I flew into San Jose late Thursday night and basically went back to my brother T0dd and his wife Stacy's house and hit the sack. The next day we went out to Santa Cruz, surfing capital of the area, and I tried my hand at surfing. I'd never been before and was able to get up on the board and ride waves on my first day, which is supposed to be pretty hard. T0dd and his friends do a fair amount of surfing and I had seen Point Break, so I had a good idea what I was supposed to do going into the deal.
Famous California Fish and Chips
T0dd and I headed over to a pier and got some fresh fish and chips. When I used to live on the coast in Oregon we would eat fish almost every day, and I really missed the taste of fresh quality fish and chips.
Retro Arcade Gaming
T0dd and I then went over to a coastal arcade and hit up the retro games a little bit. It had been a while since I had played a standup Tron, Donkey Kong or Qbert, so that was a fun time. After that we went back to T0dd's and watched some skiing compitions on TV.
Day 2: San Francisco
The next day, T0dd and I drove into San Francisco. I had been here before but it was really foggy. Plus I had no idea what I was looking at. With T0dd to show me the landmarks and places I had seen on TV, the trip into the bay city was more enjoyable by far. The city is districted out just like Manhatten.
Golden Gate Bridge
T0dd and I headed out to the Golden Gate Bridge next. Of course, I wanted to get out of the car and take all kinds of pictures. T0dd didn't mind that, but what he didn't like was when I would make him pose in front of things with me. He was getting sick and tired of looking like a tourist. I think this was the last legitimate picture we were able to take with just he and I in it.
San Francisco Nightlife
It was now time to go out for the evening. We met up with T0dd's friend and decided to go out in the mission district. This was an area that had recently been renovated and now had a lot of trendy up and coming clubs. We started out at an italian resterant which would rank in my top 5 of all time, then headed out to the bars. We had a good time. It was my birthday at midnight so I kept looking at my watch all night long.
Day 3: Yosemite
This is what happens when T0dd tells me he won't take any more serious pictures with me. We enjoyed our trip to Yosemite. T0dd showed me all of the different places he'd done climbing. When we took this shot there were probably 10 or so people who would have been right there and a tour bus that went right by. Cars were honking, it was beautiful.
Lightning Bolt
One of the places that T0dd took me to was a bouldering area where we found "lightning bolt" which is supposedly one of the hardest 'boulder problems' out there. We met up with this guy and watched him climb for a little bit and try to get to the top.
Poker
Then it was back to T0dd's house to meet up with some friends and play poker. Well needless to say, the outcome was... I lost all my money and kept having to ask how to play the different games even though we were in the middle of playing our hands.
Booze at a Safeway? On Sunday?
This was an amazing thing to me. You can buy liquor in California on a Sunday at grocery stores. No wonder so many people live out on the west coast!
Day 4: Wine Country
We headed to Wine Country for my last day in California. We were cutting things close with my plane ride back to Colorado, so we didn't get to go for too long, but it was fun to learn about how to drink wine and what to look for. I think I learned something about all of it. The one big thing I'm absolutely positive about wine though is that Franzia gives you a mean headache.
Time to go home
Well... It had been a fun trip, but it had to come to an end. T0dd will be moving soon to go to law school, so this was probably the last trip I'll take to the bay area for a little while. We kept a pretty good pace going though, so I felt like I got to see a lot.
