A beautiful mess

Well, I got back from San Francisco about two weeks ago…

It was fun! (besides the fact that we had to walk up-hill basically everywhere we went) We only had 3 days there but I think we got to see a lot considering our short stay. We saw The Golden Gate Bridge (obviously), Lombard Street (the “crooked-est” street), China Town, Grace Cathedral, Muir Woods, Coit Tower, and Fisherman’s Wharf. The only thing we really didn’t get to see that would have been cool was Alcatraz, but it was booked up we didn’t realize tickets sold so quickly, and if we had we probably could have done it. And of course we rode on cable cars/trolleys, once we figured out how to use the transportation system. Food was really interesting – everywhere we ate we picked randomly and it was all really, really good besides the fact that they did not have sweet tea. Apparently Californians don’t know what sweet tea is. I should probably introduce them. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton which was SUPER nice! The bed was the most comfortable bed EVER. I slept sooooo good. We had “turn down service” so the maid came in and turned down our beds every night. haha and brought us chocolate!

Day 1

sightseeing…

me at Grace Cathedral

Lombard Street…

and off to see the Golden Gate Bridge….

we found it!!

the hike up to the bridge was quite an adventure.. we couldn’t figure out exactly how to get to the bridge even though we could see it from everywhere. We finally found it though, after walking several (SEVERAL) miles. Once we found it we decided to climb up on it. That involved walking up a huge cliff (after walking all those miles). And though Birkenstocks are pretty comfortable, even they hurt your feet after so much walking.

on the bridge

Day 2

we went to Fisherman’s Wharf. It rained for most of the day which made a good portion of our time there kind of miserable. We basically shopped and tried to stay warm/dry.

“I don’t think this poncho is the right size…” – Dr. B

The day got better though once we ran into these…

me with the penguin statues and my new penguin, Francisco

PENGUINS!!!

we saw Ghirardelli Square where they make the chocolate. yum! (this is the kind the maid gave us every night)

trolley car …fun

Day 3
Last day

we went up to Coit Tower. Good views of the city.

then we went on a Muir Woods/Sausalito tour. Our guide was annoying, saying “you know” every other word. But it was fun. We saw 1,000 year old Red Woods.

on the other side of the Golden Gate

HUGE trees!

inside the tree trunk

Beth’s mom LOVED the trees. she is a tree-hugger!

and our San Francisco adventure was pretty much over…we only had 1 more night in our awesome beds.

the maid made our beds and put Francisco on it!!!

our TV

our bathroom

the maid laid out a small towel and put our brushes and stuff on it neatly.. how nice

Ritz-Carlton robes, which sell for $120 in the hotel’s gift shop

Such a nice hotel, with nice people that greet you every time you leave or enter the building. I could have stayed a few more nights

more pictures here or on facebook

anyway…

Tonight I think I’m going to the Haunted Trail with the KD’s. I’ve been wanting to go to a haunted-something for awhile because I haven’t been to anything this year or for the past couple years. Plus, it will be nice to see some people since I haven’t seen pretty much anyone all semester.

Other than that things are going pretty good. It’s finally cooling off and stopped raining after about 5 straight days, and today the weather was perfect. My car’s check engine light came on the other day which made me nervous, and after driving around the entire city I finally found somewhere that could check it and fix it….and $300 later, it’s all better

Still watching Joshua – he’s so cute and his sister is getting so big. She was 4 months old the other day which is kinda crazy. She’s cute though! Poor guy was in the hospital last week though and is still sick… but hopefully he’s getting better! And I finally met the new baby I’m going to start watching next week.
In addition to watching Joshua and/or Alisha for 2+ hours a day, I’ll be watching Savannah (who’s just turned 1) and Madison who is about 3 weeks old every Tuesday and Thursday morning for about 3 hours. Madison is so tiny but she’s adorable… she has a full head of brown hair that sticks straight up, it’s cute. I think it will be fun!!

And talking to Jason next week about when we can sign our lease and we’ll hopefully be moving into our new apartment the day after Thanksgiving! I can’t wait!

well, until next time…..

it would be cool if i could stop crying and sleep.

I’m back from San Francisco but it’s been hard to update because i’ve been busy trying to un-pack, do laundry, clean up, etc… then yesterday Stephanie called and told me Joshua was in the hospital he was wheezing and having trouble breathing and such. he stayed over night, and I went to the hospital this morning to help Stephanie watch both of the kids. He was released today and hopefully he should be back to normal in a day or two.

While I was at the hospital today though I met a girl who has the perfect job for me! she was what is called a “Child Life Specialist.” Basically she plays with the kids, preps them for surgeries, talks to them about surgeries or whatever is wrong with them, talks to their siblings, helps the family, etc etc. It is basically the perfect job for me because it is working with kids in the medical field, but she did not take a bunch of chemistry/math/hard science classes to do it. She said it was a bunch of psychology and sociology stuff which is what actually interests me. (biology and that type of thing interest me too, but it all ends up dealing with math or something else i don’t understand). I think she said her undergrad degree was in Sociology & Family Studies or something. anyway, I need to find out if thats a real job, or just something the hospital here made up because she said she was the only one there.

anyway, I’ll post a San Francicso update soon… for now though, there are pictures on my website or facebook.

i have such a horrible headache right now. i hate headaches. sometimes i get them because i’m hungry, but i know hunger isn’t the cause of this one – i’ve eaten a lot more than i normally do today and i’ve eaten since i got the stupid thing. every time i have a headache though it makes me hungry whether thats the reason or not.

i also have some sort of sore spot on the bottom lid of my eye. i had the same thing on the top eyelid of my other eye a few weeks ago. it hurts super bad but it always goes away the same day…it’s so weird.

I thought about coming home this weekend because it’s my aunt’s surprise 50th birthday party, and I wanted to see Shelly and her new baby Abby… but I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it. It’s such a long drive, and I have so much going on. If I came home I probably wouldn’t come back until Monday, and then I’m leaving Tues night for San Francisco…plus even though Stephanie is super flexible – she told me to go home – I like watching Joshua and I could always use the money. Annnd, it really puts it in perspective when Beth put it like this: I’d be driving about 14 hours this weekend, leaving me with about 30 hours to do stuff, 16 of which I’d be sleeping. So really, it doesn’t make much sense to do it… even though I’d really like to. I think I’ll just come home in a few weeks to see Shelly, and it’s not a huuuuge deal if I miss the party, even though my favoritest cousin has threatened my life :-/