BOATING IN SAN FRAN

we are currently in san fran. we arrived this morning. "we" meaning the whole family. (thank you to our friend mo who is taking care of our place while we are away)


taylor, parker and i all have appointments with DR H this week. i am hoping that one day soon i will be well enough to handle making this trip with just the boys. but for now, my brain still shorts out on a regular basis and so it is necessary for graham to accompany us. and seeing as it was necessary for the four of us to go, we couldn't see leaving avery home. after all, she's still a little young to be left alone. ha. ha. she worries a lot about her brothers and so we felt it was important for her to come along this time.


i am still finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that both of my boys have lyme. wow. not a day goes by where i don't have a moment (or two or three) where the gravity of our situation leaves me feeling like i've been sucker punched in the gut.

the boys popping pills in the airport

however, as difficult as things are, it is nice to be here together. we're hoping that we are all well enough to fit in a little bit of sight seeing on wednesday. i'd like for avery and taylor to see the bay bridge and i have always wanted to hop on one of those famous cable cars. in all the trips we have taken to san fran in the past 2 years, we have never done this. not sure if we'll be able to do it this time...especially considering parker is in a wheelchair but we figure if all else fails, he can be towed behind it. not to worry, we've assured him we'll make sure to double knot the tow rope.

we had to leave at 5am in order to catch our flight. i still can't believe we made it to the airport in one piece at that time of the morning. we all slept on the plane. once we arrived, we caught a shuttle to the car rental agency. and that is where our boating adventure began. obviously we are trying to cut costs at every turn so graham used priceline to bid on a car rental. we've had such great success in getting super cheap hotel rates that way. indeed, we managed to get a fabulous deal on a rental car. only one problem, the car is a monstrosity of a boat.

it is enormous. i have never in my life seen a car that big. as soon as we saw it in the car rental parking lot, the kids all shouted,

"you've got to be kidding us!"

we are by no means car snobs. after all, we drive a dented up mini van for pete's sake. but this car is a monstrosity. so there we stood in the parking lot, the kids were gagging and loudly protesting and i nearly peed my pants laughing. the minute i saw the boat, it conjured up instantaneous visions of straw hats, hawaiian print shirts and orthopedic shoes. after all, i'm pretty sure only retirees on vacation in florida cruise in a vehicle the size of a ship.

we all nearly declared mutiny on graham when he told us he could have gotten an SUV for the same price. the boys nearly had a coronary when they learned that dear old dad had said no to an SUV in favor of this ship.

3 stowaways preparing to set sail on the boat
parker slouched down as far as possible in an attempt to remain hidden from view

anyhow, once the luggage was stowed away in the hull, i mean, trunk, we boarded the ship and headed to our hotel. seeing as we fly in to oakland airport, we have to cross a toll bridge to get to our hotel which is located in south san francisco. we considered skipping the toll fee in favor of sailing across the bay but when we realized we had no personal floatation devices on board, we opted to cross the conventional way.

we are settled in our hotel room now. ironically, our hotel overlooks a marina. the boat is anchored outside. we're thankful the hotel is not charging us a mooring fee.

aye, aye captain!

i bet the boat will live in our memories for a very long time.