We're Baaack

Hello to you from surprisingly warm and sunny San Francisco!

We have arrived home in the middle of a mini-heatwave, and I must say, it has been kind of nice, all the sun and warmth. I think the wave is over as of today, however, and the temps will return to more normal 60's, which are also nice in my opinion.

I am happy to say that it is lovely to be back in San Francisco. I really do love this city, and it has been fun to wander through our favorite neighborhoods and feel the comfortable familiarity of everything.

The trip now takes on that strange hazy quality, where it almost feels like it never happened, though i still have so many amazing memories.

The temporary apartment, I am happy to say, has been just fine. Everything seems new and clean and thus far, there have been no major noise issues, and it is located a couple of blocks from Fillmore Street, which is loaded with shops and restaurants.

Things are still on the stressful side. On top of the whole having-no-jobs extravaganza, we also have to figure out where we are going to live as of next Sunday. This temp apartment is too expensive to stay in for long, so we are trying to figure out what our next move should be.

Really we want to stay in San Francisco, but obviously rents here are high, and we don't really know what we can spend per month since we currently have no income and don't know what our income will be once we do have it. Since we don't know where we will be working, we also don't know where would be best to live as far as commuting goes. Plus, there's the issue of signing a one-year lease when we don't know if we will be able to stay here, say, if we can't find jobs here and have to move elsewhere.

We looked at a place in the North Bay, in San Rafael, about 20 miles north of SF. This has the advantage of being much cheaper and designed for more short-term stays, plus we can rent furniture which means leaving our things in storage for a bit longer and not having to move it twice.

The disadvantages of this are that it's very suburban, so there's no walking down the street to get a coffee, and if we wind up working in the city, the commute could be a bit of a pain, and the apartments all have that cookie-cutter, pre-fab thing happening. But, there is a washer/dryer in the unit and a second bathroom, all of which, to me, are heaven on a stick.

Nothing is perfect and we will figure it out, obviously. Hopefully. We will, right?

And Now, The End is Near....

Well, I can't believe it, but today is the final day of this incredible trip.

We spent a wonderful weekend in Monaco, sitting outside the cafe looking at the casino and the Hotel de Paris, people and car watching. I was alarmed by the number of men wearing pink pants and either sweaters tied around their shoulders or white scarves. It's a look, that's for sure.

Now we are in an airport hotel in Paris, waiting to fly back to San Francisco tomorrow.

I would be lying if I didn't admit that we are pretty petrified about going back. I think I am literally sick with worry, and I basically haven't eaten anything other than crackers and rice since Friday morning.

We have a place to stay, at least, when we get back, a corporate apartment in Lower Pacific Heights. Steve made the mistake of going online and looking at reviews of it and apparently they weren't good. I think the word "dump" was used several times. It doesn't inspire confidence.

We will try and find someplace better as soon as we are back, though it is hard to know what to look for in an apartment when we're not sure where we'll be working and what kind of money we'll be earning.

I keep telling myself to take nice deep breaths and trust that everything will work out. Send us positive vibes if you can-we'll need them!

Goodbye to San Francisco

Finally, the time has come:

Tomorrow we get on a plane to London, and from there on to Paris for the first week of our European adventure!

The following pictures, taken within an hour of each other, illustrate one of the many reasons I love San Francisco:

BRIDGE? WHAT BRIDGE?

WAIT.....WAIT........

THERE IT IS!

We will miss this beautiful city and all the wonderful sights and people it has to offer.

Next post, from another continent.

A Bientot!