San Fran-Freako

I hope no one out there gets all offended by the title, but as you can see by the picture on the right, its abso-tutely correct! ---And I paid him $2 to take this picture. He said he charged $1 for a picture of him but Luke gave him an extra dollar and said he wanted me in the picture! Ha.

OK, let me back up and say that I have the sweetest, most thoughtful husband in the whole world.--- And the best parents! We were at my parent's house for the Thanksgiving weekend and my mom offered to watch the boys one night so that Luke could take me to SF for a birthday getaway. I LOVE going to the city with Luke for lots of obvious reasons. But it was extra fun because it wasn't my idea and because it was for my birthday---which meant I would be spoiled.

I do have to give props to my mom and dad for taking the boys for the night in the midst of moving into their new house. Escrow closed the day before Thanksgiving, after a very short escrow. (They have been waiting on this "short sale" since June---so they were very anxious to move their stuff).

Friday morning after everyone was up up, dressed and fed we packed up boxes into my dad's trailer and headed over to the new house. We unpacked the first load of boxes into the garage, got the kids situated with movies, blankets and toys---and Luke and I hit the road! Its about 100 miles to SF from my parents' house so we got in after 2pm. We checked in, got comfy and hit Union Square for some shopping.

What I love about my husband (among a million other things) is that he loves to shop with me. He went into every store with me like a champ! We did a lot of browsing, window shopping and ...well...just checked out the weirdos.

Around 6pm Friday night we just happened to make the corner of Macy's (across from the park in Union Square) and wondered why there was such a large crowd gathered. Everyone seemed to be looking up and 10 seconds later everyone started counting down ..9...8...7...6...5..4..3..2..1.. and the Christmas tree was lit. It was funny because we just happened to stumble upon it, but it was really cool. I was glad we were there that particular night.

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The front of Macy's (This is how Luke is going to decorate the front of my house) LOL

We put our name in at the "Cheesecake Factory," where there was a 2.5 hour wait. The CF is on the 8th floor of Macy's so to waste some time we wandered around inside the store. While looking for a bathroom we ended up on the 6th floor and because of extreme fatigue tested out some of their mattresses. I found the bed of my dreams--- I didn't want to leave. Families would walk by and laugh...and I would tell them how comfy it was. They would sit down and try it out---and agreed it was perfect. I felt like Goldilocks!

Eventually our "pager" went off and we got a table. Chow time! I order the same thing every time---and it is so good. Its my favorite place to eat because the food is good--and there are so many choices. If I wasn't so obsessive compulsive I would try something new every time from ther 15 page menu. LOL

Licking the sugar off the rim of my raspberry lemonade! (The best beverage in the universe I am sure) I drank 3 glasses--- I was a little wired!

The best appetizer of all time ---fried macaroni and cheese! When I tell people they should order this they think of Kraft M&C I think, but its nothing like it.

After dinner we walked a few blocks to the movie theater and watched the 10:15pm show of "Four Christmases." The movie was hilarious. I was laughing so hard at Vince Vaughn.--I think he had some good lines. (Luke and I have been repeating them like children for the past 2 days) **Don't pay any attention to any of the movie reviews! The movie was only 1 hr 22 minutes and it was great.

After getting in LATE Friday night, amazingly we were up bright and early Saturday morning. We had an agenda for more shopping in Union Square. The weather was a dream! I wish I could have stayed there forever! We ate breakfast at a small diner. Nothing too fantastic, but it was edible.

An hour later I stopped for some Pinkberry frozen yogurt (yum) with strawberries on top. We sat in the window to people watch (or freak watch) and took pictures of ourselves!

Aren't we cute??!

I know you are probably tired of hearing me saying we shopped...but we shopped some more.

After getting our fill and knowing we had to get home soon to our buglets, we headed over to North Beach (Little Italy) for some lunch. After splitting a calzone we took off for home!

I had such a good time with my wonderful husband. I don't know what I did to deserve him---or my patient parents for taking my rambunctious boys for 30 hours----but I am very thankful!!