California trip, 12/22-12/30

[eisoj5]

12/22/07:
Left Cortez around 10:30 and headed west. Got to Barstow around 7ish PST, stayed in a Best Western that was slightly more expensive than planned but had wireless and a small kitchenette. Managed to eat all our own food for meals, so that was good.

12/23/07:
Drove from Barstow to San Francisco. Passed through the Mojave Desert, drove through long stretches with fog, crossed the Bay Bridge and got to the Grant Plaza Hotel around...when? Can't quite remember. It's right in Chinatown, so every night since then we've walked up and down Grant, checking out the shops. This night we had sushi (well, I had sushi) at the Floating Boat Sushi Restaurant, and I got to have bubble tea, too. We also went to the art gallery where there were lithographs of the artist's paintings of little Chinese girls that are super cute but rather expensive. Came back to the hotel and played Oblivion (as we've done every night as well :) )

12/24/07:
Took the BART to Walnut Creek for Ronnie's tour and mini-interview at Lindsay Wildlife Museum. We got off one stop early, and started walking, trying to find the roads as marked on the MapQuest map...headed in the wrong direction down Main 'cause we didn't know where we were, ended up crossing back and got there still a little early but somewhat more tired than planned. The Museum has lots of wild animals that rotate out of the exhibits; the first thing we saw once we got inside the building was a California ground squirrel! They have quite a few raptors, as well, and a coyote and a fox and a rabbit were all also on display. The director of education(?) showed us around the whole building, including where they do their taxidermy and where a lot of other mounted displays are stored, where the other live animals live when not out for use with programs, (bats, snakes, tarantulas, birds) and while Ronnie had his interview I went and watched the volunteers feeding the raptors. The Great Horned Owl kept turning around to look at me... :)

After the museum, we went back on the BART to Berkeley to get lunch. First, though, we went to the toy/games/roleplaying store, which was pretty cool. Then we got lunch at Dollar Curry right by the main campus area; really good Indian food for very cheap. We walked around the campus area a bit and then downtown until we both agreed we were exhausted and then headed back to San Francisco for a nap (me) and more Oblivion (Ronnie). Didn't end up having dinner, exactly, but we did go look at the shops more and I got a magic wallet :), cookies and White Rabbit candy. Oh, and that was the night we went in the store with the giant wooden penis and started noticing all the random little pornographic porcelain figures and paintings and stuff. Heh.

12/25/07:
Figured out how to get on a cable car and use the MUNI system. We went up to Fisherman's Wharf at 10:30 and walked around a lot; obviously quite a bit was closed but there were still things (like the big candy store) open. Saw the sea lions, yay! Our attention there was mostly directed at the seagulls fighting over a clam, though. Had lunch at Boudin; crab cake sandwich on sourdough. Then we got online at Starbucks for a bit. The Crab Station smelled *so* good but Ronnie, of course, didn't like it. Walked back through Fisherman's Wharf and went into Le Beastro, a store all about doggies (and kitties a little bit too). They had a lot of breed-specific things for sale; I eventually got a magnet that says I <3 My Basenji. There were notecards and picture frames and other stuff that had Basenjis on them too.

In the afternoon, took the F line cable car back towards Market Street, then transferred to a bus that took us to the eastern end of Golden Gate Park. Despite the tiredness from walking so much already...we walked some more to go to the Japanese Tea Garden, which was pretty with bridges and ponds and pagodas and a few rather sluggish koi. After that, we...walked back to the bus stop and came back to the hotel for a bit to rest, and then walked up to get dinner at this Thai place we'd seen before. Good beef noodle soup, finally!

We walked (lots of walking this trip, that's for sure) back to that gallery again and I took some pictures with my phone to show Steph. Then, at another store, I got these awesome old postcards that're ads for random stuff but feature Chinese women in the art. I was pretty excited about that--one of the previous nights we saw a big framed version of one of them in a store for $149 or something pricy like that, so to be able to get little, cheap versions was cool.

Came back to the hotel and texted Steph & Becky...Steph texted to ask if we'd been at the San Francisco Zoo that day because a tiger had killed someone there--we had thought about going, since it was one of the few attractions open on Christmas Day, but ended up obviously not going--so apparently one person was killed and two mauled pretty badly after the tiger escaped her enclosure. Meep. She had to be shot and killed too, and the Zoo--open 365 days a year normally--is closed today (the 26th).

12/26/07:
AM: Still have $9 each on our BART passes. Still want to go to the Haight-Ashbury district (I want a cool skirt) and maybe the Exploratorium. Or not. It's kind of expensive and I definitely want to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and *that's* really expensive admission, so...we'll see, I guess. I still need to find something cool for Sujan & Brian for dogsitting, and little things for work friends...it shouldn't be hard to get stuff for cheap in Chinatown if I really think about it tonight.

Went to the Haight-Ashbury district and walked around for a really surprisingly long time. I guess we must have gone in nearly all the stores except for the 'real' boutiques. We had lunch at possibly THE worst Mexican place we've ever been to but somehow managed to only have to pay $5 for all of it. Ronnie got a couple of CDs at the Amoeba Records store, and I attempted to find a new flowy skirt but failed :( We walked around the block there a little bit and looked at the cool old houses before heading back to Chinatown. We had dinner at Sabra--Middle Eastern food--which meant HUMMUS! and other yummy things.

12/27/07:
We went up to the northern part of San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge up close without getting on it. There was a bit of beach that we walked along for a while and then went over to the Palace of Fine Arts, which was built in 1915 for a World's Fair and is pretty amazing stuff. Around there were swans, ducks, and some heron kinds of things in the trees. And...then we left to drive down Highway 1! We stopped at a couple of vistas and beaches, but it was a bit overcast. I was pretty tired in the afternoon, so we ended up stopping in Monterey and staying at a fairly nice Quality Inn. We had dinner on Cannery Row; I had another seafoody meal so that was good :)

12/28/07:
Yay for the Monterey Bay Aquarium and OTTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There were sea otters in the tank, and a whole exhibit on freshwater otters from Africa and Asia, and an otter out in the bay playing in the kelp and turning over and over in the water. :D OTTERS ARE CUUUUUUUTE!!!!!!!

Also, lots of fish, including bluefin tuna (huge), some sharks, and a sunfish (GIFRICKINGNORMOUS), and touch pools, and jellyfish. Sadly, the penguins and turtles exhibits were not open :( But the OTTERS!!!!!!!!

After that, we drove down Highway 1 more, and stopped to take pictures of the ocean which was much prettier today since the sun was out. One of the last stops we made was at a beach where elephant seals come ashore! There were females and big males and newborn seals...and a couple of dead newborn seals that the vultures were picking at. There was one female and her pup who were being harassed by seagulls attempting to eat the placenta, which was a bit disturbing but also kind of neat...she kept trying to scare them off, and eventually the male came over and made some noises at them, too. And then there were males attempting to mate with one of the other females, but they got chased off by that same male. It was really pretty awesome and kind of bizarre--it wasn't very far from San Simeon, so how did we miss that the last time I was here?

Anyway, tonight we're near Santa Barbara in a little weird motel right next door to a Motel 6. We're going to the Page Museum tomorrow and then probably heading back east...

12/29/07:
Drove down to LA mid-morning to go to the Page Museum. The sun was bright on the water and there were surfers out here and there. It was really surprisingly easy to find the museum and not nearly as crowded as I had expected. The tar was stinky and bubbly :) The museum was pretty cool. There were, as predicted, lots of cool fossils, including the Wall of Dire Wolf Skulls, an American Lion, horses, mammoths & mastodons, and of course saber-toothed cats. We saw Pit 91, the current excavation, too.

After the museum, we drove over by Hollywood Blvd so Ronnie could see the insanity. We parked a couple blocks away and started walking, behind some old guy in a leather jacket with silver crap all over the back. As we got closer to the theater and stuff, a woman came up from next to us and said to him, "Danny, can I have a picture?" He turned, and it was Danny Bonaduce. She got her picture and asked for a hug, and then we all crossed the street and he went in a coffee shop. I couldn't stop giggling for a bit after that--of all the celebrities in LA, the one we see is a guy I could've seen in Detroit--he used to be on a morning show for a few years there. Heh. Also, of course, of all the celebrities we could've seen, we get this crazy washed-up and kind of scary guy...

Aaaanyway, the sheer number of celebrity-obsessed people was quite fascinating, and more than a little freaky. So...we didn't stay around there very long, and headed out of LA soon thereafter. That night we drove from LA to Kingman, AZ; I wanted to go to an Asian grocery store somewhere along the way but never managed to try hard enough to actually make it to one, sadly. We stayed in a Knights Inn with wireless and free, readily accessible porn.

12/30/07:
We went to Flagstaff, where I had hoped to find this one Asian grocery store that apparently closed last year...so no local Asian goodies for me :( (...except the occasional sushi in Durango.) We got Chinese food nonetheless, and then drove to the Grand Canyon. It was REALLY REALLY COLD there, but beautiful; the light at sunset was amazing. And...after that, we drove home to Cortez! Ronnie got pulled over because apparently the state was obscured on our license plate by the frame. No ticket, though. A little while later, we almost got pulled over again but they only put their lights on and then kept going in the opposite direction. We got home close to 10.

Total mileage for the trip: 2285 miles.

Comments

[hellosarah.livejournal.com]

Good good! I was worried they would be sitting around for a long while and hoped they didn't get snatched off your porch or anything.

And yes, 95.5. Hee. :)