Saturday December 12th 2015 Maddie and I woke up groggy but excited about our trip to San Francisco! We showered, packed, and left the house at 6 am for our 7:40 am flight. Upon arriving at the airport everything seemed to be in order. Our flight was on time, they assigned us seats next to each other, and going through security (Maddie's favorite part) was a breeze. Our plane should have been arriving any minute when I looked up at the screen and it read "CANCELLED". Our hearts sank. I began looking up other flights on my phone and every single one was 100% full or oversold. It was not looking good. We were only going to be there for one night so if we got there late that night what was the point? I called the hotel we had already booked. Nonrefundable. Non-changable. I spoke to the customer service representative and she asked if we'd be willing to fly into Oakland. We could get there by 6pm. A lot later than our original San Francisco flight that would have got us in by noon, but better than the only open one that would get us in at 11pm. We had a few hours to kill. So we left the airport and went shopping for a couple essentials (snacks, nail polish, and lip gloss of course) and then gave each other manicures in the car. We returned to the airport and went through security again (to Maddie's delight).
Our flight to Seattle was uneventful. Maddie and I read Harry Potter together and colored. In Seattle Maddie got an oreo frozen yogurt and we went to sit by our gate. There were four open seats and we were fourth on the standby list. It came down to the wire but Maddie and I got the last two seats available and they were even next to each other. The flight to Oakland went well minus more turbulence than usual. Maddie loved it " weeeeee bumpy!" I tried to take a nap and we read a little more. At around 6 pm we finally landed in the bay area! We took a shuttle to our rental car and picked up my shiny new Chevy Cruz. We put our hotel's address into my phone and began our 50 minute drive to Lombard Street. Our drive was beautiful but I wish we could have seen it in the daylight. We were both so excited when we saw the golden gate bridge in the distance. Driving across it was so fun! We were those annoying people driving 5-10 miles under the speed limit so we could take it all in. Once across the bridge our hotel wasn't far off. We began seeing people dressed up as Santa Clause everywhere. Apparently there was a Santa themed pub crawl going on. It looked like a lot of fun. We checked into our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and ventured out on foot looking for a place to eat. We had to navigate through the sidewalks filled with hundreds of mildly intoxicated Santa clauses, Mrs. Clauses and sexy santas (is that a thing?)
After a few blocks we decided on a nice looking pizza place. We shared a small New York pizza (New York pizza in San Francisco?!) And I had a beer. It was funny I was halfway done with my beer when the waitress asked "I forgot to check your ID, how old are you?" "Um 28" I responded. "OK good, you look like a teenager." Haha, she never did look at my ID. We finished our meal and poor Maddie girl was getting so tired. We thought about getting dessert at another restaurant but Maddie was so tired. We made our way back to the hotel room, crawled into bed, and found Mary Poppins on TV. Maddie was out before you could say "super-cali-fragi-listick-expy-ala-docious" and I soon was too.
Maddie slept well. I woke up a million times since I'm used to waking up with Benny and our hotel was so loud. I think it was haunted by the ghost of Colin Kaepernick ;-). We enjoyed the hotel's free breakfast that was nothing but sugary carbs and then got ready for the day. We packed up all our stuff, checked out of our hotel, and headed for China town. I had a feeling Maddie would love it and she totally did. It was raining pretty hard but that didn't stop us. Maddie played for a little bit in a Chinese themed park and we enjoyed the shops. We bought souvenirs for ourselves and for our boys back home and a keychain for aunt Megan. When we had our fill of China town we made our way over to pier 39 and fisherman's wharf. We had a fun lunch at Hard Rock Cafe and I got my souvenir hurricane glass. Then we took a beautiful walk along the pier. We saw Alcatraz prison across the bay and went to a few shops. Maddie insisted I buy her a San Francisco sweatshirt "so my friends will believe I really went here mama!"
We then walked by a street performer and watched in amazement as he did a handstand while balancing on 4 boards separated by plastic cups on top of a metal cylinder. It was pretty awesome. We left the pier and paid for our $9 an hour parking and drove to golden gate park. It was huge and so so beautiful. We parked the car right by the beach and took some selfies with the ocean in the background. It was super windy so we didn't want to stay for too long so we went back in the car to discuss our next move. It was about 2pm at this point and we had to be at the airport at 5. We decided we wanted to to go look at the golden gate bridge again from a different vantage point. We stopped at a cool park because even though Maddie's super mature and a great little travel buddy she still loves to play! She's a beast on monkey bars and a little daredevil on jungle gyms. Next to the park we stopped at a little grocery store to get some cookies. We ate our cookies and drove to another park that overlooked the bridge and took more pics. Such a beautiful, breathtaking view.
It was raining pretty hard and really windy so the waves were crashing along the bay like crazy. We got back in the car and I plugged in the address of the house from full house. It was only 5 minutes away. So like the true tourists we were we drove by it and took pictures out the window. There were other people in front of it too taking selfies with it. I'm glad we weren't the only ones! It was just a normal looking house so it was pretty funny that a bunch of us were taking pictures of it. We had plenty of time but decided to drive to the airport. We dropped off our rental car and took a shuttle to the airport. Maddie has the oddest affinity for transportation. Whether it be planes, shuttles, trams, trains, busses, subways, or anything she is in love. She was the only one on that shuttle train dancing and smiling like she was in Disneyland. I love that girls energy. She just lights up whatever room (or mode of transportation) she's in.
What was at first looking like an uneventful flight home quickly changed when a different flight was cancelled and the 30 open seats on our flight filled up quickly. The next flight didn't leave for another two hours so now it was time to play the waiting game. Maddie was "starving to death" so we shared a $15 not even fancy cheeseburger and fries. We waited around with not a lot to do. We were tired of reading, tired of playing on our phones, and I was just tired period. Maddie had an abundance of energy and was going the wrong way on the escalator saying "mix in a little cardio!" When the next flight to seatac finally started boarding it was looking like it was full as well. There was another one an hour later but that one would have put us in to Seattle too late for the last flight to Spokane. Draaaama. There were 5 open seats and 30 people waiting for seats and we were towards the bottom of the priority list. It was looking like we were going to be stuck in Seattle, if we could even make it there. They started calling names on the standby list and we were about to head to the next gate to wait but miraculously a lot of people weren't showing up. There were two seats left when they called out "Hutyler party of two". It was like Moses parted the red Sea to let us on that plane. We got the last two seats right next to each other. We made it to seatac with no issues and had to run through the airport to make our flight to Spokane. We were the last ones on that plane as well and made it to Spokane around midnight.
Flying standby is definitely an adventure in itself. I'm so happy that everything worked out eventually with our flights. It was a short trip but it was definitely worth it. I love traveling with Miss Madelyn! She is the best travel buddy and I can't wait for our next adventure!
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