If you guessed San Francisco you are right!! We left Saturday morning for BEAUTIFUL San Francisco, California! None of us had been before and all of us really wanted to go so it worked out great!! Without knowing it, Amy was planning a surprise birthday trip for Aaron and Scott was planning a birthday trip for me, and it just worked out that we learned about each other's trips in just enough time to combine them! It was so much fun to travel with friends and share all of our experiences! We can't wait to do it again and again!!
Because I took soooo many pictures, I am going to split them up into three separate posts. You will have to read all three posts to find the answers to the four pictures I posted yesterday!!
We flew Southwest to San Fran on Saturday morning. Here is Scott and I on the first leg of our trip...
...and here is Amy and Aaron sporting their KU gear from game day (for the record I had a KU shirt on too!)
We knew it was going to be a great trip when no more than 20 minutes into the flight the flight attendant announced that they had two very special people on the plane that day and invited them up front! It was a sweet (albeit K-State) couple and the guy proposed right there on the plane (packed full of K-State fans headed to LA for a big game!) As if that weren't enough...on the plane was a professional songwriter who quickly interviewed them to gather all of the facts and then stood up and sang the couple a sweet song along with his guitar over the speakers on the plane. They posted the video on YouTube, so here it is incase you want to check it out!
Now Scott and I are big KU fans, but Amy and Aaron are the BIGGEST KU fans on the planet. They were so excited for our layover in L.A. because it gave them the perfect opportunity to fire-up the laptop and use their Slingbox to pull the signal from their home TV and watch the KU game live right there in the LAX airport! We ordered some California Pizza Kitchen pizzas and some Pink Berry frozen yogurt (which Amy literally can't stop talking about...love ya Amy!) and had the best layover EVER!! Who knew layovers could be so fun!!
To continue with the funny stories...we got to the airport in KC a tad bit late! It was all because the stinkin' economy parking lot bus took waaaaay too long!! When we got to the KC airport the guys went straight through security to save us seats incase we didn't get on the plane with the "A" boarding group, and Amy and I went to check the bags. When we put our info into the automatic check-in system it instantly told us we were past the 30 minute deadline and that our bags were not guaranteed to make it to their destination with us! GRRR!!! As the daughter of a flight attendant and pilot, this has never happened to me before, and I didn't even know it was possible! We couldn't have been more than 1 or 2 minutes past the deadline! Anyway, consider yourself forewarned if you fly SW!! Make sure you get there on-time or they will tag your bag with every "LATE ARRIVAL" sticker and tag possible!! What a huge slap in the face! So.......when we got to San Fran the big question was whether our bags would be there or not. We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited...and finally at the very last minute three of our four bags came off the carousel! We thought for sure the fourth would come if the other three made it, but soon the carousel came to a full stop and we were still missing one bag...Amy's!! We went into the lost baggage office and they immediately told us "well, it was because you were LATE!!" "But why did our other three bags make it?" we said! We went round and round and didn't get anywhere, so we finally left with a promise that Amy's bag would be delivered no later than four hours after it was received. I could go on and on, but they did not meet the four hour deadline and Amy didn't get her bag until 8:30 that night, but eventually she did get her bag and all was better! There is nothing worse than having your bag lost...she handled it VERY well!! Here she is waiting for her bag!!
We stayed at the W San Francisco.
W hotels are known for being very modern and trendy and they put great care into little details. Their tagline is "Whatever. Whenever." A girl could get use to that! Here are some pics of the details around our room!
Window seat!
Great desk and flat screen TV!
The most FABULOUS bed and pillows EVER! We slept like rocks! And an iPod docking station...you can either use your own or check one out from them!
A very modern bathroom...complete with robe!
A foot massager under the desk!
A Buddha nightlight!
And Chinese Checkers!
Immediately after we checked in we headed out to start our itinerary! First thing on the list: Ride the cable cars around the city!! Here are Amy and Aaron waiting in line to catch our first cable car!
And here is Scott and me!
This is the view up the street as the cable cars were coming in and back out again!
The line of people waiting to ride the cable cars wrapped around this circle. Okay, maybe I am just dumb, but I had NO CLUE they turned the cable cars by hand. It was so neat!! The cable cars came into the circle like this:
Then they came to a full stop on the circle:
Then the cable car drivers literally pushed them around in a circle until they faced the opposite direction:
And then they pushed them back out of the circle:
This is the cable car we rode! #17 to Hyde and Beach!! We wanted to take the high route and stop at the top of Lombard street!
We got perfect seats right up front! Amy and I got to sit down and the boys stood up in true San Fran style!
This is how they drive the cable cars!
Aaron hanging out of the cable car!
Scott too!
Scott and me!
Amy and Aaron!
Our driver...he was such a hoot...he kept saying to everyone who had no clue what they were doing "hey tourist!"...for some reason he was nice to us and helped us get seats right up front on the best side of the car (for views!)
View as we started up the street!
Da Boys!
The hills are so amazing!
Passing another cable car...the passengers on the other side of our car could give the passengers on the other car high fives!!
WOW!! One of my favorite views! This is down California Street with the Bay Bridge right at the end! Truly breathtaking!!
Heading up another steep hill!
Our first glimpse of Alcatraz!
A closer look at Alcatraz!
And another shot of the whole island!
We got off the cable car at the top of Lombard Street...the curviest street in San Fran! I have been wanting to see this street for as long as I can remember, and it was more amazing (to me) than I ever thought it could be!
The view from the top is amazing! The street is so steep and so curvy! The landscaping is beautiful! The houses are amazing! I still can't get over it!!
The view from the top including Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge!
A beautiful house on Lombard! I would LOVE to live on Lombard Street!
Scott, Amy and Aaron headed down the stairs along the edges of the street!
Me, Amy and Aaron!
Once we got to the bottom of Lombard Street we had another great view of The Rock!
Amy and Aaron with The Rock! Aren't they cute!
Believe it or not...we took a quick happy hour break and then somehow managed to hike up Hyde Street, one of the steepest in town, and ended up at the top of Lombard AGAIN! We weren't having any luck catching the cable car at the top of Lombard, so we walked down Lombard again and decided to try a bus!
Another beautiful house on Lombard!
The view from below!
Look at the cute trees!
After Amy got her bag and had a chance to change we went out to eat at Lulu's! We were all very tired from a long day of traveling and sightseeing, and it did end up being our least favorite restaurant of the trip, but it was pretty good! On the way back to our hotel we came across this cute "Jollibee" and just had to have our picture taken with it! 
When we got back to the room we had a message waiting for us...the hotel had something special to bring me!! In keeping with their "Whatever. Whenever." theme they delivered this fabulous dessert to our room!! It was delicious, and the perfect ending to a perfect first day!!
Stay tuned for more updates on day two and three!
Makoto imitating Seville's infamous two finger sucking!
Seville was up to her silly smiling again! BTW...the girls had to wear football ribbon in their hair like their Cousin Francesca!
This photo is compliments of my Dad!! He is no shy guy, so he went right on the field to snap this picture of my nephew Sam, my sister Shawn and her husband Frank during the homecoming king ceremony. 
