It's
the end of another wonderful day, and we're watching the evening
news. The lead story was more news about the Asiana Airline crash
last weekend at San Francisco International Airport. While the crash
is a horrible thing, I have to admit to enjoying seeing all the
footage of SFO.
Hubby
was born in San Francisco and grew up in Palo Alto. In November,
2000, I made my first trip to the Bay Area and completely fell in
love with the area. I've been lucky – every trip I've made out
there has been in marvelous weather!
On
my first trip out with hubby (who wasn't “hubby” yet then), our
flight landed at SFO about 1pm on a beautiful, sunny November day.
His mom and stepdad picked us up at the airport, then took me on a
wonderful tour of the City.
Even
though I took a mountain of photos, I can't possibly remember
everything we saw. We went to the Financial District, where hubby's
stepdad had worked as an accountant. We went by the Embarcadero,
Fisherman's Wharf, the Giants' baseball field down on the waterfront,
Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square.....the afternoon was absolutely
wonderful and unforgettable. Hubby treated all of us to dinner at
Scoma's restaurant down on the waterfront – he'd warned me ahead of
time to not even look at the prices on the menu! His mom, bless her,
settled on an appetizer plate of calamari for dinner......his stepdad
ordered a full meal! We figured he'd been waiting years for this
opportunity! The evening tour ended with finding the first house in
the City they'd lived in as a family – what a wonderful moment to
share with them!
Over
the years, we've had several other wonderful trips to the Bay Area.
We visited Napa and saw some of the major wineries. We took the ferry
trip across the Bay from Vallejo to the Downtown Ferry Building.
We've driven past The Presidio and Golden Gate Park, prior to eating
on the coast.
My
mother-in-law was always good for a good shopping trip on every
visit. One of the most fun shopping trips followed our skipping out
on a lecture at the Senior Center that she thought was on French art
– it turned out to be on the infrastructure of 18th
century Paris – it got old really fast seeing drawings of the
French sewer systems!!!
My
in-law's condo in Palo Alto was a great place to visit. They were
very near the CalTrain line, and we could hear the commuter trains
going through town........those that run between San Jose and
downtown San Francisco. On one trip, we took the commute train to
downtown and did a walking tour of downtown.....lunch in Chinatown
(albeit at a McDonald's!), the Market District, Borders Bookstore's
flagship store, FAO Schwartz......it was a fun day!
They
were also very near Stanford University. Hubby's stepdad, brother,
and sister all graduated from there, and his mom took adult classes
and volunteered at the museum. What fun for this little Midwestern
farm gal to actually walk on the Stanford campus!! It's just as
gorgeous as it seems on TV. I've enjoyed several trips to the campus.
I've
enjoyed a November trip to the coast, including a hike to see the sea
lions. We've visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and had
outdoor lunch next to a park holding a jazz festival. The in-laws
have retired to Southern Oregon, hubby's little sis has retired there
as well, and there's no one left on the Bay.......but I think it's
still safe to say I've left part of my heart in San Francisco!
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