So anyway, David is always a gem when it comes to anniversaries. Sometimes he pulls out the gifts, but most of the time, he prefers a getaway. We've had some fun anniversary weekends over the years. This time, he stepped it up a couple of notches. We've never flown anywhere for our anniversary; it's usually a short drive somewhere close to a quaint B&B. Sometime in April this year, he said "I want to surprise you for our anniversary, but I know you hate surprises like trips, so you get the surprise 4 months early." Awww. He really does know me! I DO hate surprises that involve something big, like traveling and leaving the kids. (Although, if you want to surprise me with chocolate or flowers or a pretty gift, or a clean bathroom, that is totally fine.)
He started asking me if I had ever been to San Fransisco. I said nope, so he said, "well, then that's where we are going." Thanks to some leftover airline and hotel points, the trip was pretty much free too. All we paid for was food and a little shopping.
I had all these plans to research and figure out all the things I wanted to do before we left. My friend, Paul Florence, with whom I had just reconnected at the old high school reunion, has lived there for years. He sent me a huge incredible insider list of things we could do, including a bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge (he's also a fellow cyclist.) But, those first few weeks of August proved to be so insane that I didn't have a single plan for which things I wanted to do by the time we got on the plane. We decided that would be fun - to just do what we wanted and not have any plans or expectations. Sometimes that makes things more complicated anyway. Still, it was great to have Paul's list for decisions on the fly.
Barbara and Earl were amazing and came to the house to take care of the kids and Shadow and Kitty. Of course, Harriet got super sick on my way out of town (this is a recurring theme with her,) so Barbara had to come over early Friday morning to tend her. We had planned to put the kids on the bus and head to the airport and have Grandma and Grandpa meet them at the afternoon bus stops, but that's not how it turned out.
I can't say how good it felt to get on that plane and fly away. I love my kids to pieces, and I love my job as a SAHM. But, for real. I was just about to my breaking point after having been with the kids 24/7 all summer, driving long distances with them, getting them into school with David gone, and taking care of an elderly dog all night, every night.
It turns out that when you don't have a lot of plans, you kind of eat a lot of food as you're figuring out what else to do. I really can't remember the last time I ate that much food in 2 days' time. Huge, delicious meals, 3x a day, plus giant treats that ran constantly in-between. San Fransisco has some insanely good food, from quirky places to swanky places, to China Town and Little Italy. We could not get enough.
We ended up staying at the Marriott in Walnut Creek. It's a small suburb about 30 minutes (by BART) north of San Fran. I wasn't prepared for how much I would love the Walnut Creek area. I thought I'd want to spend all of our time in the city. But, the first day there, we walked over to the little main street and started eating and walking, and I was hooked. We ate at this amazing lunch place called Lettuce for lunch. There just aren't places like that in the 505. We did some shopping in some cool, funky stores, stocked up on bags of chocolate at See's, and wandered to find something to do.
My friend, Katie Clifford, who just moved there, told me it would be cold. I was prepared with fall clothes, even though it was only August. But, that first day in Walnut Creek was super warm, so I had headed out in a t-shirt and little skirt and sandals. We decided to catch an afternoon movie, because well, we could. We saw The Giver, and loved it. Now we want to read the books, because we never have.
When I came out of the movie, things had changed. The cool coastal evening had set in, and I was very under-dressed for walking and eating out before heading back. We ended up at this very cool hole-in-the wall Mediterranean place. It had porch seating, but with heaters. I was so glad. The manager brought out an amazing appetizer plate with the most delicious hummus and warm pita bread I've ever had. It was even better than my dinner. We spent quite a while in there and then came out to try to meet the hotel driver (who would take us anywhere in Walnut Creek we wanted.)
As we were waiting, we got a nice glimpse of what kind of dough it takes to live in a charmed spot such as Walnut Creek. Apparently, we don't have it. But it's fun to rub elbows with the rich folks once in a while and pretend that's your Ferrari parked in front of the restaurant. (Blurry picture because I took it fast as to not look like a tourist taking a picture of someone else's Ferrari. But I had to text it to my Dad after he had just given the girls the royal Ferrari tour.) It wasn't the only one. We saw several, plus a Lamborghini and a few other pricey rides.
Barbara and Earl were amazing and came to the house to take care of the kids and Shadow and Kitty. Of course, Harriet got super sick on my way out of town (this is a recurring theme with her,) so Barbara had to come over early Friday morning to tend her. We had planned to put the kids on the bus and head to the airport and have Grandma and Grandpa meet them at the afternoon bus stops, but that's not how it turned out.
I can't say how good it felt to get on that plane and fly away. I love my kids to pieces, and I love my job as a SAHM. But, for real. I was just about to my breaking point after having been with the kids 24/7 all summer, driving long distances with them, getting them into school with David gone, and taking care of an elderly dog all night, every night.
It turns out that when you don't have a lot of plans, you kind of eat a lot of food as you're figuring out what else to do. I really can't remember the last time I ate that much food in 2 days' time. Huge, delicious meals, 3x a day, plus giant treats that ran constantly in-between. San Fransisco has some insanely good food, from quirky places to swanky places, to China Town and Little Italy. We could not get enough.
We ended up staying at the Marriott in Walnut Creek. It's a small suburb about 30 minutes (by BART) north of San Fran. I wasn't prepared for how much I would love the Walnut Creek area. I thought I'd want to spend all of our time in the city. But, the first day there, we walked over to the little main street and started eating and walking, and I was hooked. We ate at this amazing lunch place called Lettuce for lunch. There just aren't places like that in the 505. We did some shopping in some cool, funky stores, stocked up on bags of chocolate at See's, and wandered to find something to do.
My friend, Katie Clifford, who just moved there, told me it would be cold. I was prepared with fall clothes, even though it was only August. But, that first day in Walnut Creek was super warm, so I had headed out in a t-shirt and little skirt and sandals. We decided to catch an afternoon movie, because well, we could. We saw The Giver, and loved it. Now we want to read the books, because we never have.
When I came out of the movie, things had changed. The cool coastal evening had set in, and I was very under-dressed for walking and eating out before heading back. We ended up at this very cool hole-in-the wall Mediterranean place. It had porch seating, but with heaters. I was so glad. The manager brought out an amazing appetizer plate with the most delicious hummus and warm pita bread I've ever had. It was even better than my dinner. We spent quite a while in there and then came out to try to meet the hotel driver (who would take us anywhere in Walnut Creek we wanted.)
Our first stop was to get off the BART in the business district and walk to China Town. China Town is everything I have always imagined when I think of it. It was so cool to be immersed completely in a different culture like that. It felt like we had left the country.
(the girls loved the dresses and wore them to church the next week)
I found a deal on some super pretty silky scarves - 4 for 10 bucks. I love wearing scarves and these totally added a lot to my collection. I thought this street was so cute with the paper lanterns strung all up and down with all the crazy little shops.
With this in mind, we have formed the non-profit City Lights Foundation with the goal of advancing deep literacy, which is not only the ability to read and write but fluency in the knowledge and skills that enable us to consciously shape our lives and the life of our community.
I could have spent the entire day in that bookstore - so many books you'd never find anywhere else, plus all the cool history of the building and the area. David and I set a limit of 2 books each (they were expensive), and skipped out with some great new reading material. The street art outside was amazing. I thought it was really interesting that it was smack dab in the middle of China Town.
One of many fun things about San Fransisco is the eclectic architecture.
Finally we worked our way back to House of Nanking. It's in the middle of this shot:
On our way, we walked through Little Italy. We didn't intend to stop for food there (just not enough meals in the day for all the options,) but we came across a little bakery and we both remembered the amazing Italian pastries in the Boston Italian North End and crossed our fingers, we might find a cannoli that measured up to Mike's or Modern Pastry. We totally lucked out and got a couple of amazing cannolis and ate them while we walked. When we got to the bay, there was this cool little spot of grass and tiny strip of beach where you really could just hang out all day. I was so tempted to take off my boots and wade a bit...
As we got to the water, there was a long pier out towards Alcatraz island, so we walked out to check it out, and the Golden Gate Bridge too. I guess we should have done an Alcatraz tour, I hear they are very cool, but we decided to just keep things simple.
Alcatraz behind the sailboats
looking back across the bay towards the city
We had thought about heading back into the city on Sunday morning, but I was seriously exhausted from the day in boots before, and we knew we could entertain ourselves in Walnut Creek, so we did. We slept in a little and headed out late for Sunday brunch. We found this amazing crepe place with patio seating surrounded by overflowing planters of flowers and hanging baskets. (fished this photo off the internet because I didn't take a picture.)
Afterwards, we walked around town again, stocked up on some more See's chocolate, and walked through their farmer's market, and headed back to pack up and check out.
Good call on the anniversary weekend, David. Thanks for not surprising me, and thanks for taking me. Lots more thanks to the Grandparents for holding down the fort. They are so sweet to watch over our household full of pets and sick kids so that we can go and do fun things.
