Race Weekend

Back in December Dave was given the gift of a race registration by my sister.  The race was this Across the Bay 12K in San Francisco, and part of the gift was that Heather and her boyfriend Jeff would fly out and run it with him.  It was a great gift! Dave loves having something like a race to train for to help motivate him to run.  The length of this race was the perfect challenge and its course couldn't have been cooler-- all around and across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Because of a change in their plans, Heather and Jeff were only able to spend these 2 days with us, but we loved having this time to catch up and get to know Jeff better-- especially since we learned that he recently changed from being Heather's boyfriend to her fiance!!

After we picked them up at SFO, we did the first thing a first time visitor to San Francisco must do-- take a ride on the historic cable cars!  We caught it at the wharf, where the line is always the longest.  But, it was a warm sunny day and we had life and wedding plans to discuss, so we didn't mind.  Above, Ella is silly showing off the humorous "Cable Car Safety Tips" sign and below she poses with Auntie Heather and Uncle Jeff and the rainbow race bracelets she loomed for them.

We were also able to watch the trolley turn around on the turn table a number of times.

Then it was off for a ride!  All the adults except me got to stand and hang off the side, which is the most fun way to ride.  They got their pants brushed by cars' rear-view mirrors and high-fived standees on cable cars coming the other direction.  Delia viewed each hill as a roller coaster and spent most of the ride with her hands in the air.  This experience is so unique to this city.  We've done it a few times now and never get tired of it!

We ate dinner and did some quick shopping in Union Square then took the cable car back to our hotel on the wharf.

A fun night of card playing at the hotel was followed by Race Morning!  Jeff, Heather and Dave got up early to catch the shuttle to the start line in Sausalito.  The girls and I walked to the finish line a few hours later.  While our racers tackled huge hills and crazy fog across the bridge, Ella, Delia and I waited for them.  We found a place to watch cable cars rumble by while eating breakfast pastries in a shop. At the Finish Line some company gave us free cowbells to ring all the finishers in with. 

And pretty much right when they said they would be, we found our favorite runners headed to us at the Finish Line.  We were excited to see and hear that they were able to stay together for the whole race!  I'm always happy to see smiles in that final stretch.  I know those happy faces are a combination of seeing a personal cheering section AND the words "FINISH".

 (Dave, Heather and Jeff ran in the second wave of starters, so note that this Finish Line time is not accurate.  They were about 15 minutes faster than what is shown here.)

Here are our 12K finishers and their medals!  Everyone was pleased with their efforts and time.  They all said the race was a ton of fun.  Dave was thankful for such a neat birthday gift.

We had some time to explore SF before Heather and Jeff flew out to their next destination.  Though fog, traffic, millions of people and impossible parking tried to defeat several of our attempts to see stuff, we persevered and found a few things to explore.  First up, a revisit of the "Enchanted Stairs" we discovered last summer.

Then we walked around the wharf for a while.  We saw seals and funny street performers, ate crab cakes and soup in sourdough bread bowls.  This stroll actually ended up being the perfect way to round out our SF weekend.  This picture shows one of my favorite parts of this weekend-- Uncle Jeff was holding one of the girls' hands for pretty much the entire two days.  Delia told me she thought he'd make a good uncle because he is "funny and handsome."  Jeff won Ella's approval too, though he never did complete the "Can He Dance Test?" she told him she'd subject him to! :)

One of the best parts of this quick visit was that at goodbye time, we were able to say, "See you in a few months!"  With a wedding in the Midwest now this summer, we get to take an unexpected trip back in 2014.  Yay for more family time! :)