April 21 - United States: San Francisco, CA
We spent the morning hanging out with Char and sharing memories about Jon's Dad. Char made a delicious breakfast of eggs and cinnamon buns with orange juice. Very nice way to start out the morning. Mid-morning, we said our good-byes and headed off into San Francisco.
Char, Jon and Heidi in Pleasanton, CA
San Francisco
Jon and I have been to San Fran many times before, and it will always be one of our favorite cities. But we don't plan to stay for too long because there are other places up north that we haven't seen yet. So we spent today wandering around The Fisherman's Warf and waiting for our friends Matt and Sha to get home so we could spend the evening with them.
It was a lovely day to wander around the Warf, and we spent a little time watching the sea lions who are permanently on the pier.
Jon and the Sea Lions
Then we went to Boudin's Bakery to get my favorite San Fran treat: a sourdough bowl filled with chili. Jon had a sourdough bowl filled with clam chowder. I LOVE this stuff! We sat at a table in the sun and ate our lunch, people-watched, and made journal entries in a notebook we'd brought. The perfect way to spend an afternoon.
Matt and Sha's House
As the day moved on, we followed Sha's directions to their house near Golden Gate park. Matt is a good friend of Jon's from college, and he and Sha moved out here a few years ago. Sha is about four months pregnant, and has recently quit her job as an Intellectual Property lawyer. They bought this house last year and did some major renovations to it. Sha told us that the woman who'd lived here before had been here for 30 years. So the house had some very retro aspects to it: 60's yellow tiled bathrooms, a vinyl booth in the kitchen, pink shag carpet, and an artichoke chandelier. You really have to have a lot of vision to buy a house like that and see the potential in it. The result of their renovations is absolutely beautiful: Corian countertops, blue tiled bathrooms, and some gorgeous hardwood floors.
Jon and I have - throughout our travels - joked that this trip is our apartment. Since the money for this trip came from our savings for a down payment, we tell people "Welcome to our apartment!". That's all very cute and funny, but seeing Matt and Sha's place has made me crave my own pad. Someday!
Since Matt spent the day playing golf and Sha had baby-sat all day, they were exhausted. Still, they were willing to go out and have dinner somewhere. We put the nix on that and suggested ordering in and hanging out. So we spent the evening talking and gossiping over take-out Chinese.