San Francisco

Well, my 11 year old's class had a field trip to San Francisco and stayed on the Balculutha Thursday night. I took two days off of work to drive down and stay in a hotel room with some friends, while C worked on the ship and other parents were "tall sailors". I did not volunteer to be a tall sailor, I don't like being cold that much.

Thursday we were to be at school at 8 am. My children couldn't remember any of their stuff, so we were late! My truck was the hauling vehicle for all of the kids' stuff. We loaded it up and were out of the parking lot by 8:30. It was raining and miserable all the way down to SF. We made it in about 3 hours, the directions were wrong, they said to stay to the left, but then you had to take the right hand exit...fortunately, I know SF well enough, that we took the scenic route, and it only took us about 10 extra minutes.

We got the kids unloaded and onto the Eureka to get ready for their big day/night on the boat, and we headed off to park our cars and check into the hotel. My truck wouldn't fit into the parking garage. So, I parked on the street to wait for the others to park then we were going to check into our hotel, and begin our fun afternoon. The red battery light turned on in the truck. I called Erich and asked him about it. He said bad words, then said that the alternator was going out and I had to turn it off right now! I was parked in a passenger loading zone waiting for my friend to park her car. I tore off to the hotel and parked there, checked into the hotel, and headed back to the parking garage to meet my friends. I was stressed out beyond words, Erich was going to take a half day off and drive to SF to replace the alternator in the truck then drive back home. I made arrangements for the kids back in Chico, and tried to not stress out too badly.

Let me take you on a side road for a minute. EVERY CAR WE HAVE EVER OWNED HAS BROKEN DOWN ON ME!!! I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and very concerned that Erich would be majorly pissed off about having to come fix the truck.

He made it to SF by 5:30 that evening. Replaced the alternator in 1/2 hour, and headed back to Chico at 6 pm. He was the hero. He does have his good qualities (I'm trying). Then the fun began.

We walked all over the Wharf and went to a cute Irish pub for dinner and some beer. We drank too much and had a lot of fun. We walked back to the hotel, and met some Australian men, who were rather funny, and tried to follow us to our room, we got in trouble from security for making too much noise. All in all, we had a really good time.

Friday, we picked the sleepy, wet, starving sailors up and headed to In -n- Out and then back to home sweet home. C and I got home at about 4:15. He wanted a bath, so I stuck him in the tub, left T with him, and ran out to pick up M. When I got home at about 4:45, C was sitting on the chair, practically drooling on his own lap, exhausted. I took him to bed.

Erich and I had tickets to a benefit dinner for Larry Juanarena, a local restraunt owner who is terminally ill, so I had to hurry up and get ready, Erich came home and we rushed out for that.

Long story short, C slept for 15 hours! I don't think I have ever seen that child sleep that many hours consecutively ever! He woke up and seemed quite refreshed.

This goes to show, that my life can never be all that easy. It always has to have a monkey wrench thrown in.