Refreshed

This past week has given me so many things I needed at this point in my life. Adam went to San Francisco for the Game Developer's Conference (or GDC), and I was able to tag along Wednesday thru Saturday. My in-laws were awesome enough to come stay with our kids to give us a true break. The trip showed me a lot of things, starting with:

1. My life doesn't have to be totally consumed with Molly. And that's what the past 18 months have been. I didn't realize just how much of my existence revolved around her and her health until I was completely surrounded by people who truly could not care less or only wanted to hear she is doing okay. By Saturday I was even coming up with other things to talk about with Adam's co-workers when we went out. It was actually refreshing.

2. There is a side of me that's a city girl. In all honesty, I had a total anxiety attack when I was packing Tuesday night. I feel like I've almost become borderline agoraphobic after the past couple of years. And I've never done well in big cities. When Adam and I went to Seattle on our honeymoon, we ended up hiding in a movie theater for an entire day. No joke. But this time I feel like I thrived on all the energy from the city and jumped right in. I barely hesitated when I was on my own for a half day, and ended up having a great time exploring. Which leads me to...

3. I still have the worst sense of direction on the planet. Adam and I jokingly referred to my lost exploits as 'just wanting to meander a little more'. Without a map, the GPS on my phone, and several nice strangers I would've ended up lost in Canada I think.

4. Adam and I actually got to enjoy being just a couple again. And it was awesome. One other wife came too, so I had girl time for shopping, we had some couple dates, and we hung out with Adam's co-workers a few times. It was so nice to stroll past an art gallery and decide to go in and not worry about kids ruining things or smudging the glass or whining to go back. We even made our very first art investment purchase!!!! We can't wait for it to arrive. The artist is even Korean, so he is putting the dedication on the back in Korean for Adam. There was another piece we both LOVED, but with a price tag of $21,000 I think we'll just admire it from a far.

5. I really like going to restaurants. With our family vacations, I usually plan our meals so we only eat out for lunch, and even then not every day. It was fun to not worry about price or time, just quality of the food. And we definitely found some amazing food.

6. Riding a bike is freakin' hard in San Francisco. I thought I was in pretty good shape still until this. We rented bikes on Thursday morning and ended up going around the wharfs and piers, across the Golden Gate bridge, then down into Sausalito. It was about 10 miles, and it wore us out big time. Probably the highlight of the trip though. It was beautiful to explore the city and the bridge like that.

To add a little bit of journaling to this post, I have to jot down a little timeline for my sake. Wednesday I flew out there and I took Bart to the hotel. I was so proud of myself that I didn't end up on the wrong train. When I met Adam, we had dim sum for lunch, then I spent the afternoon arranging for a repair guy to come fix our dishwasher. That night we explored Fisherman's Wharf, had dinner at McCormick & Kaluto's, then dessert at Ghiradelli Square. We took my first taxi ride back to the hotel and he was the driver from hell. I seriously almost lost my dinner to his crazy driving. Adam just laughed and told me he was Korean, and that's how all Korean drivers are.

Thursday morning we got an early start on the bike ride. It was beyond amazing. There was no wind at all, so we could just enjoy everything and take it in. Going across Golden Gate bridge on bike gave me a much better appreciation for its architecture and design. When we arrived in Sausalito we decided we didn't have time to ride back (the hill back to the bridge would've been impossible), so we explored the bedroom community and took a ferry back across the bay. Adam found the world's best ice cream, and I found a ton of fun souvenirs for the kiddos. When we got back Adam went to his conference and I met up with an old friend I haven't seen in YEARS. It was so fun catching up with him, and he got me a pass for the conference and tickets for the session I wanted to go to with Adam. That night we went out with all the ChAIR guys to Lark Creek Steak. It was delicious and we ended up staying till they closed just talking and laughing. Awesomeness.

Friday I 'meandered' around and got the rest of the souvenirs for the kiddos, then met up with Adam and my old friend for lunch. We had the best pizza I've ever had. Seriously. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Anyways, that afternoon I experienced Chinatown with the other wife from ChAIR. It was not what I was expecting, but really interesting. That night we went to dinner with all the Epic people at Joe's Crab Shack. It was really nice getting to know their employees a little better. After dinner, we went back to Ghiradelli Square one last time and wandered through an art gallery where we made our first big art purchase. It'll be an awesome souvenir for us for a long time to come. We even made a late night of it and saw John Carter at the theater next to our hotel.

Saturday we actually felt like eating breakfast, so we went to a place several people recommended and had the best french toast ever. We had some time before we had to leave, so we went to Alcatraz Island. I was really surprised at how much history that little island actually has, above and beyond the federal prison. We had a blast just exploring everything. On our way back to the hotel I finally saw a glimpse of the San Francisco I was holding my breath for...a nudist group doing a bike ride through the city with a police escort. It took a minute to figure out what was going on. Honestly, all I could think of for the women was, that has GOT to hurt(referring to the whole no bra thing, and it was close to freezing). We laughed the whole way back, had lunch, then made our way to the airport.

Overall, it was a great wake-up call for me. I came home much better focused on what I need to do for me, for us, and for our family. It was great to have a family day today to get settled back in again. Molly's health issues of the past few weeks now seem like little hiccups instead of massive stress inducers. I have a renewed sense of needing to get my family out of the house and active. I finally convinced Adam to do P90X with me, so we're starting tomorrow. I feel like it's 'game on' all over again and I can't wait!