stripethree

Summer and I flew off to San Fran for the long Independence Day weekend where we did a lot of walking and I took a lot of pictures.

We did a lot of the touristy stuff I didn’t do when I was in town last March like ride the trolley cars and we spent a lot of time down in the Fisherman’s Wharf area including Ghirardelli Square. Thursday evening we did a boat cruise to Alcatraz Island which included a walking and audio tour (which was much better than it might sound) of portions of the prison. It was foggy, which certainly contributed to the already creepy atmosphere created by the slowly decaying structures.

Walking around the inside was pretty intense.

Friday we walked around to sight see, including walking through Chinatown, hiking up to Lombard Street then down to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream.

We also went to Olivia’s for a BBQ on the 4th, which was great since I haven’t seen her since last March and because Summer had never met her. After that we got on a boat again for another cruise, this one went down to the Bay Bridge, around Angel Island, over to the Bay Bridge, and finally settled in with other boats for us to watch the fireworks.

Saturday we walked around more, I swear we walked 5 miles last weekend, and met up with Rebecca and Chuck who drove down from Sacramento, where they just moved about a week prior. It was great to see them because I don’t think I had since their wedding two years ago! We got food, walked through Chinatown and back down to Fisherman’s Wharf, then got more food. =)

It was an excellent weekend and we came back with sore legs, good chocolate, and lots of pictures. Part of this visit was to see if we were interested in moving to San Fran, and I think we are pretty sure the answer is no. The expense and the weather, and, well, another city we have in mind play a role in that.

The rest of the San Fran trip was excellent from the happy hours, dinners, to the weekend long birthday activities for Olivia. That city is pretty sweet, but I’m not so sure about living there. I’ve been swamped since I got back with work and catching up on class stuff I neglected. I definitely welcome being kept busy as it keeps my mind away from the selfish actions of others that I am forced to deal with. I’ll leave any harsher words out, just know they are there. Luckily, I have some of the best friends in the world from Maryland to California and many places in between.

Yesterday I went and looked at a handful of places in Tucson that I researched online and liked. Three of the four met expectations, the fourth was not bad, but it just wasn’t as good as the others. I put in an application at the last place I visited, a smaller, quiet complex a couple miles outside the real ‘city’. I still have no idea if I want to stay in this area, but I figure, it’s a $30 fee to get approved for a place and I’ve got until almost mid-April to let them know since they have a couple places available. I’ve got to start the process somewhere, and I figured even if I don’t end up there, this place was a good start. The other two nice places I liked as well, but one doesn’t have anything available that fits what I want and and other, while nice, just didn’t have some of the minor details that the place I applied to does.

I previously put my name in the hat for a position with my company in Seaside, near Monterrey, California, but it didn’t work out. It was nice to find out that the folks out there were impressed with what I had to offer and want to keep me in mind for other opportunities out there; just this time around some things that have nothing to do with me didn’t work out with the planned work. A little disappointing, but that’s the way it goes. There are a couple other things I want to look out, still within the company of course, in San Diego and Fairfield. Maybe, maybe not. I figure if I am going someplace new, it might not be a bad thing to get back into an office environment and at least met some people implicitly through work. As I expected, I keep getting encouragement to come back to Maryland, and I have mixed feelings about it. Sure it would be familiar, it would be easier (minus actually making that insane drive again) and would probably be more comfortable, but I don’t want to go back there, get stuck there, and be unhappy with it. Granted, I could end up unhappy if I go somewhere else than Maryland, but at least then I tried somewhere else, and I can always pick up and go somewhere else.

It’s great to have this decision and be able to pick up and go, but it’s also extremely difficult decision to actually make.

Oh, and check out the completely redone Gallery. it’s not 100% complete but I want to show it off anyway.

So this guy sits there on the street adjacent to the pier holding these branches in front of him so people don’t realize that there is an actual person sitting there when they are walking towards him. When the right person or group of people walks by, he shakes the branches and makes noise startling the crap out of people. Apparently he has been doing this for years, and quite few people threw money in his bucket when people they knew, or didn’t know, jumped and screamed.

It has been a fantastic first leg of my trip to the west coast. The only hiccup thus far has been US Airways somehow forgetting to pass my bag along to United in Phoenix, but luckily it was quickly found and delivered with minimal effect on or plans. While I’m visiting Olivia here, we are both working during the day, but the wonders of San Francisco started when we took off Friday for lunch, grabbed some sandwiches and walked three blocks down to Pier 39 and ate by the water. Wonderful it was, especially since I’ve lived absolutely no where that I’ve been able to do that. For the evening, we went downtown, met a handful of friends of Olivia and Jay and appropriately patronized an Irish pub for St. Pattys. We wandered around the city some as well and it is magnificent. Then back the bars, I lost count of how many we made it out too.

Saturday morning we packed up early and hit the road for Sonoma. The Golden Gate bridge is beyond impressive in person and besides being ominous, is also quite eerie when draped in fog. Everything that surrounded the drive to Sonoma was beautiful, like nothing I’d ever seen. I can see why people love this area just for the visual wonders of the landscape. Less than ninety minutes later we are cruising Sonoma Highway and pulling into the first winery on our tour. We made it to eight, yes, eight, on Saturday. All of which had multiple wines to sample and amazing food to accompany it. By no means did I know much about wine, but it didn’t matter because it wasn’t important and even just by listening I learned more than I probably ever needed to know. We even got a behind the scenes tour of one of the wineries including a vertical tasting of two of their signature wines. Yeah, I didn’t know what that was either, but basically, you sample the same wine from different years. It was a bit intimidating to be in a room with people speaking in such detail and with knowledge about wine. Wine! Everyone was friendly though, whether or not that was helped by their blood alcohol level, well, who cares. Again, the food. I can’t stop thinking about the food. Some of the vineries actually had well known catering companies providing the food, at least one of our stops was determined by my friends knowledge of how was providing the food and no so much the wine. There was everything from beef marinated and grilled like I’d never tasted to all sort of cheese samples and dishes. There was plenty of it as well and no lunch stop was necessary. We stayed at a hotel in Sonoma for the night and made friends with everyone at the bar and the staff. The place was great, with the exception of a relatively early last call. Dinner was great, even off the bar menu, and whatever delicious margarita that Christina, our bartender, was fantastic. I didn’t bother counting how many, but neither did anyone else in our party.

Today, Sunday, we got up and out again to complete our ambitious wine tour and I think we visited another 10 wineries today. The food today was even better and there was even some champagne to sample at some stop and a nice selection of Cherry and other desert wines at another. We basically made our way up and down Sonoma Highway to every location we has not visited the day prior. Once we were finished with that, we headed hack in the direction of San Francisco and stopped outside Alameda at a sushi place that is a favorite of Olivia’s. It was fantastic. I’m amazing I’m not yet passed out in a food, wine, and walking coma, and unfortunately I cannot take the pictures off my camera yet since the necessary cable didn’t make the trip.

I think enough’s enough about the food and such, if I keep talking about it I will somehow get hungry again even though it seems impossible. I would have never thought or tried such a weekend trip on my own but I’m so glad that I got the chance to do so.