spontaneous trip

I took a spontaneous trip to San Francisco, again! We are trying to get all our visas together for the trip, and Russia refused to take any applications via mail, so we had to go in person to the consulate office! We drove all night, and got to the consulate at 7 am [they don't open until 9]. The building is in the Civic Center area with gorgeous multi-million dollar homes surrounding it. I forgot to take a picture, but i was just too tired and grumpy to do anything but lower my seat back and put my head down to rest.

We slept in the car for about half an hour when randomly, a group of people with a trainer started sprinting up and down the street, and then started doing push ups next to my car! Needless to say, it felt really weird to have people were working their asses off while looking in my car as we nap at 7 am. We decided to go back down the hill and look for some breakfast. At 830, we drove back up the hill to the consulate, waited half an hour for the one window to open, only to find out that we need to run back out to get a Fed Ex prepaid envelope in order for them to send our paperwork back to us [this is actually great bc we don't have to come back in 6 days to pick it up in person!]. So back down the hill we go to find a Fed Ex, back up the hill, wait at the window, and THIS time, everything was accepted. Six days until we get our passports back, filled with visas to beautiful countries we will see in the next 3 months!!!

Tired but happy, we set out to find our hotel to take a much needed nap. Odd little boutique place called Hotel Mirabelle in the Mission. We put our stuff down, and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Here are some pictures of the breakfast room. I sat here chillin' on the net for a bit before dinner.

Six hours later, Lillian picked us up and picked dinner at Isa, a GREAT place with family servings of food. We sat out in the back patio, tried the pre fixe menus, and then finished the night off at the California Wine Merchant Wine Bar. Dinner was delicious, and the wine was the perfect pair. Also, i'm extremely glad I got to see Lillian!!!! You must come visit before we leave!

the back patio

yummy california wine

halibut with mandarin oranges

vanilla ice cream with amaretto and biscotti

grapefruit granite