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Dear Readers,

Welcome to my public blog. I use this blog now only for my non-family related posts. All of our family posts, including pictures and videos of our little guy, can now be seen on our private blog. Our private blog can be found HERE.

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Happy Blogging! -Lara

Sunday, November 2, 2008

San Francisco!

I am a bit behind in my blogging. I have been pretty overwhelmed at school getting caught up and just haven't had the energy to even type :) I have been getting caught up because I took 3 days off to go with Jayson on a business trip to San Francisco! He was in business meetings all day so I explored a lot on my own and though I would have liked to spend more time with Jayson we still had a lot of fun. Here are some quick highlights:

DAY 1

We stayed in the San Francisco Marriott which is quite possibly the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed in! I've decided I could get used to these business trips where the bank puts us up in a fancy hotel for 3 days.




After checking in we decided to go explore the city together since it would be the only afternoon Jayson wasn't in meetings. We had fun checking out some street performers



Getting lost trying to figure out the public transportation system



Finally finding our way to the waterfront


And having dinner in Ghiradelli Square! When you order a whole bass, they really mean the WHOLE BASS! We were a bit grossed out by it when the waiter plopped it down on the table. However, once we got past the scary exterior the meat was actually quite delicious.


DAY 2

I took off by myself in the morning and went on a boat ride out to Alcatraz Island. I had a fantastic time exploring the island and taking the prison audio tour. The tour is narrated by 4 former prison guards and 4 former inmates. It was fascinating!








After Alcatraz I spent the rest of the afternoon with one of my old roommates from Rick's, Kari-Lynn, and her two cute little boys. I forgot to take any pictures with them :(

That evening we headed to a ritzy restaurant where we were wined and dined by one of the bank's investors! Actually we were just dined :) It was pretty funny because oddly enough our whole table was LDS so when we all refused a glass of wine our waiter was pretty confused. He probably hasn't ever had that happen before! The meal was delicious but we felt a bit out of place with all of the other "high-rollers", the world of business sure is different than the life we are used to.

DAY 3

In the morning I met one of my BYU college friends, Laura, for breakfast. I was so glad to know folks I could visit out there!

After breakfast we walked around the neighborhood where she works (she is also a Speech Pathologist, but at a private clinic! I am so jealous :) She took me to see some of the old mansions built back in the early days of the city. This was the home of Peter Schmidt, an apparently famous architect


Danielle Steele, the famous romance novelist, lives in this house now. We couldn't really get a good view of it though because of the huge wall! I guess she likes her privacy :)


After Laura had to go back to work I headed back up to Ghiradelli Square where I of course bought some chocolate! Then walked down to Fisherman's Wharf and enjoyed walking down the Pier. The highlight of my walk was stopping at a window to watch some men making sourdough bread. It was fascinating and I picked up some new techniques for shaping a loaf of bread. Jayson got done at 4:00 so I went back to the hotel to meet him and then we went to dinner at Fino, an Italian restaurant recommended by a friend. It was delicious!


THE END :)

5 comments:

Jess said...

Looks like you've had some fun lately! I would like to go to San Francisco someday- it looks like you had a great trip.

Kelly said...

I love San Francisco. That's were Paul and I went on our honeymoon. We had a blast! Glad to hear you did too. So, were is the next business trip????

Laura Foster said...

awe...so fun to see myself in your blog! :) I'm so glad I got to see you while you were here! Let me know if you ever come out here again. :)

shawnajctenney.blogspot.com said...

Your month sounds a little bit like mine! What a fun little business trip. It's always fun to take a couple days off and have some fun. I went to San Fransisco once when Cassidy was about 8 months old. We went to China town. I forgot to bring a stroller or a carrier or anything, so we had to walk around those steep streets, taking turns carrying her. She was pretty good. She took a nap while my dad was carrying her. We also got to go down to Fisherman's Warf. Fun stuff!

Matt and Cristina said...

What a fun trip! It looks like you did a lot in 3 days. I am very impressed you ate that fish, by the way.