Last weekend, as many of you know, I was in San Francisco.  And wow, it was lovely.  Seriously.  It was just the break I needed from work and life, plus, I got to see some of my favorite people in the process.

Friday night, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Moose, Jennie, Elizabeth, Dani and Kristin, as well as varied significant others and children.  I’d met the first four at The Blathering and it was SO LOVELY to have a mini-reunion, seriously.  It just made me all sorts of excited for Blathering 2010.  I honestly didn’t want the night to end—there was laughter and good conversation and Andrew bonded with Mike, Jennie’s husband, and I got to snuggle with Elizabeth’s little Senor Pants and it was just great.  And I just want to tell the entire internet, that Kristin of Camels and Chocolate is THE NICEST PERSON ever.  She picked us up because I had NO CLUE where dinner was, and she gave us awesome recommendations of what to do the next day.  Dinner was great, cocktails were great, dessert was amazing and the company was the most amazing of all:

The hotel that we stayed in was…ummm, sketchy to say the least.  There were some interesting characters staying there, and I was really, really thrilled that I had a strapping 6″4 man staying in the room with me.  Sure, he slept through the entire night, while I woke to every little noise outside, but I’m SURE that if he’d heard my cries for help, he’d have saved me.

The next morning, we walked about two miles to the Noe Valley area of San Francisco.  It was absolutely adorable, and I had a great time browsing through the shops, having a yummy coffee and walking around.  It was absolutely POURING rain—I cannot overstate this rain, friends.  It was INTENSE.  That didn’t stop us, though.

We took the Muni out to Fisherman’s Wharf next.  I should say here that I am COMPLETELY HELPLESS when it comes to transit.  Thank goodness Andrew is completely competent in this area, because I am pretty sure I’d have killed my budget using cabs to get everywhere.  Anyways, we made our way to Fisherman’s Wharf and had a delicious lunch of chowder and fish at Blue Mermaid. Andrew and I had one of the most wonderful, productive conversations of our relationship—seriously, it was such a nice break to be away from home and have time for a long, leisurely lunch together.

*I know I used this picture yesterday and it’s my Facebook photo, but seriously? We’re cute!  I love it.

Afterwards, we had Irish coffee at a place I’ve been dying to visit for years, the Buena Vista:

I loved this—my parents had visited this place long before I was born, and many friends had told me that it would be amazing.  Which it totally was.  I love coffee so the special “additions” didn’t hurt at all.

After coffee, we decided to take a cable car to Union Square.  It seemed like such a great idea.  I love the total terror and fear and joy of taking a cable car and try to do it whenever possible in San Francisco.  This trip was a little different, because mid-way to our destination, the cable car stopped working.  The car apparently lost the cable underground (ummm, what?) and we had to stop.  THANK THE GOOD LORD we weren’t screaming down a hill.  We tried to wait, but after 20 minutes, it was clear that the cable car wasn’t going to happen.  Andrew hailed us a cab, and off we went to Union Square.

I normally love Union Square enough as is—it’s so big-city: all the stores and lights and sights.  And at Christmas?  It’s even more magical.

When I was taking this photo of the Macy’s window, an elderly woman touched my arm and said, “It’s so lovely, isn’t it dear?”  And I agreed.  She squeezed my shoulder and we wished one another a Merry Christmas.  And okay, yes, shut up, I teared up.  It’s what I do, okay?

After wandering around some other stores, we met Jill, who is one of my long-time best friends and her husband Matt for a delicious dinner at L’Ottavo.  We laughed and shared some wine and a great dinner.  It was so fun to see those two—we always have the best time and it was great to be around old friends.

*me and Jill after dinner

After dinner, we hugged our friends goodbye and headed home.  It was such a great weekend, and I am hoping I can talk Andrew in to making it a yearly tradition…

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