San Francisco Surprise

For the last few weeks I have been planning a surprise weekend for Tadd's birthday. I emailed his parents a few months ago because they were trying to figure out a weekend to come hang out with us. I decided to take advantage of their plans to visit us and come up with a surprise plan for Tadd's birthday because we are busy the actual weekend of his birthday. It turns out that the weekend that we planned it for turned out to be Kirk's birthday also. So, I have kept this weekend a secret for a long time now and his parents as well. It went like this...Friday when Tadd got off work, he came home and I had told him that we were babysitting which is actually not happening until next weekend, and I told him that there was a change of plans and so we got in the car and away we went. He had no idea and he didn't even ask questions or make any guesses, he just went with it. We drove down to San Francisco and made really good time, there was hardly any traffic which is what I was counting on. We arrived around 7:00pm to the city and as we exited and he starting seeing signs for AT&T park, he knew that we were heading the the Giants game. We went to will call and I told them that the tickets were dropped off for us. He then began to wonder who had dropped off the tickets for us. We made our way to the seats and as we got closer he said, "There's my parents!" He was totally excited and surprised. After sitting down momentarily we grabbed some hot dogs and garlic fries and enjoyed the game. It was perfect! The Giants played the Diamondbacks and it was a really fun game. The Giants won and we all piled in the car and headed to the hotel on the wharf. Tadd opened his present from his parents which was a nice pair of shorts and shirt for golfing. We then all hit the sack to get some rest for our plans on Saturday.

Saturday we woke up and headed to Buena Vista for a fun experience of duking it out for a table and enjoyed a yummy BV combo breakfast. We all got eggs, bacon, potatoes and a side of french toast. It was worth the wait and the anticipation of finding and snagging a table. After breakfast we headed back to the hotel, packed up our things and put them in the car before we headed down the Pier 33 for our Alcatraz adventure. We meandered down the wharf and manuevered through the crowds. We arrived right on time for our Alcatraz boat to depart. It was a short cruise over to the island. We were able to explore Alcatraz. We saw an intro video, we walked through some museums and then we went up to the cell block and listened to an audio tour which was pretty neat. It was cool because we were basically walked through the penetentiary and we were able to learn about some of the incarcerated criminals as well as some escape attempts and other interesting facts and stories. After we completed that we walked back down and got back onto the ferry to head back to SF. When we got back to the Pier we headed towards Peir 39 to grab some yummy mini donuts that Tadd's parents enjoyed the day before. Tadd got pooped on while waiting in line for these tasty treats. As far as we know, that is good luck, or at least that is what we keep hearing. After that we headed over to Boudin for a late lunch. A few of us got soup in a bread bowl and Tadd got some pizza. After that we headed to Ghiradelli square. It was super busy. We stopped by Kara's cupcakes to enjoy a tasty treat...and then we also enjoyed a banana fudge split from Ghiradelli. After all of these adventures, we headed back to the car and hit the road. We arrive back in Sacramento around 7:00pm. We lounged around a bit, grabbed a small bite for dinner and then went to bed.








Sunday, which was Kirk's actual birthday, we woke up and all got ready for church. We headed to our 11:00 sacrament meeting and Tadd shared his testimony. We then headed home to get everything organized before taking them to the airport to head back to Arizona. We had such a fun time with Tadd's parents. The weekend went so well and we are so glad that they were able to come out and visit us and celebrate Tadd and Kirk's birthdays. We look forward to heading to Arizona for Christmas and seeing the rest of the family. Thanks for such a fun weekend Kirk and Sharon!!! We love you guys!