We have really been pushing hard to find a house to rent in the neighborhood that we are currently in but to no avail! We have looked at quite a few houses (even some for sale), really liked 2, and have gone thru 3 realtors. Unfortunately, both that we liked were for sale! We asked the realtor that we were working with at the time, if he would ask if the homeowners would be willing to rent their houses instead of selling them. He said, "Yeah, we do it all the time". Well, he didn't!
Last week Peter had a business trip to CA and had said that next time he has work near San Francisco, I could come. Well, it was near San Fran! I was a little apprehenisive about going. I had a feeling that a house was going to come up for rent and we wouldn't be there to look at it or move fast if we liked what we saw online. More on houses in a moment... Gotta tell you about our trip. :-)
We left bright (it was definitely not bright when we left) and early on Thursday morning for the airport. We arrived in Oakland around 9:00am and picked up our rental car. Peter had work in two different areas so, I dropped him off at the first place. At some point he had checked realtor.com and saw a house for rent that was previously listed as for sale... AND we had already looked it... AND it was perfect for us! As soon as I dropped him off I found a Starbucks with WiFi and checked it out since it wasn't showing up on my phone search. My search only showed it for sale. I left a voicemail with our current realtor (and sent him an email) asking him to fax us an application and then proceeded to call the broker to make sure that it was in fact for rent and there weren't any contracts on it. The broker didn't have any info on it - which was a good thing - so, I waited to hear back from our realtor, Wayne. It was time to pick up Peter so, I packed up and went to get him. By this time, Peter said that he received the fax from Wayne. I dropped Peter off at his next stop and drove 45 minutes to our hotel to get started on filling out the applications. After forgetting to print 2 applications (we had to submit one for each of us), going up and down the elevator to the hotel computer several times, talking to Lyndsy on the phone to try and find my license plate #, and finally getting it all faxed... it was 2 hours later and time to head back to get Peter. We went to dinner and then back to our hotel to crash! It was a long day!
Friday morning, we drove a few hours north towards Sacramento where Peter had his first stop of the day. I wasn't in the mood to drive anymore so, I wandered around. There was a weathered man sitting on a bench and at first glance, he looked like a statue. He sat there in the same position as I walked past him - not changing his demeanor at all. I really wanted to take a photo of him from the side to really show his posture but I was too chicken so, I got this one instead.
I was tired of wandering around so, I sat in the car and bugged our realtor. I wanted to know how long it usually takes to get a response back and he said it should be 1-2 business days. Ugh! It was Friday and that meant we would have to wait until Monday or Tuesday! A little bit later he sent me an email asking me about the move in date (on the application I put a move in date of June 9th to give them an idea that we ARE ready NOW!) - he said it wouldn't be available until July 1st and wanted to know if that was ok. Of course it is silly! :-) Anyway, Peter finished working here so we headed to his next location. I honestly don't remember what I did this time while he worked. Once he was done we had a long drive back to Oakland. I was playing around with my camera in the car and got some cool shots.
Once in Oakland, we checked into our hotel and relaxed for a bit. Then it was off to take Bart to San Francisco. Bart was very interesting. Peter said it was more like the subway than the lightrail. I have never been on either so, I wouldn't know. Anyway, once in San Francisco, we began our walk to Pier 39. First stop... to take some photos of course.
Seagulls were everywhere! Probably cuz they were being fed.
Sailboat
One of a few men fishing on the pier... He was having good luck
The Pier
These seagulls were sitting nicely waiting to be fed. Wherever the guy went, they moved their heads, watching him. It was pretty funny!
We kept walking and once closer to Pier 39, we could see Alcatraz. Since the TV show has been on, Chloe has been a little fascinated with it. She wasn't too happy that we were going to be so close without her. We were going to take the ferry over there and do a tour but it was just too expensive. Oh well!
Not a very pretty site - in my opinion anyway
Well, we made it to Pier 39 and walked around some more deciding where we were going to eat. We decided to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp. Once we were seated and our waitress had just walked up to our table to get our drink order, my phone chimed in indicating I had an email. It was from Wayne, our realtor, and it said, "Congratulations!! You're approved! The lease should be ready for you to sign soon." I think I let out a little scream of excitement! I tried to contain myself so I could order but it was pretty hard! Once our waitress left, I handed Peter my phone so he could read the email and then the tears of pure joy came (from me, not Peter)! We ordered our food - Peter ordered Lt Dan's Drunken Shrimp and I ordered the All American BBQ Burger (yep, we went to a seafood restaurant and I order a burger!). Mine was delicious and Peter said his was good too. Our waitress came back a little later with a little cup of ice cream and told everyone in the restaurant that her friends just got their house and wanted to say congratulations. It was kind of weird but cool too! I think I was in a daze during dinner and couldn't stop smiling.
Peter had heard there were sealions somewhere near where we were eating. Our waitress said that they were right below us. So, after dinner we went to see the sealions. They were all pretty much chillin' in the sun. A couple of them were laying pretty funny. See for yourself.
This sealion laid this way the whole time. :-)
Pose for all the cameras
This guy looked like he had been through a fight or something
Peaceful
Love
I was told by a friend, Erin C., that we needed to go to Boudin's to have some sourdogh bread and chowder (I didn't see her msg before we ate, otherwise we may have eaten there) so, we headed over there.
This place had some pretty crazy bread designs (if you can call them designs). There was a large alligator, a small alligator, teddy bears, turtles, crabs, and more. We went with the boring - small sourdough round and 4 cookies (2 snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, and peanut butter) to take home and enjoy with the girls.
It was time to walk back and catch Bart to take us back to Oakland. Of course, I had to capture a few more photos...
This is really a toilet on the street corner. It smelled sooooooo bad!
This was one of the first views I had of San Francisco. Photo taken using zoom lens
Perspective - same view as above using regular lens
We made it back to our hotel and crashed. It's was an emotional evening and we had an early flight home in the morning.
Once back in TX, we made arrangements with Wayne to look at the house again to refresh our memory for Monday. This time we took both of the girls with us (Lyndsy went with us the first time) and told them to pick out their rooms. :-)
We move into our new (to us) home on Friday, June 29th! Only 22 more days! I am super duper excited to revisit all our stuff we have in storage.
Sorry for the long post but I had a lot to say. ;-p
toodle loo
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