Weekend Vacay
This past weekend my friend A. and I went up to Arcata to see Tegan & Sara in concert. Since Arcata is about a five hour drive from the Bay Area we decided to make a weekend of it and stay at the HoJo (say that with a midwestern accent to capture the full hilarity, from Drop Dead Gorgeous - Airport HoJo!). We drove up after work on Friday, at the same time another friend J. was coming down from the area so we met up in Willits at Perko's Cafe. It was totally unhealthy, bad for you diner food. I mean Croissant French Toast filled with cream cheese and topped with glazed strawberries - kind of bad, unhealthy. I stayed away from that but did have a dessert that included four scoops of vanilla bean ice cream, angel food cake, glazed strawberries and raspberry sauce. So bad! and believe you me, we all paid for that stop later.
J. who lived up in Arcata years ago there for a time gave us a list of places to visit and we were off. We arrived at the HoJo (remember Midwestern accent!) at maybe midnight, slept and woke ready for food.
Now for those of you who've never been to Arcata, let me tick off a few points: #1 very few POC, I think I saw two other POC the whole time I was there, #2 it's totally a leftover hippie town with that whole pseudo-liberal vibe (I had one white person telling me about his Af-Am heritage and another trying to show me how up on Ethiopia he was) & #3 I have never seen so many matlocks in my life, not even in Berkeley.
We had a breakfast on Sat. at a place called Crosswinds that was amazing. Steak, eggs, roasted potatoes and unbleached flour biscuits with homemade raspberry jam, I am there! Then we wandered about hitting all the places J. told us about and smelling weed everywhere (Humboldt County is the marijuana capitol of the U.S.) we went. Seriously when you walk into a store and they have five shelves full of different kinds of incense? You know what's going down in that town.
We went back to the hotel for a nap and then the concert. It was amazing. The venue was so small that even in the back you weren't more than 40 feet away. The opening act, An Horse was also fantastic and I ended up picking up their EP. We were gonna find T&S's bus and wait for them but couldn't locate it so we just went back to the hotel. We did this back in Nov. and I have a picture with them and a signed shirt to show for it.
We left the next morning with mixed feelings but enough positive experiences that we talked about heading up to Arcata just for a weekend getaway sometime in the next few months.
That was not however the end of the Tegan & Sara madness. See way back in November when my friend A & I saw them in Berkeley but didn't have the best seats and missed their other shows in the Bay, we made a pact. We vowed that the next time they came around we would hit every concert in the Bay Area. So yesterday after work I rented a ZipCar and zipped up to Davis to see them, also amazing but a bigger venue, and tonight it's down to Santa Cruz. Truth be told I'm really tired (five hours sleep last night) and would blow off tonight but the tickets are will call and in my name so I have to go to get the tickets for A.
Anyway that's what I'm up to, how 'bout you guys?
J. who lived up in Arcata years ago there for a time gave us a list of places to visit and we were off. We arrived at the HoJo (remember Midwestern accent!) at maybe midnight, slept and woke ready for food.
Now for those of you who've never been to Arcata, let me tick off a few points: #1 very few POC, I think I saw two other POC the whole time I was there, #2 it's totally a leftover hippie town with that whole pseudo-liberal vibe (I had one white person telling me about his Af-Am heritage and another trying to show me how up on Ethiopia he was) & #3 I have never seen so many matlocks in my life, not even in Berkeley.
We had a breakfast on Sat. at a place called Crosswinds that was amazing. Steak, eggs, roasted potatoes and unbleached flour biscuits with homemade raspberry jam, I am there! Then we wandered about hitting all the places J. told us about and smelling weed everywhere (Humboldt County is the marijuana capitol of the U.S.) we went. Seriously when you walk into a store and they have five shelves full of different kinds of incense? You know what's going down in that town.
We went back to the hotel for a nap and then the concert. It was amazing. The venue was so small that even in the back you weren't more than 40 feet away. The opening act, An Horse was also fantastic and I ended up picking up their EP. We were gonna find T&S's bus and wait for them but couldn't locate it so we just went back to the hotel. We did this back in Nov. and I have a picture with them and a signed shirt to show for it.
We left the next morning with mixed feelings but enough positive experiences that we talked about heading up to Arcata just for a weekend getaway sometime in the next few months.
That was not however the end of the Tegan & Sara madness. See way back in November when my friend A & I saw them in Berkeley but didn't have the best seats and missed their other shows in the Bay, we made a pact. We vowed that the next time they came around we would hit every concert in the Bay Area. So yesterday after work I rented a ZipCar and zipped up to Davis to see them, also amazing but a bigger venue, and tonight it's down to Santa Cruz. Truth be told I'm really tired (five hours sleep last night) and would blow off tonight but the tickets are will call and in my name so I have to go to get the tickets for A.
Anyway that's what I'm up to, how 'bout you guys?