My partner Jessica and I figured out a way to stay there cheaply since BYU only paid for our plane ticket. We called the bishop of the Santa Clara ward and a host family volunteered to house us. The family we stayed with was extremely nice but let's just say it was an interesting experience. She picked us up in her ten person white van fully furnished with cow print seats. We were shown to our room which was painted purple and pink with unicorn decorations. All weekend, we were told how homeschooling was pretty much the only way to go and that children should crawl for 15 min a day to increase brain development (even as 15 years old!) Wow, we just happily enjoyed our free stay and nodded and listened to all these thoughts!
We got to spend the first day we were there is San Fran. I pretty much took Jessica on the exact same route as Spencer and I took because I knew it worked and was a great overview of the city. We once again ate delicious waffles, saw the funny sea lions, ate at Boudin's (this time I got a crab cake sandwich-highly recommended!) and saw Chinatown. The biggest difference between the two trips is that we could both SHOP to our hearts content. Spence would have never have lasted that long and it was sure nice being able to shop till we dropped.
The competition the next day went well. We both felt good about our negotiations and got good feedback from our judges but only 4 of 28 teams moved on to the next day and we didn't make the cut. During our break between the two negotiations I got a call from Spence and found out we had to choose a dining set we were getting for Christmas, right then, over the phone! I was super excited about this but it was sure interested figuring out a way to decide states away! We picked one (hopefully my little iPhone picture did it justice) but I am really looking forward to it since our current set already is starting to break!
The last day we pretty much spent traveling and were able to sleep in. The whirlwind weekend really wiped us out. It was so fun traveling with Jess and we really had a fantastic weekend together. However, I was so happy to see Spence's cute face at the airport! (Apparently all weekend we both kept worrying one of us would die!) What a great weekend to give us a small break before the crush of final study begins!
