San Francisco Treat

March 14, 2008

I just got back from 3 days in San Francisco where I was doing some training. It was enjoyable, but I definitely missed Julie and the kids. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to check out the sights but when I did I kept thinking how much they would have enjoyed it. The cable car in particular. The boys would have absolutely loved it. My hotel was right next to the famous Powell Street cable car, which is the original San Francisco cable car line. There are a bunch of others now and the newer ones are all done with overhead cables but this one is the classic with a big cable under the street that’s pulled along the route by a massive motor and pulleys in a big building on Powell Street. Very cool. I frankly couldn’t believe that in this day and age where people aren’t responsible for their own mistakes, that the cable car was still wide open. You’d think SOMEONE would have taken a spill off of it, or got off in front of an approaching car and got hit and sued the city and everything would be ultra-safe now but no, it’s still the classic wide-open trolley where you can literally kick the cars that are passing you on either side — not that I did that or anything, but you could .  The Powell Street car goes past Lombard Street, the famous windy road, and as you pass it and look straight ahead you’ve got an incredible view down to fisherman’s wharf and the sea and Alcatraz Island, which is my favorite place in S.F. I’ve had an ultra-fascination with Alcatraz ever since we toured it when I was a kid. I’d love to go back again, but the latest tour leaves at 4:00 and I was in training until 5:00 each day, so unfortunately missed out. But we went to a great restaurant, Scomas, located right on the end of Pier 47 with a nice view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh it was good seafood. My hotel was also just 2 blocks from the Chinatown gate, so of course we did that too. But after a short while it became nothing but a mass of eclectic junk-filled shops — along with some good Chinese restaurants of course.

This was a great opportunity for me to go and along with the Microsoft training I attended a few weeks ago, I’ve had to be gone for quite a bit the last month. It definitely would have been impossible without all the help Julie got from her mom and Jessie and Megan and Katie. Julie didn’t have to go through a single night with the twins on her own and hardly even had a day when she was by herself. Come to think of it, she probably had more help with me out of the house than she has when I’ve been home. So thank you to all those who have served and helped us so much, not just the last month but since the twins were born especially. It’s been awesome to be on the receiving end of so much service.

Posted in Travel/Vacations