honk 3 times and wave {day 3}

-DAY 3: PART 1-

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 7TH

by day 3 we had become 

expert tippers.

EXPERTS.

$5 when they brought you your car,

$5 when they parked it.

$5 when they hailed you a cab.

$10 when they brought in your bags.

i've never had so much fun passing out $5 and $10 dollar bills in my entire life.

fancy fancy business i tell you.

so on saturday morning, we were like veterans in the tipping.

and we tipped the grand master valet man at the front of the hotel to bring us our car.

so we could sneak away out of the city and drive to grandma and grandpa's house.

where grandpa joy fed our children milk and cookies,

and dark chocolate.

her favorite.

and mine too.

the men ended up out in the garage cooing over grandpa's mustang,

hood up,

top down,

talking about tools and corroborators and man stuff like that.

grandma and i talked about life and discussed all of our travels across utah, nevada, and california,

and the city of san francisco.

later grandpa showed off all of his guns to us,

and cranked up the one he's had since he was 9.

no amo, not to fret.

brennan started counting how many years until he was 9 

and could have a gun of his own.

i told him fat chance,

but that we could surely come back to see grandpa's guns again. 

before we left, grandma filled my purse with an entire brick of her favorite dark chocolate.

sean and i secretly ate it somewhere in nevada so we wouldn't have to share with the kids.

sharing is caring,

but not when it comes to melty chocolate on tan cloth seats.

as we drove away dad instructed sean in the ways of leaving the grandparent's house.

honk 3 times a wave.

way better than going to see the golden gate bridge.

like A MILLION times better:)

my city by the bay {day 2}

-DAY 2-

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 6TH

"The loveliness of Paris seems somehow sadly gay

The glory that was Rome is of another day

I've been terribly alone 

and forgotten in Manhattan

I'm going home to my city by the bay..."

"I left my heart in San Francisco..."

"High up on a hill, it calls to me

To be where little cable cars 

climb halfway to the stars..."

{chase was not a fan. freaked him out. scared his little sweet heart. poor chap.}

"The morning fog may chill the air, I don't care

My love waits there in San Francisco

Above the blue and windy sea

When I come home to you, San Francisco

Your golden sun will shine for me."

-"I Left My Heart In San Francsico" by Tony Bennett-

...

and shine it certainly did.

i spent my childhood 

taking trips to pier 39.

other than going to FAO Schwartz at Christmas time 

and watching the puppies in the Macy's Christmas windows,

Pier 39 was my favorite trip into the city.

eating churros and sourdough bread bowls full of piping hot clam chowder.

i remember it was always foggy,

but i don't remember it being cold.

my dad and sandie assured me it was not always foggy,

but when it was,

it was cold.

i was made for the fog.

my BONES were made for the fog:)

my dad rode a bunny on the carousel with max.

she was over the moon elated over the entire thing.

dad was too.

it was SO SO cute.

sean got roped into the twisty pot with brennan.

they came off of that carousel wobbly and tinted green.

so glad no one puked:)

sandie and i were so glad we got to stay with chase on the side.

chase made "arf arf" sounds,

and brennan and max discussed which sea lions were fighting,

who was falling off of their platforms,

and why were there no sea lions on the platforms up front?

i told them i wouldn't want to be that close to people staring at me either.

it was most exciting when they would swim right down in front of us.

thank goodness we practiced our sea lion sounds in the car ride to california.

always be prepared!

scout's motto.

we were prepared.

that's for sure.

then brennan worked up ideas about how someone could escape Alcatraz.

it involved flagging down fishing boats to hitchhike a ride.

and then waving at people on the pier as the boat brought him back to shore.

clever boy.

{see the bat he's holding? we bought him a giant's mini baseball bat. 

he slept with it for two nights straight.}

max ran away screaming from the street performers.

and i hid the candy they gave my kids.

it magically got lost in the depths of my purse.

while we distracted them with the best hot fudge sundae on the entire planet.

i may or may not have thrown the candy away in the hotel garbage canisters out front. 

MAY have.

i have rules about street candy.

none that i planned to make ahead of time,

just one that i made right then a there to myself.

and it involved MAYbe throwing the candy away.

that's all i'm saying.

i paid a dollar in tips for it.

i can't do what i want with it.

there now, glad we got that all cleared up.

you remember that it's good,

and you think you know how good it was the last time you had it,

but then you have it,

and it's like you've never had chocolate in your entire life until this very minute right now.

here.

at ghiradelli square.

yep, that's exactly what it's like.

brennan tried to sword me off with his spoon.

i would not be deterred.

sharing is caring!

that's what i told him.

at night we were catered to by the Sens Restaurant staff,

with the port of san francisco behind us,

and the cheering of the giant's baseball game from the stadium somewhere close to us.

i ate the most delicious crab cakes of my life,

which is saying something b/c i can't say i've ever like a crab cake until that night.

i let my kids have as much soda as they wanted,

which meant i was taking people to the potty the entire night.

in my heels.

and i don't ever wear heels.

i lost count after my 5th trip.

let's just say it was a good thing i brought an extra pair 

of my little pony underwear for max in my purse.

winning:)

i also learned that high heels were not made for an entire night in the city.

they are made for exits out of the hotel,

and the cocktail party before dinner,

but definitely not for the entire night.

i had to learn this the hard way.

the really hard way.

like we couldn't catch a cab home to save our lives,

and it was 10:36pm,

and all of the cabs in the entire city were at the giant's game that had just let out,

and my dad finally guilted a cabby to take all 7 of us home.

in

one

cab.

and i swore i would never leave the hotel in heels without my flats in my purse ever again.

lesson learned.

lesson.

learned.

"mom, there's more dogs than kids here." -brennan

-DAY 1-

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 5TH

"mom, there's more dogs 

than kids here." 

-brennan

every time we drive through the sierra's,

the mountain nature woman inside of me starts lusting for a log cabin and no neighbors for days!

that truckee river coming through the carved stone and green tippy trees, 

with a real life railroad train winding through,

like something out of an old fashioned story book.

man oh man, it takes my breath away

every

single

time.

then we get to donner lake, 

and i think about how snowy and cold the winters are,

and even though i love the snow,

i start thinking about how mountain living maybe just isn't for me,

and then i start feeling so sad about people dying and eating each other there,

you know, the donner party,

and i wonder if the houses right there on the lake 

think about that every time they look out their windows in the winters,

and it totally creeps me out,

and then i tell sean about i don't know how those people live there 

without thinking about that every morning,

and then sean usually tells me that i'm weird, 

and that they probably don't think about that,

and i tell him "well, they should!" all dramatic and all,

and then i think about how i really do love grocery stores and airports close by and stuff,

and then i decide we'd better just keep the house in utah so we can get winder milk to our front door and grow peaches and tomatoes every summer instead.

with schools, and neighbors, and costco.

because they are really great too.

and then by the time we get to the bay area,

i always always ALWAYS turn it to WILD 94.9,

just to see what rap sounds like,

except there wasn't a single rap song on,

and it takes me back to my growing up years of listening to the morning radio show,

driving to school in the fog,

and sean wanted to play "california love" with the windows down,

but i was just too embarrassed in my moment of teenage embarrassment 

to blast such a song across the bay bridge in standstill traffic.

i have boundaries people.

boundaries!

 the NEW bay bridge. 

4th day open when we went across.

everyone was going 5mph,

and people were standing up and out of their sunroof windows to get a bug windshield free shot.

i was soooo envious guys.

SO ENVIOUS.

the only time in my life where i wished i had a sunroof.

probably better that i didn't.

'cause you know, safety first.

and then i looked over and saw all of the ships pulling into the port of san francisco,

and max and brennan were yelling at me to turn a movie on, and i was all,

"look out the window!!! there's the golden gate! 
and San Francisco!!!"

and they were like,

"maaaaawwwwwwwmmmmmm!!! mooooo-veeeeee!"

and do you know what i did?

i acted all real grown up like and closed the movie screen,

rolled down their windows and told them with a big ol' smile of satisfaction on my face to

"look out the window ya'all! we're siiiiiight seeeeeeing!"

brennan called me mean,

and max said she didn't like me.

chase was smiling like a dog hanging out of the window with his tongue hanging out.
hair blowing in the salty sea air wind.

it was a glorious and wonderful.

i could feel the humidity and smell the sea water.

heaven!

and i thought to myself,

"a real live city!!!"

because even though i'm not from the country,

and i don't live out in the country,

when i drive into a city like san francisco,

i just can't help but feel like i'm country.

so small and unknowing of what real city life is.

and then we hit the traffic and sean was in the wrong lane like 50 times,

and i told him about the time i got lost in the city 

on my 18th birthday, driving my honda stick shift all around.

trying to find the chili's restaurant or something.

and about how i was 2 hours late to my own birthday party.

and that's why i HATE driving in the city.

so i just patted him on the back, gave him positive words of encouragement,

and told him how it's just really hard to drive in the city,

and to just please don't get hit or pulled over.

oh, and to watch out for those sneaky one way streets.

EVIL!

driving in the city is

E-V-I-L!

but the cable cars are really fun to follow,

except we weren't sure what the rules were with that,

so i told him to just watch the taxi cabs and do what they were doing,

even though i'm pretty sure that taxi drivers in san francisco are the biggest law breakers around.

but when they climb up those steep steep hills,

the cable cars,

not the taxis,

right into the sun,

and they ding their little bell,

it's just the most nostalgic thing you've ever experienced in a city ever!

and then things get super stressful.

b/c usually someone is about to cut you off,

and you're in the wrong lane anyway,

and there's a taxi on the side of you inching its way between you and another car,

and you're just so sure someone is going to hit you,

or you're going to hit them,

and what in the heck are those red X stop lights for anyway?!

just for them?

or us too.

city driving is not my cup of tea.

and i don't even drink real tea.

mint medley is great though.

with honey and cream.

not too hot.

bad for the gastro.

watching the cable cars from our room could have kept them entertained all night long.

instead we spent the night slurping spaghetti and gnocchi in Nob Hill,

and asking people what the names of their dogs were.

stuff like that.

because there were lots and lots of dogs.

and not enough kids to count on more than one hand.

when we came back to our rooms,
the kids jumped on the beds and danced to the music on the radio,

and we declared that there is nothing more fun than staying at a hotel in San Francisco city.

with cable cars going by out front.