I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO!

Well, a piece of it anyway. You might know that I spent a year of my young adult life there, working at the San Francisco International Airport, living in Burlingame (less than 10 minutes south of the airport and perhaps 25 minutes from the city), and enjoying making memories such as getting engaged there, caroling on a cable car at Christmas with my friends and taking in the beauty that is the rugged and less developed coastline of northern California. And this past week, I went back. Only, this time I took one former fiance (yes, my hubby, silly) and four beautiful children along. And what a wonderful trip it was, all things considered.

Now, admittedly I needed a little pep talk from my bloggy friend Jeanine, who had tested the "travel with four young children" waters for me just a week or so before. She assured me I would survive and she was right. I'm here to tell about it. Shall we?

Day 1
Carl got off work early and rushed home to pick us up for an 11 o'clock flight to Dallas. Final checklist? Two suitcases, three car seats, one children's suitcase filled with snacks and activities, a diaper bag, bottle bag, a very overstuffed purse, digital camera, 5 light jackets, one doll, one stuffed bear, a double stroller and 4 children (head count taken hourly).

We had planned to make a connection in Dallas to San Francisco. "Sorry, folks. Flight's full. And so is the next one, and the next, and...." You get the picture.
No problem. Oakland. Uh uh, full. That's okay. We'll just go with our backup plan, which was San Fran via Orange County. Nope, that one's full too. LAX? Nope, sorry. Okay then, we had literally 23 minutes to make a judgement call. Connect through Austin into San Jose and then find our way to San Fran. Or not. Well, when you fly space available and see a "sure thing" with only 23 minutes left before departure, you don't second guess. You GO! Off we went, connecting again in Austin and on to San Jose. It was going to cost $55 for a ride to San Fran (airline employee discount rate). I encouraged Carl to call our car rental company to see what could be done to pick up our car in San Jose and drop it off as planned in San Francisco. Not only could we do it, but it was $30 cheaper than the original plan. Okay then, off we went, making the 45 minute drive to San Francisco International to pick up our bags. Yes, they were there, praise God. We all piled into our hotel room after a very late dinner and went to sleep.

Day 2
We began our day with a trip to Alamo Square in the city. This is where the beginning shots for the television show Full House were taken. My Olivia loves Mary Kate and Ashley and thought it was very cool to have her picture taken in the spot she imagined them to be in.
In the background were the very beautiful "painted ladies", or Six Sisters as they're known in San Francisco. The Victorian architecture in the Alamo Square area was spectacular. The average cost of a 3BR 1200 sq ft Victorian townhouse there? Around $1,000,000.00 (I do believe I'll just toss some lace doilies on the arm rests of my couch and dream of Victorian eras gone by, lol.)

We drove through the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, home of the 60's "Summer of Love."
It is still very hippified, and,...you know,...The Beat Goes On (for some).


We then took a very quick drive through Golden Gate Park (lovely, lovely, lovely) before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and taking the lesser known drive into the cliffs for photos of the bridge and incredible views of the rugged bay area coastline. If you're ever headed to San Fran, do ask me how to access this drive.
Notice the lighthouse on the rocks (click on photo for slighty better view.)

Afterwards, we headed to Muir Woods, home to California redwood trees, the tallest and near oldest living things on earth (can live in excess of 2,000 years). It blew our minds to contemplate that many of the trees we saw were much older than our great country, America. Creation is beautiful, but the Creator? He's brilliant.
Many of the redwoods grow in circle families. That is, a single tree was devastated at some point by a natural catastrophe, such as fire. While the tree might have been damaged to the point of death, its root system was not. Shoots emerged from that root system in a circular pattern around the original tree and thus many of the redwoods exist in such circle families.

Day 3
What an incredible day in the city. First, it was Fleet Week in San Francisco.

Fleet Week Parade of Ships.

Navy personnel were everywhere. And as such, the Blue Angels were performing as well. We arrived at the Wharf early to pick up our tickets to Alcatraz from will call on the pier. Thankfully, we had booked ahead as all cruises were sold out. We spent time on Pier 39 as we waited for our 12:30 sailing, taking in the sights and sounds of hundreds of harbor seals.


Alcatraz was interesting, especially our newly acquired knowledge of an American Indian occupation there from 1969 to 1971. Our focus shifted though, when the Blue Angels began their maneuvers over the bay and we quickly realized we literally had "the best seats in the house." While millions vied for the best views city side, we had only a few hundred people to contend with on the island. Many continued their tour of the prison. Some took seats in the prison's recreation area, but it was uncomfortably windy and cold there. We found perfect "front row" spots near the lighthouse, where we enjoyed a totally unobstructed view of the entire show. 68 degrees, sunny, and taking in the Blue Angels airshow from a prime location (Alcatraz Island) with the city as a backdrop. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Note TransAmerica Building and Coit Tower in background.


Afterwards, we finished our prison tour, then went to the top of Coit Tower for some more great views of the city.

Chinese food in China Town and a drive down the world's crookedest street were also in order, as was an evening cable car ride round trip through the streets of San Francisco. We even took in a bit of Nob Hill. We were even able to show the kids where Carl purchased my engagement and wedding rings (yes, he proposed to me in San Francisco.) What a wonderful day in the city by the bay.

Day 4
Santa Cruz, here we come. The kids were chomping at the bit for this part of our trip. Why? Because of the historical Santa Cruz Boardwalk, complete with amusement rides on the beach. What fun they had, especially for Olivia who was tall enough to ride the roller coasters as she took in views of the Pacific Ocean (yes, dear Ohioans, I realize we take in similar views of the North Coast when we ride the Millennium Force at Cedar Point, but shhhh, don't tell anyone about that well kept lil' secret.) Being a good 90 minutes south of San Francisco, it was actually warm enough by midday for the kids to put on swim suits and play along the beach shore. What a great time they had. We then walked the pier and treated them to a bag of cotton candy.



On our way to Santa Cruz, we drove highway 1 along the Pacific coastline. I've always wanted to do it, so this was a big treat for me. We ate at an out of the way seaside restaurant called Gazo's Grill, saw a most beautiful lighthouse and witnessed a Hawaiian wedding in progress on the beach. It was wonderful to witness such a difference in traditions and we were all impressed when a small airplane flew over the beach, dropping hundreds of flower petals over the wedding site. This was repeated at least two more times and we thought it was such a special part of the wedding celebration.

~~~~~~~~~~Flower petals falling from sky


You simply must click on this photo to get a better look.

Day 5
This was our last day in San Francisco, with a red eye flight looming at the very end of the day. Our rental car wasn't due back until 5:30pm so we spent the morning in Burlingame, the town I lived in. We showed the kids my old apartment and ate breakfast at the place Carl and I used to eat at when he flew in to visit me. Let me tell you, they serve up some of the best breakfast omelette's anywhere. And the average cost of a 3BR 2BA 1400 sq ft home in Burlingame? $1,200,000 or more. YIKES!
I paid $360/mo for my studio apartment back in the day. Today? $850/mo.

A quick drive through the surreal town of Hillsborough and off we went to Half Moon Bay, which is transformed into a pumpkin town this time of year. Our kids had so much fun at Lemos, a nursery that goes all out to create a pumpkin wonderland for children; train rides, hay rides, pony rides, inflatable bouncers, a petting zoo and of course, hundreds of pumpkins and hay bales. We spent a good 2½ hours there, letting them spend as much energy as possible before our long flights home.


Afterwards, we drove the long way back to the airport, taking highway 1 north along the coast and through the towns of Pacifica and Daly City, where Carl got to experience driving through the seemingly daily phenomenon of fog in San Francisco.
We returned our car, checked bags and ate dinner, then walked down to my old ticket counter to show the kids where I used to work. It's deserted now, which was so sad to witness, as we had about 90 flights a day when I worked there. Sure, USAIRWAYS is still in San Francisco, but a much scaled down version of my days there, the golden good old days of #22013 (only my airline pals will get that one.)
The last 2 hours before our flight departed found our kids under the boarding area seats, sleeping on their coats, completely exhausted. Not too many faux pauxs to speak of, unless you include the gruffy guy on the cable car who grouched, "Can you move that baby? He's kicking, kicking me in the back." Or perhaps the foreign gal who laid down under the handle of our stroller at 11pm, then fired up her cell phone, waking Brandon who then cried and cried for the next half hour. Sigh. Otherwise, it went well, including the red eye flight home with a plane change in Dallas. Brandon slept the entire time on both flights, waking only as we waited for our connection.

As for me? I now have a sore throat, as does Carl, and Olivia has a cold (interesting that Jeanine and her hubby also came down with travel bugs after a long haul with 4 kids, lol). Cierah woke up with sniffles this morning and Brandon is crabbing to beat the band. A banner day in the ol' "H" home (and a small price to be paid for the great time we had).

Now, my advice to all you parents of little ones who might be thinking of traveling long distances by plane?
(my very best "salty sailor" rasp)...Train 'em young!

Toni