hella nor cal trip!
Saturday
Claire and I headed up to northern california via my Camry, complete with a backseat stocked with trader joes goodies. Our first stop was San Louis Obispo - where we met Tegan for a delicious and much needed cup of coffee. Mike, our first destination, seemed incredibly peeved that we were stopping - and told us we would be LUCKY if we got to Orinda by 6:30. We decided to play our luck and took another road break in San Ardo - population 2: asian man and dead cat. That was less pleasant and more funny. We finally arrived in Orinda, at 5:59 no less. So lucky! This proved to incite much jubilation in both Claire and I. Here is proof of our 5:59 arrival, as illegible as that may be in this picture:
Once in Orinda, Mike took us to Berekely where we had two hours to roam the streets as he worked in his playhouse.
Our first adventure was asking a random person where the nearest cafe was. He not only told us in his very israeli accent, but escorted us there AND protected us - minus the oozie gun, plus a very israeli sense of humor.
We eventually parted ways with The Israeli, and found ourselves in a delicious gellato joint. Claire and I went into "obnoxious mode" and basically tried every flavor they had. Regardless, we won the heart of the brazillian employee - here we are modeling the copius (popular oakland word) amout of shovels we used, and the number of the brazillian (Mac) to be used at a later date (namely Monday, where he promised us an invite to a labor day bbq)
Sunday
First I must share the wonderful view from Mike's living room.
After a wholesome breakfast, Claire, Mike, and had to bid this wonderful view goodbye. Mike went back to his beloved playhouse, and Claire and I took BART to San Francisco in high hopes of going to the MoMA. Silly little girls we are, we ended up wondering around the streets having just a bit too much fun. But the adventure only REALLY started when we were on our way back.
As we were purchasing our bart tickets, I had the brilliant idea of putting both our fares on one ticket. This, as our new best friend Faithen The Bart Attendant explained, was not even a little bit of a brilliant idea. But Faithen hooked us up with a special pass, and I insisted we took a picture with Faithen, because he absolutely adorable, as you can see here:
So after my extensive love of Faithen subsided, Claire and I made our way to the train. We spotted an intriguing man we had seen at the Mac store who looked incredibly conversation worthy, and ran after him, and on to the train. We asked him if this was the right train, more to initiate conversation than anything, and he told us that no, it is not. Dissapointed, we got off. As we awaited our train's arrival, I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to re-admire the Faithen picture. I opened my bag, and to my dismay, no camera was to be found.
We took the train back to Faithen, and in a way that only Faithen could do, he grabbed his walkie talkie and escorted us to the platform in attempt to solve the situation. As we walked down the stairs, I told Claire that if we were to find the camera, I would donate 100 dollars to Katrina. And by Katrina I meant the people affected by the hurricane, not that girl we went to Hebrew School with. I said it out loud half to make myself accountable for it, and half to increase the chances of us finding the camera. However, we came to the platform, looked over it in a very Garden State like way, but no camera was there awaiting us.
But THEN a little girl tapped me on the shoulder, and said "is this what you're looking for?"
And it WAS!
Oh, little girl, how wonderful you are! Not to mention how much you look like a young version of my old roomate.
So after 34563 hugs to both the little girl and Faithen, Claire and I got on the right train.
Which actually turned out to be the wrong train, which means the original train was in fact the right train. Which means the moral of the story is never trust what men with interesting looks have to say. Unless you want to find you camera.
That night Claire and I thought of a fantastic series of would you rather questions. The original being "Would you rather be a famous and rich concert pianist or a famous and rich persian rug maker?" Mike did not think these questions were remotely funny. I thought they were hysterically funny. Their funny factor was probably somewhere inbetween not funny and hysterical.
Monday
We left Mike's earlier than expected and ended up spending the day in a Peets Coffee in Oakland people watching. It's one of those things you had to be there for, but trust me, it was incredibly entertaining. Then we met up with Mac (the brazillian) at an Oakland river.
We then followed him to the Berekely bbq. Delicious! The guy hosting it, Keefe (not Keith with a speech impediment as we had thought before we saw his ID) had just finished culinary school. Possibly the best meat I have ever had. Even Claire, a vegetarian, caved in and LOVED it.
That night Claire and I had a gorgeous drive up to Santa Rosa. It was greaaaaat to see Jared. I only took one picture of him, I guess I was just too excited to be there to actually capture it. Ill show the picture not because it's an especially interesting one, but more so because it seems wrong not to.
Here he is eating some pretty delicious kabobs Ellen Fryer has graciously made for him. Not to much later she made me a tomato basil salal, and it was delectable. It was great to see Jared, and it only makes me more excited for school to start.
Tuesday
After a quick visit to Downtown Santa Rosa's Peets coffee, we made our way down to San Jose to see Emma.
I forgot how adorable she is. We went to a tasty Indian place for a fantastic dinner, after a day of thrifting. I was trying to predict which kind of sunglasses will be in after this gigantic craze blows over. Naturally, the ugliest thing now will become cool in a couple of months. And then we found them.
My favorite part of the day was after dinner when we went on one of those little horsey rides they have outside of ralphs. We asked some guys standing around to tape it for us on my camera. They did. It's mildly entertaining.
That night we headed down to Santa Cruz to see Wiley.
His pad and his parents are incredibly rad.
He lives in the garage - amid tons of art, a floor made from a basketball court, records, a ping pong table, and a stainless steal kitchen.
Good times were had by all.
Wednesday
After a good bakery breakfast, we left Santa Cruz and hit the road. Our only stop was in a Trader Joes in Summerland which is just south of Santa Barbara. Definitely the best TJ I have ever been to. Tons of samples, a whole treasure chest full of free candy and applesauce, an interactive component where you have to find this stuffed animal, a sweet staff who cut our celery for us, and a very clean public restroom - basically everything you want in a trader joes visit, minus the groceries?
We got back to Long Beach around 7, to find that Claires car was actually no where to be found. It had been towed. Helllla faulty. But at least it was one more night to spend with Claire, and I can't complain about that. Besides the last incident, the trip was amazingly perfect and I can't think of a better way to usher in the school year.
Claire and I headed up to northern california via my Camry, complete with a backseat stocked with trader joes goodies. Our first stop was San Louis Obispo - where we met Tegan for a delicious and much needed cup of coffee. Mike, our first destination, seemed incredibly peeved that we were stopping - and told us we would be LUCKY if we got to Orinda by 6:30. We decided to play our luck and took another road break in San Ardo - population 2: asian man and dead cat. That was less pleasant and more funny. We finally arrived in Orinda, at 5:59 no less. So lucky! This proved to incite much jubilation in both Claire and I. Here is proof of our 5:59 arrival, as illegible as that may be in this picture:
Once in Orinda, Mike took us to Berekely where we had two hours to roam the streets as he worked in his playhouse.
Our first adventure was asking a random person where the nearest cafe was. He not only told us in his very israeli accent, but escorted us there AND protected us - minus the oozie gun, plus a very israeli sense of humor.
We eventually parted ways with The Israeli, and found ourselves in a delicious gellato joint. Claire and I went into "obnoxious mode" and basically tried every flavor they had. Regardless, we won the heart of the brazillian employee - here we are modeling the copius (popular oakland word) amout of shovels we used, and the number of the brazillian (Mac) to be used at a later date (namely Monday, where he promised us an invite to a labor day bbq)
Sunday
First I must share the wonderful view from Mike's living room.
After a wholesome breakfast, Claire, Mike, and had to bid this wonderful view goodbye. Mike went back to his beloved playhouse, and Claire and I took BART to San Francisco in high hopes of going to the MoMA. Silly little girls we are, we ended up wondering around the streets having just a bit too much fun. But the adventure only REALLY started when we were on our way back.
As we were purchasing our bart tickets, I had the brilliant idea of putting both our fares on one ticket. This, as our new best friend Faithen The Bart Attendant explained, was not even a little bit of a brilliant idea. But Faithen hooked us up with a special pass, and I insisted we took a picture with Faithen, because he absolutely adorable, as you can see here:
So after my extensive love of Faithen subsided, Claire and I made our way to the train. We spotted an intriguing man we had seen at the Mac store who looked incredibly conversation worthy, and ran after him, and on to the train. We asked him if this was the right train, more to initiate conversation than anything, and he told us that no, it is not. Dissapointed, we got off. As we awaited our train's arrival, I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to re-admire the Faithen picture. I opened my bag, and to my dismay, no camera was to be found.
We took the train back to Faithen, and in a way that only Faithen could do, he grabbed his walkie talkie and escorted us to the platform in attempt to solve the situation. As we walked down the stairs, I told Claire that if we were to find the camera, I would donate 100 dollars to Katrina. And by Katrina I meant the people affected by the hurricane, not that girl we went to Hebrew School with. I said it out loud half to make myself accountable for it, and half to increase the chances of us finding the camera. However, we came to the platform, looked over it in a very Garden State like way, but no camera was there awaiting us.
But THEN a little girl tapped me on the shoulder, and said "is this what you're looking for?"
And it WAS!
Oh, little girl, how wonderful you are! Not to mention how much you look like a young version of my old roomate.
So after 34563 hugs to both the little girl and Faithen, Claire and I got on the right train.
Which actually turned out to be the wrong train, which means the original train was in fact the right train. Which means the moral of the story is never trust what men with interesting looks have to say. Unless you want to find you camera.
That night Claire and I thought of a fantastic series of would you rather questions. The original being "Would you rather be a famous and rich concert pianist or a famous and rich persian rug maker?" Mike did not think these questions were remotely funny. I thought they were hysterically funny. Their funny factor was probably somewhere inbetween not funny and hysterical.
Monday
We left Mike's earlier than expected and ended up spending the day in a Peets Coffee in Oakland people watching. It's one of those things you had to be there for, but trust me, it was incredibly entertaining. Then we met up with Mac (the brazillian) at an Oakland river.
We then followed him to the Berekely bbq. Delicious! The guy hosting it, Keefe (not Keith with a speech impediment as we had thought before we saw his ID) had just finished culinary school. Possibly the best meat I have ever had. Even Claire, a vegetarian, caved in and LOVED it.
That night Claire and I had a gorgeous drive up to Santa Rosa. It was greaaaaat to see Jared. I only took one picture of him, I guess I was just too excited to be there to actually capture it. Ill show the picture not because it's an especially interesting one, but more so because it seems wrong not to.
Here he is eating some pretty delicious kabobs Ellen Fryer has graciously made for him. Not to much later she made me a tomato basil salal, and it was delectable. It was great to see Jared, and it only makes me more excited for school to start.
Tuesday
After a quick visit to Downtown Santa Rosa's Peets coffee, we made our way down to San Jose to see Emma.
I forgot how adorable she is. We went to a tasty Indian place for a fantastic dinner, after a day of thrifting. I was trying to predict which kind of sunglasses will be in after this gigantic craze blows over. Naturally, the ugliest thing now will become cool in a couple of months. And then we found them.
My favorite part of the day was after dinner when we went on one of those little horsey rides they have outside of ralphs. We asked some guys standing around to tape it for us on my camera. They did. It's mildly entertaining.
That night we headed down to Santa Cruz to see Wiley.
His pad and his parents are incredibly rad.
He lives in the garage - amid tons of art, a floor made from a basketball court, records, a ping pong table, and a stainless steal kitchen.
Good times were had by all.
Wednesday
After a good bakery breakfast, we left Santa Cruz and hit the road. Our only stop was in a Trader Joes in Summerland which is just south of Santa Barbara. Definitely the best TJ I have ever been to. Tons of samples, a whole treasure chest full of free candy and applesauce, an interactive component where you have to find this stuffed animal, a sweet staff who cut our celery for us, and a very clean public restroom - basically everything you want in a trader joes visit, minus the groceries?
We got back to Long Beach around 7, to find that Claires car was actually no where to be found. It had been towed. Helllla faulty. But at least it was one more night to spend with Claire, and I can't complain about that. Besides the last incident, the trip was amazingly perfect and I can't think of a better way to usher in the school year.
posted by judyprays at 2:23 PM
1 Comments:
oh you, always giving money to katrina gordon
Post a Comment
<< Home