our first real vacation, part one. (where we went)

a couple weekends ago james and i went on our very first real vacation as a couple. honestly i meant to write about this RIGHT when we got back but apparently it takes a LONG time to recover from getting off an airplane and going straight to a five hour class. who knew? (sarcasm)

(also, i had originally intended to put this all in one post, but as i was writing it got longer and longer and i dont want to keep you forever so im going to break it up into a mini-series, if thats ok with you)

but back to where i was supposed to be going. yes, james and i have been married for four years, and weve never been on a proper vacation (even for our honeymoon we spent the week in san deiego and didnt really go anywhere because planning and executing a diy wedding is exhausting and who wants to go on an adventure after that). 

thats not to say weve never traveled together at all, i mean, we dated long distance, made a few trips between arizona and california after we were married, and spent a few weekends in san diego, but ALL of those trips have been some kind of a family commitment, and were partly (or wholly) paid for by the family that we were on the trip to visit. 

wed just never been on vacation. like, a just us going to a not-family determined place to do whatever we want on our own money kind of thing. wed never been able to afford it, and wed never had a kid old enough to spend a few days at grandmas (thanks again, mom!). but like ive mentioned before, a lots been changing around here. alice is (obviously) older and more capable and a sleepover (or three) is no big deal. and james worked crazy insane overtime all summer so our savings account was topped off enough that a short trip somewhere not too far away was totally doable. 

so to celebrate our fourth anniversary, we finally went on our first real vacation. i just want to reiterate right here, that this was a HUGE FREAKING DEAL and i still cant believe that its real life. 

where did we go? san francisco (in case the photo at the beginning of the post didnt make it totally obvious). 

and theres kind of a funny story behind this: 

see, about a year ago (right before alices second birthday), james had to go up to san francisco for work for a week (maybe two? i dont remember), and when he came home, the first thing out of his mouth was "victoria, we are never, EVER going on vacation to san francisco, it is the worst place that i have ever been to in my life". i immediately started bawling because (in addition to having mega anxiety about alices birthday party and the surrounding drama), san francisco happened to be my #1 choice of a reasonable, not-european vacation destination. 

i remember sobbing (in the parking lot of a party city while picking up balloons) while explaining to james about how badly i wanted to go to san francisco some day, but it really didnt matter because we were in a poopy financial situation and would never be able to afford a trip, and even if we could, he had multiple engaged friends who were having out of town weddings within the year and those trips would eat up any savings we had for a trip that i would actually enjoy and i was just never, ever going to be able to get a vacation. at which point he said "then were not going to those weddings. were not going anywhere until i take you to san francisco". 

and so he did. 

(side note: i just realized while typing that paragraph that this was literally the most romantic thing that has ever happened in our entire relationship because holy moly we really are the least romantic couple thats ever existed)

booking the trip was kind of a HUGE stress factor for me because 1. im really bad at making giant purchases in general, 2. the last time i picked/booked a hotel was for our honeymoon and i had NO IDEA how i was going to find a good place within our budget in a city i had never even been to before, and 3. the last time i bought plane tickets/went to the airport i was like 16 and it was back in the dinosaur times when you could bring liquids on airplanes. vacation planning is NOT my element. 

but, (spoiler alert) i was able to handle it (even if james literally pushed the "buy now" buttons on BOTH the plane tickets and the hotel reservation), and we had a totally awesome time. 

but since youre probably totally bored by now, ill let you go here. stay tuned for party two: where we stayed + what we did.