I'm back!!! Now before I get into the San Fransisco trip there are just a few things I feel I need to put out there, going to get a little spiritual on you all so prepare yourself. About three weeks ago I pick up my scriptures, the first time I have done this (not including Sunday's) since I last took a religion course at BYU. I have been reading them every night since then and let me tell you guys, the difference in my life in just these last few weeks is something I have desperately missed since I was serving my mission almost 3 years ago! Along with reading scriptures again I have gone to the temple twice in the last 3 weeks and this too has brought a whole new level of comfort to my life, and as you have been reading in older posts, I could really use some extra comfort in my life at this time.
Alright time for the San Fran trip. So I have posted some pictures of it on facebook and I'm pretty sure if you are reading this then you also have access to my facebook because I have only told people about this blog and only posted the link on facebook. So I'm just going to break down the days and key events of the days on here and if you want some good stories or something feel free to track me down in person or somewhere else and we can talk!
Sat:
-Fly into the Oakland airport, my old stomping grounds. Sat next to and chatted with Lee Cummard in the terminal, at SLC airport, and then sat next to a sister missionary leaving for her mission on the plane, I gave her the inside scoop of what life is like in the Bay Area from the perspective of a past missionary.
- Took my family to a Hawaiian BBQ for dinner, even though we got them in Provo there is just something special about eating at one in Oakland for me.
- Navigated my family through the streets of Oakland and on up the hill to the beautiful Oakland Temple!
- Gave a small tour of the grounds and listened to a little musical program. Lady who sang and played the flute = just plain crazy. Dude who sang and played the piano = Crazy GOOD!!!
- Drove into San Fran and got a full nights sleep.
Sun:
- Woke up, put on some church clothes and drove to Sacramento to meet up with my Aunt Pam and some of her kids, my cousins, duh.
- Enjoyed the Christmas program at Pam's ward.
- Had lunch with my family, pam, corey, doug, kristie and john and shelly dropped in for a minute to say hello.
- Drove on back to Oakland.
- Mother was sick so just me, allison, alan and my dad went to Union Square (horrible experience riding the cable car that night, stupid driver........)
- Walked around Union Square for a minute, listened to a sweet Peruvian flute band! haha.
- Put our name on the list at Cheesecake factory and were told it would be a 2 hour and 15 minute wait...
- 30 minutes later my jacket was buzzing and beeping, time to eat!!! 2 hours and 15 minutes... please....
- Ate a delicious burger, and that's it! No cheesecake for this guy! Gross!
-Went home and went to bed.
Mon:
- Slept in a little, but not long because we had a long planned out day!
- Rode the cable car down to fisherman's wharf!
- Took a quick stroll on down to Pier 39 and down the pier to Bubba gump's Shrimp!!!
- Ordered the Shrimper's Heaven. I'm sure you can guess what it was, besides TASTY!
- Had tickets for the 1:20 boat to the "Rock" so we had to book it down further to make it to the dock.
- Rode a windy cold boat to Alcatraz.
- Toured Alcatraz and LOVED IT!
- Got back to Fisherman's wharf with just barely enough time to eat at Boudin's Sourdough factory/bistro.
- Had a bread bowl with crab bisque (zupas lobster bisque still takes the cake, sorry boudin's) and also a cheese pizza on sourdough crust.
- Ran back to the apartment and got cleaned up to go to the Orpheum Theater to see Wicked.
- I am now a fan of Wicked. (Yes that deserves its own bullet point)
-Ask me my favorite song(s).
- Bed time.
Tues:
- Nothing scheduled or planned so I could again sleep in a little.
- Walked down 2 blocks from our Hotel and we were at Chinatown!
- Saw some sweet graffiti. Exactly the kind I expect from Chinatown.
- Checked out way too many ridiculous store's. I found, and bought, some goofy stuff.
- Ate at the Hunan's Home restaurant, least favorite meal of the trip but still good.
- Dropped off our ridiculous purchases at our hotel then hopped on a cable car down to Ghirardelli Square.
- Spent $50 buying chocolate.... worth it.
- Expensive designer perfume/lotion shop, haha.
- Ate at McKormick's, holy crap, best meal of my life! Tried swordfish for the first time and I have a new love.
- Walked down all the piers and bought some more souvenirs including my new "the CITY" shirt and Mitchell & Ness "the CITY" hat. (I'm wearing it as I type this right now.)
- Got a delicious crepe on Pier 39, raspberry jam and sour cream.
- Caught a taxi that took us to our hotel for the last night :( sad.
Wed:
- Woke up at 6am to load the car and clear out a spot for me to sit.
- 11pm, I am home.
So as you can read, and see if you are also looking at the pictures on facebook, I had a blast with my family in San Fransisco. It is definitely a place everyone should visit at least once, you really only need 3 days to see everything but its a wonderful 3 days. Lot's of amazing things there. I am sure there are some thing's I am forgetting to add to the above list's but that is ok with me, just gives me some extra stories I can tell when I talk to people.
Well tomorrow is Christmas Eve and when I get up I will more then likely be helping my Mom prepare our house for our family party here tomorrow. We will potentially have 40+ people here and no, our house is NOT big enough to fit that many people but we are a tight family and we love each other and we make it work. Hopefully I will get a few good pictures of my family so I can post some more up so everyone can see. Night!!!
~Bracken Rawlings
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