Where in the World Are Paul & Jen?: Home Sweet California Home

Our trip to California was fantastic! It was an early flight out of Albany, but we landed in SF just before 11am so we had the whole day ahead of us. We left the airport via BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and went into the city to meet up with Summer & Liz. As we got to the hotel room, they were coming out to go downstairs to meet Kristi (another girl from nursing school). All together it was Paul, myself, Liz, Kristi, Summer, and Brian (Summer's boyfriend). Summer & B were passing through SF on their way from New Zealand/SE Asia to NYC. Kristi lives in SF now with her fiance', Liz flew in just to see Summer (and us!) and of course we were just visiting. It was perfect how the timing was well, perfect!
We couldn't get a cab all together because there were too many of us, so Paul and I started walking and it was a LONG time before we finally got a cab. We went to Joe's Cable Car Restaurant which we'd seen on The Food Network. They're famous for grinding their own meat for hamburgers. The food was ok...just ok. They forgot my fries and they don't allow you to "share" a meal. If you do, they charge you $6. I felt bad since it had been my suggestion that we go there. Oh well.
Kristi had to leave to go to work so we said goodbye to her and the five of us took a very expensive cab ride to the Golden Gate Bridge. We got out and waited for two of Brian's friends to arrive and then we walked across! It was such a beautiful day. It was an enjoyable walk and we loved soaking up the sun! I think Paul was fascinated by the bridge itself--the engineering aspect of course. It really is quite remarkable.
After our walk, we decided we'd say goodbye and head for home. We had a lengthy trip to get to San Jose via public transportation, so we left to attempt to find a cab. That proved difficult. We walked and we walked and we walked some more. We were really tired by the time we finally tracked down a cab. The cab ride back to the hotel (to get our bags) was frightening! The cabbie had poor driving skills to be sure! I don't know how many times Paul and I looked over at each other with a surprised look on our faces!
Grabbed our bags and back on BART to Milbrae where we switched to CalTrain and off we went. My parents met us with pizza in the car (bless their hearts) because it was late and they knew we were starving! A half hour drive home and we'd made it! It was a very long day, but we were home!
Greetings to my animals and a short visit and off to bed. The rest of the week was full of visiting and a couple of home improvement projects. I helped Paul install a new faucet in the laundry room and Paul and my dad worked on knocking down the rotten deck railing outside their bedroom and putting up a new one. That was a huge project! They did a great job though. And, it was hard not being able to finish everything up by the time we left, but the guys got a good jump on it and my dad could do the finish work easily by himself. His back hasn't been the best lately, so it was good that Paul was able to help as much as he could. I did what I could too, but usually was only the "tool girl" going back and forth to the shop to get tools, etc.
The weather was absolutely beautiful the entire week we were there. No rain. It was warm and sunshiney every day. It was windy quite a bit, but that didn't matter to us. We enjoyed the cherry orchard in bloom, we loved smelling the orange blossoms on the trees, and had fun playing with the dogs and cat.
We did a lot of cooking too! My favorite was the homemade ravioli. It was a three person job! My mom, Paul, and I all worked together on an assembly line of sorts to mass produce ravioli for dinner. And they turned out super too! Yum!
Before we knew it, the week was gone and it was time to go back to NY. : ( It's never easy to leave home, that's for sure. Hopefully we'll be able to go back this summer for a visit!
Thanks Mom & Dad! We love & miss you!