Annual Day Trip

San Francisco Bay Bridge


Square Garden


face on Forever 21 building


The famous San Francisco cable car


beautiful architect with old iron fire escape


my sister Jess took this photo ~ I just love it!


Always looking up


Christmas tree at Pier 39

This last Saturday, I went to San Francisco. It has started out to be a tradition of sorts that every year my Nina charters a bus. It is such a treat to not worry about parking or paying attention to driving while visiting and catching up with everyone. This is my second year that I have gotten to attend. It lands on the first weekend of December which is also one of the biggest shopping days. We start by christening the trip with a glass of mimosa. We also had a raffle on the bus to see who could win their bus fare back. It was foggy in the valley but beautiful and clear in the city of San Francisco. The city was decorated with all of the Christmas trimmings and bows. The bus let us off at Square garden where we all went our separate ways. Then we shopped ~ shopped ~ shopped! We were supposed to get back on the bus at 4:00 P.M. to go to Pier 39 to do some more shopping and go out to dinner, but my sister Jessica and daughter Diandra weren't ready, so we met with everyone later. We finished up our shopping and went to Starbucks to refuel with some caffeine.

We had to take the city bus (which looked like an old bus back in time) to the Pier and that was really neat in itself and was a first for me. We went through Chinatown and it felt as if you were really in China. I couldn't take in everything fast enough. I just wanted to slow it down. It was wonderful! I loved watching... people. There was an old lady who looked like she had stepped out of the 50's. She had a sheer scarf tied around her head and then there was... well I could just go on and on. I had my camera in hand and whispered to my sister what I saw with the people. Beautiful moments. It was just a moment I didn't want to forget. I could see these moments captured in photos, done in black and white in some photo book. I started to fidget with my camera and my sister whispered to me, "You take one picture, I am running as fast as I can away from you." She made me laugh out loud so hard, that we both started laughing uncontrollably. At times her laugh was more of a nervous laugh; she knows me too well.

We had a yummy dinner at the Pier and really enjoyed each other's company. I am already looking forward to next year! This day starts as early as 5:30 A.M. in the morning and we don't step back into our home until 10:30 P.M. ... but, it is soooo worth it!

:)