Mini Vacation - Part One

So on Feb 21st we headed for Dayton to start our trip to San Fransico. The first plane ride was horrible from Dayton to Atlanta. It was bumpy and turbulent. We actually bounced on the landing, we hit so hard. The flight from Atlanta to San Fran was much smoother, but after the 4th hour, we were getting pretty uncomfortable. The last hour of the flight was just plane bad. Ricky couldn't get comfortable, I couldn't get comfortable. Did you know that they have shrunk the amount of room you have under the seats in front of you? My backpack barely fit, and took up some of the room for my feet. Same with overhead compartments, my suitcase, which has never had a problem fitting, would only fit a certain way. :(

Anyways, we got to San Fransisco around 9:30 PM Pacific time, or 12:30 AM Eastern. We were tired, and got on the Bart, and thankfully our hotel was right at the Civic Center stop of the Bart.

Friday morning we got up and after being shell shocked by the prices at Burger King, we of course went shopping. The mall was gorgeous, the whole forth floor was an atrium (I should have pictures up on flickr soon of the rest of the trip) that you can sit in and talk. Then we got on the Bart and headed off to Berkley for Rachel's meeting. We looked at a map to see how far we had to walk, and it looked like about 3 blocks, maybe 4 from the train station. After walking 7 blocks, we started making calls. It turns out that something got messed up when we looked at the map, We had to walk 7 blocks south, and 7 blocks east, UP A HILL ;). We finally got there, and after catching my breath, Ricky and I headed back down the hill. We actually caught a bus, and took that back to the train station. We stopped at Game Stop to see if they had a Wii, and found out that even the big cities have the same problem, No Wii's in stock :(. Ricky and I took the Bart back downtown, and went to the Apple Store, and got a video adapter for my laptop. Of course Ricky wanted to play at the "Kids Stations" and play StarWars Lego's. Then we headed back to the hotel and grabbed Burger King for dinner (at half of the price of the breakfast that morning).

Saturday morning Ricky and I woke up and rode the Bart one stop north to the mall. We had breakfast in the food court, then went up to Market street and started walking North. We found a toy store, and had fun there, then just kept walking. After about 4 blocks we turned around and walked back. We did stop by the Apple store again. Since it was looking like rain we headed back to the mall for lunch. Ricky was getting pretty tired, so we sat down on a chair in the mall, and Ricky fell asleep for about 20 minutes. Then we went down to the basement floor, and I let Ricky play on one of those Xbox mats, you know where they have the projector pointing down at the floor and a webcam to tell your inputs? He played on that for two or three cycles, then I was tired of standing around. We headed back to the hotel for a real nap. After nap time, we headed back out and went to the Apple store again ;). Then we went walking towards the Sony store. I kept seeing people with "WonderCon badges" on their shirts, and finally asked someone what it was, and if Ricky would like it. They stated that people were dressed up as super heros and as starwars characters, so I was like, sweet, lets check it out. Ricky and walked over to the center, and saw the length of the line, and how it was still raining off and on, and we turned around and headed back to the Sony store. Ricky had fun seeing the big TV's and playing games at the Playstation Store. Then we again went to the apple store, because Ricky asked really nicely to go back. After finally prying him away from there for the third time, we had dinner at Hagen Daz :), well not really, but we did have dessert first, then went and had pizza. Then we headed back to the Hotel. I found a 5 dollar bill on the ground in the Bart Station, so we stopped by a starbucks and I got a $5 gift card to use later :) Then we headed to bed.

Sunday morning, we got up and got on the Bart to Berkley to get Rachel and Wes. We got on the wrong train, so in Oakland got off the first train, and got on the next one. Then we had to change trains to get to Berkley. We finally got to Berkley and then walked to a Starbucks and had breakfast. Rachel called to see where we were, and we headed out. Ricky and I walked for a few blocks, then grabbed the bus to get close. Still had to walk for a few blocks. Met a few of Rachel's Soroity sisters, and after visiting for a while, got a ride back to the station. We took the trains back to town and then decided to go to WonderCon as a family. We saw tons of characters. Ricky hugged a few storm troopers, and we got some pictures and autographs with some stars. Then we headed back to the room and ordered some local pizza and watched tv shows from my computer.