Man; what a two weeks it has been.

The #AriasRoadtrip2014 (check it out on Instagram) is almost over and I am so privileged to have been a part of it, with Zack, Meg and the kids. That being said. It's been tiring and trying at some points as you can imagine.

Seven people stuck together in a car for hours on end moving to the next location where they will be stuck together in a house for hours on end. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? :) It has been though. It has been a ton of fun. A lot of laughs, driving, listening to comedy albums, good music, some not so good music, crazy kids driving everyone up the wall and also making everyone laugh at their antics. It's been great.

San Francisco to Seattle in two weeks. So many things have been seen and experienced. We've traveled through 3 states, each with their own charm. From big cities to small coastal towns. Where do I even begin? San Francisco, I suppose :)

July 2nd; (A popular quote incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain is "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco"). It was cold though. Very cold.

I wanted to start with this quote, but after some more research I see that there is no proof that Twain said this. Damn it! Moving on.

We hop on the plane in Atlanta and 5 hours later we are in SF. It's cold, but beautiful. I get to experience some sort of "wintery weather" (which I do love). We take a taxi to where we will be for the next two nights. A beautiful loft in an old warehouse space.

The awesome loft. Not much privacy though and no shelter from the 7am wake-up calls from the little ones :)

Then we get our rental car and go in search of food. The drive to Pier 39 is beautiful. This city is lovely. We're all loving the colder weather. After the lunch/dinner it's back to the loft for some rest.

Dave Earl at the Pier. There are tons of artists and weirdos on this stretch of road. Which also means, tons of cool photo opportunities. Of which I utilized very view :/

July 3rd;

We take our time waking up and getting ready. It's going to be a busy day. We go to find out where we can buy day passes for the Muni (San Francisco's public transportation system). Hop on one of the the cable cars and head toward the Pier again. Get off at the station, buy our day passes and we're off on foot toward the Exploratorium. This place is awesome. When you walk in it seems like it might be kinda lame, but the further you move in the cooler things become. To get more of an idea of what I mean, go here. It'd take me a whole blog post to explain it.

After that we walk to the cable car platform and travel up and down San Francisco's hills. It's so awesome that they are still using these things and have been for many, many years. It's a cool way to get around. We meet up with a family friend Luanne Dietz (she's won two Emmy's) and she takes us to a little hidden gem of a restaurant on the other side of town, called "The Mission" (I think), but not before showing us this:

We all just stand there in awe of this view. Hawke needs to pee. " 'There are porta potties just down there Hawke; can you hold? 'I weally need to go'. 'Quickly, go to that tree over there' ". Josh and I stand around him to shield him from passersby :)

We walk for what feels like forever to get to the little restaurant nestled away between buildings that are undergoing some gentrification. Happy to have finally reached our destination and to stuff our faces with some good food. A Mariachi singer starts strumming his guitar and playing some music for everyone. Zack requests a song: Volver, Volver. We all listen. It's awesome.

In the one image below you can see his admiration for this guy. He really loves what they're doing, because as he explains: They've sung these songs over and over, time and again in one night, but every time it is done with so much passion, like they are playing it for the first time.

After dinner Zack grabbed the Mariachi and shot a few portraits of him. Then it was time for us to take the bus and cable cars home. We had to wait in the freezing cold for about 30 minutes for the cable car. It sucked, but getting back home was awesome. It had been a good day.

The following day it was time to leave for our next stop; Gualala (the "G" is silent). We packed the car the following morning, drove down Lombard street (yes, that windy street) hit up In & Out Burger; a favourite of Meg's and then drove over the Golden Gate, stopped there to wish it and SF a final farewell and I must admit, it is pretty magnificent :)

To be continued...

Thanks for reading