San Fran Day 1-2

Heidi made us promise to take Krys on good trips. So, I asked Krys where she has always dreamed of going. She got a little dreamy eyed and said she has always wanted to go to Hawaii. I did some research, did the price breakdown, and realized a 16 day cruise to Hawaii was the cheapest and least complicated way to make the dream happen. All the sisters and sisters-in-law were invited. In the end only Becca, Krys, and I were able to go. We still had one opening so we invited Alexis, Krys' daughter-in-law and mother to the boys we watch on Saturdays. We also adore her. Surprisingly, she was able to go. After a lot of planning, the big day we arrived. September 28 saw the start of our Girls' Trip!

Day 1:

It begins well before the first hint of dawn. Michael and I load into the car at 3:15am and head out. He should be safe sleeping in bed, but I need a chauffeur (mainly so the van doesn't end up somewhere that is not home). He gamely drives across a sleeping town to gather my sister Becca and niece-in-law, Alexis. He then drives the three of us to Nampa and meet up with my sister Krys. We all load in her car, while Michael heads home for a few hours of sleep. The women begin their adventure, point the car a vaguely western direction(maybe, who knows, we just did what the map voice told us to do) and headed for San Francisco.

The next ten hours were filled with lots of driving. Long, tedious driving, frequently interspersed with inappropriate jokes. I'll save us both the pain of retelling this portion.

2pm found us only 10 miles from our destination!  We started searching the car for cell phones, checking reservations, and dreaming about food. It was all a little preemptive. The last 12 minutes, including a couple mile stretch across a bridge, took an hour. Becca drove, and only closed her eyes twice while merging. We also may have run a toll? We had exact change, we had credit cards, we had everything in place, but there was nowhere to pay. *As I write this several weeks later, we have received the invoice in the mail and all is well.

We safely arrived at our hotel, which looked incredibly sketchy on the outside, but was clean and comfortable on the inside. After unloading everything from the car so we didn't get robbed, we went out on adventures. 

Our expert selfie.

I tried to follow a walking map to Chinatown, but it almost killed Krys. After climbing our 400th hill, we ended up at the real end of Chinatown, with food we didn't recognize, packed sidewalks, and signs in languages we couldn't read. I was game to eat at one of the restaurants, but was outvoted. Becca and Alexis found a bus route, and we left behind the traditional Chinatown with shops full of ingredients we had no way to prepare, and hit the tourist area. The whole thing was packed, stressful, exciting, and fun. Also, very very tiring.

We bought a few trinkets and then found a place to eat. I'm still not entirely sure how we ended up at on Italian place, but we did, and we were fed. We then walked back to our hotel, climbed into bed and slept like the dead.

Day 2

Early morning we found the city asleep while we wandered the foggy streets.

It was amazing to be able to gape at the architecture in a slow and leisurely manner. We then packed the bags back up, dropped them at the cruise port, with Alexis driving. Traffic was nowhere as bad as the day before, and Alexis is a forceful driver. We got around with no problems at all. Before loading onto the ship, we walked around Pier 39 for some time. 

The entire pier is basically an open air mall, selling kitsch to tourists, which is exactly what we expected. We enjoyed some poking around and looking at the ridiculous stuff that was for sale.

A pretty decent view of Alcatraz, alas, we did not have time to visit.

Krys was excited to find her name in graffiti, with a shared spelling.

In the early afternoon we boarded the ship, and despite what my anxiety was telling me, we did have all the correct paperwork, we did get all our bags delivered to our room, we did finally get a fridge that stayed cold to keep medications in. It all worked out swimmingly, except of course my anxiety. But what are you going to do?

We sailed out directly under the Golden Gate Bridge and we were on our way!! We were all beaming with enthusiasm and excitement. Our stomachs did not return the sentiment. Krys and Becca weren't able to make it to dinner, as they were busy doing the opposite of eating. Alexis and I were able to keep the motion sickness at bay long enough to attend dinner, but then we pretty much called it a night. We put a few dollars in the slot machines, and the slot machines did what they do, so we walked out a few minutes later and a few dollars poorer. We then headed to bed, and everyone was snoring by 9pm.