Sister Weekend Getting Away

Months and months ago, my sister, Anna, found out the Newsies Musical was coming to San Francisco. Since Anna lives just outside the city, she invited all her sisters to come to California for a "Sister Weekend" and go see the play! It ended up only two of us could make the trip, so just three sisters participated.  We missed the other two.

The time finally came to pack my bags...

With his recent separation anxiety, I was worried Cooper would have a panic attack before I even left.  He had a few tears during goodbyes, but it all went well.

I left list for lists for lists.  :(  Food, schedule, school... 

I'm pretty sure I didn't need to do all that, but it helped me feel better about leaving.

I had an early morning flight out of Peoria.  It was so cold that they de-iced our plane before we boarded, then we were late taking off because they needed to de-ice again.  They also taxied around longer than usual saying they were letting the engine warm up.  Brrrrr!

Not much later though, I was in Chicago and then boarding my next flight San Francisco bound.

With a great view of the Rockies along the way!

It was a long flight, nearly five hours, but soon we dropped under some cloud cover and there was the bay.

My sisters (the Texan sister arrived before me) picked me up and after dropping off our bags at Anna & Jared's place, we headed to Apple, where Anna works. 

This required a guest pass.  But much to my dismay, there are no photos allowed inside.

You'll have to take my word for it that we had a nice lunch from their cafe area all while sitting out in the sunshine.

Next we took a drive. (through some winding mountain roads)

And stopped at Santa Cruz to see the ocean!

We watched the surfers for a bit.

And took a 'sister selfie'.

Then headed to a different, more private beach...

Where Anna laid out the most perfect little picnic.

We chatted over our snack while enjoying the waves and salty air.  Perfect.

We stopped at a little shop...

Where we grabbed some amazing bread to go with the lasagna Anna had at home for dinner.

And on the way back made one more quick stop for homemade sodas.

Apparently this was one of Dad's favorite stops when he visited California last summer, so we took another selfie to send him.  Just to rub it in...  although I don't think he was nearly as disappointed when he found out we didn't even order onion rings.

Jared was out of town for work, so a girls dinner back at Anna's and a movie rounded out the evening.  We were just getting started!