San Francisco

Neal got a call from one of his good friends, Ronnie, saying that a position is open at Henry Walker Homes in his department. They were looking for a marketing production designer, the same job that Neal did for Ence Homes when we were in St. George. Neal decided to go ahead and apply for the job and I tried to be supportive knowing we’d lose our flight benefits. I was being such a brat. I was SO excited for him with the potential of this new job. I mean it would be a pay raise, benefits, normal schedule, and he would actually LIKE his job. At Delta- the schedule was rough, low pay, didn’t enjoy the day to day task of reservations……….BUT we got to fly for free. And boy did we take advantage of it, right? I kept thinking that there were so many places we wanted to visit and blah blah blah but the pro’s of getting this new job outweighed the con’s and he went ahead and moved forward in the application process. I had NO DOUBT in my mind that he’d get it. He’s smart, capable, has experience, and he ALWAYS does well in interviews. 

He’s just amazing and I’m so proud of him. Anyway, I knew once they met him they’d want him on board in their marketing department so we decided to plan one more last minute trip. Neal had a couple days off at Delta while he was waiting to hear back from Henry Walker so we decided to take advantage of the benefits one last time.

We woke up Sunday morning and checked the flights. The only city that looked remotely open to getting on the flights was San Francisco. I wasn’t complaining though, I’d been wanting to go to that city for a while now! We lived there for a year growing up but I was so young that the only thing I remember is a big hill in the backyard. Not cool.

So we packed our bags and our cute little boy and we were off! We were lucky enough to make the flight and in 1.5 hours we had landed in beautiful San Francisco.

 Neal had been to this city once before so we had a little bit better of an idea as to how to get around. We took the BART to the financial district and settled down at a cute little café for some lunch while we booked our hotel on our phones. Easy peasy! We caught a trolley that took us just two blocks from our new hotel.

They upgraded us to a king suite that included the crib, it was perfect! We set out that night to check out fisherman’s wharf, pier 39, and grabbed dinner. Neal got to choose where and of course he picked Bubba Gump’s Shrimp House. The resturaunt was right at the end of Pier 39 with a perfect view of the Golden Gate Bridge lit up at night. I just couldn’t go to sleep that night without seeing and partaking of Ghirradelli Square. We shared an ice cream sundae that was divine, of course, I ate more than my own share of the dessert. Poor Neal doesn’t stand a chance sharing ice cream with me.

 We got up early the next day to go see the infamous Seal’s. Liam was in awe. I was, too. I’m the biggest animal lover out there so I could have stayed all day watching them sun bathe. They were all so cute!

We got some crepes for breakfast (which made us miss Paris) and then headed over to the Ferry house to catch a boat over to Alcatraz.

 We are SO glad we decided to go to Alcatraz. It was such a neat experience. Our favorite part was listening to the audio tour in the actual penitentiary while chasing Liam from cell to cell. Li Li tried a little too hard to slam the cell block doors. I wonder if he was trying to tell us something? We stayed on the island for a couple hours just walking around, enjoying the weather, and reading about the history of the place.

 After we got back, we headed to the hotel for a quick nap before heading out again for more exploring.

We hit up Boudin for lunch and then made our way over to the Lombard street and the Painted Ladies. I found myself singing the theme song from full house when we pulled up to the houses. Glad we got the chance to see all of the sights! 

The iphone was our saving grace and we used to for everything. We got to know the public transportation system in SF pretty well because of it. It was the perfect travel companion this trip J

As night came we did one last walk down at Fisherman’s Wharf. I knew I’d miss this place. It was such a fun city to visit and the perfect trip. We really needed some family time. Neal’s night shifts were really getting to us so we all had a blast getting away together for 3 days. We were sad to go home but looking forward to the possibility of change and the potential for a new job for Neal!