Tenderloin...

Christmas is just around the corner!  I don't know about you all but this family is super excited.  Before we can get to excited about Christmas and the celebration of sweet baby Jesus' birth we must celebrate another important birthday…that's right Adam Corrigan's birthday finally arrived!

When it's your birthday and you live in a new city, what are you going to do?!?!  Go explore a new place of course! Adam decided he wanted to see Lombard Street and since we were already going down we thought we would check out Haight Ashbury.

Lombard Street was really cool.  We drove down it which was kind of scary as it is super narrow.  I don't know what it is but Adam, who is not a city driver at all and would boarder line have a panic attack driving in Atlanta, has decided he now loves to drive in the city.  Who is this man and what did he do with my husband?!?!?

This is what Mattie thought about driving down Lombard Street

It was not really easy to get a picture while driving down the street

"Hey Adam what do you want to do for your 31st?" "Drive down Lombard"

I don't know how the people living in these houses deal with people constantly on their street.  I would think that it would get annoying.

She loves her daddy!

You can see Alcatraz from Lombard

So after that little adventure we decided to go to Haight Ashbury since we were already down town and it was still early.  I had the bright idea the night before to download a parking garage app so that we could easily find some where to park.  So I open my trusty app, and the closest and cheapest public parking garage to Haight Ashbury is on Jones Street.  It is about a 2 mile walk from there to Haight but it was a nice day so we were all in!!!  We find parking unload the stroller and Mattie from the car and walk out to the street to figure out which way to start walking.  I look up and see this…Snapped a quick pic for you Eddy!

This would be the only picture I would take for the next little bit because shortly after that Adam looked up to see…the Tenderloin Police Department.  

If you can name any place in San Francisco that you do not want to be day or night it would be the Tenderloin.  Thank God I did not know about it before our accidental stumble upon.  Adam was like we need to start walking and fast.  We literally start booking it…why we didn't just go back and get our car and park some where else is beyond me.  I guess we were to freaked out.  There was homeless people every where, a lady yelling "Methadone for sell" in front of us at a cross walk.  Needless to say I was pulling down my sleeve to cover my watch and turning my wedding ring around so you could not see the diamond and speed walking!  We finally made it out of the area and we both were like "holy cow did that just happen?"  We can now say we have seen the good and the bad of San Fran.  When we got home I Wikipedia The Tenderloin San Francisco.  Oh my!  I totally had my kid there!!!  Parents of the year!

After our 2 mile walk (mostly up hill of course) we finally made it to Haight Ashbury.  Pretty cool place.  Really fun little wine bars, restaurants, and hipster shopping.  It reminded me a lot of Little Five Points back in Atlanta.  We checked it out and originally were going to get something to eat but were both worried about the car and getting out of the city (really just the Tenderloin) before it got to late.  We decided to skip the lunch down town and go out to dinner in downtown Pleasanton when we got home.

On our walk (after we got out of scaryville) we saw the Twitter headquarters

We decided to take a cab back to our car, so that we wouldn't have to walk through crime central!  We made it back to the parking garage, our car and all of its parts were still there.  I don't think Adam and I have ever moved so fast.  We hauled out of there and made it back to the safety of the lovely suburbs.  You should always have an adventure and a good story to remember your birthday by, and Adam for sure has one! 
Happy Birthday Adam!   We LOVE you!

Now were are just a week out from heading home to Georgia to see our family and friends for Christmas.  We are beyond excited!  See you all soon!

XOXO