Two Months Home

Well, we've been home for two months now.  While it was really nice to see our home (and to have our great shower!), I still miss San Francisco.  This morning, for instance, I was lying in bed playing games on my phone (a terrible habit I started in SF), my heart felt sad when I thought of all the wonderful things we did and saw and knowing that we won't do/see them again.  I keep thinking about things and am afraid I'll forget them.  The plan was to write down things I wanted to include in this list into my phone.  But my phone was reset the other day and I lost a lot of the lists I had there.  So I better start writing them down here:

Things Never to Forget:

Botega

Rashad (Gamecock Club)

Sam's on Tiburon Island

Alegria

Zuni Cafe's hour long chicken

Cliff House that looks nothing like it does in pictures

Marina Green

Walking to Safeway

Driving to Trader Joe's (finally)

The nice man on Scott who would give Missy treats as we walked by

The geese at the Palace

The funny store in Sausalito

Watching Downton Abbey and Hotel Hell on my computer

Faustus (E' Angelo)

Fleet Week

Jacinta and Cian
Flip's valley girls
Rude people sitting around the fire at Bin 38
Studio on Chestnut (great clothing store)
Shopping on Union Street
Le Boulange
Little Italy
Washington Square
Ferry Terminal
Sausalito
Crissy Beach
Wine box end table
Sunday mornings in bed drinking coffee and reading the paper with the dogs sleeping at our feet
The cafe where The Godfather was written
Beach Blanket Babylon
The "best ice cream in the world" that turned out to be just ok.
The movie theaters
Went to see Argo but went into the wrong theater so we had to get up and leave
"Easy Bake Kitchen"
Evening wine on the patio bouncing the tennis ball
Avila Street (my favorite street)

I truly did leave my heart in San Francisco.  

On to the next adventure.

The ride home

The drive home:
We stopped in Santa Barbara, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Lubbock, San Antonio, Austin  Baton Rouge, Dauphin Island, Alabama, then home.  Santa Barbara was okay, too close to LA, though.  Which, by the way took Ojia off our retirement list.  It's really close to LA, which Don calls the armpit of America!  Phoenix was alright the second time, I don't remember much about Albuquerque except that it's a large city.  Lubbock was awful.  We did have a great dinner that night, but breakfast the next day was horrible!  We Yelped breakfast and found a place that had pretty good review.  They only served breakfast, so that was a good sign, they had lots of practice!

Update

Okay, I've missed posting quite a lot.  Michael and Katie, Maggie and Ben, Thanksgiving and so much more.  But once I got behind it seemed impossible to catch up.

I'll recap the important stuff.

Michael and Katie came.  They stayed at the Sheraton at Fisherman's Wharf which turned out to be a nice little hotel.  We did Muir Woods, Little Italy, China Town, and Alcatraz.  We drove them around the city and drove the hills and down to Castro.  It was a nice little visit and super good to see Michael.  Except they fought every evening when they got back to the hotel.  That kind of put a bummer on things.

Maggie and Ben next.  We also went to Muir Woods (I'm okay not seeing it again for a while), Little Italy, and China Town.  But Ben wanted to do something a little different.  We took one day and drove down to Palo Alto.  We saw Oracle, Facebook, Apple, HP, Google, and Intel.  I'm really glad we did that.  I wouldn't have thought to do that while we're here and it was really interesting.

The bikes at Google

Oracle, they were actually a bunch of buildings but looked like one when driving there

When I asked Siri where she lived, she said "right here"

Then I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in my "easy bake kitchen" while they were here.  Maggie insisted that we have the usual dishes, which was seconded and third-ed by everyone else.  I was able to make a half recipe of Brussels sprouts and a 10 lb turkey.  I couldn't halve Mom's sausage stuffing so I had to make the whole thing (which, by the way, got eaten!).  We had Momama's gherkins and olives she had every year (although I don't know why), and I made a cranberry sauce that was just okay.  Then for dessert we had chocolate pecan pie.  The meal was not as good as when I make it at home, but looking at the kitchen, I understand why.  I didn't take a picture of the kitchen after I finished cooking but I wish I had; every surface had a dirty dish on it or a finished product.  It was crazy.  But a wonderful meal and great company.  Then a walk to the Marina Green and back to play some Uno.  Maggie has always had one of the best senses of humor that I've seen.  Unfortunately she keeps it a well guarded secret!

Okay, that'Michael's visit, Maggie's visit and Thanksgiving.  We also took a trip to Carmel and Big Sur.

Clint Eastwood's restaurant, Mission Ranch

After all that, it was time to start thinking about packing up.  The thought of leaving made me so sad.  I walked around our neighborhood taking pictures of street signs and places that we've been:

Faustus, the waiter at e 'Angelo

We had our first dinner in San Francisco here

Great fire pit out back

Ristobar

Great bakery in Little Italy

Our hair salon, nice people but expensive!

The Marina Green

Alcatraz from the Marina Green

Our table at the Tipsy Pig

Complimentary Tiramisu at our last dinner at e 'Angelo

  Even today (we've been home for 3 weeks now) my heart is sad thinking about leaving there.  I loved our stay in San Francisco.  Don says our life style there probably had a lot to do with it (and he's right), but I'll always have a special place in my heart for San Francisco.