Mullins Tribe : 10 year anniversary! Part 1

---well, I had our entire vacation written today and somehow when I published it only part of this post was published. UGH! Sooo much time wasted today. I guess it was too big and too long. So the rest of our trip will come soon!!-----
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Saturday the 20th Matt and I left San Antonio for Nashville to watch my brother and his band Sons of Fathers perform at the Grand Ole Opry! (Now, THIS part definitely deserves an entry all to itself, and it'll be up next!). Then Sunday morning the 21st we got up at the crack of dawn for our flight to San Francisco. This was our 4th trip to SF. Since Matt works for Wells Fargo (and Wells is out of SF), many of his continuing education classes and training are held out SF....and I always love being his tag along. Any time he has training somewhere we always tack on a few days either before or after and make a vacation out of it. This time we added days on before and after. He had training from 9-5 on Tuesday and 9-1 on Wednesday.

We arrived in SF with the time change around lunch time. Once we got there we dropped off our things at the JW Marriott and hit the ground running. We thought it was extremely kind of them to give us the room 1010---after all that week was all about us and the grand number 10! We headed down to the wharf grabbed a late lunch and walked around and shopped. It was SO cold! Much colder than we anticipated. You just can't complain about that coming from Texas and 100+ heat, but in all honesty Matt and I are cold weather wimps...period.

Our first night there Matt had a dinner cruise arranged for us out in the bay. We never have done this before and it was so neat seeing the city at night and to drive under the Golden Gate Bridge on a boat.

The dinner on the cruise was great and the scenery was lovely too. We really enjoyed ourselves and the peacefulness of this experience. After 2 nights of 4 or less hours of sleep, just sitting and enjoying the view of the city was perfect.

Monday without a DOUBT was BY FAR my most favorite day EVER in San Francisco. We rented a GO CAR for the day. It's about $200 for a full day rental and it is worth every.single.penny. It is a must do if you go to SF. We usually rent bikes when we visit SF which is always such a great time, especially over the GGB, but to experience the city on this little go car was a total blast---and it is something we want to do every time we go back. I feel like we explored the city better than we have ever seen it before. We went on the 'other side' (west side) of the GGB and saw it where there were no other tourists. It was breathtaking. We felt like we saw every single thing there was to see and more....and it left us wanting to do it all over again the next day. We took so many pictures and face timed the kids and family all day just because it was so fun!

So what you do is once you have your go car you can go on a 'tour' with your little GPS girl in the car. And she really will take you all over the city and tell you about so many different things---and you'll never get lost. OR--you can go and see and do whatever you want as you please. We did a little bit of both. You can go anywhere in the city but the only rule is no bridges or highways---no problem! Matt and I like exploring on our own most of the time...and GPS girl could get on our nerves. You drive on all of the main streets and the car goes 35 mph so you keep up with the traffic just fine. If you want to stop and take pictures or have lunch or whatever, you can. You just pay the little parking meter just like any other vehicle. I never felt scared for a second (ok that is a lie---one time we had been winding around just driving and we came up and it seriously felt like the Texas Giant---a STRAIGHT DOWN DROP. We had no idea we had gotten up so high and I was so afraid going down. My stomach was in my throat. We smelt our breaks for 30 minutes afterwards). Since there is a light pretty much on every block, you can't go too fast. It drives like a scooter and really is so much fun. BEST DAY YET!

Lookin GOOD!!

One of the many beautiful homes on Lombard Street.

If you look closely you can see all the people taking our picture. It was hilarious. I really got into it posing and waving. Matt and I kept say 'that dang paparatzi'--of course we were kidding. You don't really see many of these go-cars around and it was so funny when people saw us in one for the first time.

GGB---I never get tired of seeing it.

We really didn't want to give this thing back.

One of the sweetest moments of the day was Matt had brought a blanket and wine and at the end of the day stopped to take a break in the Ghiradelli park. It was so romantic and peaceful and such a sweet memory.

THE TEXAS GIANT MOMENT. Seriously STRAIGHT DOWN.

My gangsta of a hub.

After our picnic in Ghiradelli park, Matt and I visited Ghirardelli Square for dessert (for Matt) and hot chocolate (for me). It was yum-o as always! While there we saw none other than John Travolta himself! It was such a cool little added bonus seeing he and his wife Kelly Preston, & their little boy. He was very nice saying hi and shaking hands with the people there. Very cool!

After our hot chocolate it was time to return our car. We had it until 7:00 that evening and we showed up 10 minutes until 7 to return it. We maxed out our day with this little go car. We wished we had it for another day. We then walked around a little bit and enjoy some delicious sushi that a local there recommended to us. Best San Fran Day to date!

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Tuesday Matt began his training. He had it from 9-5 on Tues and 9-1 on Wednesday. I enjoyed my day to myself. I slept in, took my time getting ready, then spent the day shopping Union Square. I thought it was so kind of Nordstrom to celebrate our anniversay with their Anniversary Sale. :) The day went really fast and I found myself watching the clock to make it back in time to meet Matt at the hotel. Once we met up we wasted no time and were out again.

One thing you should know about my man is that he enjoys a well crafted cocktail. There was a bar called Bourbon and Branch that Matt had read about and has been wanting to try. It is an old prohibition style speakeasy bar. It's a reservations only place where they give you a password to get in. There is no sign, only this wooden door with a buzzer to get in. It's dark and candle lit inside with 1920's music playing. It was a really neat place. We went twice. On the menu it says, "don't even think about ordering a Cosmo." :) Their drinks are very old timey and different. We loved being tucked away in a dark candlelit corner after being apart all day. Definitely a neat spot!

Waiting to give our password. HA! Mr. Bad to the BONE.

We have here a French 75 and a Revolver.

After our little cocktail hour we headed to the famous Tadich Grill. It was some of the best seafood to date. I ordered the Seafood Cioppino. It was delicious!! I knew it was the thing to order after going to the restroom and counting 9 people with that at their table. Matt knew he made a mistake in what he ordered the moment they put that bib around my neck. Once placed in front of me he immediately asked the waiter for an extra bowl and spoon. :) It was one of the best meals in SF.

These 2 pictures were texts sent to my sister. She shares our love for good seafood, and being pregnant with her second, I knew she would appreciate these pics. It was rather cruel because I think she wanted to eat her phone. Love you sister!!