San Francisco with my college girlfriends

Back in October I had the opportunity to sneak over to San Francisco with my girls.

Not my baby girls (they will always be my babies), I’m talking these girls:

These girls were the ones, some roommates, some not, who helped shape so much of my life back in the good old college days.  They are the ones I met Dave with.  They are the ones who sent so much love to me on my mission.  Who married off when I was gone (most of them) and who were still with me in the ins and outs of getting engaged and married, and having babies…and are still with me any time I ever need them.

 The guy working the break on the back of the trolly was so awesome.  He took a picture for us…

…and let us try to work the break.

There was no way that was happening.  That is a tough job!

Here he is waving goodbye:

LOMBARD STREET

 Of course we had to do the famous Lombard Street.

We started at the top…

 …and made our way down.

Next we rented bikes from “Blazing Trails” and headed out on our Golden Gate adventure.

Oh man, I talked about my serious love for the GGB back HERE.  There’s something about that beautiful thing that just speaks to me.

Biking across the GGB is one of my very favorite touristy things to do.  Loved doing it with my kids, and loved doing it with these lovely ladies too.

We added a little surprise excitement/horror this time around though.

As we were riding along just soaking in the beauty of it all in the gorgeous weather, talking away, Steph hit the side bars and somehow went down.

Hard.

She was a little dazed and we were all worried because it was SO crowded that day (they had pedestrians and bikers on the same side so we had to weave through lots and lots of people) and hard for anyone to maneuver.  So when we finally all got gathered around to be sure she was ok she seemed to be fine…no cuts or blood…until she lifted up her forearm that was in pain and we saw blood oozing out of her sleeve.

…which kind of freaked us out a little.

We were able to pull her sleeve away enough to note the damage…it was a deep gouge.  Really deep.

I still to this day don’t know how in the world that happened…there was nothing sharp, we can’t figure out what she hit.  But we knew it was bad and she needed some medical help.

Luckily there are some pretty awesome police officers patrolling the bridge and before too long one came to our rescue.  He checked everything out and confirmed she for sure needed stitches.

They stopped traffic on the whole bridge going our direction, loaded her up in a police car and loaded her bike up in a police truck and met us on the Sausalito side of the bridge so we could get her to the doctor.

This picture doesn’t do the emergency professionals justice…there was a fire truck and ambulance there at one point (I think?)

She is one tough cookie.

Then we split up, some of us to urgent care and some back on the ferry.

We passed Alcatraz:

 And enjoyed watching the sun set as we came in to the ferry station.

 We biked over to Pier 39 where we had to pick up some hot sourdough bread.

 I am generally not a sourdough fan, but when it’s hot and fresh I’ll take it.

And we definitely had no problem putting down a giant hot fudge brownie sundae here:

 The other girls met us there after the stitches were complete and we walked the town serendipitously finding this really, really great art exhibit:

When we went to San Francisco with Charity last time we didn’t make it to Muir Woods.

So I was pretty excited it was on our agenda this time around.

I couldn’t stop taking pictures it was so gorgeous.

Much could be said about the strength of those groves of trees that grow to such great heights.

Not sure who took that picture but that’s me in my state of trying so dang hard to capture that place.

But pictures can never do justice to nature in my opinion.

Even the dead leaves have a particular kind of beauty.

God is an incredible artist.

The people in the picture below give you an idea of the scale of the grandeur of the trees:

Loved that there were some bridal shots going on…good thinking guys!

In the midst of all that beauty I figured it was the perfect spot to present those girls I love with some chocolate I love that I saved for them from Switzerland.

It was like a little chocolate ceremony 🙂  This stuff is pretty amazing I’m drooling a little bit looking at these pictures.

…and then to see the PAINTED LADIES:

Love them and love the slanted sun.

We raced to catch the last of the sunset on the beach.

..and off to soak in the Japanese Tea Garden:

I had never been to this spot but I LOVED it.

After that everyone had to head out.

We headed over to Brigitta’s neck of the woods for lunch before we caught our flights back home.

And sometimes I can’t stop taking pictures of interesting and beautiful things along the way.

And get rejuvenated and inspired by the goodness in each of them.

So grateful for those BYU days that brought us all together.

…and for that beautiful city where we got to hang together.