We are back from California (got back on Weds night actually, and have barely had a spare moment since then, what with working and school). We had an absolutely AMAZING time. It was so beautiful and we did SO MUCH in such a short span of time. And now it's time for a recap!
Tues, 9/15
On Tuesday I got up at 8AM, since we would need to get up at 3AM on Weds to make our flight. I figured I'd get up early, and go to bed at 9 or so and still manage to get some sleep. Unfortunately, that's not how it worked out. Tuesday afternoon I got my hair done and then went to the bank. Mark and I ran a couple of errands and then didn't get home til about 7pm. And uh oh - I still had to pack - and do laundry! Packing took a lot longer than I had expected, what with having to research carry-on guidelines, tracking things down, and packing my carry-on and regular suitcase. I didn't finish packing until 1AM. I then fell asleep around 2!
Weds, 9/16
After a year of planning, the day we had been waiting for had finally arrived! Woke up around 3AM, so I got approximately 1 hour of sleep. I had plenty of adrenaline though! I showered quickly and got dressed, and we were off to pick up Andra and Greg (bride and groom!). We were running a few minutes behind schedule and I was a little worried on the way to the airport, but being that it was 4:40 in the morning by the time we got there, waiting at security was a non-issue. Of course, I had Googled proper security protocols so I wouldn't look like an idiot when going through the line. Once we were cleared, we took the shuttle train to the terminal, stopped at Starbucks for some much needed caffeine, and got onto the plane with several minutes to spare! Now, this was my first time flying since 1997. I was a bit anxious and I had a prescription for Xanax if I needed it. I hadn't taken any yet, and actually it ended up in my carry-on in the overhead bin and I couldn't get to it. I started to feel really anxious as we made our approach to the runway (which took FOREVER!) and was trying really hard not to cry. I'm a freaking wimp. Anyway, once we were in the air, I felt better, and our plane had wi-fi (which we got for free!) so that distracted me pretty well on the flight up to Atlanta.
It really was a quick flight, and when we landed it was still dark. We made our way to our new gate at ATL (very big) and settled in for an almost-hour wait. I did take a tiny bit of Xanax during the layover - this next flight was almost 5 hours. We got on the plane and there wasn't much room left in the over head bins, and so Mark tried to put his computer bag in front of my feet. OMG. I couldn't move AT ALL and I was starting to freak out. I couldn't stand it and I made him move it out from in front of me. So he put it in front of him but there really wasn't room for it. Finally the random guy next to Mark said that he thought there was room left in the bin above us and he would put it up there. Thank god! I was able to calm down after that and it wasn't a bad flight. There were on-demand video screens on the back of every head rest, and this flight also had wifi (free with our promo code!). So we stayed pretty occupied, and I tried to do some homework but didn't accomplish much.
It was pretty cloudy over most of the southeast so I couldn't see the ground. I was trying to take a nap eventually, but I kept looking out the window every minutes, not wanting to miss anything. It was clouds, clouds, clouds, clouds...and then, ground!
And we were about to Colorado by then and we flew over the Rocky Mountains and then all sorts of mountains and plateaus and whatnot. It was so pretty.
I ended up listening to the whole 70-minute Soarin' queue loop while staring out the window. Very cool. The video screens in front of us had GPS that showed where we were, how fast we were going, and our altitude, and it was really cool to be able to look out the window and know where we were.
Eventually we got to California and watched as the scenery changed as we got near San Francisco. We landed around 10:30AM Pacific time, and were exhausted, but so excited!
San Francisco!
The bride and groom!
Our original plan was to take the BART train from the airport to our hotel, as the station was literally right in front of it. But then Andra and Greg offered to drive us there since they had to go into the city first before their trek out to Yosemite. So we found the airport shuttle train and made our way to the rental car center. Eventually, they got their car and we shoved 4 huge suitcases and multiple smaller bags into a Ford Focus and made our way into San Francisco. Thank god for GPS!! We got to our hotel around noonish and were able to check in right away, yay!! We were so tired as at that point we'd been up for about 30 hours on 1 hour of sleep. We went right to our room.
I showered off the plane contamination and then took a wonderful nap for about 2 hours. We had tickets for Alcatraz for 3:55. Oh, and we hadn't really eaten besides snacks on the plane, so we were starving. We found some food quickly and attempted to figure out San Francisco public transportation. It took a little longer than expected but finally we made it on to a streetcar headed towards Pier 33. We ended up missing our Alcatraz boat by about 5 minutes, so we exchanged our tickets for stand-by tickets for Thursday, and walked down to Pier 39.
We did some shopping and took
We had a nice view of Alcatraz too.
We had a great time, even though it wasn't what we originally planned for our first day. Anyway, I had carefully researched restaurants for us before we left, and we had reservations for a nice restaurant near our hotel, but we were really tired and hungry and didn't feel like going to the hotel and changing and then going back out. So we decided to just pick a restaurant on the pier. We decided on Fog Harbor Fish House. As we were being seated, I stopped in my tracks. Sitting there, in a booth, in freaking San Francisco, is Mark's aunt and uncle (who live in Virginia)! I just stood there for a minute, looking at them, trying to make sure it was them. And Mark didn't even see them at first. Finally, we said "What's up guys?" and they finally looked up at us. Ohh, the shocked looks were fantastic. So, we ended up having dinner with them. As Dr. Horrible would say, "What a crazy random happenstance!". Our dinner was delicious - clam chowder in a fresh sourdough bread bowl. Oooh the sourdough. After dinner, we said goodbye to the relatives and made started on our trek back to the hotel.
View of the city from Pier 39
On the streetcar!
We got off the streetcar for a quick stop at Walgreens. They had tons of organic snacks there! And Vitamin Water was cheaper than in Florida - how is that possible? Such a shocker! Ha, anyway, we crashed really early and slept great.
To be continued!!!
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