http://bananatomic.org

Jim and I went to San Francisco for our “honeymoon” last weekend (9/12-9/15). Our trip was nearly cut short due to disaster though. We were all packed and loaded and on the road by 9am. We got into California and thats when the problems started happening. We hit a construction zone and my car decided it didn’t want to catch the gears right. By the time we got out of construction, it was making horrible noises. (My poor Alice!) We made it to the first exit and that was followed by more horrible noises. As luck would have it, my parents were in town and so I gave my dad a call. They made the hour and a half trek up to where we were stuck and towed my car back to Reno. My parents are awesome, they really are.. they paid for a rental car so we could still go on our trip. They then towed my car back to where we live. Around 2 we got back on the road and made our way to our hotel in Vallejo. We arrived around 5pm. I didn’t feel like going into the city that late, so we stuck around and found something to eat and then called it an early night. The following morning we got an early start and we were in the city by 8 am. We went to the DeYoung Musuem first and went through the King Tut exhibit. It was very interesting. It amazes me how amazing their artifacts are. They are so intricate and detailed. After that we left and went to the San Francisco Zoo. We enjoyed ourselves there and I took lotsa pictures. After that, we went to the Sutro Baths. I remembered Jess taking pictures for her online magazine there and wanted to check them out. I went picture crazy there, too. It was super windy and chilly there so we warmed up by pretending to do the 49 mile scenic drive. We were doing pretty good until Jim took control of the map. He got us hopelessly lost so I took reigns again and said to him “Well, there’s only one other place we wanted to see so lets go there and then head back towards the hotel for dinner.” Well, he lost trust in my map reading ability and stopped and tried to follow the map again. Fail. He turned around the wrong way and finally we turned on Bitchin’ Betty– the GPS system my parents let us borrow. Lo and behold, a few minutes later we were on the way right down the street where he’d had his meltdown. Unfortunately for us.. AT&T Park (the place we wanted to see) was packed because the Giants/Dodgers game had just ended (in a Giants win, thankfully!) After fighting the traffic and making our way over the Bay Bridge, we were on our way back to Vallejo. We stopped and had dinner at Red Lobster (Dont worry ladies! I had a steak and mashed potatoes and a salad.. no shellfish!) and then returned to the hotel for another early night. We woke up early again the following morning and made our way into town to check out Coit Tower (A suggestion from Cinda!) More pictures. It was still early when we left and Jim wanted to check out the Wharf. We decided we would walk from AT&T park down there, but upon parking in a parking garage we decided to just hang out around the park for awhile. About an hour later, we noticed some other Giants fans had gathered and we migrated over their way. They were waiting for some of the players so we sat and waited too. Joe Martinez (a relief pitcher) was the first player Jim got to meet (Joe is rather handsome in person). A little while later Eugenio Velez (a left fielder) came rolling up in his grey hummer so Jim got a picture with him. Eli Whiteside was next– he’s a catcher (who is rather young but has a head full of grey hair). My favorite player (Aaron Rowand) came speeding by in a Spyder or something. Sad to say I didn’t get to meet him, but I will some day. (That man is a beast! And he has a great ass.) Then Jim’s favorite player, Pablo Sandoval, came driving up in his black Escalade. Jim got his autograph and a picture with him. He was the last player we saw before the game but we stuck around AT&T Park and got in when the gates opened. We found our seats and Jim tried catching some batting practice balls. I was sitting in the bleachers watching when all of a sudden a ball came right for me! Instinctively, I turned and it hit me on my back on the right side then ricocheted away. A few minutes later, another one came for me– it hit Jim’s chair and bounced away. The game was awesome– the Giants won 9-1. Jim got us lost (Go figure, right?! ) but as we were getting back to where we needed to be, Randy Johnson came walking right in front of our car. Jim got all jumbled up with his words and I put the window down and just said “Hi Randy Johnson!” He turned around and said hello back to me. Jim was pysched about that. We got back to the hotel late so we ended up sleeping in the following morning and didn’t even make it into SF till around 10:30. We went to the Exploratorium and that place is so incredible! So many things there– we didn’t get a chance to try everything out but we really enjoyed ourselves there. We finally made it to the Wharf where Jim was underwhelmed so we left early— to go to another game! This time, we got there at 4:30 and the gates opened at 5:15. During batting practice, Troy Tulowitzki came within inches of hitting me in the head! (He was the one that hit me in the side the previous day.) That man has something against me. So I returned to our seats to sit and hope to avoid any further mishaps. The game was great– Giants won 10-2. So.. that was our trip… if you’d like to see the pictures, check out my flickr set