Vacation? Or ADVENTURE?
So here I am, alone in the big city, supplied by only my wits and those items I had the foresight to cling to before being flung across the country and dumped in one of the largest and most diverse cities on earth and forced to fend for myself.
Okay, that's my drama out of the way. In more realistic terms, the semester is over. Alex needed to make another trip to the Bay Area and there was a reasonable chance that I'd be needed for interviewing at UC Davis, so I got booked to come along. The good folks at Davis decided that my veterinary career would not be continuing with them, so that left me with a fully booked stay and little to do with it. Or... better things to do with it?
Alex and I got here on Saturday, after being late enough to our first flight that we had to take a later one. The later one was early enough to get us there for our connecting flight, but our bags got delayed to a later flight. This left us with a few hours to drive around the city. Was awesome, entirely by accident we discovered the world's windiest road and managed to witness one of the flocks of wild parrots land in a tree to settle down for the night. After we got out bags we drove down to Sunnyvale to check into our hotel.
The next day was awesome. Drove into the hills (which look a lot like the ones down south I grew up with) and reminisced about earlier California times, visited Alex's old office from when he worked at Sun, visited at real and truly Westfield mall with multiple stories (I was sorely disappointed at the single-story grungy malls in Tennessee), and then drove out to Half Moon bay and wandered the beach. Then we drove down Hwy 1 to Santa Cruz and back to Sunnyvale to have dinner at a place where they serve you marinated meat on a heated volcanic rock that cooks it while you cut it into pieces. I had kangaroo; I very much prefer it to beef!
Unfortunately, before our trip began Alex managed to catch some sort of virus from somewhere. Naturally, he shared with me. The previous two days hadn't been bad, but that night I didn't sleep well and the next day woke feeling pretty miserable. Alex and I talked about my going and seeing the Winchester house while he was at work, but I felt too gross to do anything that would involve lots of walking. Instead, I sat at an abandoned desk in his office building and worked on a few things and listened to music. It was by no means a waste of a day, as I got to meet some of Alex's... subordinates? Coworkers? and got along very well. We dropped off the rental car after work and took the BART to see Dave Kirlin and have pizza. We all would have liked to stay longer, but Alex and I still aren't particularly well.
This morning Alex woke me up as he left, telling me that he was late. Either way, here I am, alone in a hotel room about halfway between downtown and South Beach. I'm not feeling as sick as I was and staying here any longer would be quite the waste, so off I go! Oh, and if anyone feels that there's something I simply must go and do while I wander the streets, feel free to tell me!
Okay, that's my drama out of the way. In more realistic terms, the semester is over. Alex needed to make another trip to the Bay Area and there was a reasonable chance that I'd be needed for interviewing at UC Davis, so I got booked to come along. The good folks at Davis decided that my veterinary career would not be continuing with them, so that left me with a fully booked stay and little to do with it. Or... better things to do with it?
Alex and I got here on Saturday, after being late enough to our first flight that we had to take a later one. The later one was early enough to get us there for our connecting flight, but our bags got delayed to a later flight. This left us with a few hours to drive around the city. Was awesome, entirely by accident we discovered the world's windiest road and managed to witness one of the flocks of wild parrots land in a tree to settle down for the night. After we got out bags we drove down to Sunnyvale to check into our hotel.
The next day was awesome. Drove into the hills (which look a lot like the ones down south I grew up with) and reminisced about earlier California times, visited Alex's old office from when he worked at Sun, visited at real and truly Westfield mall with multiple stories (I was sorely disappointed at the single-story grungy malls in Tennessee), and then drove out to Half Moon bay and wandered the beach. Then we drove down Hwy 1 to Santa Cruz and back to Sunnyvale to have dinner at a place where they serve you marinated meat on a heated volcanic rock that cooks it while you cut it into pieces. I had kangaroo; I very much prefer it to beef!
Unfortunately, before our trip began Alex managed to catch some sort of virus from somewhere. Naturally, he shared with me. The previous two days hadn't been bad, but that night I didn't sleep well and the next day woke feeling pretty miserable. Alex and I talked about my going and seeing the Winchester house while he was at work, but I felt too gross to do anything that would involve lots of walking. Instead, I sat at an abandoned desk in his office building and worked on a few things and listened to music. It was by no means a waste of a day, as I got to meet some of Alex's... subordinates? Coworkers? and got along very well. We dropped off the rental car after work and took the BART to see Dave Kirlin and have pizza. We all would have liked to stay longer, but Alex and I still aren't particularly well.
This morning Alex woke me up as he left, telling me that he was late. Either way, here I am, alone in a hotel room about halfway between downtown and South Beach. I'm not feeling as sick as I was and staying here any longer would be quite the waste, so off I go! Oh, and if anyone feels that there's something I simply must go and do while I wander the streets, feel free to tell me!