Sister Amy Visits SF!

My sister came to visit SF for a few days and although all she wanted to do was go shopping (she's 18, you guys), we decided to squish in some touristy stuff to, you know, be cultural and stuff?

Here are the minutes:

Wed the 2nd- picked Amy up from SFO in the afternoon, 45minutes after driving home from Tucson (13hrs, people). Ok, so we stopped in Paso Robles (secondary Napa), but it still seemed waaaay too long in the car. Hudson held up pretty well, but even he thought it was a bit much - 8hrs to Vegas, 8more to Tucson, and 13 to get home. Anyway, I got Amy and we went immediately to mani/pedis @ my fave place. I love taking people to my nail place!! Seriously, come visit me and it too can be your first SF stop. There she told me her friends kept saying she was going to have a crazy time in SF. We did a fun driving tour, then made a quick, but necessary, stop at the grocery store where there were empty shelves galore. No milk, no bread, no water. WTH? Why does this Safeway (huge grocery chain) have NOTHING available?

Thurs the 3rd- slept in, made Amy some glorious waffles, headed off to the mall for a few hours of intense shopping before our ocean cruise. Yup, that's right. Cruise in the ocean around ALCATRAZ!! It was creepy and cloudy and gloomy-like for the duration of our cruise which took about 3.5 hours. All in all, totally worth it. I kept sending local friends phone pics of the creepiness and I got more responses on the cruise conditions or the waves or the rocking of the boat. Huh? What about prison questions? I was chockful of all sorts of prison info right then!
Obviously, I tried sneaking a-pic-of-a-pic, but it didn't work well for me. Karma. And check out how windy it is in the second to last picture!

Fri- It had been so cold here, my car battery died while we were gone for about a week. I had to deal with towtrucks, my fleet company, and the auto place. As soon as I finished, I hopped a quick shower and was dragged back out to the glorious shopping that Amy craved.

As we roamed the outdoor shopping area with my little sister, I finally understood the grocery shortage, the "crazy" time her friends claimed she would have, and incessant questioning from friends. I understood why the old man up the street was asking if I were prepared for my week. I even understood why it had been so eerily cloudy the day before. A Storm! Huh! Now, it wasn't ice-filled like the Oklahomans or snow/wind driven like in Chicago and Nor'easters, but it sure did kick our poor Northern California butts. Lots of power outages, crazy window-shaking gusts, and lots of sideways rain.

What a way to end her "vacation", huh?