San Francisco Day 1 & 2

Ryan had a Salesforce Conference in San Francisco, like he does every year, so this year I decided it might be fun to tag along. I really hate those times when he is away from work so I just thought, I'll go with him and have a little fun! I convinced my mom and Grandma to meet us in San Francisco so we could explore and I wouldn't be by myself with 2 kids in a big strange city but the problem was they were only there for a day and a half of the five days I was there. It still turned out to be really fun but also really stressful! I was totally exhausted by the end and ready to come home for sure!!

Monday--Day 1

We arrived on Monday evening. Both kids did really well on the flight--Wesley slept for most of it and Emry played with her toys and watched Robin Hood on the iPad. Easy, uneventful flight--just like I like them :) The easiness ended there. Haha. If you've ever been to San Francisco you know that mostly, people rely on the public transportation. What they don't tell you is that San Francisco is not very kid friendly. So we got on the Bart to head to the hotel but finding all the elevators to take the stroller up was a little pain and then as we were getting off one of the elevators, Emry got her fingers stuck in the elevator doors. Gave both Ryan and me a heart attack. I thought we were going to end up in the ER on day 1 but thankfully her fingers were swollen and bruised but not broken. Hallelujah! Anyway, we made it into the city and then began our mile long walk to the hotel which was actually fine for me as I was pushing the kids in the stroller, but Ryan was lugging all our suitcases a mile, through crowds, and up hills. We made it to the hotel around 630 pm California time (7:30 pm Utah time) so we were definitely hungry. We met Ryan's coworkers at a burger place for dinner at 7 and really, I was super proud of my kids. For starting dinner at their normal bedtime, they did awesome and were actually very well behaved. We hurried home after dinner and the kids went to bed at 9:00pm (10 Utah time!). We were pretty exhausted from the long day of traveling so I went to bed shortly after that but Ryan had to do some work that night at the hotel so he worked while the rest of us snoozed. Sorry because I took zero pictures on day 1. I was just trying to survive. haha!

Tuesday--Day 2

On Tuesday I planned to meet up with my friend Sarah from nursing school who now lives in the city with her family. We got up, got ready and headed out to find somewhere to eat breakfast. The problem with being there during Dreamforce is that it is extra extra crowded--people everywhere and a lot of the restaurants are closed to the public for special events, which you don't know till you get there. So I planned out our route and thought I had everything planned until I got there and the restaurant was closed. And I know, San Francisco has restaurants everywhere but they are not all kid friendly. Thankfully, we were able to go to a different place, found it easily, pretty fast to get in, and the kids did great. After breakfast I had to find the place to buy our Muni passes for the week (public transportation to get us around). That was an adventure after trying to find elevators, not finding elevators, carring the stroller up stairs, trying to use public bathrooms (all of them are locked but an old man took pity on us and let us in because I had a 3 year old!). Whew I was exhausted but we finally bought our tickets, found where to go stand to wait for our bus and got on our bus to meet Sarah at Golden Gate Park. 

 Waiting at the bus stop (It was a little chilly)

 We made it on the bus!!!

Random funny sidestory--One thing about being in the city is that there really aren't like any children. I think I saw 1 child in the city the whole time we were there. So that means we got a lot of stares as we were walking around the city and when we were waiting for the bus, we even had people specifically move and stand next to us so they could look in the stroller and see Wesley. It was pretty funny and I felt like a spectacle!! Definitely not like Utah where no one blinks an eye!! 

Anyway, we arrived at Golden Gate Park after a 30 min bus ride and let me say, I wish we would have spent more time wandering around this park. It was huge and we only saw a little part of it. We were waiting for my friend to get there and Emry says she has to go to the bathroom. Well it took me too long to find where the bathrooms are and Emry had an accident all over my stroller (and herself). I am frustrated and she is crying because she wants new underwear (which I don't have because she hasn't had an accident in like a year!). Let's just say it wasn't a moment I want to relive EVER! Thankfully, Sarah had an extra pair of clothes with her so once she got there, we changed, got cleaned up and we were ready to party!! 

They had a carousel at the park and Emry was over the moon about it! Sarah's little girl Reagan is 4 so her and Emry had a blast together.

 Wesley is always scared to get on the horse so I have to get on with him. But once we are on, he loves it!

 These girls had fun!

After riding the carousel, we headed to the park where the kids played and Sarah and I caught up. It was so fun to be able to see her and her cute kids. She's my hero for being able to live in San Francisco and not be a stress case! Haha!! We parted ways and I attempted to get my kids lunch at some place near the park, but the place was going to make us wait 20 minutes and had no kid food, so I said no thank you and decided to head back to the hotel and find something to eat there. By that time Wes had fallen asleep in the stroller (huge blessing) so the bus ride was actually pretty peaceful since I just rolled the stroller on and let him sleep the whole way!

Waiting at the bus stop again. Emry was freezing and wanted to snuggle up and Wesley was snoozing away

When we got back to our hotel area, I asked Ryan where we should go for lunch and he said he was really close to us so he met us and helped me order and get the kids fed at Chipotle. It was all great except right when Wesley heard Dad's voice he was up (and not happy about it!). So after lunch I decided a little downtime was in order so we went back to the hotel. I attempted to get Wesley back to sleep (unsuccessfully) and Emry watched some Robin Hood--she watched that a lot this trip! Whoops!

After we were sufficiently rested (ok, not really!) we headed to the hotel swimming pool where we had the whole pool to ourselves and we had a blast. It was fun to just be more low key and relax after our crazy morning.

All ready to swim!

 Wesley is ADORABLE!!

 Emry loves swimming!

Ryan decided to come eat dinner with us so after getting all showered and ready for the night, we went to Melt to eat dinner. It was delicious. The whole not sleeping thing caught up with Emry and she fell asleep in the stroller at 7 pm. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and put the kids down and fell asleep shortly after them again. Those city days made me tired!! haha! All in all, we had some bumps along the way but our first full day in San Francisco alone was a success!!!

This boy loves his Daddy!!! 

This girl was TIRED!! Out like a light and didn't move until I put her in her bed!