Heading North for the Summer

I went up to the bay area this past weekend to visit Sam. The last time I went up there I only stayed for 2 nights and it just was not long enough. This trip turned into a mini vacation of sorts, that actually did me a lot of good.

I arrived early Friday afternoon after braving the scorching central California landscape on the 5 in Maggie's Prius. But thanks to Maggie's mom, we had plenty of zucchini bread to sustain us. It was very hot most of the time.

I feel like the trip started out with us running stadiums at Sam's old high school (Menlo-Atherton High School). That was followed by a trip to the street fair.
Sam and I went to the Connoisseur's Marketplace which is a pretty standard community street fair, but we got to see a lot of good (and terrible) art and observe the strange fashion sense that exist in that type of setting. Walking around was fun and I got free granola samples which I have been having for breakfast for the past 2 days.

Back at home we started a puzzle (got pretty far, it's hard because literally all of the pieces are blue), watched a ton of movies including Clueless, 7 Years in Tibet, Point Break, and Dead Again.

We also saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I liked the movie in and of itself, but considering it was almost 3 hours, it left out a LOT of plot. It reminded me that I need to read the last two books again because I was utterly lost in some parts. The rest of that outing included Chipotle and a trip to Connoisseur's Coffee where I was reminded that I cannot speak Spanish. But I did manage to come away with a pound of really dark roast Yemen Sannai and a drip set up.

We paid a visit to her dad's place and he gave me a bunch of books he was about to recycle. Though this destroyed my goal to return to LA with LESS stuff than when I came up. In fact I probably doubled what I had to begin with. Oh well, I got a lot of great books out of it. I think there was also a trip to Red Mango and Kepler's and last but not least, delicious peach sangria.

Monday, the final day of my excursion, we headed up to the city with Sam's mom and stepdad and younger brother. The first stop The California Academy of Sciences. Best. Place. Ever. We went to the Planetarium, which I had never been to before (apparently I didn't have a childhood). They also have this rainforest exhibit where you enter this dome and it's full of rainforest birds and fish and butterflies, along with plants and animals on display. I saw a lot of cool geckos and a spider that I'm probably going to do an art piece about.

We also went to the aquarium, saw penguins, an albino alligator and lots of hippie environmental propaganda. It was great. I think this place has been recently re-done so it's got a lot of new cool things going on.

We had lunch at this vegetarian restaurant in China town. It was really really good. As a non-vegetarian, I was thoroughly impressed. After that, Sam's mom dropped us off and we headed over to Derek's apartment to visit my cousin Josh. We went to whole foods where we contemplated buying an ostrich egg and spent 100 dollars, well, Josh did.

Back at his apartment we just hung out while Josh cooked. There is a kitty there named Monster that provided us with much entertainment.




We went on the roof to grill. Unfortunately, Derek and Josh are looking for a new place to live so they will no longer have such a spectacular view.









Overall it was a great trip, very relaxing but also exciting. I will definitely miss this part. Hopefully their new place has a comparable view, though I highly doubt it.
Usually I don't end up doing as much "stuff" when I go up to visit because I never really stay that long. I guess the lesson learned here is that I need to spend more time in the bay area. I'm sure a lot of you will agree with that.