Bummed out.

I always get the blues when I get back from holidays.  I’m sure I’m not the only one in the world that gets like this??? 

At the end of the week, I was starting to miss people, home, my computer, my bed, etc.  But, I still didn’t want to leave.  I loved San Francisco.  So did Jacob.  And, I spent a whole week with him and now he’s at his father’s and I miss him something awful.  I’ll get over it, I know but… I’m depressed damn it!!!

So, here’s how our week went.  I sent e-mails home to the fam and this is what I wrote:

August 2:

Allo tout le monde!

We’re having a blast.  We got up super-early this morning because their 7:00 a.m. is our 10:00 a.m. and I just can’t sleep that late.

The flights were good and the ride in was fine.  We walked about 28 blocks to get to our first tour thing this morning.  So, right from the get-to, we were tired.  We saw the Golden Gate Bridge and my batteries died.  I know, you’re probably wondering why I didn’t bring extras?  I did, two sets.  They were both dead.  Piss me off!   The tour was great and we might just do it again tomorrow.

Then we went to Alkatraz.  AWESOME!  I didn’t want to get off the island.  Jacob thought it was sort of creepy in a  psychotic way.  I think Al Capone’s mug shot is hilarious!  He was kind of a funny looking guy. I got so many pics but, I can only load one at a time and it takes forever.  Otherwise I would load them all and send them home.

We’re going out now to get some groceries for tomorrow morning – yogurt, fruit, etc.  I carried around two boxes of granola bars today!  We walked tones and ate McDonald’s!  Hahaha.

I’ll write back another time. 

Dad, call in the morning… about 10:00 your time.  It’ll be 7:00 our time and you can wake us up.  (I might be awake already).

IT’S COLD HERE!!!!

Jacob ended up buying two shirts and wearing them this morning.  The GG tour was pretty freakin’ chilly!  Open-top bus…  My hair will never feel soft again! 

It got sunny though and it was better.

I think my father may have been worried.  Not sure but he called a lot.  I thought it was cute. 

The reason we walked so much was because I asked a cab to drive us to 2800 LeavenworthStreet and he laughed at me.  Then told me that Leavenworthwas only four blocks.  So we started walking.  I was a littlepissed at the guy – what an ass he was – laughing at us.  Turns out Leavenworth was only 4 blocks west but, 2800 Leavenworth was about 24 blocks north.  We walked all the way there.

On the second day (August 3rd), I wrote home and it went like this:

We were really busy today. 

We took a trolley down to Fisherman’s Warf this morning.  That was pretty cool.  Then we did the Downtown Tour, hit the wax museum, then the Golden Gate tour again so I could get some pictures.  Maybe I’ll send them tomorrow because I don’t have my usb right now.  We saw the most beautiful building!  The Palace of Fine Arts building.  Look it up.  I got pics of that!  WOOHOO.  Then we took a cab back downtown to grab the Park Loop Tour which goes down to Golden Gate Park.  We also saw the famous Painted Ladies from Full House.  They’re smaller than I would have imagined.  Still nice.  Apparently, in SF, if your Victorian house is painted more than 3 (or maybe it was 4) colors, it’s considered a Painted Lady.  Neat ha?  I also learned where the sayings “sugar daddy” and “the twinky defense” come from.  I’ll tell you guys the stories later.  After the Park Loop, which was our third and last tour for today, we went to the hotel restaurant for dinner.  It was fantastic!.  Jacob had filet mignon.  I think it was the best piece of meat I’ve ever tasted (yes, he let me have a few bites).  After dinner, we took a walk down to Chinatown.  It’s truly something else.  The shops are just out of this world.  Not like NYC where you can get lots of knock-offs in Chinatown.  This place is full of little Asian treasures.  I couldn’t buy everything so I took about a 17,457,099 pictures.

We’ve been out since about 8:00 this morning (12 hours) and are both really, really tired.  I can feel my heartbeat under my feet. I tried to bend down to take a picture of something and my knees hurt so bad I didn’t know if I’d be able to get up.  Good ol’ Lacroix knees… DAD. 

I got some tomato sauce on my favorite shirt.  BUMMER.  Scott, remind me to use your magic soap when I do my laundry.

So, that’s it for today.

Big hugs and kisses. 

Oh, and it was warmer today.

On the 4th day (August 5th), I wrote this:

So, today’s day 4 I guess.  I’m having a hard time keeping track of the days.  Yesterday, we went to the SFMOMA (Museum of Modern Art), a little of the science museum in Golden Gate Park and then the Japanese Tea Garden.  We walked around a lot and had a great time.  Our feet hurt again from all the walking.  As if we hadn’t done enough walking, I dragged Jacob to a yarn shop that I really wanted to go to and found a skein of my San Francisco Yarn to make my San Francisco Socks.  (www.urbanfaunastudio.com/) The girl was super-nice.  They weren’t even open but she let me in and chatted with me.  Then I bought a ball of merino super-wash that she died herself.  How lovely.

Today, we walked down to the cable car museum. Then went to the Exploratorium but the line up was 1.5 hours.  I chatted with a nice old man who was waiting in line in front of us by himself.  So, instead we just went to sit at the Palace of Fine Arts instead.  After that, we took a bus to the City Hall which is totally out of this world.  Then we went to the Asian Art Museum which was completely interesting – they had to kick us out because the museum was closing and we hadn’t done all the floors. 

Now we’re back at the hotel

Probably going to hit the Subway for dinner.  Jacob’s been bugging since yesterday.  We found an Indian place (The Taj Mahal) which I made him promise to come to with me maybe tomorrow.

We’re gearing up to do the Muir Woods tour tomorrow and then hang out at Pier 39.  I think that we’ll hit the SF Zoo on Friday before we go back.

That’s it for the daily report.

I think I’m starting to miss home a little.  I miss salad, my bed, having access to the Internet when I want to find something and not having to pay $5.00.  And, of course, I miss all of you.

Lots of love to everyone.

I wrote this on the before last day (August 6th) (happy birthday Scott):

So, I think I might have the “Before Last Day” blues.  I always get those.  I miss home but I also feel like there’s too much I didn’t get to see. 

Jacob and I slept in this morning.  We went for a big breakfast again (every morning – I’m all egg-ed out) and then grabbed the bus down to the Warf again.  It’s really nice down there.  I headed straight for the Starbucks and got me a Venti (that’s a 20 ouncer) Chai Late and waited for our Muir Woods/Sauselito bus to leave at 11:00.  The bus had a flat.  They sent a small bus.  The queue was long and we didn’t get on the bus.  So we headed down to Pier 39 and got our tickets for tomorrow.  (Tomorrow will be fun.)  There are hundreds of seals that hang out on the docks there.  So, we went for a little visit.  They smell bad.  Today was the day of bad smells!!!!  So, we came back and made it onto the 1:00 bus to the woods.  The tour was quite strange.  You take this little bus – driven by a guy who must be an aspiring Formula 1 driver (I felt really queasy) and only had 45 minutes in the Woods.  We still got lots of beautiful pictures.  I suspect my 1G card is almost close to being completely full.

On the way back, there were some sweaty people on the bus.  I get that some people don’t like to wear deodorant.  Not pleasant though…. 

We stayed in Sauselito ’cause I asked if they had a yarn shop… and they did.  Youpi!!!  I got more yarn…. some lace scarf yarn.  It’s smooth like melted butter (alpaca and silk – hello)! 

When we got back to the Warf, we got on a city bus.  All of a sudden, this guy comes and sits right beside me way at the back of the bus on the big bench.  He smelled like really old aged cheese (probably some really really really old and really really really sweaty shoes).  It was really tough.  I was really happy when the bus was moving so that it would sort of thin out the smell a little.  AWFUL!!!!  He must have been one of those guys that travels all over the place (and never showers) on a few $$ a day.  I should have given him the rest of the money in my wallet so he could get a room and have a shower!

So, we’re back now, it’s 7:00 and we’re going out to dinner at this Indian place we found yesterday just around the corner from our hotel.  Funny how we’ve been here for 5 days now and never saw it ’till yesterday.  Jacob got his Subway – I get my Indian.

Ciao

That Indian restaurant was fantastic by the way.  Jacob and I ate ’till we couldn’t eat anymore.  I haven’t seen him eat like that in a long time.  I love that he likes Indian food.  Not a lot of kids like food that’s not microwaveablele or friend.  Hahaha.

On the last day (August 7th), I wrote:

I can’t believe today’s our last day.  I woke up this morning and felt really bummed out.  We packed up all our stuff and have to leave it at the hotel ’cause our shuttle to the airport only picks us up at 6:35. 

We have a full day at Pier 39 today.  We won’t get to hit the SF Zoo though – which is totally unfortunate.  I really wanted to see it.  If we only had one more day….

Well, gotta run.

Will be home tomorrow morning.  But, don’t call ’cause I’ll be sleeping – getting ready to work the night shift on Saturday night at the Station.  Yuck!

We had such a fantastic time.   I would love to go back.  I’m sure there are a lot of things we didn’t see.  A week just isn’t long enough!

It’s been a tough week so far… being back at work and all.  I also got some bad news yesterday.  I didn’t get that job I really really really wanted.  Not the end of the world.  Life goes on.  Just a bummer.  The rest of the week isn’t looking that good either.  Is it just the blues?  Maybe it’s just life in general.  Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s hard.  This week, it’s hard.  It’ll get better.  It always does.

I’ll post pictures tomorrow.  This has already taken me a long time.