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Posted By: tacogirl There's no place like home - 03/30/09 05:09 PM
As most of you know - this past weekend I had the opportunity to represent Belize in the 1st Annual Lonely Planet Travel Blog Awards. I was very honored and excited to be nominated in the category of Best Image Blog.

I spent 3 days in San Francisco and really enjoyed the food - especially the sushi and the architecture and charm of the City. As I traveled around San Francisco I thought to myself 'this place has palm trees and is likely somewhere I would consider living.' Then I got to thinking about the hustle & bustle - how crowded it was - the temperature this time of year was a little cool to my liking and I missed the blue sea and friendly faces of San Pedro. Sometimes it's good to get away for a little bit for a nice reminder of how much you love where you live.

Special thanks goes out to all who made my trip possible by nominating me for these awards, and everyone who has supported my blog throughout the years. I would especially like to thank Forrest Jones - San Pedro Business Association - Victoria House - Banana Beach - Caribbean Villas - Lime - Tropic Air - Travel and Tour Belize - AmbergrisCaye.com message boarders specifically Gela & LeahAnn who are regular visitors to Ambergris Caye - they showed me a wonderful time in San Francisco
Posted By: Gela Re: There's no place like home - 03/30/09 07:18 PM
TG - glad you made it home safe and sound. It was really great to see you in my country smile.

Anytime you need to remind yourself how much you love Belize - please come back and I'll show you some of the reasons why I love California smile.
Posted By: travelqueen Re: There's no place like home - 03/30/09 07:32 PM
Taco, I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself in San Fran. I too love the food and the atmosphere. The city life is not for everyone tho and sometimes it takes things like getting away to realize how good you really have it back home.

I'm glad you got the experience. Thanks Gela and LA for being able to help make it a great one!
Posted By: tacogirl Re: There's no place like home - 03/30/09 07:59 PM
True tq as far as cities go though that sure is a beautiful one I never get tired of looking at all the cool buildings. Watch the mail I sent a package via LA addressed to Jana.

I think I am going through Sushi withdrawal ha ha.
Posted By: chunkyruth Re: There's no place like home - 03/30/09 08:08 PM
Welcome home TG...nice to have you back. The island loses just a little of it's charm without you!
Posted By: tacogirl Re: There's no place like home - 03/31/09 12:45 AM
ha ha thanks Ruthie
Posted By: carbunkletrumpet Re: There's no place like home - 03/31/09 12:49 AM
Great to hear that you had a good time in San Francisco, Shawna and I love that part of California and have always had a good time there.
I kept looking at the San Fran paper on-line to make sure there wasn't a headline that read "Canadian/Belizean female freezes in 65 degree weather!" grin Welcome back to crappy San Pedro.
Posted By: tacogirl Re: There's no place like home - 03/31/09 04:46 PM
lol CT I brought the polar fleece hat you gave me and wore it a few times - on plane and to bed first night and my airline blanket from Wade so you boys both helped keep me from totally freezing my ass off lol.

Posted By: Leah-Ann Re: There's no place like home - 03/31/09 06:38 PM
I'd like to add my thanks to all who helped get Tacogirl out to the left coast - we had a blast!
I picked her up Saturday morning, and she greeted me with gifts from Belize for my family. (Tacogirl, I think the kid now has a crush on you! laugh ) We headed out into one of those rare sunny, warm (no idea what she's talking about - it was 70 degrees for goodness sake!!) San Francisco days, light breeze, minimal annoying tourists, relatively short lines, etc...
We did all things touristy: rode the cable cars from one end to the other, saw Coit Tower, Transamerica Building, Lombard Street. Spent some good time in Chinatown where we had really good dim sum at a tiny little back alley place and successfully located Tacogirl's ginger-honey tea and my shiitake mushrooms. Hit lots of great shopping places where I was privileged to watch Tacogirl exercise remarkable restraint (no, really, Paul - it was quite impressive! wink ). Introduced her to the Container Store where the motto is "Contain yourself!" checked out all the fancy kitchen stores where we saw a few gadgets we never knew existed! Wound up back down by Fishermans Wharf at Boudin's (http://www.boudinbakery.com), where we had clam chowder in a sourdough bowl, overlooking the bay. I took the cutest picture of Tacogirl standing in the "breadline" - alas, I am a tech illiterate and it now doesn't show up on my camera. frown
At 9:30 we decided there was time for one last mad dash to Target. You would be amazed at how much shopping can be accomplished in 10 minutes by two gals on a mission. grin Taco grabbed all her last minute items while I went for all of the finest peanutbutter and chocolate candy Target had to offer, 'cause I wanted to make sure Paul got something out of this trip! wink
We returned home to pack and it was 1:45 am by the time we crawled into bed with alarms set for 4 am. In retrospect I'm not sure why we bothered! We loaded up the car, exchanged gifts to deliver (TQ & KLC, I have things to mail to you - as you know my track record with the post office I will be abdicating those responsibilities to one of the "male" persons in my home - Pedro, wherever you are, hope you enjoy wink ), and dashed off to the airport. KLC & Gela, just so you know the GPS worked fine! laugh
It really was a very fun day and was great to get to spend such a good chunk of time with Laurie. We had some great conversations and continued to marvel at what a wonderful place this message board is, as how else on this earth would two people so different get the chance to become such good friends! Thanks to all who called and texted - it was great fun delivering those messages and passing the phone off to TG. OH, and as for you mid-coast people - what is with the weekend bedtimes? Good grief, it wasn't even midnight in your part of the world!!!!!
Again, my thanks to all who helped with the flight, the place to stay (and let me just say I am extremely envious of Forrest as he has homes in two of my three favorite places in the world!) and everything else. I was as much a beneficiary of that generosity as anyone! smile
Posted By: Gela Re: There's no place like home - 04/01/09 03:01 AM
Leah Ann, you did a most excellent job at hitting the highlights! Wish I could have joined you two.
Posted By: terrielinn Re: There's no place like home - 04/02/09 03:58 AM
TG, I am glad you are back...I know I am being selfish, but I like having a daily dose of SP. I felt like I was going through withdrawals while you were in SF.

Gela: Thanks for being such a gracious guide and companion for TG

Leah Ann: Sounds like you and TG had a great time. Way to go!

TG: Again, Congratulations on your nomination. You truly deserve any and all kudos you receive. And you deserved the trip too!

Welcome home and thanks for my fix!
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