Greetings from San Francisco

It has been a busy week traveling for work. Started in Chicago Monday, back to Muscatine Tuesday, and out to San Francisco Wednesday. I was on the road getting market validation for HON's new fabrics and finishes. What this really means is that we hire a professional moderator to probe our dealers and designers about everything I have been working on for the past six months while I sit at the same table, take notes, and keep my mouth shut. I had to be on my best behavior, smile, and not roll my eyes or anything. Good news is I learned a ton this week getting this feedback.


Jeff flew out to San Francisco Friday night after work so we could spend the weekend here. Grandma and Grandpa Tjebkes are enjoying our three wonderful kids that I miss so much (next week we go on our family vacation to Chicago so will get lots of good family time!!). We feel very blessed to have opportunities like this to get away as a couple.


On Saturday morning we rode the famous San Francisco cable cars (stop right in front of our hotel), went to the farmer's market, and Fisherman's wharf. We had a quick lunch at our favorite West coast burger place, In-N-Out. Then we went on a 6 hour private van tour and explored all of San Francisco. We figured having a van to ourselves would be the best way to experience San Francisco, and I think we were right. We originally planned on 4 hours, but everything was going great and we were seeing a lot so we added on a couple hours. We were able to walk across the Golden Gate bridge and our guide picked us up on the other side. We ended the day in Little Italy at a nice restaurant. Here are some pictures from our first day. As you can see the weather was beautiful.

This is California Street, right outside our hotel. Very steep!

Alcatraz Island across the Bay

At the top of Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world.

The bottom of Lombard

From the underside of the Golden Gate Bridge

Just before we walked across. It was really windy!

We had to hike a bit to get this view of San Francisco.