I Left My Heart...Well, You Know

I believe I promised a trip log (with pictures!)

The CoasterFamily set off early in the morning on Saturday, July 12th with 2 kids, 3 suitcases, a diaper bag and a duffel full of carry-on items for the flight. Nearly 12 hours, a car ride and 2 flights later, we arrived in Las Vegas and were greeted at the airport by CoasterGuy's sister. The first order of business: Slurpees! Since we don't have any 7-11s near us, CoasterGuy was excited about getting a real Slurpee, as opposed to that imposter, Icee.

Thus fortified, we made our way to the north end of Vegas to meet the newest addition to the family, Baby Bean. Bean is adorable - she looks just like her older sister. The cousins got reacquainted and blew through the house like a tornado as the adults sat, chatted and thanked the heavens that we didn't usually have 4 kids under age 6 in the house. Dinner: In-n-Out Burger - mmmmmmmmm.

The next day we took the older kids to the aquarium at Mandalay Bay and lunch at House of Blues. I highly recommend the garlic fries and the Soul Sensation - a lovely concotion of various rums with a splash of soda. Tasty! Afterwards, we walked through the Luxor to Excalibur, where we spent WAY too much money on carnival-style games for the kiddos. CoasterGuy's sister won a giant tiger at the ring toss booth, and the kids each got a few smaller toys.

That evening, CoasterGuy's sister and her husband kindly agreed to watch the CoasterKids while we went to see Love at the Mirage and then afterwards, to Caesar's Palace to eat dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. While the meal was very good (and the margaritas were excellent), I think we both enjoyed the Manju Buns (steamed barbecue pork buns) we had before the show at a bar in the Mirage more. Maybe because we were hungry? Maybe it was the martinis? I'm not sure, but boy, were those pork buns good.

The next day was a travel day - we arrived in Phoenix around noon and enjoyed a nice lunch with the in-laws at the Rainforest Cafe before saying goodbye to the CoasterKids for the rest of the week and flying on to San Francisco. Yes, that's right: in one day, we had breakfast in Las Vegas, lunch in Phoenix, and dinner in San Francisco. Whew!

San Francisco, Day 1: We slept in a bit and had coffee and pastries at a bakery in the Japantown Center. Then, we walked from our hotel in Japantown to Union Square, where we caught the Powell-Hyde cable car up to Lombard Street (the crooked one). I don't know if you can clearly see the kid in the dark gray shirt (next to the one in bright yellow) but I caught him in mid-yawn. How anyone can yawn looking down over Lombard Street when the hydrangeas are in full bloom is beyond me, but there you have it.

We walked part of the way down Lombard, taking the time to watch cars navigating the twists and turns, and admiring the hydrangeas and other blooms lining the street. We saw this brave couple riding a motorcycle down Lombard.

After meandering down Lombard for a little way, we made a beeline for CoasterGuy's old high school, Galileo, and then to Ghirardelli Square for the yummiest hot fudge sundae I believe I've ever had. I'd post the picture I took of it here, but you'd just be jealous.


Afterwards, it was on to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch at Boudin's (yes, we had dessert before lunch - ahh, the freedom of dining without kids!) CoasterGuy had clam chowder in a sourdough bowl, while I opted for a rustic tomato soup. From there, it was shopping, shopping and more shopping as we picked up souveneirs for friends and family, and of course, for ourselves, too!

We wandered from Fisherman's Wharf over to Pier 39, where we did more shopping and watched the sea lions sunning themselves on the floating platforms (docks?). This time of year, there aren't very many of them around, but we had a good time watching those that were. Later we had a delicious Nutella and banana crepe from one of the shops.


As the afternoon wore on, we started our trek back toward Union Square, laden with shopping bags and mostly full bellies. Though we were nearly exhausted and tired of walking by this time, we had reservations for dinner at the Stinking Rose, so we walked through the Chinatown gate and headed past the junk shops towards the restaurant (stopping to browse and to buy a fan and a Lucky Cat pillow for CoasterGirl).


We arrived for dinner early and were seated immediately. Alex, our server, was very nice - she gave us the rundown on the most popular dishes. We had the roasted garlic/anchovy concotion to spread on bread before dinner, and split a bottle of very nice pinot noir. For dinner, I had the 40-clove Garlic Chicken, while CoasterGuy opted for the Garlic-Rubbed Prime Rib. Both dishes were great, but the star of that particular meal (at least as far as I was concerned) was the giant martini glass full of tiramisu we had for dessert.


Exhausted and full to bursting, we decided to take the MUNI back to Japantown and crash back at the Hotel Kabuki. This was quite possibly the best decision we made all trip - we ended up using the buses to get around everywhere all week, and found it to be a convenient and inexpensive way to get where you need to go in the city (as long as you're not in a rush).


Well, as I've already practically written a novel, and I've only covered our first day in San Francisco, I think I'll leave off here for today. More to come, if you're not already bored to tears. Next time, San Francisco: Day 2.