Towards the end of May, the unthinkable happened. The entire Fisher gang, Chad, myself, Lauren, Charlie, Uncle Ryan, Grammy and Grumpa all headed west to San Francisco, for a week. We had a wonderful time and everyone came home still speaking to one another!
We had so much fun and managed to cram a lot of activities into the 7 day trip. A single blog post cannot capture all of our experiences, but I am certainly going to try. So brace yourself for photo overload!!
Saturday, May 23rd:
We had an early morning flight out of Dulles. The kids were mostly good on the plane. Charlie had issues with his ears during take-off and landing, but was able to sleep, eat and amuse himself the rest of the trip. Lauren was very good. She watched a movie and then slept on Chad and me.
When we arrived in San Francisco, SA picked up Lauren, Charlie and Chad. The rest of us headed to the car rental office to pick up our car. Luckily, the 1.5 hour wait was not an omen for our trip. And the rest of the day (and trip) was smooth sailing. But most importantly, Lauren and Charlie finally got to meet Whistler, the best Golden Retriever ever, and Edgar the cat! They were in love!! (Whistler did a lot of hiding under the table)
The grown-ups had a delicious lunch in SA's garden and then Mike's sister, Nancy, and her friend joined us for dinner. That night Grammy, Grumpa, and Charlie headed across the street to spend the night in the cute Yellow House!!
The kids immediately crashed! This is a common view of the kiddos during nap time...both of them slept very well during the trip!! Especially when J read them stories...
Sunday, May 24th:
The next morning, Chad and Lauren headed over to the Yellow House to see Grammy, Grumpa and Charlie, who slept in a crib over there.
Then we all enjoyed breakfast and headed out to Golden Gate park for an afternoon of fun. The playground there is amazing, and Charlie went down he slide for the first time, with his big sister holding on from behind!! Lauren spent her time exploring the playground, until she followed Mike to the carousel and it was game over. She was so excited! She rode it quite a few times and loved learning how to scream "WAHOO" like Mike! Chad and I enjoyed watching her excitement and it was extra special because it was also Charlie's first time on a carousel. And he really seemed to like it!!
We finished our time at the park with a picnic and some time on the swings.
That night we headed to North Beach and ate at a Fisher Family Favorite, Caffe Sport! Chad and I were there, with Mike, SA, and J, nine years earlier, but I didn't get to enjoy the food due to a migrane headache. This time around, I did enjoy the family style dishes. At least, I enjoyed the food Charlie left me. Boy did he like the food (especially the olives, tomatoes, pesto, scampi, and gnocchi), and he put away a lot!
Caffe Sport in 2004 & Caffe Sport in 2015! Quite a bit has changed since then!!
And this photo, also taken in 2004, is a great shot of the 2015 high school graduate!! (I couldn't resist)
During dinner, Charlie became cranky, so Chad took him outside for a little walk. And they walked all the way up Green Street to SA's old apartment. That was quite a hill, but Chad enjoyed taking Charlie to a building he spent quite a bit of time in as a small child!!
After dinner, we capped off the evening with a quick stop for gelato and coffee. That was a hit!!
Monday, May 25th:
After another wonderful breakfast, we headed downtown to catch a Cable Car. We boarded the California line and rode it to the Ferry Building, where we walked around and looked through a few shops. We stopped and ate a quick lunch, and then took the cable car back to our own cars. Lauren loved sitting outside on the way to the Ferry Building, but asked to sit inside, with Mommy and Charlie, on the way back, because it was so cold.
Once we got back, we enjoyed a nice relaxing evening at their house. Ryan put out some crackers, stinky cheese, and meats (shocker: Charlie loved the stinky cheese) while SA and Mike worked on an incredible paella dish.
Tuesday, May 26th:
This was perhaps the day I was most looking forward to...Napa Valley Day! I was very excited to get back out to some of our favorite wineries for tastings and I was looking forward to warming up a bit. The weather in Napa was much warmer and sunnier than the weather in San Francisco. =) And we were able to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, on the way out. (We took the Bay Bridge on the way back).
We stopped at Luna, Robert Sinskey, and Chimney Rock. All of the wines were delicious and we bought a few to bring back to Virginia. We had some great pizzas for dinner before heading back. After the wine, great food and car ride, I pretty much went to bed with the kids. Some of the adults watched a movie and Chad and Uncle Ryan went out to try some craft beers.
Wednesday, May 27th:
This day was the main reason we came out to San Francisco...J's High School Graduation!! There were a lot of things to do around the house, so everyone kept close by. That morning, Chad and I took the kids out for a walk to a few local shops. We walked up and down (but it felt like mostly up) some pretty steep hills to head to a yarn shop. Chad pushed the stroller, with two kids, and I still don't know how he did it. I was winded just walking up those hills by myself. We then stopped for some frozen yogurt and went to a small children's store, Small Frys.
Once we got back, we went to get some Pho with everyone and wished J well as she, SA, Mike, and Charlene headed off to the graduation. The rest of us went back home to get dinner (pizzas) ready for when they were done. The graduation was a success...J got her diploma and we got some good pictures of the graduate.
Thursday, May 28th:
This was our main "tourist" day. So Chad, myself, Lauren, Charlie, Uncle Ryan, Grammy, and Grumpa headed to Pier 39 to take in the famous sea lions. They were definitely Lauren's favorite part of the trip! She loved watching their antics and listening to them talk. She did note that they had a "bad air", but that didn't stop her from watching them for quite a while. Afterwards, we walked around the pier, did a little shopping, and Lauren managed to convince Chad to take her on a different carousel.
From there, we stopped to get some calamari for lunch (another shocker: Charlie loved that as well) and then headed over to the Musee Mecanique to play with some old arcade games. There were so many different games to play and everyone had a fun time walking through there. Lauren got to try her hand at wack a mole, air hockey, a driving game, and many other funny games. Charlie slept through the whole thing, which was crazy considering all of the noise!!
We continued our walk up to Ghiradelli (the fog lifted enough to actually see the Golden Gate Bridge) and finished our afternoon with some ice cream and coffee!! Lauren and I shared a banana split and had no problem polishing it off. It was delicious!!
That evening we all headed to the ballpark to watch the Giants play. Chad, Lauren, Charlie and I walked around the park and Lauren was able to take part in all of the fun activities for kids. She went down the Coke bottle slide and got to hit some balls/run the bases at the mini ballpark. Then she went down to the seats and took in some of the game with Chad, SA, Mike, Grammy and Uncle Ryan. It was very exciting to bring Clark Bear back to his hometown for the first time! He goes everywhere with Lauren and she enjoyed showing him the sights this time!!
Grumpa, Charlie and I watched the game from the concourse, to allow Charlie a chance to fall asleep in the stroller. It didn't work and he watched the entire game! =)
Friday, May 29th:
Chad, Lauren, Charlie, Charlene, and I decided to take advantage of our last day in San Francisco. So we headed up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. We went up top and showed Lauren all of the different spots around the city. She was not that impressed with the sights, because it was pretty chilly up there. But she did perk up when we showed her the sea lions below.
Then we headed back down to Pier 39, so Lauren could say goodbye to the sea lions. And after that, we headed back to SA's house. But not before driving down Lombard Street. Lauren got a kick out of the zig zag road and vehemently exclaimed "NO", when Chad asked if we should drive down the road fast! Smart girl!!
That night, SA and Mike threw a graduation party for J! They brought in a taco food truck, much to Uncle Ryan's delight, and it was really fun meeting all of their friends and celebrating J's accomplishments. Lauren loved hanging out with J and all of her friends. She thought they were quite something and from what I could see, they all seemed like great role models for our girl!!!
Saturday, May 30th:
Sadly, we had another early flight back home, so we did not get to enjoy any more time in San Francisco. Everyone was sad to leave and we are already looking forward to our next visit out to the West Coast!!
And we wanted to send out a special thanks to the Underinkas for an amazing visit!! It was a wonderful trip and we will not forget it!!
