San Francisco–Day 1

In mid-April, Jonathan headed to his office’s national conference and I was able to tag along again. This year’s conference was held in San Francisco. So a few Friday’s ago, we all packed up our bags and drove down to drop our kids off with my parents in Eustis. After a few hours of sleep, Jonathan and I were up at 4:30am getting ready to head to the Orlando International Airport for our morning flight.

We parked then took a shuttle over to the airport, checked our bags, then headed to our gate. As we grabbed a quick bite of breakfast at the Burger King in the terminal, we watched the sun rise out the east windows. Soon it was time to board and we were on our way to Denver.

The first of many food pictures!

In Denver, we had enough time to eat lunch at Quizno’s before boarding for the last leg of the trip. We ended up having the same crew as the first leg, just a different plane.

The flight from Denver to San Francisco was the bumpiest part of the trip. We ended up having a slight delay landing in San Francisco since the wind was blowing about 25 mph, but after circling a bit we landed safely. We caught a cab and headed to the Marriot.

With the three hour time change, we still had plenty of time to do a little bit of sightseeing that day even though by the time we’d landed we’d been in the air almost eight hours. So, after unpacking and getting coats on, we headed out to take a subway to Ocean Beach to watch the sunset.

We caught the subway underground, but spent most of the ride outside as we headed west and got off at the end of the line. As soon as we were out, I wanted to see the ocean. I had never seen the Pacific before and didn’t want to wait.

It was so cold and so windy. If you look at the sand, you can see the streaks where the sand is blowing. But is was absolutely gorgeous.

The sea was very rough, in fact, signs were posted cautioning about even wading because of the bad rip currents. That didn’t deter people from kitesurfing. I think we saw about three people out there. You can see one in the photo above.

It was a beautiful wide beach.

I (barely) touched the water. I’m guessing it was in the 50s while we were out that day, and the wind was still around 20mph so it was cold out and the water felt colder.

Jonathan went out a bit further than I did.

I spent most of the time out there with my super lightweight scarf tied over my ears. Jonathan doubted that it did any good, but it at least kept some of that wind off!

SO COLD! But it’s the Pacific!!

A windmill in Golden Gate Park.

As you can tell from the photos, we had a bit of time to spare before sunset so we decided to walk the beach then find a bite to eat.

The winds swept away the footprints on the little dune behind me.

We walked along the beach about a mile and up to the Cliff House restaurant and saw a bit of Sutra Baths. We went past Cliff House to eat at a place called Louis’ but it had just closed. So we turned and made our way back to the one lone restaurant we had seen on our walk, a Burger King. They were closing a 7pm and we walked in at 6:50pm. We ordered then left to find a place semi-sheltered from the wind to eat.

We found a place that wasn’t quite as windy and huddled together to eat our dinner. We were pretty hungry by that point…since we were still pretty much on east coast time and it was almost 10pm there…so I’m pretty sure anything would have tasted good. But that was quite possibly the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten.

When we finished, we still had about 20 minutes until sunset so we sought shelter in a Safeway grocery store directly across from the beach. I know that sounds so sad, but it thawed us out enough so that we could actually enjoy the sunset. And it was a good one.

Isn’t that beautiful?

That Saturday we watched the sun rise on the east coast from the airport and watched it set over the Pacific. Pretty amazing.

After the last sliver of the sun dipped out of sight, we high-tailed it over to the bus stop to catch a ride back to our hotel.

On the bus on the way back.

It was a long, full, memorable day. We were both so cold though by the time we got back, we ended up both taking showers just to get warm. I’m pretty sure that as soon as my head hit that pillow though, I was out. And we were both up early the next day, ready to head out to see more.

Easter Sunday 2013

We celebrated our risen Savior at the end of March this year.

On Easter we woke up and got ready for church. We had a quick breakfast then the kids hunted for their Easter baskets.

Charlotte went first and found her basket full of candy and her first Bible. As soon as she saw it she said, “Bible!” Good job, Charlotte!

Next up was Ben.

Ben is still pretty into the Titanic.

And Rosemary found her American Girl Samantha mini-doll and books.

We snapped a quick picture before heading to church at Westside Baptist that morning. Charlotte said her dress was a “princess dress” so she was posing like a princess.

The Breman’s joined us for lunch after church as we wrapped up celebrating Resurrection Sunday.

Spring Break 2013

At the end of March, the kids and I took a week off for spring break. I think we were all ready to take a step back from the routine of preschool, homeschool, and all of the other usual weekly commitments. We spent the first part of the week close to home then headed down to Eustis for a few days at the end of the week when Jonathan had some time off too.

One of the days we headed over to SeaWorld.

Ben and Rosemary were very excited about their whale flukes necklaces.

After SeaWorld, we stopped off to visit a bit with Janey and Becky (and finished delivering all of the Girl Scout cookies!) It was good to see each of them and catch up.

Before heading back to Gainesville, we met up with Jonathan’s side of the family for a picnic. It was perfect weather and so fun to see everyone.

Janice had an Easter egg hunt for the kids to enjoy.

Rosemary had a great time playing with her cousins. She said that playing with Breanna was the best part.

Charlotte desperately wanted a picture taken after she ate her cupcake.

Ben enjoyed the icing on his cupcake…not sure if he actually ate the cake part of it.

Jonathan and I walked with the kids down to the water. We played and visited a bit more before heading back to Gainesville.

We hadn’t dyed Easter eggs yet and Janice gave both Rosemary and Ben paint sticks to paint eggs with so when we got home, I headed to work and Jonathan boiled some eggs. The kids painted them that night.

Girl Scout Cookies 2013

This year Rosemary sold 300 boxes of cookies during presales. Jonathan and I spent an evening sorting them then Rosemary and I spent the next two weeks distributing them. It was a big job, but she did a great job!

Georgefest in Eustis

The last weekend of February we visited my mom and dad and attended our very first Georgefest. We headed over to Bay Street for the parade first.

O-ho the Wells Fargo wagon is a-comin’ down the street…

What parade is complete without Shriners in little cars?

After the parade, we took the kids to the carnival. Rosemary and Ben thoroughly enjoyed riding the rides (I was mildly terrified that one of the rides would come apart at the bolts) while my parents took Charlotte down to the waterfront. Ben wanted to ride this car ride several times, but Rosemary ventured out and started riding the big rides, including the big swing. She’s suddenly gotten so big.

We met up for lunch at Crazy Gators. That night we enjoyed Stavro’s pizza for dinner.

In the morning, we visited First Baptist Umatilla with my parents before we got a quick bite to eat then headed back home. We had a great weekend. I think we’ll probably be celebrating many more Georgefests.

Flying with Grandpa

We visited with Janice and Richard a few weekends ago and while there, Richard took Jonathan, Rosemary, and Ben up for a quick flight, the first one for Rosemary and Ben. It was a very chilly and windy weekend so the wind made things a bit more exciting than usual, but I think the kids still enjoyed the adventure.

The next day, we went to church at Real Life in Clermont. We met up with Jonathan’s best friend, Bennett, and his family, and I got to see my old swim buddy from Lake Aurora, Janna. We hadn’t seen each other in about 20 years and it was a fun reunion.

Fort Matanzas

One Saturday in early February, we woke up to a beautiful day and no plans on our calendar. Jonathan suggested driving over to St. Augustine and visiting Ft. Matanzas. We’d been talking about going for ages, so we loaded up the car and headed out.

Along the way we stopped at Corky Bell’s in Palatka for lunch. We got a table right on the river. While it was nice and bright, when the wind kicked up is was a bit chilly and all of the kids ended up wearing their hoodies. But it was so fun watching the boats dock.

When we arrived, Jonathan headed to the visitor’s center to get our tickets for the boat ride over to the fort. The next available time slot wasn’t for an hour or so, so we headed over to the nature trail then let the kids climb on the trees while we waited.

It was pretty fun taking the little boat ride to the fort.

It’s definitely not a big place, compared to Castillo de San Marcos, but really interesting, nonetheless.

The kids piled in the tower.

Steps led up to the second floor, but to get to the roof you had a climb up a ladder. We all went to the top. Jonathan carried Charlotte, Rosemary followed, then Ben, and I came up last.

The view was beautiful from the roof

We headed back down in reverse order.

Before catching the boat back, we walked around the grounds at the fort.

When we arrived back at the visitor’s area, we drove across to one of the beach parking areas. We walked down to the inlet then back up to the car. It was a good 40 minute walk.

It was chilly, but the kids were not deterred from putting their feet in the water.

One of my favorite photos of Jonathan and the kids.

From there we loaded up and went to Saltwater Cowboy for dinner. I had fried clam strips, french fries, and coleslaw, the same meal that I ate earlier in the day at Corky Bell’s. (Is that wrong to eat the same meal twice in the same day at two different restaurants?) By then it was getting late so we headed home. Happy, thankful, and full of wonderful memories.