San Jose/San Francisco Getaway

Seth had business in San Jose the last week of September, and I flew in Thursday to meet him for a really fun weekend. (Happy Birthday to me!) Wonderful friends, sister Kara and brother Garrett played with Scarlett & Lincoln for us while we were gone.

Thursday night we walked around San Jose for a bit and ate at a yummy Italian restaurant.

The hotel was very close to Adobe's headquarters. The airport is just a few miles away too, It was neat to see where Seth goes on these trips!

Our friends, the Topham's were with us Friday/Saturday. (Brian works with Seth, and we get to hang out with them sometimes. It's especially fun that we have kids the same age!)
Friday morning Shannon flew in with their handsome lil guy and we rented a car for the day. Our first stop was The Winchester Museum. Which actually was my favorite thing we did the whole trip!
Sarah Winchester bought the small farm house in 1884 and spent the rest of her life (38 years) building the most bizarre mansion. She was quite the architect and I was fascinated learning about her and the way she used her millions. I most definitely recommend the tour!

 A little out of order here. But we eventually made our way to Muir Woods. Seth and I are lucky that we have gotten to go twice now! The redwoods are peaceful to walk around. There were a lot more people this time, than when we visited in January '13.

 Fun pictures at the Golden Gate Bridge!

Lombard Street! One block of eight tight hairpin turns that I'd say is just a "been there done that" kind of experience. Lots of taxis were around us, I'm sure they love it when their passengers request this destination.




We ended the night with a trip across the Oakland Bay bridge to find the beautiful Oakland temple. It was Seth and I's first time and it didn't disappoint; the landscaping, fountains, sculpted panels, and a courtyard so you can walk up around the temple. I spoke to the kids on the phone a little bit and Scarlett was so excited we were at a temple. She asked me to describe it to her. Of course I likened it to a castle, and she thought that was just magical.

They also have a beautiful Visitors Center and we chatted with the Sister Missionaries for a while. We listened to the Christus' narrative in Spanish and Japanese for fun.

 Seth and I took the rental car back, to the SF airport. That took a bit longer than we expected, but it worked out very well to have the car for the day! We packed in a lot of good memories.


Saturday we took BART into the city and walked around to see all sorts of stuff. The Cable Car Museum, China Town, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 39!

 I would have to say street musicians are one of my favorite things to see.

The San Francisco hills are intense!

 Late afternoon Shannon & Brian headed to the airport to catch their flight back. Seth and I headed to Japantown. Of course we enjoyed our time at the Diaso (ダイソー, 百円ショップ) The Japanese dollar store never disappoints. We got fun souvenirs for S and L.

This ice cream crepe was so Japanese. They made it so cute for us! I would love to go to Japan again, but I'm grateful for Japantown in SF for helping me get that fix!

 We ended the night with eating at the Cheesecake factory on top of Macy's at Union Square.Yum!

 Sunday - I seemed to only take photos of food. We walked around a lot, and found fun new places. We met up with some of Seth's other co workers and good friends. We walked up and down Chinatown before heading back to the hotel to get our luggage in the afternoon. We had a relaxing afternoon traveling, and Seth read the last half of Elizabeth Smart's book with me on the plane. It was a perfect amount of time to be together and perfect amount of time to really start missing the kiddos.

Maybe next time we'll go on an adventure with the kids. They're getting to be old enough it seems like it wouldn't be such a bad thing. I really enjoyed my Seth time though!!