Monday, August 29, 2016

Full House Hommage

San Francisco.

 
The famous quote by Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" isn't a lie. We made the less than two hour car ride over into the bay last weekend and it was freezing. While Sacramento and other northern California towns have been experiencing 95+ degree days, San Fran was a balmy 62 degrees when we arrived. I think it reached it's high at 71 but the bay breeze never made it feel hot in any way. We started our day by traveling up to the vista point to see the Golden Gate Bridge in all it's glory.
This bench coincidently was the same one my husband I did engagement photos on

I just love looking at the Golden Gate. I mean yeah, most days it's half emerged in the fog but when you get a glimpse of the entire bridge it just makes you appreciate it a little more. I could spend an hour telling you about why I love seeing the bridge but I won't. Instead, I'll just give you the cliff notes. When I was kid growing up in West Virginia we didn't take big trips to the west coast. My parents were working folks. They had jobs to go to and bills to pay. We were on a budget. I secretly blame my father. I think he just didn't want to get on a plane or go anywhere that he couldn't threaten to drive home from. When we did go on vacation we went to east coast places like Florida for Disney and North/South Carolina for the beach. We toured monuments in Washington D.C. and kept going to our staple location, Pigeon Forge. We didn't get on fancy planes. Some of my best memories were eating cheeto balls from the can in the back seat asking how much longer till we are there?!

This was my best friend's first time seeing the bridge up close and personal. She's a West Virginia girl too so she gets it...

So imagine my wondering eyes when a show called Full House pops on TGIFriday and captivates my young self? 

You probably guessed it! I was awestruck. I was like that's the life! DJ had her cool lips phone, Uncle Jesse was always having famous rockers drop in and her dad was a television host. What could be any cooler?! At the opening of the show the Golden Gate would be there in all it's glory secretly screaming to me, "Come visit me! Come live this amazing life that DJ and the rest of the Tanners are!" I mean granted it probably wasn't but I thought what a cool place in my grade school mind. Queue to the fall of 2012 and I'm living out here. I'm literally less than 2 hours from the place that my kid self had thought was super cool and rad.
 

It was really hard to wrap my mind around it. It's crazy how life can lead you places. Anyways, I digress. After we visited with the Golden Gate we headed to the other Full House hotspot... The Painted Ladies.

These famous row houses are a National Landmark and real people live in them. Ok, fine their very rich people but their still real people. The yellow and red house fondly known as the Full House home is by far the most popular but the other fabulous houses shouldn't be ignored. The colors are spectacular!


So for two small town girls, being in the city and seeing these landmarks in person is really special. Now I'm working on my friend to get her to move to the west coast. If it was up to me all of my friends and family would live within a 2 hour driving distance. Clearly so we can go do all these fun things together.

2 comments:

Rachel said...

Aww! How cool that after all that time you got to see these landmarks with your dear friend! I'm from the Midwest, and yes, all of our vacations were roadtrips. I've never been anywhere on the far West Coast, though I think Angel has to take me someday, since he's from Anaheim.

Crystal said...

That's awesome! I've always thought it would be fun to visit and see the Painted Ladies. Thanks for sharing about your trip!