the restaurant. I love eating outside and interacting with the people walking by. I wish we had this in Seattle. It was a really fun day!

Monday - Day Two
I foolishly didn't bring my tennis shoes. I thought that I would be find with my Docs and Crocs, but my feet were hurting bad after day one. So first thing, we headed to Macy's and bought me some new shoes. Darin didn't have to work today, so it was another day of exploring.

We tackled Lomard St today. This is an extremely steep road that someone decided to make into a really steep, windy road and then someone else made it beautiful with lots of plants and flowers.

Here is a view from the top.

Then we just started walking down toward the wharf. Here is the view we have of the Golden Gate bridge. We could only see the top with all the fog around.

We did come across a great view of Alcatraz and the Bay.

We ran into Ghirardelli Square.....YUM!

Since we had walked the wharf yesterday, we decided to do this gocart GPS guided tour. We had seen someone on it while we walked up Lomdard and thought it would be really fun. It was fun, but got colder and colder as we moved away from the city and the day got later. Again, we didn't bring our sweatshirts with us.

We drove to the beach (windy & cold & no view).

Then we started driving closer to the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a beautiful view of the city.

Here is the view of the bridge enclosed in fog. It is super cold!

We can barely see the bridge though it is right in front of us.

The GPS guided us away from the bridge and into the huge city park. Here is a little slice of Holland. There was ALOT to see in the park. It was definitely worth doing the tour.

Then we headed back into the city. I love the architecture.

And we drove down Lombard and back to the rental office. It was a long and very cold 2.5hrs, but we would do it again. It was a good self-guided tour.

After buying a 2nd sweatshirt and getting warmed up a little walking around, we went to dinner again in North Beach at Calzones. Yummy! Another great day shared with my hubby!!

Day 3 - Wednesday
It was such a treat to hook up with CT (my previous job share partner). Her husband was at the forum too and she decided to come for a couple of days. We had no idea that each other was coming. While our husbands worked, we had a fun day walking all around San Francisco. We had the best breakfast at this little cafe in North Beach.

Today we got a view of the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge. I never got a full view of it.

It was a fun day. We literally walked all day long. Then we went back to the hotel and had dinner with our husbands. Darin and I ate in North Beach again at Panderei. I had gnocchi for the first time and I really enjoyed it. It was another great evening.

Day 4 - Thursday
Darin worked again today. I packed us and checked us out of the hotel. I met CT in the lobby and we went and got pizza for lunch in North Beach. It was a place that Darin and I had went to on Monday. Really good thick crust pizza.

We came back to the lobby and said goodbye. I sat in the lobby and finished my Nicholas Sparks book and then Darin was there at 2:30pm and we were headed back home.

It was an awesome trip!

MONSTER TRUCKS!!

Friday, 9-18-09

The Puyallup Fairgrounds

I was a little hesitant to take the kids to the monster truck show because of the horrific accident at the Tacoma Dome, but I knew that Zach would love it. We brought their bike helmets for protection. :-)

He sees the monster trucks for the first time.

Elissa sees them and is asking if we are going to ride them....yep!

We waited in line forever and were the
lucky enough to get the last ride on Airborne Ranger Too (camo truck).

Climbing up the very tall ladder.

The ride's in motion!

We all thought it was so awesome!!

Now for the show!
Zach loved it, but the rest of us were not so impressed after the first couple of trucks jumped. A little boring, but so worth it to give Zach and Lissy the thrill.

Our 2nd ride!
Zach got to sit up front with the driver this time. He was pretty much emotionless - I think he was just overwhelmed and maybe a little scared?? During the ride he intently watched the driver. Maybe he has decided to be a monster truck driver when he grows up. :-)

I'm sad this is out of focus, but I love the expression. :-)

It was a really fun night!
(a whole 'nother story about the huge frustration with getting the monster truck rides, but I'm leaving that in the past hee, hee)

I love Daddy Song + the Rock version!

Wednesday, 9-16-09
Zach has been singing this song for awhile and I finally got it on video today. Sometimes he says mom, but mostly he says daddy-dadden. Enjoy! :-)

Here is the rock version!

All rights reserved. hee, hee

Rockin' it like it's 1988!

Saturday, 9-12-09

Def Leppard and Poison at the White River Amphitheater!

It was a beautiful, sunny day for an awesome concert with great friends!

Rockin' out in the mini-van.......Good times!!
(Darin, Kirk, Adam and Angie)

Me and Kirstin chillin' in the backThey guys didn't feel the need to come listen to Poison....they felt the need to have more time in the beer garden. :-)

I really could have skipped Poison too. I didn't know any of the songs, but on the other hand Angie was there just for Poison - well - Bret Michaels. :-)

Yah! Def Leppard!

I was really concerned that he was going to flip over the railing....

Kirk rockin' his air guitar!

Who didn't love "Pour Some Sugar on Me"? It is the best part of the concert for me. It brings me back to Business Week at Eastern Washington University the summer before my Junior year. The last night we had a dance and this guy asked me to dance to this song. Wasn't really interested in the guy, but it was a fun night. :-)Angie dancing at Adam's urging. :-)After the concert we went and got some munchies at the BLT and tried to get Darin up to sing karaoke - to no avail. Maybe next time. :-)

It was a great time. We LOVE spending time with each of these couples. It has been a great summer of getting to know each other even better then we have.