Slow and painful

Getting the details out about our trip to Australia has been incredibly slow and I apologize if you're one of the few people actually interested in reading it.

In the meantime let me fill you in on our recent trip to San Francisco. Yes, I went on another vacation. The people at my office couldn't quite get over it either.

We went out to San Francisco early Sunday morning. And when I say early I mean we were on the road to the airport by 4 AM. Security at that hour was not what you'd expect. It was bogged down beyond belief. We waited in line for about 5 minutes before an airport official came and rounded everyone up for the 6 AM flights. We got quite a few nasty looks and one gentleman who snarled at us, why didn't you plan better? Sorry sir, I didn't intend to spend the previous night sleeping in the terminal.

We got out to CA and stopped off at our hotel, and then headed back out to a party with some friends. We got to meet Carolyn, and I got to meet everybody. Andy already knew some of these people.

Next day I got to do all the tourist things. We saw Union Square, took a cable car, walked to Fisherman's Wharf, looked over at Alcatraz (all the tours were full) and then we Biked the Bridge. I haven't been on a bike in 6 years, so this was quite the experience for me. It's an 8 mile ride to Sausalito, and on the way across the bridge we noticed smoke that was getting bigger and bigger. The brush fire being contained on the other side of the bridge threatening to make me bike back the 6 miles I'd already come had me close to tears. It was hard enough for me to get here, don't make me go back now! Happily the police gave us an alternate way to get down to the roads leading to Sausalito so off we went. If I hadn't known better I could have sworn that Andy had signed me up for fat camp, some of those hills getting into town were ROUGH. Ok so I walked up them pushing the bike, but by mile 7 can you blame me?

Sausalito was a cute place, we had a nice dinner then caught the ferry back and dropped off the bikes. Did we get commemorative t-shirts you ask? Hell yes we did. Along with commemorative matching sunburns requiring a stop at Walgreens on the way back to the hotel for aloe and sunblock for the next day.

Tuesday we hit the streets again, slathered in Banana Boat. We went to Ghiradelli Square which was cute but not as impressive as I thought it would be. I guess I was picturing something a little more Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-esque. Why I don't know, but when you've never been somewhere and you get taken to a square named after chocolate you expect there to be a lot of chocolate. Not to say we didn't got to the Ghiradelli shop and buy a bunch. More sea-lion viewing at Fisherman's wharf followed. Along with lovely sourdough items for lunch. Then we relaxed for a while back at the hotel and went to the main reason we came. Dinner with the web folks.

Dinner was at Crepes on Cole. The whole concept was new to me. A crepe restaurant. How cool. Same reaction I had when I found out they had fondue restaurants. The Melting Pot has been one of my favorite places ever since. Maybe there's a crepe restaurant around here somewhere? Next on to the after party at a house in The Haight (how cool do I sound? Do I sound like an official San Franciscan?) and eventually back to sleep to get up in time for our 4:30 AM pick up to go back to the airport. No we didn't luck out on the way back, 6:30 AM flight home was about as easy to get up for as our 6:15 AM flight out, which is to say, not at all.

For all the folks I met, it was lovely to meet you all. Molly I'm especially glad I finally got to meet you! I had a blast!