To finish a vacation

Why is it that vacations are the hardest to blog about? I usually put off blogging vacations because of the enormity of the task. So many photos, so many experiences, where to begin, what to leave out...... Am I the only one out there with this issue?

I spent all day today, and all night last night (until 3am) working on handmade Matching Game cards for the upcoming Severson Reunion. I enjoyed it, and as Joe says.."You are way too much the perfectionist" I know it, and so then I have to do all I can to make each photo look its very best, printing, cutting gluing, modge-podging, spraying, varnishing.... and I don't get stressed to start it and I linger longer than I should on the project.

But when it comes to blogging vacations I feel the need to get it done fast, there is this invisible pressure to hurry, to get done, to not take so long. Maybe this is good, and maybe it should be applied to my other projects, so I don't waste so much time, but really it just causes me a bit of anxiety and I feel like I should be doing something else.

That said though, I really love blogging, especially about the little things in my life, about funny instances or weird occurrences. The Creative writing part of blogging, not the chronological blogging. I guess that is what it comes down to. Writing a blog on a vacation is like a report, you need to do it, you like the outcome, it just isn't as much fun as playing with the words in a good story.

So without further ado:
Here are some of the rest of the pictures from our trip to California the end of May, 1st of June.


A While back I blogged about driving to California. When we got there the first thing we did was drop the kiddos off at Grandma's and head to THE city by the Bay. Our old haunting grounds. Joe had a free 2 night stay at a Grand Hyatt anywhere....well just about anywhere. Not any of the really convenient ones, but a free night stay in a Hyatt is still not to be missed.

Ours was the Hyatt by the Airport, not in downtown SF. But it was still very nice!!

While we were there, there was a huge KublaCon Convention for gamers. And if you are thinking video games, you are way off. These are the serious D&D gamers, board games-not your Milton variety, but the expensive complicated strategy kind. One of the nights we snuck in and got a "Days of Wonder" game called Pirates Cove for $20 bucks, normally they sell for $50. It was fun. Aimee, you would have loved it! They also had real live game competitions going on, with your typical single white, fat, middle aged men (who still lives with his mom) at every table!!In this picture are the view from our room out to the bay, into the Hotel courtyard, our room, and the KublaCon convention. Click on it to view it better.

The thing about SF is that you don't really want to drive into the city, you want to take public transportation and then walk where you want. Parking is a nightmare.
But, since we weren't in the downtown Hilton, the convenience of just walking out the door to see the sights wasn't an option. And since the SF Airport Hyatt isn't actually in SF, but south in Burlingame, we had to get a little creative in our transportation. We took a shuttle from the Hotel to the Airport, hopped on Bart at the airport station, rode that into town and then walked everywhere, and rode the trolley. Lots o fun. That was half of our day right there. But, really it was fun.

It's amazing to go somewhere without kids, all of a sudden you exist in other peoples eyes, and you can strike up conversations and meet interesting people. It's a whole new world! We met a really neat couple from England and hung out with them for a good portion of the day! It was so Cool.

In this picture collage, is our many different types of transportation. Good 'ol BART, a trolley, walking...and walking. I even got a snapshot of Joe's old BART Train line he rode on everyday to work and the BART gates. Again click, I don't know why the collage it fuzzy on the blog, it is fine when you click on it.



Walking around town here are some of the sights we saw:
A street Dancer (or 3)
Interesting Architecture
Interesting people
Lombard Street (the crookedest street in the world)
Building art (what a graffiti artist's dream job would be)
Random Heart Sculptures throughout the city
an old church in the midst of skyscrapers,
all in the day of the life of a city

While we were there Joe was nice enough to let me persuade him to go to the SF MOMA. It was a blast! I mean where else can you find a pile of rocks displayed as art, or a tangle of wires, or a bunch of toothpicks!! It is way too much fun! Joe actually really enjoyed it too, even if we did have to "check" our water bottle at the front desk.
Of course, there was also the standby urinal art, but I didn't get a shot of that.

Here is the rest of what we saw at the MOMA, including Alexander Calder's Mobiles (my son Calder is an artist and loves Calder's work -of course), various sculptures out of random materials, paintings and... across the way (out a window) Waldo is hiding for you to find. Can you fin him in the center photo? Click to enlarge. Also there is A. Calder's welded autograph. Very cool.

I want to go again, way too much to see and so little time. I get lost in these places (in a good way)


Of course, a trip to SF wouldn't be complete without dining on ice cream and Chocolate at Ghirardelli's.
YUM!!
My favorite part is watching the chocolate be made, very cool!!
A great time with a great hubby!!
Thanks for the one on one time babe!