Leaving San Francisco

So Joel and I don't have the best track record when it comes to leaving our vacation destinations. For our honeymoon there was the riot at the airport and we were snuck on the plane and coming back from India our flight was cancelled without our knowledge and we had to navigate our way through the people at Air India. (Not to mention, they never posted our new flight on the billboard so the guards wouldn't let us go check in until 45 minutes before our international flight!) So we were a little nervous what may happen this time around, even more nervous because we have a kid now!

A little background information. To get to the airport for our 11 am flight, we had to take a 30 minute train ride (which left at 9:16 am) and then a tram to get to the domestic terminal. We would be driving from Point Reyes (90 minute drive) back to the city to drop off the car at Enterprise. I know, you may be asking yourself "Why didn't they just drive to the airport?" Well my friends, that is freaking expensive so we thought we'd try and save ourselves the $150. When we were reserving the car, we didn't notice that Enterprise didn't open up until 9 am and that they didn't have a drop off option from our rental location. Joel and I decided that we would still drive in to the city early with the hopes that someone may be at Enterprise early. I think it may be one of the only times in our marriage when Joel was more insistent about being someplace early! So we got there plenty early and waited in the car. Thankfully, someone showed up at 8:50; she was unable to give us a receipt (we didn't care at that point) but she was able to check us in and we were able to get ourselves going! So Eli went in the Ergo, I hoisted on my "mom bag" as Joel calls it, Joel threw on his 50 lb backpack and we started dragging our roller duffel to the train station. Yes, you read that right, dragged. You see, in our haste of getting going we lost a wheel. We couldn't carry the bag by the handle as we'd done before because the handle had ripped off earlier in our trip. I think we must have been quite a sight and quite noisy as we dragged ourselves and our duffel around town! Nonetheless, we made it to the train station with 5 minutes to spare, Eli fell asleep on the train and I got searched at security but we made our flights with an extra seat to boot!

So it wasn't as exciting as our other trips home, but there was this added stress of having a kid to deal with at the same time. Thankfully, our kid is totally awesome and such a trooper. We love him.

San Francisco Vacation

Well we are just about settled back in to our new life after our vacation to San Francisco and there is nothing like traveling that makes you love home even more. Our trip started early (4:30 am!) and Eli traveled like a champ. No fussing, crying or other mayhem; he just napped and played with the airline magazine. (Thank goodness for those, who needs toys?)

We had a great time in San Fran, we stayed in a small apartment in the Hayes Valley (smack dab in the middle of the city). It was a great location, right on a bus line and within walking distance of many sweet shops and coffee houses. When we arrived at the apartment we were slightly dismayed that there was no door on the bedroom. One of the reasons we got an apartment was so that Eli could go to bed and we could hang out at night. Thankfully, we are resourceful and noticed that Eli's sleeping pad fit into the closet in the bedroom (well almost, it was slightly too long!) so with that and a fan; Joel and I were able to still enjoy ourselves after Eli went to bed. Our first day, we just walked around and explored the neighborhood. We got to see the Full House House, which was about 6 blocks from our apartment! We turned in pretty early that night seeing as we had been up since the wee hours of the morning.

The next day we explored the Farmer's Market and purchased our lunch there, it was totally amazing. We walk to Chinatown (and accidently found ourselves in the naughty district of town), had our lunch and enjoyed seeing all that Chinatown had to offer. We then met up with our friend Jill and her boyfriend Preston. They took us up to Twin Peaks to get an amazing view of the city and then they treated us to an amazing Indian Dinner. It was very excellent. Our third day was spent hanging out in Golden Gate Park, the sunset district and eating the best felafel I've ever had (besides my own of course!)

We then left San Francisco Proper and went up to the Point Reyes National Seashore, it was so nice to get out of the city and see the ocean. We spent a whole day meandering up Highway 1 and in the John Muir Redwoods. On Friday we spent the morning at a lighthouse and they went on a 5 mile hike in the afternoon. The day was capped off by some really great tacos, a bottle of Sonoma Valley Pinot Noir and a soak in the hot tub at our bed and breakfast.

I'll write a separate post about our travels from San Fran, it's not that long of a story but does deserve its own space.