After a decent work day Wednesday, my family took me out to a yummy Me-N-Ed's birthday dinner. The Shorts had a yummy Sunday birthday dinner a few days before. All in all, I felt very special! But it got even better.
Jeremy and I both got Friday off to make our way to the Bay area. We drove to the Oakland temple (after getting stuck in Atwater trying to find a Subway), and missed the 2:00 session. So we did initiatories instead. It was awesome! It was also my first "first" time. We bought some under things from the Distribution Center, too.
We then made our way across the ridiculously priced toll bridge to San Francisco. As we took in the awesome freeway-view of the city, we were excited about our next few days in a new place.Our first hotel was near the airport...far from anything downtown. The good news was that the online booking site had a typo and we got the very clean and new hotel room for a whopping $5.50 (including tax). Yeah. And free breakfast. I know.
We were exhausted from all the driving so we napped and then walked down the road to Benihana, a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant. It was my first time experiencing such an event, and I was quite hesitant. Jeremy was great about my negative attitude and helped me order. It was...decent. And very expensive! Jeremy will have to find a friend to go with next time since I'm not much of a fan.
Saturday morning I had to drive 30 minutes to a seminar in Redwood City. It was an informative meeting regarding cochlear implants, free resources online, and a tour of the school where it was located. Afterward I drove back to our hotel to pick up Jeremy (he lounged around) and we headed to downtown.Google maps can only be so reliable. We got lost in the city and couldn't find our hotel. We charged up our GPS (the tall buildings block the signal a lot) and eventually found the hotel, only to be informed that our room had issues. Turns out there was some sort of woodstock-like event happening and the hotel double booked. They sent us (with a map!) to a motel closer to the warf. AND the hotel paid for the motel! I know! What luck!
We walked to Nick's Crispy Tacos. Yum! Getting lost can be tiring so we relaxed a bit after filling up.
Saturday night we walked down towards Ghirardelli Square and Fisherman's Warf. We browsed the touristy shops and I bought a pearl ring. It was fun and interesting and a lot like other coastal towns. The walk back up to our hotel was tiring and we slept well.
Sunday morning we wanted to go to the Exploratorium but ended up just finishing the rest of the walk from the warf to Pier 39. We decided to drive this time and got lost, yet again, with all the weird one-way-streets. I guess city life just isn't for us, because after a great lunch at Boudin, we were so ready to leave.
Instead of heading back over the ridiculously priced toll bridge, we went south toward San Jose and went to none other than IKEA!!! It was huge and overwhelming but so exciting! We bought some cheap odds and ends, but my favorite purchases were an art easel for my classroom and a rolling laundry rack to hang and dry clothes! Oh, and the chocolate!
We made it home by 5pm and started laundry. It was a great weekend -- full of traffic, food, free hotels, and fun! It sure was hard having to get up for work Monday morning!Thanks, Jeremy, for such a great birthday weekend! Even though we had stressful situations where we became frustrated with each other, I still knew that you loved and cared for me. You're my best friend and I love you!!!
