Just a brief synopsis…

Today was busy…we’ve had to cram SF into such a short amount of time.  First off we went to Muir Woods.  It is so beautiful there.  Kasey now plans to live in a tree.  

We ate lunch in Sausalito and then went to the Golden Gate Bridge.  We took a little walk up to an overlook and we walk about a third of the way until deciding that was enough for us. 

We drove down Lombard Street and parked on a monster hill.

Later, we met up with a friend of a friend and walked around the North Beach area.  We went to Citylights, a neat bookstore.  I had been looking for a tea set and I found one, which I’m excited about. 

Big news, we went to Sushi Bistro again.  We all tried something new this time.   We got a taxi back to the hotel and I’m putting off packing my stuff up.

San Francisco

            Yesterday (Tuesday) started with a trip on the BART to the Farmers Market.  I have devoured my strawberries that I had been craving.  We ate lunch there and then took our fresh produce back to the room, which included cherries, apricots, and tomatoes.  We were all craving some serious shopping, so we spent the rest of the afternoon around Union Square.  

Kasey and Whit did more damage than me, which is rare, but nice as a change.  We then went to Amoeba records where I went a little crazy.  I had done my sushi research before the trip and we went to Sushi Bistro.  It was small, and clearly a local’s hangout.  The food was so good. I had sushi with tuna, mango, apple, and avocado. It was topped with macadamia nuts and cilantro pesto.  It easily ranks as one of the top meals that I have ever eaten.

             Today was so busy.  We set off at ten this morning for our eleven o’clock Alcatraz cruise.  We ended up making the trek on foot, which seemed like a reasonable idea when looking at the map.  We arrived about 10 minutes before the cruise set off.   Alcatraz is such an interesting site, and I think it was better this time than the last.  

We got back to land at about lunchtime and walked down to Pier 39 for a place to eat.  We ate at Crab House and it was great.  

We hadn’t walked enough, so we went down to Ghirardelli Square for a sundae.  

Our next plan was to visit Chinatown.   We waited for the cable car, a San Fran staple.  

We went down to the gate of Chinatown and went in to scour the shops for fake designer bags.  We visited the fortune cookie factory and ate at House of Nanking.  It was another wonderful meal.  We’ve really been hitting it right with the food.  We got a taxi back to the hotel…and here we are

            

It has been too long.  I’m not great at keeping up with this.  I left off on Saturday morning after a night in Ventura.  We just kept an eye out on the great view, and stopped for a while Santa Barbera.  We cruised the beach for a while, ate lunch, and then got back on the road.  We arrived in San Luis Obispo in the late afternoon.  We went to see the new Chronicles of Narnia movie.  It was good, but theaters don’t leave me in the best of spirits, so I turned in early.

           We woke up early to see a few sights in San Luis.  We went to the Madonna Inn that had a few too many silk flowers for my liking, but was quite a sight.  We also had to see the bubble gum wall, to which Kasey made a contribution.  It just screamed germs to me. 

            Our plan was to travel up the Pacific Coast Highway, but a planning flaw on my part left us traveling up highway 101 instead.  The views were still great, mostly of vineyards.  We got to Monterey early and spent a few hours on Cannery Row, checked into our hotel, and then visited Dennis the Menace Playground. 

 

            There weren’t too many plans for Monday, so we got away a little later.  We went to a community called Los Gatos, which is apparently where a large majority of Silicon Valley’s money resides.  It was a really cute community with a Lamborghini dealership.  I think that says it all. We then went to meet a friend in Mountain View, another San Jose suburb, for dinner.  It was good to see him, and when finished we went right to our hotel in San Francisco. 

            The area is a bit sketchy, although only 2 blocks from union square.  We arrived at night and realized the next morning that the neighborhood improves drastically in the daylight.  The hotel is really cute, and the people have been very helpful and nice.

We set off on Wednesday to another long drive.  Our destination was Phelan, a small town where Kase had a friend that we were staying with.  We passed the Cabazon dinosaurs in route, so they demanded a stop.  We took it easy that night…had a little bonfire outside. 

On Thursday the plans were minimal, but it turned out to be a great day.  We drove into Santa Monica and went to the Getty Center, but our cultural radar wasn’t on too high.  We looked at exhibits for about and hour and took in the view for longer.  If you haven’t seen the grounds and view from the top of this hill, you need to put it on your list.

As an avid mapreader, I realized that Sunset Boulevard would take us to the beach.   Sure enough we traveled down the especially windy road that eventually lead us to the beach.  We frolicked for quite a while.  We all ended up more sandy and wet than we intended.  My attempt to be like Ariel ended up with me needing new shorts. 

We then traveled down to the Santa Monica Pier.  I got the lime green shorts that I have needed in my closet for so long.  We cruised the pier for a while, stood at the end and watched some crazy fishing, while being serenaded by some cheesy love songs.  This ended in another jaunt at the beach.  Rueben chose to swim.  The girls opted out because of the frigid water.  Kasey and I realized that we must start talking to ourselves to be the norm in the area. 

Our day ended in an accidental drive through Beverly Hills and a trip down Sunset Strip.  Our goal was to find that Hollywood sign and it’s luck that Kasey looked to the left when she did.  We began to head up into a crazy residential area to try and get a good shot.  Yes, we got one despite the fact that dusk left it blurry.

Yesterday we took the morning lightly and ate breakfast at noon.  We then set out for LA to hang out with another friend.  He showed us some staple LA sites including Kodak theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theater.  My day was made Julie Andrews’ prints. Kase was a bigger fan of Brad Pitt.  We ate lunch at Pink’s, a hot dog stand that I have seen on Food network time and time again.  We spent the night in Ventura, in a great room that we spent too much on.  Kasey is sleeping, once again, but this time it’s about 10:30 and check out time is at 11…we must get a move on soon.  

trek

It's 8am in Tucson, and because I said that I could sleep more than 8 hours I woke up right at 6. We finished the day at around 10 due to around 14 hours of driving.

Kase took the first leg, I took the second, and Whit pulled up the rear.  While Whit and I were driving through New Mexico and the beginning of Arizona we were plagued my some lovely dust storms that had us gripping the wheel to an extreme.  On the bright side, we have only 7 hours to drive today.

it's hard to put the wind into pictures

kase would win

We realized that when you have driven for about 4 hours the craziness comes out.  For Kasey it involved Oh, Sleeper...for me, it was a little more Paramore and Metro Station.  We haven't reached this limit for Whitney, but I feel like it will be something more like Spoon.

Kasey caught a bit of a stomach bug and Whit and I were left with some picture taking time.

Kasey returned to find that nurse Emily wasn't exactly prepared...My first aid kit included a basic, Mylanta, but it turns out that it had leaked all over my bag.  I  thought it had only taken out the first aid kit, but there is a chalky white color that has made itself home on too many of my belongings.

Kasey says that it's just her luck.  That things just go wrong for her.  She said with this luck, the car will break down today.  We told her that's not even an option.

We finished up the day at a restaurant called Zona 78, Kase was feeling like pasta would be the best thing that she could eat.  Whit and I, on the other hand, had some great pizzas there.  We then hit up Borders for the new Death Cab album, and because of the late arrival to the cd player, I have only gotten about 20 minutes of listening time in.  Cath was my favorite before the album came out, but I'm sure we'll see today if this has changed.

We told Kasey that we wouldn't leave until 10, so Whitney and I are killing time.  Sitting here on her beds...Macs in hand, and it's still only 8:30

all is full of love

I'm telling myself that I have only 5 minutes until I get back to studying for a statistics final.  4 finals to go and after getting into nursing school I'm not as worried about the grades as I should be.

My room looks like a jail cell after removing all of my posters and I'm ready to go.  TLU has run its course in my life.  I don't like to stand still.  A year, then a move is how I like to live.  3 years in Houston is already making me anxious and I haven't even made the move yet.

The road trip begins a week from tomorrow.  My panic gets the best of me when I think about the planning that still must be done.  It's how I am on trips.  I want to see the most that I can.  I think that's reasonable.  I don't want to return and find that I missed something spectacular. We're headed up the West Coast and we're looking for adventure(at least I am).  Days will be spent in LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.  I've never been to Portland, but I have just about convinced myself that's where I'm going to live when I get enough of moving around.  

 

Kase and I are living in Austin for the summer.  I'll be rocking the world of oral maxillofacial surgery and she'll be doing the same in the pharm tech world.  Yes, they are 2 different worlds...pills and teeth.  

One weeks from Tuesday mean the new Death Cab, Narrow Stairs.  I'm so anxious and The Photo Album is on right now in preparation.