Day 1

After a 4:30AM wakeup call, $40 dollar station wagon taxi ride, painless check-in/security, Dunkin' Donuts breakfast sandwich, and fun in the airport convenience store, we boarded our Jetblue flight bound for Oakland, CA at 7:10am! The flight was fun for me as I love flying and tolerable for my less-enthusiastic companions. After 2 hours of Saved by the Bell repeats, Sportscenter, napping, window-watching, and other mindless activities, we landed on time to begin our adventure!


We got our luggage and boarded the BART bound for the Civic Center San Francisco to track down our rental car at Alamo.....Here is where things were not so easy. We spent the next hour walking around a not-so-tourist-friendly area of SF with all of our luggage trying to find Vilencia Street and our rental car! Calls to Alamo proved to be unsuccessful as they were the national operators and had no clue how to navigate the streets of SF. We assumed the agency would be located next to the Civic Center as its name had Civic Center in its title! Nope! After an hour trek, Monica, dropping her vibrating neck pillow probably claimed by on of SF's homeless, countless wrong turns and conflicting information from local residents, we found our Alamo! A 2008 red Ford Fusion was waiting for us. We had requested a Nissan Altima but they say they provide that vehicle or a "comparable" one so I guess the Ford Fusion would have to suffice! It was roomy enough, had an AUX port for the ipod, big trunk, and drove smoothly.



Our first order of business was LUNCH. Had a great Crab Cake Sandwich to satisfy my lack-of-a-meal-onboard hunger. We then explored Fisherman's Wharf, which is San Fran's tourist trap. With views of Alcatraz, tons of shops and restaurants, the famous Sea Lions, and more, it was fun to explore despite the throngs of people. We then walked down the embarcadero and headed to Ghiradelli Square (mmmm chocolate) to enjoy heaping mounds of ice cream even though we ordered smalls. Thoroughly exhausted, we decided to get back into the car and head to my Uncle Paul's for the night in Redwood city, which took an hour with the rush-hour traffic. Paul fed us a great meal of Venison Stew, salad, ice cream with mango for dessert and some delicious wine. Sleep invaded my brain as my head hit the pillow and thus ended our 1st day of Road Trip 08!