Fran Sam Cisco

as Chase calls it. translation: San Francisco.

We recently returned from a little trip up North. The main event of the trip:

that's right kids. Dodgers vs. Giants. AT&T park. does it get better? answer: yes. would have been a nice end if the Dodgers actually won. but let's not bring that up. no, seriously, don't. wounds are still fresh.

but this was actually the very last stop of the trip. Shall we start with Day 1...

Pismo Beach. Twas my first time in pismo, and it didn't disappoint. the weather turned out to be lovely, food was great, and beach was beautiful.

except look at all those crazies actually on the beach. must not be from california.

the weather was nice, but barely pushing 70 degrees.

It may appear as if he is throwing a fit, but no, he is looking through the holes on the pier. I think it took approximately 45 minutes to get him off of the pier.

Chase declared the beach Neverland (complete with caves for hideouts and mermaid lagoons) here he is having a swordfight with Captain Hook.

I told Leigh - this is exactly what I pictured doing in Pismo Beach. Just walking along the beach.

Next morning. We drove PCH up to Monterey. Matt convinced me to take PCH rather than the 101 since it would only be 10 extra minutes. Try almost 1 hour extra. It was an awesome drive though. I was kind of picturing the PCH drive in Malibu...2 lanes, along the coast. This was more like 1 lane, winding around treacherous cliffs.

We got to Monterey and met up with this girly:

My old college roomie, Brenna! I hadn't seen her in 7 years!! It was so great to see her and her beautiful girls, and have her take us to the BEST place to eat (matt is seriously still talking about it), show us around the town, and cook us dinner.

We drove that night to San Francisco. I haven't been to San Fran in 9 years and I forgot what a crazy and cool place it is.

The craziest: friggin winter in July?!? what the?

we were excited to meet up with the Nielsens for half the day. And Chase was ecstatic to see his fiance, Kalia. (that is right, Chase proposed and she accepted. They have their wedding colors picked out and have decided to have Mia as their baby.)

Chase looking pretty friendly with his sworn enemy:
Hard to tell what is going on here, but I am riding the cable cars. so we waited in a super long line and then realized that you can just get on at like 20 different stops.

but we did get these prime seats.
and don't worry, it only took us 2 attempts to get these seats. there was some major communication failure in attempt #1, which caused us to all get back in line and come up with a game plan for the second attempt. somehow, though not surprisingly, Mom did not hear our 20 minute game plan and somehow ended up with an inside seat.

Eating at Fisherman't Wharf.

And yes, those are McDonald's chicken nuggets that we brought to the restaurant. I despise being tacky. And this made me feel very tacky. I apologized profusely to our server, who was sweet, and made me feel better.

Looking at some stinky sea otters on Pier 39.

Last day of trip. Spent the morning at the Exploratorium. Had to drag Chase out of there. Thanks for the recommendation Kady.

And of course the end of the trip. Dodgers vs. Giants at AT&T park.

Things I did not appreciate about the game:

- $30 to park. What? are you serious? I can actually appreciate our $15 parking now. (well, until the next time I have to pay it)

- The "Beat LA" shirts, signs and cups. Really? that is a whole lot of effort hating on the Dodgers.

- The heckling we received after the game. To be expected, but not fun.

Things I loved:

- The amount of Dodger fans at the game. Probably 1/5 of the stadium was wearing Dodger blue. And they felt like family.

- The intense emotions that sports brings out in people. As much as I hated the heckling after the game, Matt pointed out how great it was to see the rivalry so alive and see so much emotion in people over a baseball game.

- Checking another stadium off our list of ones we have been to. Next up: Nationals Park.