be leaving on a jet plane

to go to CALIFORNIA!!

Lesson of the day folks: if you have a crazy idea, suggest it to a few other people & it just might actually happen!! That is pretty much how I ended up planning a trip to San Francisco!!

You see, Ben has to go to San Jose, California for a week long training thing. It always bums me out when he has to be gone that long, especially when he gets to go somewhere awesome. In the past he has had to go to places like Baltimore & Reno. This time it was California. When I found out I immediately wanted to go too. Ben has never been to CA. I went there once on my 16th birthday to visit my awesome uncle who lives in Palm Desert. It was seriously an amazing trip, even if I came home & learned that I had mono the entire time I was there. If you ever have to have mono, spend a week of your sickness in CA. Sure I slept a lot, but it was awesome.

Anyways, so I voiced my crazy idea to join Ben & he “yeah that is an idea” shrugged it off. Persistence paid off though when I mentioned it in front of his work buddy (who has to go to the training too) & his girlfriend. They pretty much thought I was a genius & I did the whole “I have been saying this for weeks” thing. Needless to say, over dinner & ice cream we decided it was really going to happen. & it is going to happen.

WE ARE GOING TO CALIFORNIA. Now you understand why I needed a new bag & Ben needed a new luggage tag!!

Thanks to SouthWest & the whole Austin seems to be a pretty common hub for plane trips, we snagged direct flights from AUS to SJC for a pretty reasonable price. The plan is the boys will fly out there, be all trained & stuff, then us girlies will come join them & spend a glorious time vacationing together. We (the girls) will be flying into San Jose to meet the boys & then we will all drive us to San Francisco to spend the majority of our trip before heading back to San Jose to fly home. We all managed to get on the same flight back, which is sort of a nice little miracle.

I am SUPER excited. Last time I was in CA, I was very far south. I flew into LAX &  spent most of my time in Palm Desert. It is going to be awesome to see a bit more of the state. Since I have been to Seattle too, I am curious to see if San Fran is more like Seattle or Palm Desert. I am hoping for Seattle culture & Palm Desert weather.

There are SOOO many things to do in San Francisco. If anyone has been or has advice on “have to do” sort of stuff I will certainly take it into consideration. Here is what I am thinking so far:

• Fisherman’s Wharf
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Alcatraz
• Exploratorium – a museum of sorts I think
• hot air balloon ride – would be sweet, but sounds $$ & I do not know if that is everyone’s cup of tea
• whale watching (do they even do that there??) again, maybe not for everyone…. we shall see
• dipping toes in the ocean (I have been there done that, but Ben needs to, I decided)

Ideally there will also be some running (hopefully on semi-level ground such as a park or something), eating, maybe a little shopping, & I really really really want to go to a zoo or aquarium. We do have a couple of friends who live in the area so hopefully they will have advice on some not-so-touristy things we can do too. I do not need to spend the ENTIRE trip being a touristy nerd.

As for our accommodations while we are there, Ben found this place on AirBnB. It sort of makes me think of more permanent couch surfing. The impression I get is people rent out their property (similar to like a time share or rental property) through this site. You can stay anywhere from a couple of days to months at a time. Since we will be a 4-person gang, it seemed like the most reasonable deal. This way we get our own bed rooms & bath rooms, but will have a common area to hang out in & even a kitchen should we feel the urge to cook. I am a bit nervous/skeptical about not having a true hotel confirmation, but so far it seems like a sweet deal, so I am trying not to worry too much. At least it is not as bad as finding housing/shelter on Craigslist or something like that ; )

As more details get set into place & more things confirmed, I will certainly be posting a bit more (& of course when we get back from the trip). For security reasons, I will not be mentioning when we will be in CA (because I am paranoid like that), but it will be during spring break season. We might be a big nuts when it comes to that aspect, but who cares…. it is CA!! Plus, this is my first true SPRING BREAK VACATION!!

SPRING BREAK WOOO!!!!

[that is what I have unofficially named this trip]

Advertisement