Well, it was awfully decadent to slip off so close to January 31, for the entire weekend.
But we did have a BLAST!
I was second guessing the wisdom of taking 2 nights away as we pulled up to our hotel in San Francisco at 9:30 pm, Friday. Since I had to work all day, was about the earliest we could swing. (Particularly since we dropped the kids off in another city). I was thinking I should have saved the timeshare points for a three-day weekend. But in the end it worked out - glad we did it.
We stayed at the same place we stayed a few years ago. I didn't realize and didn't really have great memories, but we ended up with a nice suite.
The weather was kind of blah.
We went to Ghiradelli for ice cream - it was right across the street. I actually had the idea beforehand because we used to take the 45-minute drive to SF in college, dh & I once in a blue moon very late at night, and pig out on their giant sundaes. So it we decided to relive our youth a bit.
It was a little dissapointing. For one, the place was filled with college kids so we did feel rather old. (The tourists cut out early I guess, and the college kids take over). PLUS they reduced the size of their sundaes by at least half. What the heck????? Good for the waistline I guess, but I had looked forward to an ice cream gourging. What I could barely finish in my 20s was now topped off in 5 minutes. LOL.
Saturday we lounged around and watched DVDs since it drizzled most of the morning. We were meeting good friends for lunch (who I am terrible at keeping in touch with) and they chose a nice restaurant in an old neighbohorhood where another friend had lived in college. We were already in the car when they said they may be an hour late, so we decided to visit the old neighborhood. Not sure if I took dh there much but there's these beautiful cliif side trails just about a half mile down from where we were meeting, so we went on an impromptu hike over there.
The area is called the "Cliff House" and there used to be an old arcade museum there with a lot of old fortune telling machines, player pianos and such. I couldn't find it though I Was sure it had been down by the beach. Dh thought I Was mistaken.
We eventually found out it had been moved to a big warehouse just blocks from our hotel. So we found it in the end.
So it was definitely great fun going back to that area, and we made it to the museum too, later. Then we met my friend for lunch and drinks. We made all sorts of plans to visit the City more. I was appalled she hadn't seen my youngest since he was an infant. I had just told him I would take him on the Bay Area "subway" sometime soon, so I think we have somewhere to take it to. (He is obsessed with trains, so that will be fun to do someday).
We actually were making plans to go to a sketch comedy show in the evening and to gorge ourselves on Indian food, but the comedy club was sold out and we decided at the last minute to get some Deli Sandwhiches and to go back to the hotel. We walked to the Fisherman's Wharf and all that, but it was crowded and not much exciting there. We decided to be cheap and boring instead.
Sunday we went for a walk around some of our old hangouts (the sun came out and it was just gorgeous that day). But we were kicked out of the hotel at 10am.
We decided to meet my parents for lunch and had some nice, quiet, no-kid time with them. My mom and I just ate sandwhiches while dh and my dad went out to some Asian buffet. So we just had a nice time.
We headed over to a cousin's birthday party at 2:00 to pick up the kids. MIL kept telling us not to come until 4:00, but we knew when the party was and we wanted our kids, so we crashed it I guess. LOL.
WE didn't quite get out until 4:30 and we're hoping to get home in time for dinner.
We got on the road and it was magnificent. One of my most fond memories is our 1st Wedding ANniversary when we took the day off work and went for a drive on the coast, paid for a really fancy lunch on the beach and watched this magnificent lightning storm (quite rare). IT was just one of those incredible days.
So as we headed east towards the hills yesterday, they were just emrald green but there were these massive storm clouds in the distance and rainbows just everywhere. We saw some lightning in the distance and thought we might get quite a show. It didn't really amount to much, but we apparently missed a massive hail storm by about minutes. WE passed a number of accidents that had just happened, and there were piles of white ice around each accident. We marveled how we were lucky we got out a little slower than we intended. We hardly saw any rain the whole drive, so it was actually quite nice. The storm seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. I don't know if I have ever seen such magnificent rainbows though.
Anyway, yeah, I feel completely rejuvenated. Nothing like a weekend of astounding beauty to just rejuvenate your soul. I forgot how beautiful San Francisco can be. & the drive home was incredible.
We ended up spending about $170 for the weekend. Not bad, if you ask me.
$45 parking (2 nights), $20 gas for the car (drove about 350 miles; took the gas sipper), about $25 eating in (breakfast, snacks, deli), and about $80 on eating out, drinks, ice cream. About $60 of that was lunch and ice cream. We ate some fast food with the kids on the drive down. My dad treated for the lunch buffet. I treated my mom to sandwhiches though.
My frugal move was to bring my own soda.
Well, it's back to reality for me. I got some pics I will share later.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:19 pm 1233008398
January 26th, 2009 at 10:20 pm 1233008437
January 26th, 2009 at 11:01 pm 1233010913
January 27th, 2009 at 01:57 am 1233021459
January 27th, 2009 at 06:51 am 1233039107
Thank you!!
January 27th, 2009 at 04:46 pm 1233074798
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