San Francisco Nights

DAY 1 - DC to Dallas/FT. Worth to Palo Alto

old movie theater in Palo Alto near Stanford University

Friday,  April 15, 2011. We woke up at 4:00 a.m. to get a 6:00 a.m. flight. Why did I do that? I was trying to be frugal yet didn't want to lose a day in travel so I picked an earlier flight.  Luckily, I had called and reserved a cab the night before and he was patiently waiting for our  4:30 pickup.   We got to the airport, checked in, dropped our bags off and barely made the 50 lb. limit.  I guess I packed too much as usual probably had to do with the tripod and my extra shoes.

Flight to Dallas was good until the pilot made an announcement that to avoid the thunderstorms we would be going around them. That took an extra 25 minutes so missed our connecting flight.  The funny thing about the whole situation was that we would have made our flight had the trams been working and had our connecting flight been on the same gate (we landed at Gate C and had to pick up the connecting at Gate A).  Do you know how large that airport is?  Needless to say, the plane took off 3 minutes before we got to the gate.  We did get onto the next flight an hour later which was a good thing because we hadn't had anything to eat since the night before.

We arrived in SF at 1:00, grabbed a shuttle to Palo Alto and 15 minutes later came upon the beautiful Stanford Park Hotel.  At check-in, the concierge gave us a welcome goodie bag from the bride and groom filled with homemade cookies, CO beer made by his good friend from Colorado, Girardelli chocolates, and directions to rehearsal dinner, wedding venue, nearby restaurants and museums. It was such a unique packet and a nice surprise:

a welcome bag from the bride and groom

front of the hotel

 restaurant/bar area

 patio

the pool

us relaxing by the pool with our boots on

 The lobby

 the lobby, top view

the library up on the mezzanine level

Our room

My good friend Teresa met us about 10 minutes later out in the gorgeous patio where we indulged in a cheese plate filled with decadent cheeses, plump figs, sweet honey and warm crusty bread.  I forgot to take a photo of the food but this is a picture of me and Teresa.

Teresa and I

The weather was a beautiful and crisp 70 degrees, just the right temperature to sit outside and chat.  10 minutes later, the groom-to-be (Michael) greeted us with his bff Josh only to leave to get ready for the rehearsal dinner. It was good to see him as I've known him for over 15 years when he was an intern in our office. At that time, he was a senior in CSU and had a non-paid internship with us so he left to go back to school but eventually came back to DC to work for a few years since his family was here.  He always kept in touch.

Meanwhile, dh and I got ready for the rehearsal dinner which was held in a cozy restaurant called "St. Michael's Alley".  It was open bar with wine and beer. Dinner consisted of  a 3 course meal with choice salad or soup,  pork, steak, salmon (I chose the salmon), and dessert consisted of apple tart, pistachio ice cream (loved this), and sorbet. How interesting that the restaurant had Michael's name and wondered who chose the restaurant?!!  The family kept telling me that the bride and groom planned it all. Good for them.

bride and groom (were sitting behind them)

Afterwards, we ended up meeting Teresa at the lobby bar area and hung out for a while. We were just too tired to stay up any later as it was a very long day.