I Wonder as I Wander…

We ended up being at San Francisco State University for nearly two weeks—and it was ironic because just after we left—Ross went there for a week and a half for his conference.

We were a little bit late getting into San Francisco and I was concerned because we were meeting some other people from HQ and catching a ride to the University. Just as we were getting off the plane, I noticed a Delta gate right across from our gate. Pretty soon here came the people we were going to meet—their plane was a little late as well.

We got to the University and got into our rooms and then eight of us were going out to find something to eat—we got into two cars and the drivers took off. They both had GPS systems, but didn’t decide where they were going to eat. They said ‘we’ll find something’. So we drive around and fiddle with the GPS and call the people in the other car—and then drive some more and call the people in the other car—and drive some more. At one time there were two people in our car on the phone with two different people in the other car. Pretty soon we were right downtown San Francisco wandering around. Finally, we said ‘let’s just go back to that mall that’s close to the college and go to one of their restaurants’. The people in the other car decided they were still going to look for some place else. So we went back to the mall and went to an Olive Garden—the wait would be 90 minutes (and it was 8:30 pm)—so we checked out a Mexican place and only had a 20 minute wait. About the time we got in and sat down, we saw the other people come in. They tried the Olive Garden first and then ended up at the Mexican place as well.

That night we were so cold—there was no heat in the dorms and only a sheet and thin blanket. And it set a record low temp that night. So the next day several of us went to a target store and bought some cheap clothes. We also invested in wash clothes, a rug, and a hair dryer—some things that we had forgot to pack and some things to make our room a little nicer.

We had really great speakers and I had a good time because I was assigned to be the chauffer for some of the speakers, so I went with another staff member and picked up speakers at their hotel and dropped them off at the hotel or the airport. It was fun to escort them and get to visit with them a little more.

Then after Wednesday evening’s speaker, we discovered the speaker was going to take a taxi to Sausalito—which would have cost a small fortune, so Bob and I drove him home. The session didn’t end until 10:30 pm—and it was an hour drive each way—so it got pretty late. As we were coming into Sausalito, he asked if we wanted to take the quick way or the scenic way. Since we always like the scenic way, that’s what we opted for. We ended up driving right down by the water, where you could see the Golden Gate Bridge and there was a big huge full moon just hanging over the water—it was absolutely beautiful.

On Our R & R day, we decided to drive to Monterey—which is a beautiful drive right along the ocean. The road is a little crooked, but very pretty. It took us a couple hours to get there and we saw that they had a whale watching tour—so we got tickets. Then we had lunch--I had clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl and Bob had fish and chips. Since it was windy and a bit cool on the water, we went back and put on a few more layers of clothes before our whale watch. My college roommate and I went on a Whale watch in Maine and I remember we all watched for the blow when the whales surface and then hurry over to catch a glimpse before they go back down (for up to five minutes). This was the same way—we did a lot of looking and waiting, but didn’t see them up very close. Although we did see those big huge tails go up in the air when they dove—so it was neat. I was glad we didn’t have a camera, because so many people around us were standing there with a camera and trying to get a picture and would miss it every time. It was better to at least see it.

We finished our conference on Saturday at noon and our flight didn’t leave until midnight—so we had some time to kill. We had noticed a place called ‘sea horses’ when we were driving to Monterey where there were horses to rent and ride along the ocean. So we went down there and did a two hour horse back ride. We rode a path on top of the bank and then cut down and rode right along the water—we tried to get our horses to go into the water, but they didn’t like getting their feet wet at all. I was surprised, because we rode right along the beach where there were lots of people swimming and sun bathing. I don’t think it would be too much fun to walk along the beach and have to avoid the ‘horse apples’. We also really commented on how rough the ride was—I guess we’re spoiled because Sandy’s horses are so smooth.

We were both upgraded to first class for the trip to the cities, which was nice because we wanted to sleep since it was from midnight until 6 am. We got back home on the 10:30 am flight.