San Francisco Or Bust!

Howdy, everyone!

I hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy!  I know a lot of my fibro friends have been having a rough time of it, what with the weather changes, so hopefully the flare-ups will end soon.  For me, I've got a double whammy.  Not only am I in flare-up from the fibromyalgia, but I'm decreasing the amount of prednisone I take each day.  When I went to my rheumatologist last week, he suggested going down 2.5mg a week until I reach only 5mg of prednisone daily.  Then the bariatric surgeon would accept that and I can have my surgery.  Man, can I feel the difference from 20mg that I was taking for about 2 years now to what I'm on today....12.5mg.  I am very stiff and am having even more problems with walking around.  I hadn't realized how much it was working for me until having to wean down on it.  But it'll be worth it (I hope!) so I can have my surgery.  The problem with prednisone is it lowers your immune system and you are more prone to infection.  It would be sooo nice if someone could invent a medication and have NO side-effects?  Ha!  I have a feeling that by the time I can have the surgery, I'll have to crawl in there on all fours or go in by stretcher!!

On to more pleasant things....I need to see the ocean again, so how about a trip down "memory lane" to when I went to San Francisco with my mom and Grandma.  It was a blast!  Like all of our trips were!  Anyway, Mom wanted to see Michael W. Smith in concert at a county fair in northern California.  I forget the name of the city-I hate that, as it's right on the tip of my tongue!!  We had never been past LA, so it sounded like we would be seeing many new sights.  We traveled most of the coast (I believe we were on I-5) and the ocean was just absolutely brilliant with the deep blues and cotton white waves that crashed against the shore.  But before I go on about that, let me show you some pics of LA from the freeway.  The traffic was just atrocious, so we had a lot of stop n' go moments.  I wasn't complaining....I could get better pictures that way than speeding down the freeway and getting a blurry picture.  The first few photos are the skyline of LA.

I noticed that in LA, they loved to graffiti the overpasses on the freeway.  Whomever did that did a fantastic job of it!!

Aren't those great?  We really enjoyed seeing those.  At a few points, it was down to more stop than go on the road, so we could really see the detail of the artwork.  Here in good ole' AZ, Phoenix does a really good job of landscaping our highways with desert plants and adobe art on the overpasses.   OK, we left LA behind and ventured on a whole new experience for us.  We were heading towards San Francisco and the fair that MWS would be at tomorrow.  On the way, I had Mom stop so many times she was practically riding the shoulder of the highway!  Sorry, but I had pics to get of the ocean.  And NEW ones at that!  We had never traveled this route before!!

I couldn't resist this photo.  It's Mom sitting in the "captain's seat" of her favorite red van.  She loved to drive, so I never objected since I don't really care to drive.  There's so many crazies out there and it makes me nervous.  It never bothered Mom, though!  She fit in right along with them!!

Here is my lovely grandma standing by the beautiful coast of the Pacific Ocean.  She gave in to me and my camera and let me take as many pictures of her as I wanted.  LOL!

OK, we reach the fairgrounds (after getting lost, of course!) and find absolutely NO parking spaces - handicapped or not.  The first parking space we saw was way over a mile away.  There were also people there wanted to wash the van's windshield for $1.00.  They were carrying pails of dirty water, so Mom said "no thanks" politely and we left.  There wasn't even a parking lot trolley available and I didn't see Michael W. Smith's name anywhere on the fair's attraction board.  Sadly, Mom pulled back onto the road.  She really wanted to see Michael again.  I did, too, but what can you do?  I didn't think she could make a mile walk into the fair grounds (neither could I!) and I didn't feel comfortable with leaving the van so far way, out of sight.  So we went to San Francisco instead!  We were so close to it, we might as well finish it off.  Mom and I had never been to SF, but Grandma had several planes stop in SF on the way to Washington.  Grandma has lots of friends scattered all over the place.

We get to San Francisco and were looking very intently for the exit for the Golden Gate Bridge.  The traffic was even worse here than in LA!  It was practically bumper to bumper cars and trucks.  Again, another photo opportunity!  So I got to snapping away.....

 Mother knew how much I loved bridges and wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge.  She tried very hard to get over into the right lane, but traffic was bad and she didn't know exactly where we were going, so we got tangled in the mess of freeways and didn't see any sign for the Golden Gate Bridge.  Before we knew it, we were in the lane to the Bay Bridge.  So we zoomed up on that and figured we could catch the Golden Gate on the way back.  It sounded good in theory, but when we got to Oakland, we turned around and found NOTHING to advertise the Golden Gate Bridge.  How can this be?  It's only a huge tourist attraction!!  I couldn't find it on the map, either.  I must have been looking in all the wrong places.  The next few shots were taken from the Bay Bridge.

 Well, we spent a total of three hours in San Francisco, most of it looking at road signs, the map and screaming at each other to either "turn left" or "turn right" and Mom saying, "they give you ONE sign and you are supposed to plan a vacation around it!!."  We finally got out of the traffic jam in Oakland and coming back on the bridge, over to my right, in a shroud of clouds, was the elusive Golden Gate Bridge.  I was so shocked to be seeing it, I couldn't take a picture.  I regret that now!!  How beautiful it was!!

The following morning we left the motel and started back home.  When we got to Indio, CA we ran into a freak hail storm and had to pull over a couple of times.  It finally subsided and we were on our way.  We didn't know we were dragging a tree limb under our front tires, but we kept hearing a scratching noise.  When Mom stopped the van, I jumped out and saw the problem!  Once I had the branch gone, it was good as new.  When we got to El Centro, CA we ran into the SAME hail storm, but no branch this time!  That silly storm followed us all the back from Indio.  It even went into Yuma for a little bit.  

Whew!  We were exhausted by the time we got back into Yuma and dropped Grandma off at home.  Too tired to even eat, I think!!  We had the guys bring in our luggage and just sat there like couch potatoes.  What a trip!!!  Of course, with Grandma around, ya never know what will happen!!!  She has this practice of picking up pennies she sees on the ground.  Well, every time she does that, something weird happens!  I kid you not!  So whenever we had a weird occurrence, like a flat tire in a tire that was perfectly fine a day ago, we always say, "did you pick up a penny?"  And she will nod her head yes.  And give us the crap eating smile she has perfected.  But we wouldn't dream of going anywhere without her.  She is a special person and one whom I love spending time with.  I cherish ALL our trips together.....whether they work out or not.  :0)

OK, that about does it for this post.  I hope I haven't bored anyone.  I hope all the photos turn out.  I've been having a time with Google Blogger recently.  It won't save some of my photos.  Don't ask me why, I have no idea!

Oh, before I forget, a huge THANKS to all who leave me comments.  I am very appreciative and grateful.  If you left your URL to your blog, I will visit it.  And to those I've awarded the "Stylish" award to, just add it to your blog like you would a picture.  So go to "Add a Gadget" and "Picture" and then upload your photo and add your caption (optional) and link to my blog:  http://missyschranz.blogspot.com.  Select "save" and it will go to your blog where you can put it to your side bar by moving it over there.

 That's it!!  I've given instructions for those that use Blogger.  I don't know how the other blogging software works.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

God Bless,

Until next post,