So I'm here at the airport in SF, waiting for my 8pm flight. At some point I know this is all going to come out on this blog, so with the time I have I'll go ahead and see how much of this I can put down now, and I'll probably finish up when I get home this evening or maybe tomorrow morning.
Monday: My day technically began at 1:30am after my projections shift. I drove to Vince's house, met up with him and Laura and the three of us went to get donuts and then drop off Drippy at UCSD for her final (apparently she spent the night there.... apparently this is a normal thing for UCSD people...?). We went back to his house with donuts and stayed up for a few hours making ridiculous lists of things before going to bed.
I woke up at 8:30ish, and Vince drove me to the airport. My flight boarded at 11am, so I ended up waiting around for about an hour since it didn't take very long to get through security. The flight was uneventful and went real smoothly. Liz met me at the airport at 1:30, where we began our long journey to Berkeley. We took the subway from the airport to downtown San Francisco, spending the ride catching up with each other, mainly about her job and roommates, and some crazy stuff that's happened in my life. We spent almost the entire ride sharing stories which were good times.
In downtown we went to the Embarcadero district and had lunch at a really good sandwich shop called Gambino's, where we got sandwiches and tomato bisque and ate in the nearby park. Afterwards, we re-boarded the subway and continued to Berkeley. After arriving at the station, we walked a good half mile or so from the station to her house. Her house is located in kind of a strange neighborhood, part ghetto/part suburb, kind of midway between the cities of Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville, so it was a kind of strange mix of people but ultimately a nice place. The whole city seemed very different that what I'm used to in San Diego, which was what I was hoping for on this trip.
Liz had work at 5, so she left shortly after we got to her house. While she worked for 4 hours, I played Metal Slug while listening to classic rock radio, and then I put on MuggleCast and listened to it for a good 45 minutes or so before I fell asleep. She and Bartz came home shortly after I woke up at 8, and we ordered pizza from a really cool 24 hr Italian place (they DO exist!) and watched the Regal movie. Then we played Mario Kart for a bit and went to sleep around 1.
Tuesday: Liz, Bartz (Eric) and I woke up at around 10 and went out for breakfast at a diner in Emeryville called Rudy's, where I had some delicious chicken apple sausages. While wearing my Ratatouille shirt, we then ventured to Pixar Studios (which apparently they'd never been to but have always wondered it's location,) where I got several pictures taken of myself in front of the now iconic Pixar sign. I also embarrassed myself and probably Liz by waving at every car entering and exiting Pixar studios, hoping I'd see John Lasseter or Andrew Stanton or some otherwise famous Pixarian.
Once I had finished geeking out, Bartz drove us around Berkeley, giving me a tour of the city and of the UC Berkeley campus. We saw some cool sights, like Telegraph Avenue (where a bunch of college students protesting Vietnam were beat down by police in the 70's,) a giant tuning fork, a dorm building that looked suspiciously like Hogwarts, and a bunch of other historic or otherwise interesting places.
At some point we ended up at a national park type place up and behind the Berkeley campus, which offered a completely mesmerizing view of the entire bay area, including the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, the Palace of Fine Arts, and everything else there was to see. It was seriously one of the most breathtaking sights I'd ever seen- I probably could have stayed there all day just to admire the view.
When we came back down to civilization, we decided to check out an ice cream place in downtown called Ici, unsure of whether or not we'd have time to get ice cream before Bartz had to get to work. I'm told that this place usually has a line about a block long, though we luckily came at a time where there was no line at all. When I got my ice cream, I could easily see how the line would be that long. They had all kinds of homemade, gourmet ice creams, with unique flavors like darjeeling and basil ice creams. The flavor I got was ollalieberry, which is some hybrid of at least 4 kinds of different berries. It was served in a fresh baked sugar cone that was lightly coated in sprinkled sugar and had a small amount melted chocolate sauce at the bottom tip of the cone. It was definitely one of the most delicious desserts I had ever tasted.
As we were walking down the street back to our car, one particularly succulent lick of the cone caused my only half-finished ice cream to tumble off the cone, roll down my Ratatouille shirt and onto the ground. It happened like it was slow motion in a movie- I could see it happening, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Not wanting to be wasteful (or buy another cone,) I proceeded to pick up the scoop of ice cream, scrape off the underside and continue eating it. Though, because of the heat, the dark purple ice cream began to melt immediately in my hand like radioactive blood. In a panic, instead of doing the logical thing and sticking it back onto the cone, I shoved the whole ball of ice cream in my mouth. NOT a good idea. Brain freeze times 10. I think I may have almost passed out there at some point.
We returned home shortly afterwards, with Liz and Bartz both having to depart for work soon after that. I had planned on going for a walk, but I ended up falling asleep for the next three hours.
Ryan, who decided to depart from his family vacation a day early and come visit, arrived in Berkeley at around 6pm. Turned out that he was completely lost when he got into the city, and I wasn't much help as I had no idea where I was either, but we communicated on phone with me at google maps, trying to guide him to my location. He eventually made it, and Bartz came home from work not too long after, so we tested each others Mario Kart skills once again.
After Liz came home at 9, the four us, along with two of their downstairs roommates (Brent and Chris) went out for dinner at a very tasty Indian restaurant, where Ryan tried a very odd salty drink that tasted much like a cucumber smoothie. I would not recommend said drink.
We spent some time back home at the downstairs portion of the house where the other roommates live, hanging out a bit and trying to figure out why the website they were trying to build was not working. Eventually I was able to help them set up their new website on GoDaddy. We spent more time hanging out upstairs, playing more games and chatting with Alex (who is the only person who lives in the upstairs with Liz and Bartz.) He's a cool cat.
Wednesday: Ryan departed at 7am on Wednesday morning- although he didn't spend too much time in the city, it was a lot of fun and I'm really glad he showed up. I slept for the next few hours, and then Liz and I drove to Great America at 10.
California's Great America, formerly known as Paramount's Great America, is an amusement park located in Santa Clara (about 50 minutes away from Liz's place) that was owned and operated by the Paramount Group before Paramount went bust and sold their parks to Cedar Fair (who owns Knott's and several other parks.) In short, it's a lot like a Six Flags, but cleaner and with a much higher family oriented crowd base. They seemed to have a pretty good mix of roller coasters and family rides, though I did notice that the park looked and felt as if a 12 year old designed it in Roller Coaster Tycoon. Despite it not making much of an effort to be more than just a generic amusement park, it was a nice place to spend a day. The 6 big coasters they had could easily stand their ground at a Six Flags park, though there were obviously no heavy hitters along the lines of X, Scream or Tatsu.
About halfway through the day, something happened that blew my mind. In our quest to find a way to cool off, we ran into one of those water play areas for kids, which we proceeded to get totally drenched in. Walking a little farther down the way, we noticed more and more people were in full on bathing suits. As it turned out, Great America's water park is actually located within the theme park itself. Unlike at Magic Mountain, there is no separate gate or admission price. There were really no rules about attire, either; I noticed people in bathing suits riding coasters, as well as people who were fully clothed riding water slides. At $75, I would easily have an annual pass to that place if I lived in the bay area, and I would be there every week. Now, I knew previously that there are parks that operate in this manner, but it was the first time I'd ever encountered one and the first chance I've ever had to analyze how such a park could operate. With me being a theme park dweeb, I could go so much farther into my thoughts on this park, but I'll save that (perhaps for another post.)
After getting completely drenched in our normal clothes, drying off, and riding a few more coasters, Liz and I left the park at around 6:30. We decided that, since I was beginning to run out of trip money, we would go to the grocery store (which she had to visit anyway,) and get stuff to make our own dinner. Because it's the only thing I really know how to make, I opted for fettuccine alfredo. We went back to the house and prepared noodles, salad, garlic bread (which I make by replicating my mom's technique,) and alfredo sauce with shrimp and broccoli. We quickly realized that we had prepared way too much food, but luckily Alex came home hungry, and Chris came upstairs looking for something to eat, only to find a complete dinner set at the table. So four of us randomly sat down at the table for a wonderful meal.
After dinner, two more people came upstairs (Sebastian and Donna I think; two of Chris' friends who were visiting from Escondido, but are planning to move to Berkeley later this summer.) We spent the next few hours chatting, recounting crazy work stories, and just relaxing in general. We then decided to watch Rushmore (one of two Wes Anderson movies I hadn't seen, the other being Bottle Rocket,) which I loved. I fell asleep shortly after the movie ended, and don't really remember everyone leaving.
Thursday: I slept in until close to Noon, which is something that needs to happen at least once when you're on a vacation. Liz made pancakes and bacon for breakfast, which were awesome. After breakfast I packed up by belongings (which didn't take too long; I travel very light) and prepared to head out for my last day.
At around 1:30 I said bye to Bartz (since I would not be returning to the house before leaving) as Liz and I headed out to Muir Woods, which is a redwood forest located near the Golden Gate area. There really isn't a whole lot to say about this experience, other than that this was one of those places that I need to see and experience myself to prove that such places actually do exist in the world. Otherwise, my only proof is what I see in movies, making such place just as real as Tatooine or Narnia. We took about a 1 1/2 mile hike through the woods, exploring some of the hillside trails. One of the things I learned from Liz was that the wood was where the first meeting of the UN occurred after WWII at a place called the "temple of peace." The location, which we hiked through, did seem like something of a natural temple, what with the way the trees formed a cathedral looking ceiling.
On our way back, we stopped at Muir Beach, which was very different from beaches that I'm used to. The redwood forest seemed to just end at the edge of a huge cliff side, which dropped off and became a white sand beach. As Liz waded for a bit, I sat on a rock and reflected on life for a while in this surreal location, before heading back to the car.
After driving back through the Muir Woods area while listening to The Postal Service and Tally Hall, we finally came to Golden Gate Bridge on our quest back to San Francisco. Before crossing, we pulled off the freeway and onto a winding road that led up to some cliffs that provided some of the most amazing views of the bridge I could ever imagine. Pictures don't do this thing justice; I'm not sure what it is about it, but there's a reason so many tourists come to see it- it's simply a spectacular sight. This was another place I could easily spend my entire day admiring the view, and I had a hard time leaving it.
After admiring the bridge, we actually got to drive over it, which was just as as thrilling and still a completely different experience. We spent the next half an hour or so driving through the city on our way to the airport, which was clear on the other side of the city.
At some point, we got out to go find some food before I had to be at the airport. This gave me a chance to walk around some of the hilly areas that are so often shown in movies located in San Francisco. We walked several blocks, going in and out of different restaurants before deciding on a random pizzeria. From there, we finished our trek and ended up back at San Francisco International at 6.
So, as predicted, I'm no longer at the airport where I started writing this post (I had to put it away somewhere during the part about Great America.) To add to all of this, the flight was once again uneventful, though I'd like to add that nighttime landing in San Diego provides some amazing views of our beautiful city. Drippy picked me up from the airport, where I officially ended my vacation.
Some final thoughts on the week: first, I'd like to note that this was the first vacation I'd ever planned and executed completely on my own, and also the first time I'd ever flown by myself. While I'm obviously aware that I am technically an adult, I don't usually feel like one, so when I do things like fly by myself for the first time it really put things in perspective (not a bad thing, just eye opening.)
Adding to the idea of new perspective, every time I visit someplace new I realize more and more how huge this world is, and how many different lives and lifestyles exist within in. I made the comparison earlier to Tatooine or Narnia, in that I know there are places that exist at all times, but I need to actually see them to know that they are real. On the flip side, while I was in San Francisco I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that the life that all my friends back at home live in was still existing at the same time.
Finally, a comment on my motivations in general: the reason I took this trip (aside from wanting to visit some friends I don't often get to see) was to clear my head and get away from all of the stresses and drama I've had to endure over the last two-ish years. Did it work? Well, in short, not really. It's not a bad thing, though. In fact, I half expected this to happen; "You can't run away from your troubles- there ain't no place that far!" There's no way that a vacation can make such things go away- just make them hide for a little while. But it did help to put things in perspective; to realize that the world is bigger than I will ever be able to wrap my head around, and that, whatever I'm dealing with, there are an infinite amount of people with their own unique issues that are as bad or multiple times worse than mine. And it makes me feel both small and big at the same time. I don't quite know how to make sense of what I'm thinking at the moment (which isn't too uncommon with me,) but, for some reason, I feel like things make a little more sense, are a little more manageable, and that I'm ready to dive back in, head first to my crazy life. Because of this, I'd say that this week was a success- I saw some friends, rode some roller coasters, ate some great food, and went to places which blew my mind. Now it's time to deal with the shit, and in the immortal words of the professor brothers, "You've got to deal with the shit, in order to BE the shit."
So what next? Vegas, perhaps? We'll see what's in store, I guess. What I can tell you for certain is that the next post on this blog won't be anywhere near this long.
"Keep moving forward..."
On Monday I took my two sisters to Magic Mountain, which was my second visit of the summer so far (and also the second time making that long drive... ugh.) The trip provided me more chances to ride X2, which is the "new" coaster they're pushing this summer. It's not actually a new ride, but Six Flags had to redesign the trains for technical reasons, so they decided to add music, flamethrowers, and a new paint job to it so they could try to brand it as a new ride and get a return on their investment. The end result is that, somehow, they've made this insane mess of a ride even crazier. Now, you're being flipped every which way while being bombarded with flames AND rocking out. I liked the coaster before the transformation, but I'm glad to see these extra touches in the ride now. After riding that ride first, we then proceeded to destroy the park, one coaster at a time, and then I danced in a random DDR competition near the park entrance (and did alright, at that.)
It did, however, provide my a chance to ride the new Toy Story Mania ride twice. It was an hour wait both times, which is acceptable for a new ride, but I don't know that I'd wait that long for it again unless I was with a group. Regardless, the best description I can give is that it's like playing Wii on wheels. It's also in 3d, and has some cool sensory effects. It is by no means fantastic, but it is a good, solid ride, and (like Nemo last year) a ride that the whole family can enjoy together. I definitely would like to see more rides like this one in the future.
Wednesday could best be described as a "Regal Day". No work, but I spent the majority of the day with most of the Regal staff.
Vince and I were both buried in the sand (that's me in the picture, being poked with a stick,) games of ultimate frisbee and soccer happened, and floor did end up showing up later in the evening.
