So it's our first morning waking up in San Francisco. Rachel is getting ready for work, her friend Robin is up and about and Sarah has gone back to bed. In SanFran time it's only 8:45am, which is an hour I try not to see in my real life but I suppose in my head it's almost 11am. Anyways, I'm sitting at Rachel's desk which is against her huge bay windows in her room so I'm just peering down at the passers-by and enjoy the fresh chilly air that's coming in. My only want right now is a cup of coffee! While sitting here I have decided upon a plan to fill you in on the San Francisco experience. I was going to try and keep you updated day to day but I realized then that none of my blogs would have pictures to back up the stories. Since I have no way to get my pictures on someone else's laptop, I'd rather wait and do a backlog. But I will write every detail in my journal so I don't forget a thing! I will tell you our plans for today and give you the official list of things that Sarah and I MUST DO before leaving.
Today we're going hiking somewhere called Muir Woods for a bit before having lunch and then heading off to NAPA VALLEY! While it will be nice to see the Redwoods again while hiking, I am just way more excited about going to Napa. The Redwoods are beautiful, but I've seen them. I've also seen Napa...but I was somewhere around 13 at the time so I didn't care. Seeing as how I work with wine now, it will be a lot more special this time around.
Here are the things we MUST DO:
Me: drink Irish Coffee, eat really good oysters, and go to the Ghirardelli factory/museum
Sarah: walk/ride bikes across the Golden Gate bridge.
I think we can handle all of those things! I'll let you know if we do.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
SanFran Locale
Our other base of operations will be Sarah's friend Hol's place. He lives in Oakland somewhere abouts here:
View Larger Map
Not sure how we'll transport ourselves from place to place. I believe Rachel lives close to the Bart though, so mass transport will probably be the easiest. We'll see! I'm getting excited.
View Larger Map
Not sure how we'll transport ourselves from place to place. I believe Rachel lives close to the Bart though, so mass transport will probably be the easiest. We'll see! I'm getting excited.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Gearing Up For SanFran!
Thursday October 7th I depart for San Francisco for more travel adventures. My planning stages for what we're going to do has only just begun. So far I've started getting myself acquainted with the general layout of the city:
View Larger Map
My friend Rachel lives in the Mission District (if that's what it is actually called) somewhere around here:
View Larger Map
If you have any tips or suggestions for must-sees, hit me up! So far the two things I must do: eat a lot of seafood and drink Irish Coffee at The Buena Vista (the place where Irish coffee was invented!)
View Larger Map
My friend Rachel lives in the Mission District (if that's what it is actually called) somewhere around here:
View Larger Map
If you have any tips or suggestions for must-sees, hit me up! So far the two things I must do: eat a lot of seafood and drink Irish Coffee at The Buena Vista (the place where Irish coffee was invented!)
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Young & Stupid? Yes. Have Fun. Pt. 13: Homeward Bound
Our first night spent without the boys and Sarah wakes up in the middle of the night and asks me, in a sleepy haze, where the boys are. I reply that they're in the living room on the couches. Sarah and I begin to gain a bit of consciousness and I realize that we are alone and the boys are hundreds of miles away in New York. I actually didn't remember any of this till Sarah reminded me the next day. Sort of a sad moment, actually.
The drive home is as full of adventure as the rest of the trip. In Virginia we get stuck in 2 and a half hours of traffic on I-95. Apparently I-95 is the only highway that goes south of the tri-state area. There is no accident or road construction, just enough cars to make the driving that slow. At one point Sarah and I put the car in park and switch drivers. It made our 12 hour drive a bit less doable.
And then there's Mississippi. On our 16 hour drive from Sumter, South Carolina to Houston we have no choice but to cross Mississippi again. The moment we cross the border into the state, it begins to rain. In fact, it is much more than rain. It is the worst thunderstorm I have ever driven through. The rain is so heavy it's almost impossible to see anything. The rain lasts literally until we reach the other side of Mississippi. The fact that I have to drive through all of Louisiana and part of Texas after putting up with Mississippi doesn't make me very happy, but we survive. We reach Houston late and literally collapse into bed.
The next morning we wake up early to make the last 3 hour drive of our trip back to Austin.
Our entire trip looks a little like this:
View Larger Map
FIN
The drive home is as full of adventure as the rest of the trip. In Virginia we get stuck in 2 and a half hours of traffic on I-95. Apparently I-95 is the only highway that goes south of the tri-state area. There is no accident or road construction, just enough cars to make the driving that slow. At one point Sarah and I put the car in park and switch drivers. It made our 12 hour drive a bit less doable.
And then there's Mississippi. On our 16 hour drive from Sumter, South Carolina to Houston we have no choice but to cross Mississippi again. The moment we cross the border into the state, it begins to rain. In fact, it is much more than rain. It is the worst thunderstorm I have ever driven through. The rain is so heavy it's almost impossible to see anything. The rain lasts literally until we reach the other side of Mississippi. The fact that I have to drive through all of Louisiana and part of Texas after putting up with Mississippi doesn't make me very happy, but we survive. We reach Houston late and literally collapse into bed.
The next morning we wake up early to make the last 3 hour drive of our trip back to Austin.
Our entire trip looks a little like this:
View Larger Map
FIN
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Somewhere in South Carolina...
At Waffle House:
"Can I get fruit instead of bacon?"
"We don't have any. We have bacon or sausage."
I love this country
"Can I get fruit instead of bacon?"
"We don't have any. We have bacon or sausage."
I love this country
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Young & Stupid? Yes. Have Fun. Pt. 12: New York, I Love You
New York holds all sorts of promising dinnertime possibilities. Little Italy is our destination so we hop a subway to somewhere around Canal Street and make our way past Chinatown and into the land of the Italians.
Now, at this juncture I must explain some background. At the camp where Sarah, Sam and Francesco spent their summer there was a group of Hungarians who worked in the kitchen. Throughout our entire road trip so far I have only heard horror stories about how awkward and weird this group of Hungarians is. I also have heard that these Hungarians are in New York and Sam keeps claiming if we happen to run into them, he's going to poke out his eyeballs so he doesn't have to see them. I ensured him that New York City is one of the biggest cities in the world and there's no way we would run into them there.
Wrong.
So we wander into Little Italy and I pass some group of tall young guys all wearing matching t-shirts. As I pass, Sarah grabs my arm and pulls me quickly away while whispering into my ear "holy crap, it's the Hungarians!" We turn to see that the boys have run straight into the group and are beyond the point of escaping. We decide to let them chat...and Sarah and I amuse ourselves by looking at the booths and shops nearby selling crosses and rosaries to raise money for the Most Precious Blood Church right in the middle of Mulberry St.
A few minutes later the boys free themselves from the group. We find Alan, who had wandered off in search of food, and attempt to choose one of the millions of restaurants on the street. The problem with Little Italy restaurants is that every place has a man standing on the street who claims to 1. Be Italian and 2. have the best Italian food on the street. Also, the only way to get them to stop talking to you is to just walk away. By the time we escape from 5 different guys, we decide to just sit and eat at the next available location. Our waiter is an obvious Hispanic guy with a horribly fake Italian accent, the food is more or less touristy & unimpressive Italian food. I've had better in Houston (see: Patrenella's or Vincent's). The company is good though, as is the wine, so we enjoy ourselves despite the let down. It's also beautifully cool outside where we're sitting, so it's hard to look back at the place and not think fondly.
We finish dinner and part ways with Alan as we head off to the comedy club.
View Larger Map
It turns out to be a much longer walk than originally anticipated...but we make it safely to this tiny place a bit off the beaten path. Our old friend, Louis, is waiting just inside the door and he sneaks us in to a few seats in the back. The show had already started so we settle in quietly. It is actually a really funny show. A few different comics come on (not including Judah Friedlander...) and I'd say all but one are really hilarious. It's also neat because it's such a small venue (there are only about 20 people in the crowd, making it a much more intimate show).
Sadly, the show comes to an end, as does our last night of our trip. The only thing left for us to do is to find a subway back to our hotel to spend one last night crushed in a king's size bed. Also sadly, the only photo I took during the last bit of our evening was this one:
A photo of a broken walk/don't walk sign.
The only bit of time we have left to spend together is the next morning. Of course, Sarah and I have a 12 hour drive to South Carolina, and the boys are supposed to get on a bus at 7:30am to somewhere in upstate New York to meet a friend of Sam's. A rather hectic 30 minutes occurs in which I run to the car park next door to retrieve my car (couldn't find the ticket for a good 10 minutes which takes a huge chunk of time away from the boys who need to get some stuff out of it) and the boys rush around trying to find directions to said bus station (they miss their bus anyways and end up back in the hotel lobby to wait till the next bus which isn't until about 3pm). We say some hurried goodbyes (I might have gotten a little choked up, so sue me) and Sarah and I leave our boys and head back to real life.
Now, at this juncture I must explain some background. At the camp where Sarah, Sam and Francesco spent their summer there was a group of Hungarians who worked in the kitchen. Throughout our entire road trip so far I have only heard horror stories about how awkward and weird this group of Hungarians is. I also have heard that these Hungarians are in New York and Sam keeps claiming if we happen to run into them, he's going to poke out his eyeballs so he doesn't have to see them. I ensured him that New York City is one of the biggest cities in the world and there's no way we would run into them there.
Wrong.
So we wander into Little Italy and I pass some group of tall young guys all wearing matching t-shirts. As I pass, Sarah grabs my arm and pulls me quickly away while whispering into my ear "holy crap, it's the Hungarians!" We turn to see that the boys have run straight into the group and are beyond the point of escaping. We decide to let them chat...and Sarah and I amuse ourselves by looking at the booths and shops nearby selling crosses and rosaries to raise money for the Most Precious Blood Church right in the middle of Mulberry St.
A few minutes later the boys free themselves from the group. We find Alan, who had wandered off in search of food, and attempt to choose one of the millions of restaurants on the street. The problem with Little Italy restaurants is that every place has a man standing on the street who claims to 1. Be Italian and 2. have the best Italian food on the street. Also, the only way to get them to stop talking to you is to just walk away. By the time we escape from 5 different guys, we decide to just sit and eat at the next available location. Our waiter is an obvious Hispanic guy with a horribly fake Italian accent, the food is more or less touristy & unimpressive Italian food. I've had better in Houston (see: Patrenella's or Vincent's). The company is good though, as is the wine, so we enjoy ourselves despite the let down. It's also beautifully cool outside where we're sitting, so it's hard to look back at the place and not think fondly.
We finish dinner and part ways with Alan as we head off to the comedy club.
View Larger Map
It turns out to be a much longer walk than originally anticipated...but we make it safely to this tiny place a bit off the beaten path. Our old friend, Louis, is waiting just inside the door and he sneaks us in to a few seats in the back. The show had already started so we settle in quietly. It is actually a really funny show. A few different comics come on (not including Judah Friedlander...) and I'd say all but one are really hilarious. It's also neat because it's such a small venue (there are only about 20 people in the crowd, making it a much more intimate show).
Sadly, the show comes to an end, as does our last night of our trip. The only thing left for us to do is to find a subway back to our hotel to spend one last night crushed in a king's size bed. Also sadly, the only photo I took during the last bit of our evening was this one:
A photo of a broken walk/don't walk sign.
The only bit of time we have left to spend together is the next morning. Of course, Sarah and I have a 12 hour drive to South Carolina, and the boys are supposed to get on a bus at 7:30am to somewhere in upstate New York to meet a friend of Sam's. A rather hectic 30 minutes occurs in which I run to the car park next door to retrieve my car (couldn't find the ticket for a good 10 minutes which takes a huge chunk of time away from the boys who need to get some stuff out of it) and the boys rush around trying to find directions to said bus station (they miss their bus anyways and end up back in the hotel lobby to wait till the next bus which isn't until about 3pm). We say some hurried goodbyes (I might have gotten a little choked up, so sue me) and Sarah and I leave our boys and head back to real life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)