San Francisco

 

Craig and I had the opportunity to take a quick trip to San Francisco the first weekend in November.  Neither of us had ever been before and we had put off going because we had heard that the city had kind of gone to crap.  We finally decided it was time to check it out.  Our main reason to go was for a 49ers game and then figured we would work the rest of the trip around that.  We flew in Friday morning and had most of the day to check out the Pier 39 area.  We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and then walked to Pier 39 for lunch and then walked around the pier until we could finally check into our hotel.  Craig then realized he had the time wrong for the Sacramento Kings game that evening, it was actually an hour earlier than we thought and he figured out that it was going to take 3 hours to get there.  Not ideal for me, I hate being in the car especially since we had already been on the plane that morning and I also had to skip my workout because Craig convinced me to not wake up extra early to workout before our flight, because we would have plenty of time at our hotel before the basketball game.  I was in a little bit of a bad mood on the drive to the game, but did take a little nap while Craig dealt with California traffic.  We found our parking garage and made our way to the arena.  The Kings were down quite a bit heading into the 4th quarter but made an awesome comeback and took it into overtime.  They ended up losing, but it was sure an exciting game.  Luckily the drive back took less than half the time.

Saturday morning after a workout and breakfast we went to go check our Alcatraz.  While we were standing in line to get on the ferry over to Alcatraz, we figured out how close we were to San Jose, which is where BSU was playing that evening.  Craig bought tickets on his phone on our ferry ride over.  Alcatraz was one of the few touristy things we really wanted to do while we were there.  We did an audio tour and it was really cool to hear about some of inmates and what life was like there. After we got back on the ferry, we grabbed a quick lunch from some street vendors and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the game.  Of course the one time neither of us back anything Boise State, is the time we decide to go to a game last minute.  We always have something with us, so this was very weird.  It took us just over an hour to get to San Jose.  The stadium looked like a high school stadium, it was quite small and didn't even have bleachers on one side of the field.  We sat in one of the end zones and we were so close to the players.  The game didn't start out pretty, but luckily BSU figured it out and ended up winning the game.  I'm glad that we ended up going and our car didn't even get broken into while we are at the game, so definitely a win-win.

Sunday morning we slept in a little.  After grabbing breakfast at the hotel (which was a pretty dang good buffet) we headed back to the room to get ready for the 49ers game.  We drove to Levi Stadium and had a quick walk from our parking lot.  The stadium was beautiful.  We first went to the team store and got the kids each a sweatshirt.  We then found our seats and then checked out the rest of the stadium.  We then paid way too much money for lunch before the game started.  There was a great fly by at the start of the game, since it was just after veteran's day.  They were playing the Seahawks, but ended up losing.  It was still a lot of fun to watch and to just actually be there.  I even brought along Craig's 49ers jacket from when he was like 12, there was an old gobstopper wrapper in one pocket and a ton of sand in the other pocket.  I don't think it has been work for over 20 years.  On our way back from the game we drove down Lombard Street a couple of times.  It was so crazy that people actually live on such a zig-zag street.  After we got back to the hotel we grabbed a quick dinner at Pier 39 and some yummy salt water taffy for the kids, before walking over to Ghirardelli Square.  Sadly at this point I had some massive heart burn so I didn't even get anything chocolate related.  On the bright side, it saved me probably about 1,000 calories, so not the end of the world.

Monday morning after a quick workout and breakfast, we headed to the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was super windy, but we still walked just over halfway across.  It really is quite amazing and it was fun to learn about how it was built.  We then drove over to the Pink Ladies and then checked out a couple cathedrals before heading back to the airport.  It was a quick trip, but we filled every minute of it.  We fit in 3 games, lots of driving, and all of the touristy things that we wanted to do, so I would call it a very successful weekend.  The flight back was easy and the kids did great with Nana and Pops.  We will see where we end up next fall for our weekend of games.

Labor Day in Sun Valley

 

We were excited to head over to Sun Valley for Labor Day Weekend.  Craig and I headed over early Friday morning so that we could hike another of the 12ers.  We had tried to hike Hyndman Peak a couple of years ago and hiked 11 miles to no where because we started at the wrong trailhead.  So this time we made sure that we started at the right place.  It took a little extra time to get to the trailhead because we got in the middle of some sheep herding, it was actually pretty cool to see, there was at least 1,000 sheep.  Once we got to the trailhead we quickly took off.  The first 3 miles were nice and easy and didn't take too long.  After that it started to get a little steeper and the day was getting warmer.  We took a long break under a tree at about 4 miles and took a few things out of our packs and left them there to lighten our loads up the steepest part.  We then were on our way to the peak.  We started working our way through loose rock fields before we reached the saddle and started the final ascent.  It felt like we were going straight up.  The rocks were all different sizes and none of them were connected to the mountain.  We would slip here and there as we slowly headed towards the top.  As we were heading up the last half mile Craig's quads started to really cramp on him, so we stopped for a while to let him stretch and drink some Gatorade.  One quad was completely locked out for a while.  After he could finally move again we started out again, but only a few minutes later both of his quads totally locked out and he literally had to catch himself before awkwardly falling into a seated position.  After about 10 minutes he still couldn't move and at this point we were getting nervous about getting him back down the mountain, since that is all quads.  So he stayed eating jerky and drinking Gatorade as I made my way to the top.  It ended up that we were only about 300 meters from the top, but I still think he made the right decision to stay where he was.  I was really concerned about getting him back down the rocky slope.  It was a beautiful view from the top.  It was so nice to get up out of all the smoke that was in the valley.  I made my way back down to Craig and waited until he felt ready to go.  We took off slowly down the mountain.  It was just over a mile of the rocky slope and it was the longest mile of my life.  I have never been so nervous hiking before.  I was so scared that Craig's legs would give out on him and he would just slide all the way down the sharp rocks.  We kept slipping and sliding, I ended up with a pretty knarly cut on my right shin and the palms of our hands were all scraped up. Over an hour later we made it down the treacherous part and then shortly after that we were back to the tree where we left our stuff.  We got our cooling towels wet in a pond and loaded our packs bag up and then made our way back to the truck.  Amazingly Craig's quads did fine on the way back down, meaning they hurt but they did not cramp anymore.  That was definitely a major blessing.  Both Craig and I and the kids with Stan and Diane had prayed that we would get back down the mountain safely and we know that was most definitely an answer to our prayers.  After loading back into the truck we headed into Sun Valley and met the rest of the clan at Smokey Mountain for dinner before checking into our AirB&B.

Saturday morning we got up and headed over to the car show.  We walked around to check out all the cars and then headed back to the condo until the car show was ready to start.  We went back to the car show for a while before the kids headed to the parade with Stan and Diane.  Craig and I grabbed some lunch and hung out at the car show until they were back.  We then went back to the condo to watch the BSU football game.  That evening we headed into downtown Ketchum to the Pioneer Saloon for dinner.  That night the kids went to the Ice Show with Stan and Diane.  McKay had never been, so he was pretty stoked.  Craig and I have been so many times that it didn't seem worth the cost.  Craig and I got a lot of stuff packed up and ready to go for our hike on Sunday.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed to the Sawtooths for a hike on our way home.  We went to Cabin Creeks Lakes.  It was just over 8 miles round trip and we got to see two pretty lakes.  There had been a lot of fires in the Sawtooths, but luckily these hikes were in a totally different area.  It smelts like a camp fire as we drove to the trailhead, but we hiked right out of that and it was nice and clear and a beautiful sunny day. The kids of course did awesome and luckily Craig's legs did just fine. We love seeing new beautiful scenery and being surrounded by the God's creations.  After our hike we drove home and got unpacked and got laundry going.  Monday morning Craig and Stan played a round of golf and then we met up at Stan and Diane's to swim and BBQ.  It was a great weekend spent with family and we always love sharing Sun Valley with the kids.