There's No Place Like Home

Last weekend I went home to San Francisco. Sigh! I miss San Francisco! :o( The occasion for the visit was to throw my BFF Garley's baby shower celebrating the upcoming arrival of her second son.  I flew home for a change since I lucked out on flights and found a flight deal for $90 round trip on United! Only negative was that I'd have to travel Saturday/Monday instead of Friday/Sunday. Oh well, no biggie.

Congratulations Nick & Garley!

Garley's Shower

To prepare for Garley's shower I put together a team that consisted of me, her sister, and her sister-in-law. I took on favors, games, and a memory book, her sister took on decorations, and her sister-in-law covered dessert. The event was set for 11:30am on Saturday morning, just three hours after I'd be getting off the plane from San Diego! (Yes, that did mean I was up at 4am to get to the airport at 5am for the 5am flights. *yawn*)

My Crafts in Action - Shower Favors!

We got to the restaurant, set up the decorations and cupcake table, put out the favors, and then the party started! It was a nice little event for Garley and a great way for her to get to see all of her friends and family before she dove into the role of a two-child parent. As a non-mother, I have to admit I haven't enjoyed many of the baby showers I've gone to. Watching someone open 100 gifts that all look the same (ohh!  a towel! Oh! A pink onesie! Oh! Another towel! yeah ...) and playing gross games like "guess what type of chocolate is melted into this diaper" or "taste the baby food to guess the flavor" really aren't my favorite things to do on a weekend. I don't mean to be a baby scrooge, but seriously - melted chocolate in a diaper is just plain gross. Don't even get me started on Lentil baby food! Ick!

Best Friends for 24 Years :o)

For Garley's shower I found two fun games online. One was "How well do you know the mom & dad?" trivia, and the other was "Match the celebrity couple to the baby name". Both games turned out to be pretty challenging, but we found two winners who each got an iTunes giftcard.

The Happy Couple

Russian Hill

Later that night I had a "date" with Jenny. We were going to go get dinner in her new neighborhood (Russian Hill) and then meet up with her boyfriend and his friend for a drink. We had dinner at Rex's Cafe which was good, nothing to write home about, and then went across the street to Tonic for a drink. After getting up at 4am that day to make my early flight, I was in no condition to close the bar down. Let's be honest, halfway through my first drink and I was tired and wanted to go to bed!

Drinks at Tonic

Hoppers Hands Run

I needed to get up early anyways because the next day I had a running date with Jojo from the San Francisco Marathon! We were going to meet down at the Marina and run out to Hoppers Hands and back. Jojo brought along her ADORABLE  Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy who was just a doll. He waited patiently in the car while we ran out to the Golden Gate Bridge and back, on a surprisingly beautiful sunny Fall San Francisco day.
  

Cooper - San Francisco Marathon Dog

During our run we bumped into the race course for the Mermaid Run. So cute! This race series has races in San Francisco, Alameda, Santa Cruz, and Mountain View, and one of their races was held in San Diego and was co-promoted with Girls on the Run. One of the girls I currently coach actually did the last Mini Mermaid Run.
 

Lunch at Luna Park

After the run I had to quickly get ready and head down to the Mission to meet up with some college friends for lunch. Gaucho Girls unite! I was leery of the location and worried about parking, but found parking on the street about a block away from the restaurant! wow! I quickly parked my hamster car (the rental Kia Soul) and walked over to the restaurant.

Lunch at Luna Park

After brunch Christina and I had originally talked about going to see a movie, but ended up hanging out on the patio of a Mediterranean restaurant called Ziryab down the street from her. We hung out here for a while enjoying the fruity hookah smells of our table neighbors before I was off for dinner with my dad. Yes, all I do is eat apparently!

An Afternoon of Wine & Hummus

My dad and I met a friend of his at a Chinese restaurant and dined on several courses of mysterious dishes. The whole menu was on the wall in Chinese, so I said I liked shrimp and chicken and waited to see what was in store! We had several incredible dishes and plenty to take home. I'm pretty sure I got tricked into eating jellyfish at one point (what else is clear and thin and rubbery? errr..) which didn't really taste like much, and all I could think was that the jellyfish on the table was not unlike what could be found swimming in La Jolla Cove. ack.

After dinner I headed over to my friend Danny's house to watch some Jeopardy. We watched two episodes while keeping score, and not to brag or anything... but guess who won? Oh yeah! This girl! I couldn't stay out to late and had to leave and get to bed  with yet another 4am wake-up for a 6am flight on the horizon. *yawn*. I got into San Diego about 7:30am the next day and headed straight into work. Amazingly I wasn't that tired! The trip was short but sweet, and I'm excited to head back home this week for Thanksgiving. For some reason I'm not sure I can ever see myself returning to San Francisco even though I love the city dearly. Because of this I cherish my weekends at home, and I'm so grateful to have a network of friends and family who always make me remember that there's no place like home.