More trip report will be coming up in the coming days. But I needed to take a break from that for a bit.
I signed up for Netflix awhile ago, and after the free trial was over I kept it. I have the cheapest plan - one DVD and unlimited streaming. I use the streaming the most. Between the PS3 and our Netflix enabled Bluray, it's really handy to have so many movie and TV shows ready to watch whenever I want. The streaming library grows all the time - just today I discovered they have Into the Woods! Into the Woods!! Really?! That isn't exactly a common movie to have. When it comes to musicals their selection leaves a lot to be desired, but there are a couple of good choices and I'm sure there will be more as time goes on. (Where is Show Boat?! I know it's old as hell and probably never came out on DVD, but come on! Find a way!)
I've been on a bit of a Broadway kick lately, which is evident in what I've watched on Netflix streaming lately:
Stagedoor - A documentary about the musical theater camp in upstate NY. It was interesting, and a quick watch.
Life After Tomorrow - This was an interesting and slightly disturbing documentary about the girls who were in Annie during the 70's and early 80's on Broadway and on tour. (Including Sarah Jessica Parker - totally forgot she was in that.)
Broadway: The American Musical - this was a six part series that originally aired on PBS, I believe. Hosted by Julie Andrews, it chronicles the history of Broadway from the turn of the century until like 2004. Very interesting and entertaining.
Singin' in the Rain - Can you believe I had never seen this before? It was really good - Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Man. Stars don't have talent like that these days. And Gene Kelly was like 40 when that movie came out and he's dancing all over the place.
Besides being on a musicals kick, I'm also on a old movie kick. I plan to watch a bunch in the coming weeks... I'm sick of new movies. Most of them suck. Why can't people write a story any more? It seems to be we're just relying more and more on special effects and computers to tell our stories for us...which is impossible.
I have seen two new movies lately - The Hangover and Zombieland. Both were good. The Hangover was amusing and entertaining but not the non stop laugh-a-thon people make it out to be. I only laughed out loud a handful of times. (I do, however, finally get what's so hot about Bradley Cooper. Yum.) So over hyped, but still good. Zombieland was amusing, the perfect length and not very gory for a movie about zombies.
That's about it for now - FYI, if you set up a station on Pandora Radio for Wicked (Original Broadway Cast) you mostly seem to get music from Rent, Disney movies and Glee. (And Wicked, of course!) That's what I've been getting with my latest station, anyway.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Day Two ~ Part One
If you're ever looking for other parts of this report, you can view them all by scrolling to the bottom of any entry and clicking on the trip report tag.
The next morning we got up around 8 and took showers. Then we started thinking about what the hell we were gonna do.
Remember how earlier on in this report, I mentioned how I didn't plan this trip as much as I would have liked?
Yeah. This would be a great example of that.
After we got ready we headed down to the lobby and I bought a blueberry muffin and a juice from the little cafe downstairs. That muffin was goooooooood. Brian just had some cereal we had brought. There was a concierge desk in the lobby that had a rack of brochures nearby, so we perused it and found some tours we were interested in. We were kind of trying to save money (at this point in the vacation, anyway...) so there were a few that we thought were too expensive. But we did find a tour we thought looked good, so we decided to just walk down to the office listed on the brochure and check it out.
Using the iPhone maps, we found the place. It was a few blocks away. And...it was basically a hole in the wall place that wasn't even open yet. So I was kind of annoyed that we had just wasted our time walking all the way over here for nothing.
A shot we took on our journey.
So we started heading down back towards the Bay (hey, it's downhill that way, can you blame us?) and we run across this tour company office. There are a bunch of people inside waiting for buses and such, and I send Brian up to inquire how much it would cost to do a city tour. They were offering a few different tours, so we decided to take the cheapest one - which was a hop on/hop off city bus tour. I forget what time it left - 9:30 or 10 - but whatever time it was, we had a few minutes to wait, so we milled around and sat on the benches until it was time to board the bus.
I did not take my jacket with me today (I had meant to, but I forgot) and I was a little chilly. So when we got on the bus, we did go to the top level (it was one of those double decker buses) but we sat under this covered portion. It had rained yesterday, as you may remember, so things were a bit wet up there, but under the covered portion it was fine. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect on this tour, since I had never been on anything like it, but I was hoping to see a good chunk of the city.
In this case, I must say, not planning ahead definitely worked in our favor.
On the bus we had a guide who told us all about the different areas. His name was Stephen and he was British and very informative. Brian really took a liking to him, and so he never wanted to get off the bus and get a different guide.
Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, which I was super excited about. I have a weird obsession with the bridge - it always looks so great in pictures!) so I couldn't wait to see it in person up close.
It was a little foggy that morning. Here was our ride over the bridge:
I was totally excited to be going over the bridge! I know that must sound lame, but to me the bridge kind of summed up San Francisco for me. (From my tourist standpoint, anyway.)
On the other side of the bridge there's one of those scenic points where people park and take pictures. It was a very large area, and the bus stopped there for a few minutes so we could take some pictures.
After our photo stop, we got back on the bus and went back over the bridge to San Francisco again. We went by the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. There was stuff in the park I wanted to see, like the Japanese Tea Garden, but there just wasn't time this trip. Along the way I took some video of the many gorgeous Victorian houses in San Francisco. They are also very expensive if you want to buy one! If I ever get super rich, I'm totally buying a Victorian here. I just love Victorian houses.
We also passed by Alamo Square, where the house from Full House is located - it's part of Postcard Row. I don't know why I don't have a picture taken of the houses, but I wasn't in charge of the camera, I was in charge of video, so I got some of that instead.
Next we saw city hall, which is the area where they finally stopped the fires after the earthquake in 1906.
After that it was on to Union Square! The bus stopped for quite awhile so we had some time to really see things - at least from the bus! This is the premiere shopping area of San Francisco - tons of high end stores, and in the winter they even have a (very crowded) ice staking rink.
A shot of Union Square - complete with a beautiful Christmas tree.
It was getting kind of cold on the bus at this point - for me, anyway. In order to see better we moved to the uncovered part of the bus. Brian let me have his coat. I still don't understand how he can have short sleeves on and be fine, and meanwhile I'm freezing my butt off.
Next we cruised by Chinatown and Little Italy. More places I wanted to check out, but we didn't have the time.
Chinatown Gate.
That's Lombard Street up there in the distance.
So we cruised around downtown, and then we headed back towards the Bay. We stopped at Pier 33, where the Alcatraz tours leave for, and they were sold out until Wednesday! (This was Sunday.) We would be back later to take our tour, and we were looking forward to it.
After that was the last stop on the tour - Pier 39. This is a very touristy area full of shops and restaurants. We got off here because we had a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe and they also give a AAA discount. Yeah for discounts!
The Hard Rock Cafe wasn't very crowded and we were seated right away. I had never technically eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe before, believe it or not. (I say technically, because I went to one once at Foxwood's for a special corporate event and the food sucked.) Our server was really nice. They didn't really seem to have any awesome rock memorabilia that sticks out in my mind, but we enjoyed the music videos that were playing on the TVs scattered around. (Even though I totally don't wanna watch Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane" while I'm trying to eat. Yuck!)
I don't remember exactly what I had, but it was some kind of salad, and it was very good. I don't remember what Brian had, but it was either chicken fingers or a burger most likely. That's all he eats! After our meal, we used our coupon to get a free lanyard and we got a free sundae with the AAA discount that Brian enjoyed. Then we headed out back onto Pier 39.
It was crowded! This was definitely the most crowded area of the city we had experienced so far. There were people everywhere. As we walked along, I stopped a tiny puppet store and just HAD to go in. I'll admit it - I'm a fan of puppets. I used to collect them when I was a kid and they all had elaborate names (most of which I unfortunately forgot.) and sure enough I found a puppet I just had to have - a cute little rabbit!
There was a carousel right by the puppet store. I kind of wanted to ride it, because I love beautiful carousels, but I decided I'd better save my money.
Next I wandered into a candy store and bought a really expensive coconut cluster candy. It was like 3.50 or something. It was good, but not really worth that much. Brian had wandered into the Del Sol store - I was kind of surprised to see one in San Francisco. It's not exactly sun central there. But I guess one pops up wherever tourists tend to gather in large groups.
We didn't do too much more at Pier 39. We wandered into a couple more stores, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed back to our room. It was really crowded, and I wanted to rest a bit before our Alcatraz tour.
Huge Christmas Tree at Pier 39
The next morning we got up around 8 and took showers. Then we started thinking about what the hell we were gonna do.
Remember how earlier on in this report, I mentioned how I didn't plan this trip as much as I would have liked?
Yeah. This would be a great example of that.
After we got ready we headed down to the lobby and I bought a blueberry muffin and a juice from the little cafe downstairs. That muffin was goooooooood. Brian just had some cereal we had brought. There was a concierge desk in the lobby that had a rack of brochures nearby, so we perused it and found some tours we were interested in. We were kind of trying to save money (at this point in the vacation, anyway...) so there were a few that we thought were too expensive. But we did find a tour we thought looked good, so we decided to just walk down to the office listed on the brochure and check it out.
Using the iPhone maps, we found the place. It was a few blocks away. And...it was basically a hole in the wall place that wasn't even open yet. So I was kind of annoyed that we had just wasted our time walking all the way over here for nothing.
A shot we took on our journey.So we started heading down back towards the Bay (hey, it's downhill that way, can you blame us?) and we run across this tour company office. There are a bunch of people inside waiting for buses and such, and I send Brian up to inquire how much it would cost to do a city tour. They were offering a few different tours, so we decided to take the cheapest one - which was a hop on/hop off city bus tour. I forget what time it left - 9:30 or 10 - but whatever time it was, we had a few minutes to wait, so we milled around and sat on the benches until it was time to board the bus.
I did not take my jacket with me today (I had meant to, but I forgot) and I was a little chilly. So when we got on the bus, we did go to the top level (it was one of those double decker buses) but we sat under this covered portion. It had rained yesterday, as you may remember, so things were a bit wet up there, but under the covered portion it was fine. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect on this tour, since I had never been on anything like it, but I was hoping to see a good chunk of the city.
In this case, I must say, not planning ahead definitely worked in our favor.
On the bus we had a guide who told us all about the different areas. His name was Stephen and he was British and very informative. Brian really took a liking to him, and so he never wanted to get off the bus and get a different guide.
Our first stop was the Golden Gate Bridge, which I was super excited about. I have a weird obsession with the bridge - it always looks so great in pictures!) so I couldn't wait to see it in person up close.
It was a little foggy that morning. Here was our ride over the bridge:
I was totally excited to be going over the bridge! I know that must sound lame, but to me the bridge kind of summed up San Francisco for me. (From my tourist standpoint, anyway.)
On the other side of the bridge there's one of those scenic points where people park and take pictures. It was a very large area, and the bus stopped there for a few minutes so we could take some pictures.
After our photo stop, we got back on the bus and went back over the bridge to San Francisco again. We went by the Presidio and Golden Gate Park. There was stuff in the park I wanted to see, like the Japanese Tea Garden, but there just wasn't time this trip. Along the way I took some video of the many gorgeous Victorian houses in San Francisco. They are also very expensive if you want to buy one! If I ever get super rich, I'm totally buying a Victorian here. I just love Victorian houses.
We also passed by Alamo Square, where the house from Full House is located - it's part of Postcard Row. I don't know why I don't have a picture taken of the houses, but I wasn't in charge of the camera, I was in charge of video, so I got some of that instead.
Next we saw city hall, which is the area where they finally stopped the fires after the earthquake in 1906.
After that it was on to Union Square! The bus stopped for quite awhile so we had some time to really see things - at least from the bus! This is the premiere shopping area of San Francisco - tons of high end stores, and in the winter they even have a (very crowded) ice staking rink.
A shot of Union Square - complete with a beautiful Christmas tree.It was getting kind of cold on the bus at this point - for me, anyway. In order to see better we moved to the uncovered part of the bus. Brian let me have his coat. I still don't understand how he can have short sleeves on and be fine, and meanwhile I'm freezing my butt off.
Next we cruised by Chinatown and Little Italy. More places I wanted to check out, but we didn't have the time.
Chinatown Gate. 
That's Lombard Street up there in the distance.So we cruised around downtown, and then we headed back towards the Bay. We stopped at Pier 33, where the Alcatraz tours leave for, and they were sold out until Wednesday! (This was Sunday.) We would be back later to take our tour, and we were looking forward to it.
After that was the last stop on the tour - Pier 39. This is a very touristy area full of shops and restaurants. We got off here because we had a coupon for the Hard Rock Cafe and they also give a AAA discount. Yeah for discounts!
The Hard Rock Cafe wasn't very crowded and we were seated right away. I had never technically eaten at a Hard Rock Cafe before, believe it or not. (I say technically, because I went to one once at Foxwood's for a special corporate event and the food sucked.) Our server was really nice. They didn't really seem to have any awesome rock memorabilia that sticks out in my mind, but we enjoyed the music videos that were playing on the TVs scattered around. (Even though I totally don't wanna watch Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane" while I'm trying to eat. Yuck!)
I don't remember exactly what I had, but it was some kind of salad, and it was very good. I don't remember what Brian had, but it was either chicken fingers or a burger most likely. That's all he eats! After our meal, we used our coupon to get a free lanyard and we got a free sundae with the AAA discount that Brian enjoyed. Then we headed out back onto Pier 39.
It was crowded! This was definitely the most crowded area of the city we had experienced so far. There were people everywhere. As we walked along, I stopped a tiny puppet store and just HAD to go in. I'll admit it - I'm a fan of puppets. I used to collect them when I was a kid and they all had elaborate names (most of which I unfortunately forgot.) and sure enough I found a puppet I just had to have - a cute little rabbit!
There was a carousel right by the puppet store. I kind of wanted to ride it, because I love beautiful carousels, but I decided I'd better save my money.
Next I wandered into a candy store and bought a really expensive coconut cluster candy. It was like 3.50 or something. It was good, but not really worth that much. Brian had wandered into the Del Sol store - I was kind of surprised to see one in San Francisco. It's not exactly sun central there. But I guess one pops up wherever tourists tend to gather in large groups.
We didn't do too much more at Pier 39. We wandered into a couple more stores, bought a few more souvenirs, and headed back to our room. It was really crowded, and I wanted to rest a bit before our Alcatraz tour.
Huge Christmas Tree at Pier 39COMING UP...
More hills?!
"I am not getting in there."
Getting all bundled up at the unhappiest place on Earth!
More hills?!
"I am not getting in there."
Getting all bundled up at the unhappiest place on Earth!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Trip Report ~ Day One, Part Two
Okay, there are no pictures and only one video to go with this part. Sorry!
So my friend Emily moved to CA after fourth grade. She's come back to visit NY a bunch of times since she moved, but this was my first time visiting her! She and her husband had recently bought a house in Livermore, which is a suburb of San Francisco. So the plan that night was to go and visit her.
Emily had given me instructions on how to get to Pleasanton, and part one involved taking the MUNI to the Embarcadero BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. The closest MUNI station was only like a block away, so after relaxing in the room and freshening up we ventured back outside and started to head towards the MUNI station. (With the assistance of my iPhone map.)
Now, while wandering around San Francisco and riding in that awful taxi cab, I had seen some bus looking things that were attached to wires overhead. (I've tried to find a decent picture online to no avail.) Anyway, we were expecting a subway of some sort. Not a bus on a wire.
So we stumble upon the station. And we have a few minutes to wait. And...it starts to rain. More people gather around. And more people. And I'm getting nervous, because I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.
So the MUNI pulls up, and everybody crowds around to board. The bus driver starts SCREAMING at people to have their tickets out - she was seriously being really nasty. Now I understand she was probably having a long day and there were a lot of people, but holy crap was she rude! I had exact change for our fare, and thank god I did because that was another thing she was screeching. We moved to the back of the car and found two seats together. They were some of the last seats on the bus. And then it quickly filled up so that people were standing from the back to the front - it was like after closing time at the Magic Kingdom. The seats were tiny and the bus was gross - there was stuff carved into the windows.
It gets worse.
So we continue along, rain slapping against the graffiti decorated windows, and the bus driver has decided she hasn't yelled at everyone enough. Oh no. She gets on the PA and starts screeching about how it's a dangerous city and there are pickpockets everywhere and to watch your stuff. Um, hello? I've been in this city less than 10 hours - this is what I get treated to? And she doesn't just say this once. She says it REPEATEDLY. Like four times. Seriously. I could not get the hell off that horrible bus fast enough.
Finally our stop came, and we ran off and never looked back. The BART station was right there, so luckily we didn't have to do any more wandering around in the rain.
And I decided what MUNI really stands for - Massive Under-performing Network of Incompetence.
So we purchase our tickets, and we're a little confused at how no one takes the ticket...it's not like the subway where you have to insert your ticket to get through the turnstiles. You just walk right through.
BART trains run like the metro North trains we have here in the NYC area, but they look like subway cars. There was a guy behind us who decided he had to share his rap music with the rest of us, and some panhandlers came through (they were all over Fisherman's Wharf, too, and they were aggressive) so it was REALLY like the subway. But I just relaxed and we rode the train for about 45 minutes to the end of the line - Pleasanton.
When we got off the train, we realized that we had to put our tickets into the turnstiles to get OUT. Bizarro land...
It was raining pretty hard outside. I had texted Emily from the train, and she was waiting to pick us up at the station. We looked around for her car, but she spotted us first. We quickly greeted each other, and then we were off! Emily claimed that we brought the rain with us, since it hadn't been raining a few minutes ago. Sorry! We New Yorkers bring the crappy weather with us. It's a curse.
She offered to take us on a tour of Pleasanton, and we took her up on that offer. Even in the rainy darkness, it was a really cute town. Hopefully I'll be able to go back soon and see it in the daylight! After the tour, we got on the slow moving highway and headed to Livermore.
When we got to Emily's house, we got to meet her husband, Ivan, as well as their rescued greyhound, Fantom, and Ivan's sister's pitbull puppy they were watching - Tila. This was our first time meeting Ivan since we weren't able to make it to their wedding and they hadn't been able to make it to ours. He's really nice, and we all got along well right away. Emily gave us a quick tour of the house and then we all talked for awhile while she made dinner. It was really comfortable in their house because they had the fireplace going - but I was surprised at how NOT TIRED I was. I'm not a night person at all, so I thought I'd be jet lagged like crazy, but I was actually doing really well.
So we just sat around and talked, and I got to see their wedding album. (We had the exact same album cover - weird, right?) Emily made chicken and rice for dinner and it was delicious. We also had this really good natural soda - it was like ginger ale. I can't remember what brand it was! Anyway, after dinner, Ivan wanted to play this game he had.
And so it began.
The game was called "Last Night on Earth" and basically it's a tabletop RPG game that pits zombies vs. humans. That means it involves fighting and rolling dice to see who wins. I'd only played one game like this before, and it was overly complicated and took forever and we had monsters lined up outside our town waiting to get in like it was Space Mountain. But this game was much simpler and much more fun - Emily and I played as the zombies and the boys were the humans. We won! Okay, it was kind of cheap, but we still won! Brian immediately fell in love with this game and it became his goal to own it. (Ivan also made some yummy brownies for us while we were playing the game.)
When the game was over, we talked for a bit more and then decided we should probably head back to the city. Emily offered for us to spend the night, but all our stuff was back in San Francisco and I didn't want to impose, so she took us back to the BART station. It was a really fun night!
The rain had mostly stopped by this point, and even though it was after 11, it was still like 50 degrees out. While we were standing on the platform waiting for the train, this young couple were asking us about the stops - I guess we looked like we were from San Francisco. (One city for another, I guess.) I fell asleep on the ride back, so it went quickly. We caught a cab (this cab driver was much nicer and didn't drive like an escaped maniac), went back to our room around 12:30.
Here are some reflections from our first day:
By the time I got ready for bed and laid down, it was 1 a.m. PST - that's 4 a.m. EST. And I'd been up a full 24 hours.
And I never had jet lag the whole trip.
That, my friends, is how to kill jet lag.
So my friend Emily moved to CA after fourth grade. She's come back to visit NY a bunch of times since she moved, but this was my first time visiting her! She and her husband had recently bought a house in Livermore, which is a suburb of San Francisco. So the plan that night was to go and visit her.
Emily had given me instructions on how to get to Pleasanton, and part one involved taking the MUNI to the Embarcadero BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. The closest MUNI station was only like a block away, so after relaxing in the room and freshening up we ventured back outside and started to head towards the MUNI station. (With the assistance of my iPhone map.)
Now, while wandering around San Francisco and riding in that awful taxi cab, I had seen some bus looking things that were attached to wires overhead. (I've tried to find a decent picture online to no avail.) Anyway, we were expecting a subway of some sort. Not a bus on a wire.
So we stumble upon the station. And we have a few minutes to wait. And...it starts to rain. More people gather around. And more people. And I'm getting nervous, because I have no idea what I'm getting myself into.
So the MUNI pulls up, and everybody crowds around to board. The bus driver starts SCREAMING at people to have their tickets out - she was seriously being really nasty. Now I understand she was probably having a long day and there were a lot of people, but holy crap was she rude! I had exact change for our fare, and thank god I did because that was another thing she was screeching. We moved to the back of the car and found two seats together. They were some of the last seats on the bus. And then it quickly filled up so that people were standing from the back to the front - it was like after closing time at the Magic Kingdom. The seats were tiny and the bus was gross - there was stuff carved into the windows.
It gets worse.
So we continue along, rain slapping against the graffiti decorated windows, and the bus driver has decided she hasn't yelled at everyone enough. Oh no. She gets on the PA and starts screeching about how it's a dangerous city and there are pickpockets everywhere and to watch your stuff. Um, hello? I've been in this city less than 10 hours - this is what I get treated to? And she doesn't just say this once. She says it REPEATEDLY. Like four times. Seriously. I could not get the hell off that horrible bus fast enough.
Finally our stop came, and we ran off and never looked back. The BART station was right there, so luckily we didn't have to do any more wandering around in the rain.
And I decided what MUNI really stands for - Massive Under-performing Network of Incompetence.
So we purchase our tickets, and we're a little confused at how no one takes the ticket...it's not like the subway where you have to insert your ticket to get through the turnstiles. You just walk right through.
BART trains run like the metro North trains we have here in the NYC area, but they look like subway cars. There was a guy behind us who decided he had to share his rap music with the rest of us, and some panhandlers came through (they were all over Fisherman's Wharf, too, and they were aggressive) so it was REALLY like the subway. But I just relaxed and we rode the train for about 45 minutes to the end of the line - Pleasanton.
When we got off the train, we realized that we had to put our tickets into the turnstiles to get OUT. Bizarro land...
It was raining pretty hard outside. I had texted Emily from the train, and she was waiting to pick us up at the station. We looked around for her car, but she spotted us first. We quickly greeted each other, and then we were off! Emily claimed that we brought the rain with us, since it hadn't been raining a few minutes ago. Sorry! We New Yorkers bring the crappy weather with us. It's a curse.
She offered to take us on a tour of Pleasanton, and we took her up on that offer. Even in the rainy darkness, it was a really cute town. Hopefully I'll be able to go back soon and see it in the daylight! After the tour, we got on the slow moving highway and headed to Livermore.
When we got to Emily's house, we got to meet her husband, Ivan, as well as their rescued greyhound, Fantom, and Ivan's sister's pitbull puppy they were watching - Tila. This was our first time meeting Ivan since we weren't able to make it to their wedding and they hadn't been able to make it to ours. He's really nice, and we all got along well right away. Emily gave us a quick tour of the house and then we all talked for awhile while she made dinner. It was really comfortable in their house because they had the fireplace going - but I was surprised at how NOT TIRED I was. I'm not a night person at all, so I thought I'd be jet lagged like crazy, but I was actually doing really well.
So we just sat around and talked, and I got to see their wedding album. (We had the exact same album cover - weird, right?) Emily made chicken and rice for dinner and it was delicious. We also had this really good natural soda - it was like ginger ale. I can't remember what brand it was! Anyway, after dinner, Ivan wanted to play this game he had.
And so it began.
The game was called "Last Night on Earth" and basically it's a tabletop RPG game that pits zombies vs. humans. That means it involves fighting and rolling dice to see who wins. I'd only played one game like this before, and it was overly complicated and took forever and we had monsters lined up outside our town waiting to get in like it was Space Mountain. But this game was much simpler and much more fun - Emily and I played as the zombies and the boys were the humans. We won! Okay, it was kind of cheap, but we still won! Brian immediately fell in love with this game and it became his goal to own it. (Ivan also made some yummy brownies for us while we were playing the game.)
When the game was over, we talked for a bit more and then decided we should probably head back to the city. Emily offered for us to spend the night, but all our stuff was back in San Francisco and I didn't want to impose, so she took us back to the BART station. It was a really fun night!
The rain had mostly stopped by this point, and even though it was after 11, it was still like 50 degrees out. While we were standing on the platform waiting for the train, this young couple were asking us about the stops - I guess we looked like we were from San Francisco. (One city for another, I guess.) I fell asleep on the ride back, so it went quickly. We caught a cab (this cab driver was much nicer and didn't drive like an escaped maniac), went back to our room around 12:30.
Here are some reflections from our first day:
By the time I got ready for bed and laid down, it was 1 a.m. PST - that's 4 a.m. EST. And I'd been up a full 24 hours.
And I never had jet lag the whole trip.
That, my friends, is how to kill jet lag.
COMING UP...
A Trip Over the Golden Gate
The house from Full House!
And how I'm a sucker for puppets
The house from Full House!
And how I'm a sucker for puppets
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Trip Report ~ Day One, Part One
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
Well, here we go.
4 a.m. was here before we knew it. I got up quickly and got ready. My parents wanted me to wake them up so I knocked on their door. Within a few minutes I was all set to go in my comfy plane clothes and had tucked all my last minute items into my bags. I didn't want to eat anything so early in the morning, so we just sat down on the couch and waited for our town car to arrive.
Now, the previous day I was nervous about the weather for that morning. I kept checking it obsessively because they were talking about freezing rain. But I wasn't worrying about it too much because I figured by the time we had to leave it would be too warm to be icy. Before I fell asleep the night before I could hear the 'clink clink' of the freezing rain on the windows...which made me nervous. But by morning the roads were fine, and the freezing rain had turned over to plain old rain.
Within a few minutes our car arrived (nice and early!) so we said good-bye to my parents, loaded our bags into the car and started the hour ride to JFK. It was raining all the way but the roads were fine. It was a nice, smooth ride. When we got there we unloaded our bags and started looking around for where we could check our one bag, since there was no curbside check-in.
There were counters for several different airlines, and some of them were crowded, so I was a little nervous. We started looking for Virgin America, and ended up walking all the way down in the opposite direction! Anyway, we eventually found it and got on the really short line for bag check only. We checked our one bag (I had pre-paid for it and we already had our boarding passes) and headed down to security. There was a little line, but we got through it pretty quickly. Then we just waited for the plane to board.
They loaded the plane and we ended up taking off a little late. I watched Home Alone and some other shows. Somewhere over Nebraska we lost TV signal so I listened to some podcasts. There was no free food (but I did get a free water) so we just ate some of the snacks we brought. It was a pretty uneventful flight, and it wasn't as bad as I had imagined a cross country flight to be. Especially since they told us the flight wouldn't be as long as it usually was because the headwinds weren't as strong.
Here's a compilation of some video I took on the flight:
Once we got the airport, I was kind of in shock. After so many years of waiting, I was finally in California! We had left at 7 am EST and we arrived at about 9:30 PST. So it was about a 5 1/2 hour flight. We made our way to the baggage claim area - which was kind of strange. It was this huge room with no windows and one huge baggage carousel. It was like a closet! Anyway, we started waiting for our bag, and once they started coming, some idiot jumped on the carousel to get his skis, so the whole thing stopped and we had to wait for them to restart it. Thanks, asshole! But we finally got our bags, and headed out to the taxi stands by following the helpful airport signs.
We got in a cab right away. And the cab ride, was, well...interesting. If by interesting I mean FEARED FOR MY LIFE. It was so bumpy, and the guy was rude, and well, we'll get to it more than a minute. The important thing is we arrived at our hotel safe and sound. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf. I was happy our room was ready. So we went upstairs, and dumped our stuff.
And here's a video where we describe our cab ride, and you can see our room:
Me in the doorway of our room.
So, since we hadn't eaten anything but snacks all day, we were pretty hungry. We didn't feel like wandering around, so we just went to the nearby Denny's that we referenced in the previous video. It was a really quick meal - I had pancakes and they were fine. Brian probably had chicken fingers.
After our meal, we decided to walk around for a bit. It was about 50 degrees in San Francisco, and for some reason on this particular day I was not finding it cold at all. We started to walk down near the Bay, just soaking in the new scenery. I knew San Francisco was hilly, but I didn't realize just HOW hilly until I saw it for myself.
Brian snapped this picture on our walk down.
Anyway, as we were walking along, I had a vague idea of where I was going, so I wasn't too surprised when we ran across this...
Ghirardelli Square! I love this shot. It looks like a post card.
So we headed up the hill (you're always heading up or down a hill in San Francsico) towards Ghirardelli Square and started to explore.
Hill! See! That's Alcatraz back there. This was taken from the upper part of the Square.
Christmas Tree in the Square. We had to wait for some other people to take a picture first and they took forever! How long does it take to snap a picture? Anyway, even though Christmas was just the day before, it already seemed like kind of a long time ago by this point. You can also see I'm wearing gloves in this picture - it was chilly, but I wasn't cold enough for a jacket. This is important to remember later!
A fountain in the Square.
Ghirardelli Square got its name because it was once a factory for Ghirardelli. Now it's a bunch of shops, restaurants and several (yes, several) Ghirardelli stores. Plus I'm pretty sure they were building condos in there or something.
So we just walked around and explored. There was this pet shop selling all manner of dog outfits and collars. A doggie boutique. Nothing we'd buy for our dogs! We also went into a store selling extremely expensive soaps and bath products.
After that we ran across this place called Kara's cupcakes which kind of reminded us of Crumb's Bakery, but the cupcakes were not as huge. They were, however, quite expensive - they cost $3.50! But they were all natural ingredients. And we're a sucker for cupcakes. So we bought some vanilla thing with a chocolate reindeer on top. It was good.
After our cupcake, we went into one of the many Ghirardelli stores and were handed a sample of their peppermint bark. Mmm... Peppermint bark... That stuff is good! They were having a sale on some of their products, and I'm a sucker for chocolate, so I started buying stuff, including a chocolate bar for my dad and a huge bag of assorted chocolates for me. (I'm still working my way through the bag.) There was also this cute little cable car tin filled with chocolate, but I didn't buy it. When I went to pay, they offered me this nice looking Ghirardelli logo reuseable shopping bag, so I bought that too. It actually came in handy during our trip.
So yeah, I've been in San Francisco for only a couple of hours and I've already bought souvenirs.
Ghirardelli is also famous for their ice cream, but we were too full to enjoy any of it now. We said we'd come back. Spoiler alert - we never did. :(
I kind of wanted to find Lombard Street - one of the several touristy places in San Francisco I totally had to see. I tried using the map on my iPhone, but I wasn't totally sure where we were going and didn't want to get totally lost, so after venturing up another hill (of course) we decided to head back down to the bay.
We wound up wandering around a pier where there were a bunch of historic ships. We didn't want to pay money to go on any of the ships (I'm not really into that kind of thing) but we explored the Hyde St. Pier and I was horrified by the people swimming the San Francisco Bay. I could not see how it was at all warm/clean enough to swim in. We made some East River jokes, checked out a souvenir shop, and then started to head back to our hotel. We were heading out to the San Francisco suburbs to see my friend Emily in a bit and I wanted to freshen up and get myself organized before we caught the BART train.
Here's a quick movie that shows our exploits at Ghirardelli Square and down by the historical ships (it bounces around because I just made a huge movie out of all the videos):
On our way back, we stopped in that Spy shop I posted a picture of earlier. Wow - did they have a lot of weird stuff in there! There were hidden cameras, weapons, books that had cameras in them and a whole bunch of these creepy powders you could use to ruin somebody's car or make them sick, among other things. It was interesting, to say the least.
We didn't buy anything, and retreated back to our hotel room to get ready for our evening.
And I want to let everyone know that my Flip video camera takes better video than YouTube leads you to believe. The upload quality is not as good as the actual quality.
COMING UP...
What MUNI really stands for...
A Rainy Tour
Brian Takes On A Quest
Well, here we go.
4 a.m. was here before we knew it. I got up quickly and got ready. My parents wanted me to wake them up so I knocked on their door. Within a few minutes I was all set to go in my comfy plane clothes and had tucked all my last minute items into my bags. I didn't want to eat anything so early in the morning, so we just sat down on the couch and waited for our town car to arrive.
Now, the previous day I was nervous about the weather for that morning. I kept checking it obsessively because they were talking about freezing rain. But I wasn't worrying about it too much because I figured by the time we had to leave it would be too warm to be icy. Before I fell asleep the night before I could hear the 'clink clink' of the freezing rain on the windows...which made me nervous. But by morning the roads were fine, and the freezing rain had turned over to plain old rain.
Within a few minutes our car arrived (nice and early!) so we said good-bye to my parents, loaded our bags into the car and started the hour ride to JFK. It was raining all the way but the roads were fine. It was a nice, smooth ride. When we got there we unloaded our bags and started looking around for where we could check our one bag, since there was no curbside check-in.
There were counters for several different airlines, and some of them were crowded, so I was a little nervous. We started looking for Virgin America, and ended up walking all the way down in the opposite direction! Anyway, we eventually found it and got on the really short line for bag check only. We checked our one bag (I had pre-paid for it and we already had our boarding passes) and headed down to security. There was a little line, but we got through it pretty quickly. Then we just waited for the plane to board.
They loaded the plane and we ended up taking off a little late. I watched Home Alone and some other shows. Somewhere over Nebraska we lost TV signal so I listened to some podcasts. There was no free food (but I did get a free water) so we just ate some of the snacks we brought. It was a pretty uneventful flight, and it wasn't as bad as I had imagined a cross country flight to be. Especially since they told us the flight wouldn't be as long as it usually was because the headwinds weren't as strong.
Here's a compilation of some video I took on the flight:
Once we got the airport, I was kind of in shock. After so many years of waiting, I was finally in California! We had left at 7 am EST and we arrived at about 9:30 PST. So it was about a 5 1/2 hour flight. We made our way to the baggage claim area - which was kind of strange. It was this huge room with no windows and one huge baggage carousel. It was like a closet! Anyway, we started waiting for our bag, and once they started coming, some idiot jumped on the carousel to get his skis, so the whole thing stopped and we had to wait for them to restart it. Thanks, asshole! But we finally got our bags, and headed out to the taxi stands by following the helpful airport signs.
We got in a cab right away. And the cab ride, was, well...interesting. If by interesting I mean FEARED FOR MY LIFE. It was so bumpy, and the guy was rude, and well, we'll get to it more than a minute. The important thing is we arrived at our hotel safe and sound. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf. I was happy our room was ready. So we went upstairs, and dumped our stuff.
And here's a video where we describe our cab ride, and you can see our room:
Me in the doorway of our room.So, since we hadn't eaten anything but snacks all day, we were pretty hungry. We didn't feel like wandering around, so we just went to the nearby Denny's that we referenced in the previous video. It was a really quick meal - I had pancakes and they were fine. Brian probably had chicken fingers.
After our meal, we decided to walk around for a bit. It was about 50 degrees in San Francisco, and for some reason on this particular day I was not finding it cold at all. We started to walk down near the Bay, just soaking in the new scenery. I knew San Francisco was hilly, but I didn't realize just HOW hilly until I saw it for myself.
Brian snapped this picture on our walk down.Anyway, as we were walking along, I had a vague idea of where I was going, so I wasn't too surprised when we ran across this...
Ghirardelli Square! I love this shot. It looks like a post card.So we headed up the hill (you're always heading up or down a hill in San Francsico) towards Ghirardelli Square and started to explore.
Hill! See! That's Alcatraz back there. This was taken from the upper part of the Square.
Christmas Tree in the Square. We had to wait for some other people to take a picture first and they took forever! How long does it take to snap a picture? Anyway, even though Christmas was just the day before, it already seemed like kind of a long time ago by this point. You can also see I'm wearing gloves in this picture - it was chilly, but I wasn't cold enough for a jacket. This is important to remember later!
A fountain in the Square.Ghirardelli Square got its name because it was once a factory for Ghirardelli. Now it's a bunch of shops, restaurants and several (yes, several) Ghirardelli stores. Plus I'm pretty sure they were building condos in there or something.
So we just walked around and explored. There was this pet shop selling all manner of dog outfits and collars. A doggie boutique. Nothing we'd buy for our dogs! We also went into a store selling extremely expensive soaps and bath products.
After that we ran across this place called Kara's cupcakes which kind of reminded us of Crumb's Bakery, but the cupcakes were not as huge. They were, however, quite expensive - they cost $3.50! But they were all natural ingredients. And we're a sucker for cupcakes. So we bought some vanilla thing with a chocolate reindeer on top. It was good.
After our cupcake, we went into one of the many Ghirardelli stores and were handed a sample of their peppermint bark. Mmm... Peppermint bark... That stuff is good! They were having a sale on some of their products, and I'm a sucker for chocolate, so I started buying stuff, including a chocolate bar for my dad and a huge bag of assorted chocolates for me. (I'm still working my way through the bag.) There was also this cute little cable car tin filled with chocolate, but I didn't buy it. When I went to pay, they offered me this nice looking Ghirardelli logo reuseable shopping bag, so I bought that too. It actually came in handy during our trip.
So yeah, I've been in San Francisco for only a couple of hours and I've already bought souvenirs.
Ghirardelli is also famous for their ice cream, but we were too full to enjoy any of it now. We said we'd come back. Spoiler alert - we never did. :(
I kind of wanted to find Lombard Street - one of the several touristy places in San Francisco I totally had to see. I tried using the map on my iPhone, but I wasn't totally sure where we were going and didn't want to get totally lost, so after venturing up another hill (of course) we decided to head back down to the bay.
We wound up wandering around a pier where there were a bunch of historic ships. We didn't want to pay money to go on any of the ships (I'm not really into that kind of thing) but we explored the Hyde St. Pier and I was horrified by the people swimming the San Francisco Bay. I could not see how it was at all warm/clean enough to swim in. We made some East River jokes, checked out a souvenir shop, and then started to head back to our hotel. We were heading out to the San Francisco suburbs to see my friend Emily in a bit and I wanted to freshen up and get myself organized before we caught the BART train.
Here's a quick movie that shows our exploits at Ghirardelli Square and down by the historical ships (it bounces around because I just made a huge movie out of all the videos):
On our way back, we stopped in that Spy shop I posted a picture of earlier. Wow - did they have a lot of weird stuff in there! There were hidden cameras, weapons, books that had cameras in them and a whole bunch of these creepy powders you could use to ruin somebody's car or make them sick, among other things. It was interesting, to say the least.
We didn't buy anything, and retreated back to our hotel room to get ready for our evening.
And I want to let everyone know that my Flip video camera takes better video than YouTube leads you to believe. The upload quality is not as good as the actual quality.
COMING UP...
What MUNI really stands for...
A Rainy Tour
Brian Takes On A Quest
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Trip Report ~ How This Trip Finally Came To Be
Welcome to my very first trip report! It's going to take me awhile to cover two whole weeks, but I'm sure I'll finish sometime before we ring in 2011.
First, a brief introduction to ME (and my husband):
I'm Lauren - he's Brian. We're both in our late 20's, work full time and live in New York, about an hour from NY. We got married in May of 2007 and bought our first house together in September of 2008. We have two old men beagles and an adorable angora rabbit. We're both nerds who enjoy stuff like Star Wars and video games. And I'm a HUGE Disney fan. Obviously. And that about sums it up!
Us on our last trip to WDW together in May 2009
So anyway, I guess the best place to start is how we got to go on this trip in the first place.
When I was ten, my best friend's family moved to California. And ever since then, I've wanted to visit. Well, it took me a long time to get there, but better late than never! Brian also has a friend who moved out there, and he also wanted to visit. It was a trip we kept putting off because of the money and time commitment. And while the topic of going to California came up early in 2009, we initially dismissed the idea (again) because of those concerns. But then I decided - you know what? Stop putting it off, and just go already! Otherwise the day is gonna come where you REALLY can't go! So I figured if we went right after Christmas, we'd be able to take a 2 week trip by using the rest of 2009's vacation and the rest from 2010. I explained all of this to Brian, and he finally went for it! We were on!
All the planning was on my shoulders. Of course. I plan all our trips. Most of them involve Disney World, which I'm extremely familiar with. This time though, I was planning a complicated trip involving many places I'd never been before. It was a bit overwhelming.
Oh, right. The complicated part. Well, since we decided to do two full weeks, I decided we better make the most of it and see as much as we could in that time. My friend now lives in the San Francisco area. Brian's lives in San Diego. Those two places were a long way apart. I couldn't visit California without going to Disneyland. And Los Angeles was so close by it would be silly NOT to visit... And we both were interested in seeing the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, which is not far from San Francisco. So that's how we ended up with this schedule:
December 26th, 2009: Fly to San Francisco
December 28th, 2009: Drive to San Jose
December 29th, 2009: Fly to San Diego
January 3rd, 2010: Train to Anaheim
January 6th, 2010: Train to L.A.
January 9th, 2010: Fly back to New York
Yeah, it was a bit busy. And complicated. And it scared the hell out of me. But it ended up working out well for us.
So I relied heavily on Trip Adviser when planning this trip. I did a lot of research on the different hotels, and searched the internet for the best prices on said hotels. I'm happy to report that Trip Adviser did not steer me wrong - we liked every place we stayed, and would definitely stay at any of them again.
But something weird happened with this trip. Normally I'm an overplanner. I start planning waaaaaaaaaaay ahead of time. Even when there's not much I can do. So this time, instead of doing that, I decided to wait. And wait. And wait. And then all of the sudden so many things started happening in my life that before I knew it, the trip was days away and I hadn't done the extensive planning I would have liked to do. (Mostly involving places we wanted to visit while on the trip.) So I was a bit nervous that I hadn't planned enough. But I'm the easily stressed type!
Packing was also a bit difficult. I figured Southern California would be warm, but not warm enough for shorts. And I was sure San Francisco wouldn't be warm enough for a t-shirt. I must have looked at the average temperature chart dozens of times. I even went out and bought a new carry-on size piece of luggage. I had never been on a 2-week trip before in my life - never mind packed for one!
The day before we left was obviously Christmas. That morning we opened our gifts, had breakfast and finished packing some last minute items. Then we said good-bye to our dogs (Brian's dad would be arriving soon to take care of them while we were gone) and headed down to my mom's house to celebrate with family. (We had dropped our rabbit off with her the day before - she got to bunny-sit!)
We had a very nice Christmas (I got my Flip Video camera I knew I was getting!) and after everyone left, we showered and got ourselves organized for our 3 a.m. wake-up time. We were sleeping over since my mom's house is closer to JFK than ours is. Then I tuned into some Christmas movies that were still on TV and tried to get some sleep around 10. I actually managed to sleep much better than I thought I would.
Well, that ends part one. Not to exciting yet, I know. But next we'll get to the part that actually matters - you know. The Trip!
First, a brief introduction to ME (and my husband):
I'm Lauren - he's Brian. We're both in our late 20's, work full time and live in New York, about an hour from NY. We got married in May of 2007 and bought our first house together in September of 2008. We have two old men beagles and an adorable angora rabbit. We're both nerds who enjoy stuff like Star Wars and video games. And I'm a HUGE Disney fan. Obviously. And that about sums it up!
Us on our last trip to WDW together in May 2009
So anyway, I guess the best place to start is how we got to go on this trip in the first place.
When I was ten, my best friend's family moved to California. And ever since then, I've wanted to visit. Well, it took me a long time to get there, but better late than never! Brian also has a friend who moved out there, and he also wanted to visit. It was a trip we kept putting off because of the money and time commitment. And while the topic of going to California came up early in 2009, we initially dismissed the idea (again) because of those concerns. But then I decided - you know what? Stop putting it off, and just go already! Otherwise the day is gonna come where you REALLY can't go! So I figured if we went right after Christmas, we'd be able to take a 2 week trip by using the rest of 2009's vacation and the rest from 2010. I explained all of this to Brian, and he finally went for it! We were on!
All the planning was on my shoulders. Of course. I plan all our trips. Most of them involve Disney World, which I'm extremely familiar with. This time though, I was planning a complicated trip involving many places I'd never been before. It was a bit overwhelming.
Oh, right. The complicated part. Well, since we decided to do two full weeks, I decided we better make the most of it and see as much as we could in that time. My friend now lives in the San Francisco area. Brian's lives in San Diego. Those two places were a long way apart. I couldn't visit California without going to Disneyland. And Los Angeles was so close by it would be silly NOT to visit... And we both were interested in seeing the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, which is not far from San Francisco. So that's how we ended up with this schedule:
December 26th, 2009: Fly to San Francisco
December 28th, 2009: Drive to San Jose
December 29th, 2009: Fly to San Diego
January 3rd, 2010: Train to Anaheim
January 6th, 2010: Train to L.A.
January 9th, 2010: Fly back to New York
Yeah, it was a bit busy. And complicated. And it scared the hell out of me. But it ended up working out well for us.
So I relied heavily on Trip Adviser when planning this trip. I did a lot of research on the different hotels, and searched the internet for the best prices on said hotels. I'm happy to report that Trip Adviser did not steer me wrong - we liked every place we stayed, and would definitely stay at any of them again.
But something weird happened with this trip. Normally I'm an overplanner. I start planning waaaaaaaaaaay ahead of time. Even when there's not much I can do. So this time, instead of doing that, I decided to wait. And wait. And wait. And then all of the sudden so many things started happening in my life that before I knew it, the trip was days away and I hadn't done the extensive planning I would have liked to do. (Mostly involving places we wanted to visit while on the trip.) So I was a bit nervous that I hadn't planned enough. But I'm the easily stressed type!
Packing was also a bit difficult. I figured Southern California would be warm, but not warm enough for shorts. And I was sure San Francisco wouldn't be warm enough for a t-shirt. I must have looked at the average temperature chart dozens of times. I even went out and bought a new carry-on size piece of luggage. I had never been on a 2-week trip before in my life - never mind packed for one!
The day before we left was obviously Christmas. That morning we opened our gifts, had breakfast and finished packing some last minute items. Then we said good-bye to our dogs (Brian's dad would be arriving soon to take care of them while we were gone) and headed down to my mom's house to celebrate with family. (We had dropped our rabbit off with her the day before - she got to bunny-sit!)
We had a very nice Christmas (I got my Flip Video camera I knew I was getting!) and after everyone left, we showered and got ourselves organized for our 3 a.m. wake-up time. We were sleeping over since my mom's house is closer to JFK than ours is. Then I tuned into some Christmas movies that were still on TV and tried to get some sleep around 10. I actually managed to sleep much better than I thought I would.
Well, that ends part one. Not to exciting yet, I know. But next we'll get to the part that actually matters - you know. The Trip!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Trip Report ~ Preview
Well, we're leaving California today, so the trip isn't quite over yet. (You bet your ass I'm hanging onto every last second of it!) But we're nearly there.
It's been an amazing trip. I've loved every second of it. California is beautiful (and warm!) and there's so much to see and do here. We're already talking about coming back because there was so much we didn't get to experience!
But there's tons of stuff we did get to do, and I've got tons of pics and videos to prove it!
But for now, here's a bit of a preview. Our trip by the numbers:
Airplanes taken: 3
Taxis Ridden in: 5
Egg McMuffins Consumed: 3
Fast Food Joints Visited: 8
Kids Meals Eaten: 3
Different Tour Buses Ridden On: 5
Movies Seen: 4
Good Movies Seen: 3
Movies Seen Starring Robert Downey Jr: 2
Malls Visited: 5
Theme Parks Visited: 4
Rides on the Indiana Jones Ride at Disneyland: 5
Dole Whips Consumed: 1
Airports Visited: 5
Public Transportation Taken: 5
Hotels Stayed In: 4
Steps Taken: Yeah, thousands probably
Money Spent: I don't even wanna know...
It's been an amazing trip. I've loved every second of it. California is beautiful (and warm!) and there's so much to see and do here. We're already talking about coming back because there was so much we didn't get to experience!
But there's tons of stuff we did get to do, and I've got tons of pics and videos to prove it!
But for now, here's a bit of a preview. Our trip by the numbers:
Airplanes taken: 3
Taxis Ridden in: 5
Egg McMuffins Consumed: 3
Fast Food Joints Visited: 8
Kids Meals Eaten: 3
Different Tour Buses Ridden On: 5
Movies Seen: 4
Good Movies Seen: 3
Movies Seen Starring Robert Downey Jr: 2
Malls Visited: 5
Theme Parks Visited: 4
Rides on the Indiana Jones Ride at Disneyland: 5
Dole Whips Consumed: 1
Airports Visited: 5
Public Transportation Taken: 5
Hotels Stayed In: 4
Steps Taken: Yeah, thousands probably
Money Spent: I don't even wanna know...
Friday, January 1, 2010
2010 Greetings from California
Happy New Year, everyone! And happy new decade! I was gonna do a post with my top 10 movies of the decade...but meh. I didn't feel it was really worth it.
I'm on vacation right now in California, actually, enjoying some warmer than NY weather and seeing some pretty awesome things. I'm having some down time in San Diego right now. Tomorrow I'm heading to the zoo and then it's on to Disneyland!
So happy New Year, and when I return home (January 9th) I'll have an in depth trip report with videos and pictures to share!
I'm on vacation right now in California, actually, enjoying some warmer than NY weather and seeing some pretty awesome things. I'm having some down time in San Diego right now. Tomorrow I'm heading to the zoo and then it's on to Disneyland!
So happy New Year, and when I return home (January 9th) I'll have an in depth trip report with videos and pictures to share!
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