San Francisco

Usually, I love to go to San Francisco. This time was a bit different...I was trying to get a cold, I was staying in a hotel and in a part of town I had never been to before, and I was going as the only adult with two 14 year old girls. I figured it would be boring at best. What follows is how it went.
First, I had promised C that I would take him out to breakfast Saturday morning, just the two of us, due to the onset of mild separation anxiety. I told him we had to go early, so that R and I could leave early. At 7:30 we left and hit Kalico Kitchen for breakfast. It was nice and relaxing. We then hit the few errands left before I left town. We were home by 8:45. The girls had just gotten up and were eating, I jumped into the shower, and finished packing the last few things. My One Tru Love had planned on taking the three boys to the Gun Show (as he is a hunter) for a boys day out. Little did I know that he wanted to leave early also. He started to pressure me, I was looking up directions to the SF Zoo, from the zoo to the hotel, etc, and he was trying to rush me to load the car and so on. Then C announced that he didn't want to go to the gun show. Which was fine. My One Tru Love told him he could stay home and play X box (since our neighbor was home for the day and could pop in on him). R, A (R's friend) and I loaded the last few snacks into the car, got our sunglasses and headed out the door. Did I mention that My One Tru Love and the other boys had left about 10 minutes earlier? Anyway, I gave C a kiss and ran out the door and started the car. As I was buckling my seatbelt, C runs out and says that he wants me to take him to his dad! I told him to grab his shoes and get in the car, because I was leaving NOW! R started to get mad...as usual...for the interruption and the change in plans. By this time it was 10 am. I raced over to the fairgrounds, paid for one adult ticket and one child ticket, $6 total, so that I could run in amongst all the gun enthusiasts and find my family. Fortunately, I found them promptly, kissed them all one more time and dashed out. We finally were on the road by 10:15 am. About an hour later than originally planned. Not too bad, we still had time to hit the zoo before we checked into the hotel!
We had great traffic on 5, we stopped at Dunnigan for drinks and $2.49/gallon gas, and hit 505. We were making great time! I was hopeful. We then hit the junction for 505 and 80. Which was closed. Yes, on a three day weekend, they were doing road work on the junction and it was CLOSED! We tried to follow the detour, which didn't make much sense to me. So, I decided to stop at a gas station to get directions. Apparently, the people at the gas station lived as the gas station, because they had no idea how to get to 80. Thanks for nothing. Come to find out the detour put us on 80 going towards Sacramento, then took us off 80 to turn around on the on/off ramp to some road. Where I had stopped for directions. The guy at the gas station didn't even know we already were on 80! OH MY GOSH! Disaster averted, we were again merrily on our way.
We stopped at the rest stop just this side of Vallejo for a potty break, were disturbed to see signs that said that after sunset you had to use the port a potties, don't know why that is, but it was somewhat disturbing. We hit the rest stop at about 12:45. Not too bad, watch out SF Zoo here we come. We got back on the road and hit Vallejo. At 1:01 my mom called to let me know they weren't going to meet us on Sunday, we were just leaving Vallejo, and hitting a bit of traffic. We drove 10 - 20 miles per hour from Vallejo to the Bay Bridge. We paid our toll at the bridge sometime after 3 pm. Traffic was easy going into the city, and we easily found the hotel on Lombard Street, and I only ran one stoplight! (LOL) We checked in at 3:38 pm. The hotel had "Limited First Come First Served" parking. Limited means, six spaces for 30 or more rooms. Just to let you know. We were not first. Street parking or Public parking cost $1.50/hour, and the Public parking structure was only available for parking until 10 pm. So I had to park on the street. But, some spaces on the street were free after 6 pm. Confused? Yeah, me too. We decided to drive to the Wharf and pay for parking there, hoping we could get the parking validated if we ate there. The drive to the Wharf was uneventful. Easy in fact. We found a parking structure. It was a pre pay parking structure, with very unclear directions on it's use. We found a place to park, went to the electronic kiosk, and started to try to figure it out. OK, $1 for the first hour, and $2 per hour after that, $12 for a full day, or $15 for 24 hours. OK, I had no clue how long we would be there, so I figured the $12 option was the easiest to figure, I hit that button. It charged me $15. OK, three dollars more, no biggie, all I had was a 20 dollar bill. I figured that the little machine would give change, since NO WHERE was there a sign that said you had to have exact change. NOPE, no change. $20 to park for about 3 1/2 hours.
The Wharf and the Pier were crowded beyond belief. Have you ever left a popular concert and felt a bit claustrophobic in a crowd? That is how it was everywhere down there! We ran into a literal gang of 14 - 30 year old boys/men, all dressed in red and sporting gang tattoos and personna. I was a bit intimidated. They took, literally, the whole sidewalk, with people spilling into the streets to get out of their way.
We decided to go to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner. I knew it would be a bit of a wait. It was a one hour 15 minute to one hour 30 minute wait. So, we put in our names, and shopped a bit. We returned 1 hour and 5 minutes later, on the off chance that the wait might be shorter. NOPE. We were seated at 7 pm. Our waitress was horrible. I think she came by like three times. Our food took forever, and I couldn't wait to get out of there. We finally were leaving at about 8:30! We shopped a bit more, then decided to head back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel, and I decided to check to see if maybe one of the cars in the free parking lot had left, no such luck. So, we drove around and around and around the block to find a place. Finally, we found a place right around the corner from the hotel, but the space was big enough for maybe a Ford Festiva (very tiny car), A got out of the car and motioned me into the space while I parallel parked. I didn't hit the Lexus SUV in front of me, or the Toyota SUV behind me, and there were easily 3 inches between both bumpers, front and back! Wow! We went to our room feeling a bit proud of ourselves.
The next morning I had to run to Walgreens for hairspray and the few things that we forgot, like toothpaste. I loved the neighborhood we were staying in. It was so nice. We walked to Starbucks, which surprise, surprise, was right around the corner. Who would have thought? we headed back to the room for a bagel and to get ready for competition.
We were lucky enough to find a very close, free, parking place at St. Mary's Cathedral. We made it in to the competition. We needed to pay the entrance fee for competing. Went to the desk, and they had no record of R. So, after 30 minutes of looking for our account every way possible, we made a new one, and I paid and registered her. We were finally on our way.
She competed. This is the good part! She danced 8 dances. She placed in all but 2. She competes in Novice and Prizewinner levels. In her Novice dances she placed 3 second places, in her Prizewinner she placed a third, a second and a FIRST! It was the first time she had competed in that particular dance in Prizewinner, and she took a FIRST! I was so proud of her, and she was proud of herself.
Our trip home began at 3:41. We walked in the door at 8 pm, after a stop for dinner at Cordelia Junction, and a potty stop. We also had to drop off R's friend. We made excellent time coming home. Which was so nice. I don't think I could have handled a 6 hour drive home.
That sums it up! This time, I don't think I left my heart in SF. I usually love the city, but this time it was full of frustrations for me. Next time will be better.