Sisters in (the other) SF

A few months ago, at Bunco, our friend, Angie, told us about her and Sara planning a trip to San Francisco the middle of February. They were planning to go see Wicked and play for the weekend. Angie has a house there and said there was room for anyone who wanted to come. I made it my goal to convince Karen to go with me - since they were leaving the weekend after Karen's BIG birthday ;) (Don't worry - I'll never tell your age;)

Once we finally decided and started making plans - it was looking better and better. About a month before we left - at Bunco again - we were talking to Debbie about it and she was in! We all rode together to the airport - already starting to laugh a lot and tease eachother incessantly. Here we are - waiting for our flight - trying our hand at being serious instead of silly. No luck. (Angie, Me, Debbie, and Karen) We gave up at the normalcy and went for the fun! This was the start of a glorious tradition of behind pictures - most of them starring me. (Sara is by Angie - don't you love my luggage?)We arrived late in the evening Thursday and met Sara's friend Shonny at the airport. With all 6 of us, we had to rent a mini van - which didn't fit in the garage. We went to bed after admiring the house and choosing bed buddies. I got Karen - of course - and hoped I wouldn't accidently cuddle with her. Thank goodness we had a king size mattress :) In the morning we found out why Angie got this place - look at the view! (Taken from the roof - note the Golden Gate Bridge in the top right corner.)We were only blocks from the wharf and Ghirardelli Square - where we had to buy lots of chocolate and ice cream. We walked down Lombard Street, enjoyed sour dough bread, went to the aquarium and wax museum, played at Musee Mecanique, saw silver men "statues", shopped for stoopidneers, and laughed way too much!

(Here we are on the Wharf - near where we watched a man "hiding" behind bushes and scaring people :)Debbie and I are very good at being sea stars - I think we could pass as their twins - what do you think?Here I am at the wax museum with Beetlejuice - aren't we cute together?

At the wax museum, they had an electric chair for you to try out. I did it first, and then insisted that everyone else try it. The lights flash and sparks fly and then - cold air shoots up your bum. Can't you tell by Karen's reaction? That was unexpected :)Here Karen is getting beat by an arm wrestling machine - the one in Princess Diaries - I lost, too. That man was TOUGH!What trip is complete without a photo booth picture? I love Karen's face in the first one. Personally, I like the second one the best. Please note Debbie's name tag. She found it on the ground on the pier. It says "Dr. Vandersheldon" and she wore it ALL day. I mean, if she put on her sweatshirt, she took off the name tag and replaced it on the sweatshirt. She wanted everyone to be sure of who she was. (Although she could never remember the name right:)Don't these "sun glasses" look great with my sweater? Dang, I'm cute!We sat by a drag queen on the bus - who complimented Karen's eyes - on our way home from Wicked - which was AWESOME! We did more shopping. I got to go to a huge fabric store that had the softest fabric I've ever felt - yup - $100 a yard! Karen and I wanted to buy a shirt that said "I heart SF" - but then, living in Santa Fe, it could be misunderstood. We ate tons of treats and the biggest cream puffs ever. We saw Coraline in 3D and walked all over. We went to China Town and bought some fun stuff for the kids and saw super cute things that we would never buy.

We ate dinner at Angie's favorite place - House of Nanking. It was funny because I ordered the soup - the one thing that didn't have onions in it - and then Angie asked the waitor to just bring a few different things for the rest of them to share. Well, there was some miscommunication and another waitor brought our food out and divided the soup into 6 tiny portions for us to share. Then our origional waitor came out and said - No, that was just for her! Then he told me I'd have to eat all six bowls! Hehehe. They really were yummy and I only ate 3 of them ;)What's a trip to San Francisco without riding a cable car? or pole dancing?

Overall, I would say we all had a great time. We all got along really well. We were able to tease and joke and laugh and laugh and laugh. We were even laughing on the plane ride home. What a wonderful time! I think we all felt like silly girls and enjoyed every minute of it! Thanks for letting us invite ourselves to your house, Angie. Thanks for having a BIG birthday for us to celebrate, Karen!

I heart SF!