I left my heart in San Francisco...

West Coast Road Trip 2014 is underway and we’re living it up Cali style! We left Ft. Lauderdale Wednesday morning without much delay and had a pretty uneventful flight (minus Mr. Coughing man of the century sitting next to us and his crying, seat-kicking children behind us). No real complaints though because we made it to San Francisco around 1:30pm ready to rock and roll. We decided to take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit for you nonlocals…basically their subway) as far is it would take us. We ended up still too far from our hotel to walk, so thankfully we made it into Hussein’s Taxi Cab of Wonder. If you are ever in the Bay area and in need of a cab, I suggest you go with Hussein. Considering you probably have a 1 in 3 chance of stumbling into a cab with a Hussein behind the wheel, this shouldn’t be too difficult. But unless you ride with our Hussein, you probably wont have as much fun as we did. First off, he seemed rather unconcerned about fitting four women, four large suitcases, four large carry-ons and a bipap machine into his itty bitty little California eco friendly vehicle. This resulted in the four us in the backseat (which was probably intended to hold 2 ½ women on a good day), and our luggage squashed in all around. Well thankfully, our comic relief came from our driver. After a bit of small talk conversation I asked him where he was from. This seemed to excite him and spur him to challenge us to a game of “Guess my cab driver’s nationality and win a free cab ride.” He allowed us two chances and unfortunately we were wrong (Persia…who knew?) but it certainly made for an enjoyable ride to our hotel. We were staying at the Sheraton down at Fisherman’s Wharf, which is the same place we stayed the last time (which was pretty phenomenal considering it is located right at Fisherman’s Wharf….greatest location EVER!!!). After a quick change at the hotel, we decided to venture out and find some food. I had wanted to try this organic place called The Plant that I found online. They have quite a few locations, one of them being Pier 3. Although advised against it, we decided to walk there because we needed to stretch our legs and the weather was GORGEOUS!! Sunny and cool, our walk was just delightful (and only about 30 minutes long). We got to see all of the different piers and then enjoy a delicious dinner outside right on the water. It was pretty much a perfect way to start our trip and stay in San Fran. Mom and Jan got yummy salads, and Lori and I had the plant burger (made from all kinds of fun things like beets, lentils, and cashews). We had a great walk back and then decided to take the Hop-On-Hop-Off night tour of San Francisco. This was Good Decision #4 of the day (#1 being Hussein, #2 walking to dinner, and #3 eating at The Plant). We had a beautiful tour of the city as the sun was low in the sky and got to go across the spectacular Bay Bridge (which unfortunately doesn’t get as much credit as she deserves). We were undeniably frozen by the end of the tour, but it was stunning and well worth it. We ran into Safeway for a few treats and then hit the sack shortly thereafter. Well…after a few episodes of the Duggars, circa 2003. We had a great sleep and I went on THE BEST RUN OF MY LIFE first thing this morning. I ran past Ghirardelli Square, up the biggest hill ever (exaggeration??? No way!), and then back down to where we ate dinner last night. I was pretending the entire time in my head that I was a local going for a run at the Wharf before biking to my posh job downtown in the Financial District. I’m pretty sure everyone around me was thinking the same thing about me too… After cleaning up, we hit the road (with our feet) to the local farmer’s market at the Ferry Building (pretty much at the beginning of the piers). We tasted lots of yummy samples (fruit and cheese curds and brittle and shortbread…oh my!) and I even tried a sea bean (but taking a giant gulp of water from the gulf will give you the same effect for free). It was such a fun little market and was good choice #5 for sure. After the market, we caught the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus to go to the Golden Gate. This unfortunately is where bad choice #1 was made: our seat choice. We didn’t have much choice since the bus was pretty full when we “hopped on” so we had to seat directly in front of our tour guide. All I will say is that she had only been on the job for 2 weeks and hadn’t mastered the art of speaking loudly and clearly vs. screaming in our ears. I used some ear buds to help so I didn’t have to keep my fingers in my ears the entire 2 hour ride. Our goal was to walk the bridge, but we ended up not having time because we had to pick up our rental car. After picking up our car, we did get a chance to stop at the Golden Gate viewing spot, snap a few shots of the magnificent views, and get a quick walk on some of the bridge. We then headed out of the city hoping to stop at the Charlie Brown museum. Massive amounts of traffic caused this plain to fail and we somehow ended up at an Applebees (surprised?). We chowed down and then hit up the Trader Joes in the shopping center. An hour later we pulled into Ukiah for a fun filled night of a trip to Walmart and pretty much nothing else. Well folks, I’m pooped. We are headed to Brookings, Oregon tomorrow… which looks like a beautiful coastal city. Hope to post more in a day or so about our continued adventures!!