California
Well, since I've decided I don't have the work ethic, I'm going to give a very small summary of California.
So yea. We went on a plane (first time in like three billion years for me) to Chicago, and then to San Jose, and stayed the first night there. We didn't do anything there, but we stopped in Stanford on the way to Lake Tahoe. Now, I found Stanford really weird. I'm used to colleges like UVA and UNC, which are all green and lawny, with lots of brick buildings. But like, Stanford was all brown. I don't remember all that much about the buildings, but I remember thinking that they were the same color as the ground. I mean, the place was weird. And then it had these funky palm trees. Crazy stuff.
Anyway, Lake Tahoe/Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite:
Now, first of all, it was really cold. Which was totally weird, since it was like, 90 in Philly. But anyway, we didn't do all that much at Lake Tahoe, and since I'm much more eager to get to the San Francisco part, I'll keep it short. The water was freezing, but I had a good time there, and there was this kickass Italian place we ate at one night.
Yea, anyway, we went to the Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite next, and I thought Yosemite was completely boring. The falls were reasonably cool, but the rest sucked. The Mammoth lakes were cool though. We went to this one place like a billion miles up, and there was this crazy lake. There was actually snow at one part, so yea. But anyway, on to San Francisco.
San Francisco was probably the weirdest city ever. Once again, it was cold, but it was also hilly as hell. I mean, when I heard that San Francisco was hilly, I kinda pictured it as sort of slope-y (definitely a word). It was like, straight up and straight down though. We walked to dinner once, and we had to go like, five blocks uphill, and then once we finished those, there were another five blocks straight downhill until we got to the restaurant. But it was worth it, because the food was good.
Yea, so anyway, we did some okay stuff at the beginning, like Muir Woods and Point Reyes, and like, that was okay. Then we sort of milled around Fisherman's Wharf and saw this amazing street performer (keithshow.com everybody) and this amazing homeless guy. Now, with the homeless guy, we were like, walking along the street and stuff, and not paying too much attention, and next thing I knew, I heard somebody yell like, right next to me. A guy had just jumped out from what had turned out to be a fake bush to scare the crap out of me. So I sort of jumped, extremely freaked out. But I (well, my family too, but whatever) kept walking for a while, but then turned around. Now, basically, this guy was holding up a couple of big branches covered in leaves, and he looked exactly like a bush. Every once in a while, he'd jump out and somebody and scare the crap out of them. Now, the funniest part of this wasn't the actual guy, (although that was pretty funny) it was the crowd assembled across the street. Everybody on the opposite side of the street had stopped to watch. Now, this is like 150 (not exaggerating at all) people just standing there, watching this homeless dude scare the hell out of people walking by, and they were just laughing the entire time. I kinda wondered why these people didn't have anything better to do, but whatever. It was like, the funniest thing ever. Except I know nobody can tell from that description how funny it is.
Yea, so, there were also these crazy seals there, and that was wild. We went to Tiburon, MOMA, (dumbest thing ever, there was a signed urinal at one part) Yerba Buena, Ghirardelli Square, and a lot of other not too exciting places. We met our pastor and his family for dinner one night, so that was pretty cool. Now, the Golden Gate Bridge is totally overrated, but I actually thought the cable cars were pretty cool. So yea. We also went to a Giants game the last night, and they played the Dodgers, so it was totally crazy. The Giants kicked their asses too, so good stuff. That was probably the coldest of all, being right by the bay. But the best thing was definitely Alcatraz. I really can't explain it at all, but ever since going there, I've been completely obsessed with the place. It's really a crazy place.
Yea, so anyway, that's pretty much it. We got home without incident, except for my parents being total morons at security. They had somehow completely missed the whole "no gels" thing, so my mom decided she thought it would be a good idea to take her bag full of three hundred shampoos through anyway, even with me going "check that effing bag" the entire time. So yea, she went and checked it after everybody was all, "yea, you can't do that," but so we go home pretty well.
Final note, we went to this crazy ghost down too, and this really weird place in Nevada (I think) with a restaurant called the Bucket of Blood Saloon. The weirdest thing about California was how it would be green in one place, and then you'd drive like two miles, and there wouldn't be a single tree in sight. It was also surprisingly sparsely populated in areas. And, of course, it was cold. So yea, weird place, but cool vacation. Definitely better than Chicago, (although Minnesota was like, the coolest thing ever) probably better than Montreal/Quebec City too.
So yea. We went on a plane (first time in like three billion years for me) to Chicago, and then to San Jose, and stayed the first night there. We didn't do anything there, but we stopped in Stanford on the way to Lake Tahoe. Now, I found Stanford really weird. I'm used to colleges like UVA and UNC, which are all green and lawny, with lots of brick buildings. But like, Stanford was all brown. I don't remember all that much about the buildings, but I remember thinking that they were the same color as the ground. I mean, the place was weird. And then it had these funky palm trees. Crazy stuff.
Anyway, Lake Tahoe/Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite:
Now, first of all, it was really cold. Which was totally weird, since it was like, 90 in Philly. But anyway, we didn't do all that much at Lake Tahoe, and since I'm much more eager to get to the San Francisco part, I'll keep it short. The water was freezing, but I had a good time there, and there was this kickass Italian place we ate at one night.
Yea, anyway, we went to the Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite next, and I thought Yosemite was completely boring. The falls were reasonably cool, but the rest sucked. The Mammoth lakes were cool though. We went to this one place like a billion miles up, and there was this crazy lake. There was actually snow at one part, so yea. But anyway, on to San Francisco.
San Francisco was probably the weirdest city ever. Once again, it was cold, but it was also hilly as hell. I mean, when I heard that San Francisco was hilly, I kinda pictured it as sort of slope-y (definitely a word). It was like, straight up and straight down though. We walked to dinner once, and we had to go like, five blocks uphill, and then once we finished those, there were another five blocks straight downhill until we got to the restaurant. But it was worth it, because the food was good.
Yea, so anyway, we did some okay stuff at the beginning, like Muir Woods and Point Reyes, and like, that was okay. Then we sort of milled around Fisherman's Wharf and saw this amazing street performer (keithshow.com everybody) and this amazing homeless guy. Now, with the homeless guy, we were like, walking along the street and stuff, and not paying too much attention, and next thing I knew, I heard somebody yell like, right next to me. A guy had just jumped out from what had turned out to be a fake bush to scare the crap out of me. So I sort of jumped, extremely freaked out. But I (well, my family too, but whatever) kept walking for a while, but then turned around. Now, basically, this guy was holding up a couple of big branches covered in leaves, and he looked exactly like a bush. Every once in a while, he'd jump out and somebody and scare the crap out of them. Now, the funniest part of this wasn't the actual guy, (although that was pretty funny) it was the crowd assembled across the street. Everybody on the opposite side of the street had stopped to watch. Now, this is like 150 (not exaggerating at all) people just standing there, watching this homeless dude scare the hell out of people walking by, and they were just laughing the entire time. I kinda wondered why these people didn't have anything better to do, but whatever. It was like, the funniest thing ever. Except I know nobody can tell from that description how funny it is.
Yea, so, there were also these crazy seals there, and that was wild. We went to Tiburon, MOMA, (dumbest thing ever, there was a signed urinal at one part) Yerba Buena, Ghirardelli Square, and a lot of other not too exciting places. We met our pastor and his family for dinner one night, so that was pretty cool. Now, the Golden Gate Bridge is totally overrated, but I actually thought the cable cars were pretty cool. So yea. We also went to a Giants game the last night, and they played the Dodgers, so it was totally crazy. The Giants kicked their asses too, so good stuff. That was probably the coldest of all, being right by the bay. But the best thing was definitely Alcatraz. I really can't explain it at all, but ever since going there, I've been completely obsessed with the place. It's really a crazy place.
Yea, so anyway, that's pretty much it. We got home without incident, except for my parents being total morons at security. They had somehow completely missed the whole "no gels" thing, so my mom decided she thought it would be a good idea to take her bag full of three hundred shampoos through anyway, even with me going "check that effing bag" the entire time. So yea, she went and checked it after everybody was all, "yea, you can't do that," but so we go home pretty well.
Final note, we went to this crazy ghost down too, and this really weird place in Nevada (I think) with a restaurant called the Bucket of Blood Saloon. The weirdest thing about California was how it would be green in one place, and then you'd drive like two miles, and there wouldn't be a single tree in sight. It was also surprisingly sparsely populated in areas. And, of course, it was cold. So yea, weird place, but cool vacation. Definitely better than Chicago, (although Minnesota was like, the coolest thing ever) probably better than Montreal/Quebec City too.