Mom and Robyn flew out to visit me and Chuck here in the San Fran area in January 2007. I was very excited about this trip and was glad I got all the time requested off of work! I planned out what we would be doing (for the most part) and was very excited to show them around! They arrived late in the evening, so the first night was spent catching up, saying hi, and sleeping.

On Friday morning we woke up, got ready and headed out to the school that I work at (Chuck unfortunately couldn't join us because he had to work...). My Mom and sister got to meet Ann, the teacher I aide for and I think they got along swimmingly. Ann gave them a little tour of the school (even set off the alarm showing us the library!) and her and Mom chatted about the differences, similarities, difficulties of working in the school system (my Mom is a middle school guidance counselor). We had a very nice visit with her, took some photos outside the school and headed back home. On the way though, we stopped at Mollie Stones. I just had to show them this strange, organic grocery store with the outrageous prices. So we got some groceries to keep us going for the week - Robyn and I decided it would be a good excuse to do some pigging out, so there was some junk food involved.

After a little Wii bowling (yes, Mom played too!) we headed out to Mt. Tam. We drove up the winding, winding road, all the while Mom offering to wipe down the front window every time we turned into the sun. I refused for some reason... I think I didn't want to have to stop. We managed to follow the signs up to the peak and parked. Robyn and I packed on all the extra clothes we could find. It was cold up there! I really think there must be a little formula to hiking trails... From my experience they tend to start off nice and man-made. Wooden steps, wooden ramp, something. Then they get a bit rougher and turn into a nicely cleared and flattened path. Then they start to get a bit rough, some rocks thrown in here and there, getting a bit steeper. By the time you get to the end of the trail your scrambling over large rocks and grabbing for handholds. Well, that may a be a bit of an extreme description, but you get my drift. This short Mt. Tam trail is no exception. It was a nice walk though - beatiful views every where you turned. And I got all excited at finding ice in the rocks along the way. At the top was a little building. I honestly don't know exactly what it was, but it was all locked up and had some vicious barbed wire wrapped around the second floor. The coolest part was that we could actually see (after quite a bit of searching) where Chuck and I live from up there! Very cool.

So after that, we headed off to Stinson Beach. Mom brought some oranges along with her, so we all had a snack once we arrived. Robyn, being the lucky girl she is to have such a great Mom, had her orange peeled and fed to her so her fingers didn't get wet and cold. My sister cracks me up sometimes! So we ran around on the beach a bit, walked down to the end where there are some nice rock formations. Robyn ran around with her hands stuffed in her pockets reminding me of a piece of wood playing tag with the waves. We could have stayed for the sunset, but we would have had to wait 30 minutes or so and it's cold out there on the beach. So we drove home. I wanted to take the Pacific highway but it was closed. Phooie.

We went out to our favorite sushi place that night - Akira. I think Mom and Robyn thought it was pretty good too. Mmmm, they have the best sushi ever! And we got to introduce them to our favorite waitress, Kouru. Kouru's awesome. She brought us each a mochi at the end of our meal. So it was a good, productive day. Just relaxed the rest of the night, getting ready for our big Saturday!

We took the ferry into San Francisco Saturday morning. Chuck didn't join us for the earlier part of the day, he showed up later for dinner in the city with us. The ferry ride is an experience in and of itself. You pass by San Quentin, you can see the Golden Gate, I think you can spot Alcatraz along the way, and then you get a beautiful profile of the city as you pull into port. Our first destination was Chinatown. We stopped in a few shops, I got a tea ball, Robyn got some knock-off purses, we all got Pashmenas. We ended up eating at an underground Chinese resturant (underground as in you walk down a flight of stairs to the basement of a building). Very greasy... I don't think it was authentic, but whatever. Good enough.

We made our way to the shopping part of town, stopping in different shops along the way. We saw the rotund opera singers too, which was interesting. Fun resonation in the alley they sing in - I think it helps enhance the sound. My sister is way better than them though! We found some cute sale items at Guess (50% off baby). I actually found some cheap-o stuff that I liked at H&M. And we stopped in a Jessica McClintock I think it was, and I had fun trying on wedding dresses. They had some funky stuff there! Fun fun.

I believe we then started heading towards Pier 39. A long walk. Luckily we managed to hop on a cable car about a third of the way there. We didn't know it was going to be $5.00 a person, so we didn't have enough money... We offered to get off, but the conductor said no, despite the fact that he grilled us about how we were taking the place of paying customers, la-dee-da. I mean, he was right and all, but it still sucks to be shamed like that. Besides, no one's allowed to scold my Mom! That's just not right. Later that evening my Mom tried to pay the remaining $10 to another cable car conductor she saw, telling him our story. He refused the money though and told us we had been blessed. So Mom gave it to a wierd homeless dude... Hopefully it went towards helping him rather than harming him. But you know, sending the karma on its way is all you can really do.

So! Made it to Pier 39, met Chuck over there. Watched in disappointment as a group of young people released about 20 balloons into the air for some sort of celebration. I didn't know there were still people callous enough to act so shamefully in public... All those sea turtles they must have killed... It actually did disapoint me though. What a needless way to litter our oceans. So we walked around the pier, checked out the sea lions, and then walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. We looked at a number of different restuarants on the way and decided on one overlooking part of the harbor. I don't remember what it was called, sorry. It was good though! We ordered a bottle of Riesling and I had a crab dish which was *delicious*!!! Sooooo good, yum yum. We headed over to Ghirardelli next (you just can not pass up Ghirardelli when you're that close to it) and bought a number of candy bars between the four of us (which Robyn so graciously modelled).

By this time we were pretty tuckered out and happily headed back home via the Golden Gate. I seem to remember Robyn and I hanging our heads half out the window and looking up at the bowing framework as it passed by. My hair got all knotted... We (including Mom) played some Guitar Hero before we headed off to bed.

Went out to breakfast with Jessica and Jason the next morning! Good times, good times. No ackward moments, everyone was comfortable (it can be a bit wierd meeting your friends parents I think), had a good time, good food. You can always count on Marvin's for a great breakfast. We didn't do much of anything exciting the rest of the day. We headed out to the east bay to look at dresses and stuff, but that was it. I did set up reservations for a nice day at the spa on Monday though...

So Monday morning we headed out pretty early so we would make it to Calistoga on time for our spa treatment. Indian Springs is the name of the place we went to, right in downtown Calistoga. I thought it was a nice place! It looked good and people were nice enough (not southern friendly, but nice all the same). We were getting mud baths! We changed into the robes given to us by the spa and waited until it was our turn to be dipped. Those robes were soooo nice. Thick, double layered, terry cloth inside, roomy, and comfortable. And $80 if I wanted to buy one... So when it was our turn we got naked, rinsed off in a mineral water shower, and then lay down on top of the mud (which is some special mixture of volcanic ash and other stuff). It was very thick mud - you didn't sink into it, more like floated just in the surface. Not even floated, but suspended. There was an attendant who scooped mud on top of us to cover us up due to the fact that you don't sink in. It was nice and warm and I just sat back, closed my eyes and felt the mud squeeze into my every crack. After about 10-15 minutes in the mud we rinsed off in the mineral shower and then soaked for another 10 in a mineral bath. There was a little glass of orange and cucumber infused water, little finger cleaners, stuff like that by the bathtub. The cucumber water was pretty good. Then a steam room for a bit (the natural steam produced by the hot spring), and finally a 15 minute wrapped nap (they just wrap you up in a blanket/towel and put cucumbers on your eyes). Very nice treatment!

After all that, we slapped on our swimsuits and headed over to the heated mineral pool. Heated is absolutely right - although burning may be more acurate. But I managed to swim around for a bit. The cool air, warm sun, and hot pool was very relaxing. We could only take so much of it though and gathered our stuff and left after not too long. We got back in town just in time to go to the buffet at Lotus (Indian food). Robyn was wary at first, but I think we convinced her. Delicious as usual. And then it was time to go to the airport and drop them off... I was pretty darn sad at them leaving. I had had a wonderful visit with them, had a blast showing them my new "home," and I just wanted to keep them there with me and continue having a good time! But real life calls us all back to our masochistic slavery (that might be an extreme description) and we have to wait a bit for the next highlight. Well, anyways, we said goodbye, and I felt sad, but the feeling passed and I have great memories of a wonderful visit!