San Francisco
Today Eric, Brendan and I went to San Francisco, which proved to be pretty cool.
I should back up a bit.
Okay, so Brendan's trip has been a lot of fun so far. We wandered around San Jose a couple of days, and I found a cool hardware store with nice gardening supplies which I think I will visit at a later date. One day a random bum thought he knew Brendan, so he had a 5 minute conversation with us. We went to the San Jose Museum of Art, which had some cool stuff, and we also went to the tech museum in San Jose which was hosting an exhibit called Body Worlds 2. Very freaky - what they do is they use bodies of people who agreed to donate themselves, and they do various things to them to preserve them. They have these plastics that they can pump through veins, muscles, organs, etc., and then dissolve the rest of the soft tissue with acid, preserving the look completely without the decay. They had ~200 of these on display, I believe, and it was a fascinating and slightly nauseating experience. :-)
Last night we went down to Santa Cruz with Tristan and Quynh, which was a decent trip, though relatively uneventful. The ride down there is wickedly curvy, so we had to walk off the dizziness before doing anything else. We did see a couple of weird things during the evening. One of those tiny, open-sided two-person vehicles was speeding in front of us, and a freaking log flew out when they turned at an intersection, and it then rolled into the gutter. We also saw a guy who had been hit by a freaking car (not sure when, in relation to the following tale), and was turned away from a grocery store while he was trying to buy gauze and disinfectant because he was a menace to society (his knee had a huge gash, and was bleeding up a storm). I did also see the Pacific Ocean for the first time in Santa Cruz - though it was dark, so there wasn't much seeing to be done. There appeared to be a lot of cool shops, but most were closed by the time we got there, so we inevitably ended up wandering past people smoking outside of bars, and drunk people, which I'll admit colored my experience quite a bit in the negative direction, since I'm not into that stuff.
Today Brendan, Eric and I went up to San Francisco for the afternoon. Tristan and Quynh were going to come with us, but they ended up having work and homework that kept them from coming. The train ride up was pretty cool, even though we had to run to catch the train.
Okay, something about the freaking trains here: apparently I am pretty bad at judging how much time is absolutely necessary for catching the trains, because I've ended up having to run to catch the train 4 times in the last week. Twice it was me and Brendan going somewhere, and we'd have to start running about 2 blocks away for me to run more quickly to buy tickets, and then we'd board and catch our breath. Third time was the worst. Today on our way to San Francisco, I had to look up directions last minute, since we'd only just found out that Tristan couldn't come with - meaning no car. I knew we should have left 10 minutes before we did, but we decided that a brisk walk should get us there on time. I started jogging about 3 blocks away, and after awhile Eric and Brendan picked up the pace to catch up a bit. We rounded a corner, and saw the freaking train rolling into the station - a good block ahead of us still. So Eric took off his sandals and ran full out to hold the door while Brendan and I ran up to the ticket machine to purchase tickets, and board the train. Then we also ran a bit to catch the train on the way back from SF - but that was more just as a precaution. I've also had to run when it was just me, for both buses and trains. XP Lessons that have been learned the hard way: public transit doesn't wait for people - especially the trains. Not unless something is lodging the freaking doors open.
It was rainy the whole day, and we were only partially prepared, because of the cooler weather in SF. First we got coffee to warm up, and then we spent a couple of hours in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - which was free today, woot! This also meant there were hoards of people there, but it ended up being just fine. We met one of Brendan's friends there, who took us to a new part of town to try out a restaurant called Weird Fish. We took a bus, which ended up ridiculously crowded and obnoxiously slow - but because it was so crowded, we got a free ride, making it not that bad. :-) The restaurant's food was quite good, but very expensive, and for small portions. For 4 people, the evening cost $50, and that was with no one really getting full. :-( After that, we decided that we'd walk to the Caltrain station to get back - 2.3 miles, in the rain. That part was fine, but we didn't count on the stereotypical SF hills. We met a pretty killer hill right near the end of the excursion that kept going up at a steep incline for at least 3 city blocks, maybe 4, before it leveled off for 2 blocks, went up for another 1 1/2 blocks or so, and then started a nice decline. Got back, and we've just been chilling out - and trying to warm up and dry off.
Tomorrow the plan is to go to Alum Rock Park, a national park outside of San Jose, to see the wildlife and natural landscape up-close before Brendan heads out in the evening.
After that, it'll be back to normal, with job hunting and curtains galore.
I hope everyone else is having a great weekend, as well!
Love, Lyssa
I should back up a bit.
Okay, so Brendan's trip has been a lot of fun so far. We wandered around San Jose a couple of days, and I found a cool hardware store with nice gardening supplies which I think I will visit at a later date. One day a random bum thought he knew Brendan, so he had a 5 minute conversation with us. We went to the San Jose Museum of Art, which had some cool stuff, and we also went to the tech museum in San Jose which was hosting an exhibit called Body Worlds 2. Very freaky - what they do is they use bodies of people who agreed to donate themselves, and they do various things to them to preserve them. They have these plastics that they can pump through veins, muscles, organs, etc., and then dissolve the rest of the soft tissue with acid, preserving the look completely without the decay. They had ~200 of these on display, I believe, and it was a fascinating and slightly nauseating experience. :-)
Last night we went down to Santa Cruz with Tristan and Quynh, which was a decent trip, though relatively uneventful. The ride down there is wickedly curvy, so we had to walk off the dizziness before doing anything else. We did see a couple of weird things during the evening. One of those tiny, open-sided two-person vehicles was speeding in front of us, and a freaking log flew out when they turned at an intersection, and it then rolled into the gutter. We also saw a guy who had been hit by a freaking car (not sure when, in relation to the following tale), and was turned away from a grocery store while he was trying to buy gauze and disinfectant because he was a menace to society (his knee had a huge gash, and was bleeding up a storm). I did also see the Pacific Ocean for the first time in Santa Cruz - though it was dark, so there wasn't much seeing to be done. There appeared to be a lot of cool shops, but most were closed by the time we got there, so we inevitably ended up wandering past people smoking outside of bars, and drunk people, which I'll admit colored my experience quite a bit in the negative direction, since I'm not into that stuff.
Today Brendan, Eric and I went up to San Francisco for the afternoon. Tristan and Quynh were going to come with us, but they ended up having work and homework that kept them from coming. The train ride up was pretty cool, even though we had to run to catch the train.
Okay, something about the freaking trains here: apparently I am pretty bad at judging how much time is absolutely necessary for catching the trains, because I've ended up having to run to catch the train 4 times in the last week. Twice it was me and Brendan going somewhere, and we'd have to start running about 2 blocks away for me to run more quickly to buy tickets, and then we'd board and catch our breath. Third time was the worst. Today on our way to San Francisco, I had to look up directions last minute, since we'd only just found out that Tristan couldn't come with - meaning no car. I knew we should have left 10 minutes before we did, but we decided that a brisk walk should get us there on time. I started jogging about 3 blocks away, and after awhile Eric and Brendan picked up the pace to catch up a bit. We rounded a corner, and saw the freaking train rolling into the station - a good block ahead of us still. So Eric took off his sandals and ran full out to hold the door while Brendan and I ran up to the ticket machine to purchase tickets, and board the train. Then we also ran a bit to catch the train on the way back from SF - but that was more just as a precaution. I've also had to run when it was just me, for both buses and trains. XP Lessons that have been learned the hard way: public transit doesn't wait for people - especially the trains. Not unless something is lodging the freaking doors open.
It was rainy the whole day, and we were only partially prepared, because of the cooler weather in SF. First we got coffee to warm up, and then we spent a couple of hours in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - which was free today, woot! This also meant there were hoards of people there, but it ended up being just fine. We met one of Brendan's friends there, who took us to a new part of town to try out a restaurant called Weird Fish. We took a bus, which ended up ridiculously crowded and obnoxiously slow - but because it was so crowded, we got a free ride, making it not that bad. :-) The restaurant's food was quite good, but very expensive, and for small portions. For 4 people, the evening cost $50, and that was with no one really getting full. :-( After that, we decided that we'd walk to the Caltrain station to get back - 2.3 miles, in the rain. That part was fine, but we didn't count on the stereotypical SF hills. We met a pretty killer hill right near the end of the excursion that kept going up at a steep incline for at least 3 city blocks, maybe 4, before it leveled off for 2 blocks, went up for another 1 1/2 blocks or so, and then started a nice decline. Got back, and we've just been chilling out - and trying to warm up and dry off.
Tomorrow the plan is to go to Alum Rock Park, a national park outside of San Jose, to see the wildlife and natural landscape up-close before Brendan heads out in the evening.
After that, it'll be back to normal, with job hunting and curtains galore.
I hope everyone else is having a great weekend, as well!
Love, Lyssa