San Francisco, Part III

Saturday was another great day. We did attend the conference a bit, but also hit some more highlights in the city.


Again, we rode a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. When we got off, the driver offered to take our picture. Then he said that because we were the last off, he'd take it from two angles. By the way, check out Kari's pose in this picture. Like she's a professional model or something!



Here's the second shot the driver took. Too bad my hair is in my face!

Our main destination at the Wharf was Ghirardelli Square. Vogel had been telling us that if you went to Ghirardelli Chocolate, you could tour the place and get a free piece of chocolate. She insisted that this was true, and it sounded pretty darn awesome to Kari and me. But then the woman at the information booth looked at us like we were crazy. She told us that there hadn't been any factory there since the 60s. (True: you can read about it here.) "But you get a free piece of chocolate!" Vogel kept insisting. She even kept holding out one hand and tapping it with the other. "They put it in your hand!" Kari and I told her she must have been confusing this place with Hershey Park. From personal experience, I know that's true about Hershey. The information booth lady did tell us that in the ice-cream parlor, you could see some of the old machines. We decided that was good enough and set off to the parlor.

Imagine our surprise, then, when at the door of the store, a worker handed us a piece of chocolate. And then imagine our further surprise when, in the parlor, the old machines weren't just on display, but actually working, making batches of delicious chocolate. So--much to her delight--Vogel was vindicated. The information booth lady, meanwhile, should be more well, informed about the place where she works.


Vogel and Kari pointing to the chocolate machines.

Kari studying a pool of chocolate. We wanted to ask the workers if they ever felt the urge to jump in, but they looked pretty busy.

A happy Kari waiting for our order to arrive.

And here it is--a hot fudge sundae that we split. Yummy.

After our ice-cream, we walked down to the water. Along this way, I took this picture of Alcatraz. Kari and I really wanted to visit the Rock, but it turns out you have to reserve your spot in advance, and we hadn't done that. Maybe next time...

Looking back towards Ghirardelli Square.

Kari and I down by the water.

Later that night, after some conferencing and such, we went to North Beach and walked around a bit before having dinner at this yummy Italian place. We were sure to visit City Lights Books, where I picked up this book and a couple of postcards.

The next day, sadly, it was time to head home. But all in all, an awesome trip!

San Francisco, Part II

On Friday, we gave our presentation, and like I previously noted, we were awesome.


Here we are afterwards. We asked a nice guy in the audience to take our picture.

Once that was done, we felt the need to celebrate, so we headed to this Irish bar down the road from our hotel. Kari and I had beers, while Vogel picked something different...


...this HUGE Bloody Mary. Apparently, this bar is famous for them.



The fun really got started when a group of strong and attractive men sat down next to us. What made them even more attractive? They were firemen from Limerick, Ireland, in town for the parade. I mean really, Irish firemen? Swoon. (Btw, Limerick is where my dad's family is from, so that was extra cool.)


We had a lot of fun with them, especially the young guy on the right, who was their captain. (So young!) They got a kick out of the fact that we were English teachers and made us scold them in English accents. (Don't ask.) We also tried (unsuccessfully) to teach them that most women don't like the term "hooters." Oh well.

Eventually, we parted ways with the firemen. That night, we went to Chinatown for dinner, which was quite yummy. Despite some bravado earlier in the evening about getting a bit crazy, we burned out early and were asleep relatively early.

San Francisco, Part I

So 4Cs in San Francisco was a blast. Even though Team Awesome found itself one man (well, woman) down since Bethany couldn't make it, we still managed to rock the conference presentation hardcore. And yeah, we had some fun, too.

On Thursday, once the three of us (Kari, Vogel, and I) got together, we took a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf to look around a bit and meet up with Joel, one of Vogel's good friends from back when she lived in San Francisco.

Vogel on the cable car. We were standing/hanging on the outside. It was pretty awesome--kind of thrilling for a non-risk-taker like myself.

Vogel and Joel at lunch. Don't they look like siblings?

After lunch, we waited for another cable car to take us back to the hotel. I snapped a couple pics of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Another pic of the bridge.

It's pretty hard to get these two to focus for a picture.

Much better!

Something I didn't know: when the cable cars reach the end of the tracks, they have to turn them around manually. I thought that was pretty cool and took a couple of pictures of the process.


Spinning it around.

All done!

More to come...

Pictures from late March

Today I was cleaning up files on my camera and my computer and came across a few from an almost surreal time of my life last semester: the fews days around Easter.

As some of you know, right around then we had a terrifying medical scare with my mother, who went into the hospital on Wednesday, the very day I was heading to Asheville, North Carolina, to deliver a conference paper. By Friday evening, the situation had gotten so bad that I needed to come home to NY immediately. I drove all Friday night, met my sister in Martinsburg the next morning, and we drove up to NY, spending Saturday there and most of Sunday before heading back down here on Sunday afternoon (assured by my dad and my siblings that we didn't need to be there right then).

The happy news--eventually--was that my mom's diagnosis went from being quite dire to something completely treatable and she's almost fully recovered. But in my mind, those few days stand out as some of the worst of my life. So it was strange to find these pictures and be reminded of what helped me get through that awful time.

First, a few pictures from the conference. PAC is one of the highlights of the year for me because I get to see so many of my friends. It's like a reunion. This time, though, you can tell I wasn't in my normal mindset because there are only a couple photos worth posting.

A cute picture of Bethany and Emily, two of my best friends from my UNCG days.

From left to right: Vogel, Emily, Bethany, Gretchen, Heidi, and Kari. This picture of most of our group is a bit blurry, but it makes me smile. I am not sure who took it (maybe Tasha or Shannon, who are noticeably absent from the picture), but it was taken after we had finished with panels for the day and I was about to get that "you need to come home" phone call. I had been on the phone with my siblings all day, getting progressively worse news, and my friends knew this. God bless them--they were so wonderful. I really couldn't have picked a better place to be then surrounded by them during that time.

After those pictures from Asheville, I found a few from Easter Sunday. After church, Ryan, Erin, and I met Tara, Jeff, Jeff's mom, Colin, and Olivia for lunch at the diner, before Erin and I headed over to the hospital. I had my camera with me, and took just a couple of pictures, since it was Easter, after all, and we were trying to act normal for the kids. It was strange being at a restaurant and acting Easter-y with so much on our minds, but seeing those kids made me smile, just like always, on a day I really needed reasons to smile.

Colin and Jeff.

Olivia and Erin.

Colin and Heidi. (Is it just me, or do I look kind of young in this picture? Maybe it's the color I am wearing? If so, I need to buy more shirts in this color...)

Anyway, (and yes, I realize the huge cheese factor in this post), finding these photos reminded me of the ways God sends us what we need in trying times, especially in the forms of friends and family.

4Cs Panel

Just a preview of a longer post to come: here's a picture of our panel, taken right after our presentation. We look happy, right? (Well, Rita doesn't look happy, but pregnancy is doing a real number on her digestive system and we had quite a few "Hold on, I need to run to the bathroom" moments, so maybe that explains the look on her face.)


Left to right: Kari, Rita, Vogel, and Heidi.