San Francisco

Wow, time flies. This picture was taken in San Francisco back in early November. Joseph had budget meetings for work in San Francisco and spouses were invited. This was our first event with his new company PLUM Healthcare. I loved it. It was interesting getting into San Francisco, but the week ended up being lots of fun.

My mom took care of things on the home-front and really deserves a ton of credit for what she did. Brynn had 3 days of 4 hour rehearsals until late into the evenings on school nights and Mom was kind enough to take not only her, but the rest of the kids to the dress rehearsals which were 35 minutes away. She was amazing.

Joseph was already in San Francisco when I arrived, so I was to meet him at the hotel. We were staying at the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. I flew into San Francisco airport and because traffic and parking is crazy, they told us not to rent cars but to get taxis and have drivers take us where we needed to go. We were also very close to the shopping district, so we could walk to get to places to do things. I arrived in SF and went to find a taxi. I had never ridden in a taxi before so I was a little nervous. I had 2 suitaces in tow and I found a driver to take me to the hotel. After I got in the car, I had this terrible nervous and anxious feeling. The cab driver stunk like cigarette smoke, and was kind of a maniac of a driver. He told me he had to charge me extra and it was going to take longer to get there because it was the day after the Giants had won the World Series and they were having a parade through town. I started practicing situation management to figure out what I would do and how I would escape if this guy was a bad dude.

We finally made it into the city and traffic was at a standstill just off of the 80. I could tell the guy needed a smoke because he kept tapping his knuckles on the window and bouncing and acting really irritable. He looked at me and said, "I can't take you the rest of the way, it will take too long...get out here, walk up about a mile, and catch another cab on Market Street." I was so scared that I just got out. I was also so scared that I even offered to pay him, even though he was dropping me off, just off the freeway, in a ghetto-y area, 2 miles from where I needed to be. I'm very familiar with the Embarcadero area of San Fran from our time living in Northern CA, but I wasn't familiar at all with where he dropped me off, so I put my head up and walked fast. There were some real doozies I had to walk past, but luckily because of the parade there were plenty of people out, so I felt okay. I got a hold of Joe. He was in meetings. I was so mad and hot from walking and pulling my luggage all over downtown San Francisco!!!! He told me where I was and where I needed to go and then he met me at Union Square and we walked up the 90% incline hill to the hotel. He told me I never should have paid the cab driver and that I should have demanded a ride to the door of the hotel. You live and learn.

When we arrived it was time to get dressed in theater attire to go to dinner and then to see the Broadway play of "West Side Story." I was so sticky from my long hike there. It was CRAZY, but I was glad I was safe. It was fun to meet many of the other administrators and visit at dinner. Everyone was so nice! "West Side Story" was awful. The PLUM directors felt so bad. They've done theater in SF before and have had bad experiences because of the liberties that are taken in that city, but they felt "West Side Story" would be safe. It wasn't. It will take a long time before I can listen to some of the songs again because of the liberties they took. It was so disgusting and sad that people can twist and be so evil in their actions and intentions. Members of Plum's executive team apologized to us personally afterward.

The Governator of California, good ol' Arnold was staying in the same hotel. It was election week, so Joseph saw him with his body guards walking into the hotel on election night.

On one of the mornings, they called for a spouse's meeting where they told us a little about the history and beginnings of PLUM and then we were allowed to ask them any questions we wanted about anything. We all introduced ourselves and they gave us shopping money and gift bags with maps and other goodies to enjoy San Francisco. I went with a group to Union Square to shop and have lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. It's been forever since I've been shopping (unless you count groceries) and even longer since I've been without kids. I didn't know what to do with myself.

Joseph met me a little later in the day. We did a little more shopping and then we went back to the hotel to get ready for the dinner, entertainment and dance.

I spent the afternoon with Joseph and later that evening we had a more formal dinner and then they did PLUM skits GLEE style. It was hilarious. I live under a rock and have never watched the show GLEE (or about any other tv show for that matter) but it was fun to see what everyone came up with and to hear some fun renditions of songs from the past. I think lots of the skits were later posted on YouTube. We all had tender cheeks and perma-grin. It was a very fun night. We ended with a dance. It was fun. They had hired a couple of people to come and help liven up the dance. At first Joe and I thought they were intruders, but we went to talk to them and found out it was their job. They were really fun. Most of the administrators are also members of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), and some of the owners and directors of the company also are. Because the majority of those in attendance don't drink alchohol, they didn't serve alchohol and the event planners and servers for the night said, "We have never seen a party with that much action, and that's without alcohol, we would hate to see what it would be like if you DID serve alcohol." It was funny.

I'm tired and need to go to bed, but I will say that we left early because Brynn was performing that night with the other conservatory ballet students a piece from the Coppelia ballet and we had to make it back. We woke up early and headed for the airport right after breakfast. Joseph made it up to me by hiring a respectable driver with a private car, who was clean-cut and very professional, who took us exactly where we needed to go. As independent as I think I am or try to be sometimes, I'll admit, I was glad I didn't have to find a driver for the trip back to the airport. I've decided that Joseph knows how to pick them much better. :)

Oakland and San Francisco

We started out the trip with Grandma Rowene and Grandpa Billy in Oakland. After picking them up from the airport, we stayed in a hotel in Oakland so that the next day we could go to the Oakland Temple for Grandma and Grandpa to do a session. The kids thought this ledge in the hotel room was a fun stage and put on quite the show for us. They were so excited to see Grandm and Grandpa. While Grandma and Grandpa did a session, I walked around the temple grounds with the kids and then visited the Visitors Center. The sister who took us through spent some years living in Salem with her family and knew Joseph's younger brother Abe, small world. She was very sweet. There was a Arnold Friberg exhibit going on and she showed us all of his Book of Mormon paintings. It was neat to see how many of the stories our kids could tell about, just by seeing the pictures. They really do listen after all! It also made me very grateful for faithful primary teachers and leaders who take their callings seriously and help us to help our children. I love all of his paintings. It was beautiful to see the actual paintings rather than the prints we are used to seeing in the Gospel Art Kit.

Aaron did not want Grandpa to go into the temple without him. He threw a huge fit when Grandpa walked in and then he needed his diaper changed. He wanted Grandpa to put his pants back on, but Grandpa was gone, so I resisted the screaming and let him walk around in his diaper. Joseph hates it when he sees kids in just diapers, especially his own, but it wasn't a battle I was willing to fight.

Aaron eventually felt it was a little breezy and asked me to put his pants back on. Whew! The temple grounds were beautiful. This temple is about 1 1/2 hours away from where we live, so we attend the Sacramento one which is about 45 minutes away.
After Grandma and Grandpa were finished we headed into San Francisco to get some soup and bread bowls before heading home. We stopped at Boudin's right by Fisherman's Wharf. This is our favorite spot, we always like to see the different shapes and animals they make with their sourdough bread, and we love their yummy soup.
We drove through and looked at a few sights in San Fransisco and then headed north on the Golden Gate bridge into Marin County. We drove through Sausalito and then through some of the rolling hills on the edge of wine country. It was a very pretty and relaxing drive back to Woodland.