Summer Vaca, Part II: San Francisco

The last day in Hawaii was spent teaching our second Maps on the Web workshop. We finished around 4 pm, hopped on a flight to Oahu and then caught a red-eye to San Francisco.

View above the clouds as we approached SFO

We woke up, blurry-eyed in San Francisco and were ushered to a friendly work related meeting with an old colleague at the SF Bay Area Conservation District to discuss an upcoming training scheduled for October (woot, woot - another trip to SF!!).

The Ferry Building and the Bay Bridge as seen from the BCDC office ~ The Financial District

After a power nap, we met up with one of my Gettysburg College roommates, Becky, who had flown in from Washington state. The purpose of the San Francisco diversion was for the wedding of another G-burg roomie, Molly and her fiance, Greg. Another one of our roommates, Kendall and her boyfriend Javi drove into the city for the wedding from their home in Petaluma.

G-burg ladies: Kendall, Becky, Molly and Cary

It's been awhile since all the roommates were in one place at one time. The wedding was held at Greens, a world-renowned vegetarian restaurant right on the water at Fort Mason. It was a beautiful, relaxed wedding and the food was seriously TO DIE FOR. I didn't hear one meat eater in the crowd complaining about the menu either, haha.

The rest of our time in San Francisco was spent sight-seeing, relaxing and eating more delicious food. We visited the Cable Car Museum, trolled along the Embarcadero and Fisherman's Wharf, climbed Coit Tower, window-shopped in Union Square, toured the bay, Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate Bridge by boat and enjoyed glorious San Francisco sourdough and the best ice cream in the world.

And just in case you didn't already think I was a little nuts, I also got up at 4 am the morning after the wedding (which also happened to be the same day we were to leave SF on a red-eye home) to run the San Francisco Half Marathon. Indeed, I was exhausted, but it was definitely worth it. The course was amazing and the experience of running over the Golden Gate Bridge at dawn is something everyone should do once in their lifetime (but be warned, it's much longer than it looks!). I went into the race with low expectations and a slow pace, but by the 8-mile point decided to pick up the pace because I was feeling better than I thought I would. Maybe it was the bridge that did it but in any case, I started ticking off 7:30 miles and felt invincible right thorough the finish line. Part of me wished I had just run the marathon instead. Oh well, maybe I'll get to that this fall.

All in all, our unlikely summer vaca turned out to be one that we'll remember for some time. Hawaii is simply breathtaking. At every corner there's something new and astonishing to look at. San Francisco, with it's culture and diversity, was a refreshing change from the status quo. Still, it was nice to return home and reunite with family and of course, Summit, who seemed to thoroughly enjoy her own two week vaca at Grandma and Grandpa's house which consisted of running every morning with Gramps and swimming in the lake each afternoon. We all love our summer vacas, don't we? Too bad there's no such thing as an endless summer. So now, we head back to work.