Today, we went on a road trip to the San Francisco International airport and then to the Golden Gate Bridge.
I was very excited to go and finally see the Golden Gate Bridge. I remember years ago, when I was teaching Social Studies and we would talk about the Golden Gate Bridge. Hmm...I don't remember much about what was in the handout except that it connected Marin County and San Francisco I guess.
So, the day started with me, going to work, as usual to get the IEP binder that I forgot to bring home with me. I was in such a hurry Friday afternoon after the Walk-a-thon that I just grabbed the stuff that I had. So, when I got home, and started to work on my IEP, I was thinking about looking up an item when lo and behold, I couldn't find the IEP binder...grrr...
But I didn't let that stop me, I started to work on my IEP and wrote goals for my student. I felt really good about that. It really is difficult to start writing something but once you get the hang of it, I suppose it comes easier in time.
The next day, I woke up around 7am (its still dark around that time so its hard to get out of bed) and then took my shower, breakfast of an apple and water and got dressed up rather warmly for the day.
My roommate brought me to school and it was around 9:30 when we got there. I started to go through my papers, put some away and looked for my IEP binder to make sure that I would take it home. I also made copies for worksheets that we would use on Monday. I would've asked someone to do it but since there's hardly free time in the morning, much less a lull in the afternoon, I decided to do it myself so come Monday, I wouldn't feel harrased about something so little.
Around 11:30pm, I left the school and took the binder with me. Gosh, it was quite heavy. Probably could use it as deadly weapon and it would've injured someone but I was grateful for that binder. It was really very helpful.
When I got to Trader Joe's, I got a basket and bought chicken, pork, biscuits, some easy to cook items like a packed Kung Pao Shrimp I think was the name, a microwaveable Thai Yo Yum I think was the name or something like that, broccoli florettes, raspberry fig bars and some noodles that looked appetizing, lol. I think I overshopped...lol. I had like a ton of things. What I also like about Trader Joe's, other than the price was that it had a lot of brands which you don't really see in other supermarkets, plus the fact that they're mostly organic stuff. Believe me, moving and living in a new country, you tend to find out that you have allergies which you didn't have before. So I'm just trying to be careful in not addin more allergies to my already existing ones, lol.
I waited for my roomie at the Bus stop (25) and it was fun watching the cars and I felt hungry. So I got my fig bar and ate one.
We went home just to have lunch and then we left around 2pm for the airport. We took 85 then to 101 then we ended up in the SF Airport, then went back to 101 to the Golden Gate bridge.
Seeing SF first hand was really exciting. I guess their skyline is much different from Cup. Not bad different but something really new to my old eyes...lol.
Most of the streets that we passed through going to Octavia had no left turns so I guess we really didn't lost, well, not yet. But we did get lost before we got there because we turned somewhere else but we did end up at the Freeway again, yahoo!!!
Oh yeah, the freeway, wow, the cars really zoom by. We were probably considered slow drivers, but what the heck, they're not the ones driving the car anyways.
So, back to my story, we finally arrived in Octavia and we drove on to Lombard. The houses, wow, they were really vintage I suppose. Like the ones you would see in the movies if the location was in fact San Francisco. I don't care if people thought we were crazy oohing and ahhing...lol.
Finally, we arrived at Lombard and again, wow the streets were like crazy. The inclines were like steep going up and then you had to go down too. Up and down and down and up. I think it was actually more exciting than Enchanted Kingdom. Luckily, my roomie's car was automatic so we didn't really go down the incline when we had to stop and yeah, we had to stop a lot at the intersections. I was worried that when we did stop, when we had to move forward, the car would roll down the hill. But we didn't because the car is automatic...woohoo...we'd have to return that way again...gulp.
We did finally get to our destination, the Golden Gate Bridge. Even from afar, going there, I could already see the ummm...what do you cal it? Like the support beams or something, whatever the name is. When we got there, there were a lot of people. There were a lot of cars and people walking around and taking lots of pictures. You can also ride a two-storey bus for a tour but we skipped that although it did look like a lot of fun. We could see, is that Alcatraz? across the bay and a lot of sailboats. We took pictures as usual although I just had one or two since I ran out of space with my digital camera. I should buy a new SD card but I don't think I can afford it just yet now.
It was quite cold and windy and I regretted leaving my scarf and gloves inside the car. So, we just walked the length of the bridge thinking that we could reach the other end and then go back. So could not do it...hehehe...it was cold and it seemed so far. After awhile, we decided to go back since it was I think almost 5pm and we wanted to go home since it was quite a long ways.
The drive back going to SF was uneventful. Oh yeah, the toll fee was quite expensive though, $6. We went through Lombard Street again and it was still exciting to go up and down, lol.
We passed SF International Airport again, then on to 101, then 85. It was a little dark when we saw the sign exit for Cupertino ahead and what did happen? Yeah, we got lost. We drove on and on in the freeway and ended up in San Jose. The man my roomie asked directions explained what we were supposed to do, but I guess since it was a new place for all of us, we got lost again. We went to South instead of North...and again, we drove on and on and ended up in Great Mall Parkway. We were tired and hungry so we went to McDonald's while our roomie asked for directions again. I had a mini-meal which is about $3, double cheeseburger, small fries and small drink. I didn't want to order the usual meal because I wouldn't be able to consume even half of the burger like what happened when we ate at Burger King. I ate the all the fries but like 1/4 of the burger. I ended up taking it home and putting it in the fridge and then forcing myself to eat it the next day...yikers...hehehehe...
We learned that we were in downtown San Jose in Great Mall Parkway, I think was the name. Oh well. Again, more directions, this time more detailed. Turns out we were a long ways from where we should've gone. It certainly taught us to pay attention to the right directions, not to take south when we were told to take north, crapola!!!
After dinner, I was the assigned navigator or something like that. I had to look at the signs and read them and tell the driver where to go and what. It was a difficult thing to do, since I'm not especially gifted in spatial intelligence. If there is a person who is destined to always get lost, that happens to be me. Hehehe...I admit I'm like that. Plus the fact that it was dark, so it was kind of hard to see. What made the problem even worse was that the windshield and windows started to mist and we couldn't see from outside. It was dangerous driving if you ask me, since we couldn't see the cars behind and in front of us. Yikers. Plus I had to make sure that we were in the right direction.
We did get to our final destination, we ended up in De Anza Boulevard after we took the exit and we headed to Target. We had run out of liquid detergent and Sunday was laundry day for me. I was especially worried since I wouldn't have anything to wear during the week if I didn't do my laundry. So, all's well that ends well.
And that was a great adventure, both going there, seeing the Golden Gate Bridge (which isn't gold by the way) and going back home. I was just so happy that we were back in Cup.
