San Francisco
San Francisco was really great. When we weren't in intense volleyball games (in huge, cold airplane hangars on Alameda Island), we were literallly running to SF for 3 hours (rode the cable car, BART, and a taxi) where Ryan fed the Sea gulls his entire sour dough bread bowl. The stupid birds were trying to fly away with this big bread bowl (insert a funny Monty Python line here about swallows and coconuts). A bum jumped at Magen with a branch and scared her so bad she cried. Ryan ordered Pizza Love the first night in the hotel at like 11pm - it was delicious. Magen sat in our hotel room every night trying to keep up with homework - but to no avail. We went in the other room to watch the Discovery Channel - OOoooo! It was a juicy one :) Very, ummmm, educational.
We stayed in the heart of Chinatown in Oakland -so the second night Will and I braved the night bums and walked to get Chinese take-out at 9:30 pm. It was so FRUSTRATING - all we wanted was some kind of chicken dish (like kungpao or szechwan) and they were like "no fried chicken!" and we were like "we don't WANT fried chicken", and then the manager brought out a WHOLE DEAD CHICKEN - with the head attached but no feathers! He said "this chicken. we cut up for you." YIKES! We wanted to run right then and there. But we stayed. We got home with yummy take-out - so it all turned out good.
Magen's team lost a lot, but the games were fun and usually close. She has a HUGE bruise on her elbow :( The last day we went across the street to check out the Chinese "Happy" grocery store. So freaking weird. BUT WONDERFUL. Saw many dead whole fish packed in salt, blown up squid (like long balloons), shark fins ($25/pound) GIGANTIC mushrooms - very expensive (stay away from these PADDY! We bought some weird rice, very colorful, that Will cooked up last night - but it NEVER got soft. It was exactly like eating hard bird seed. Magen bought some Chinese Tea. Got home and made it. It wasn't tea bags, it wasn't ground loose tea, it was TWIGS AND BRANCHES!!
Finally, we played our last tourny Monday night and finished at 8:30 pm! Then drove 6 hours home. THAT was not so fun. We got home at 2am and Will had to leave at 4am to go to Mexicali on business! BUT WE ALL SURVIVED. We had so much fun. Pictures to come!
We stayed in the heart of Chinatown in Oakland -so the second night Will and I braved the night bums and walked to get Chinese take-out at 9:30 pm. It was so FRUSTRATING - all we wanted was some kind of chicken dish (like kungpao or szechwan) and they were like "no fried chicken!" and we were like "we don't WANT fried chicken", and then the manager brought out a WHOLE DEAD CHICKEN - with the head attached but no feathers! He said "this chicken. we cut up for you." YIKES! We wanted to run right then and there. But we stayed. We got home with yummy take-out - so it all turned out good.
Magen's team lost a lot, but the games were fun and usually close. She has a HUGE bruise on her elbow :( The last day we went across the street to check out the Chinese "Happy" grocery store. So freaking weird. BUT WONDERFUL. Saw many dead whole fish packed in salt, blown up squid (like long balloons), shark fins ($25/pound) GIGANTIC mushrooms - very expensive (stay away from these PADDY! We bought some weird rice, very colorful, that Will cooked up last night - but it NEVER got soft. It was exactly like eating hard bird seed. Magen bought some Chinese Tea. Got home and made it. It wasn't tea bags, it wasn't ground loose tea, it was TWIGS AND BRANCHES!!
Finally, we played our last tourny Monday night and finished at 8:30 pm! Then drove 6 hours home. THAT was not so fun. We got home at 2am and Will had to leave at 4am to go to Mexicali on business! BUT WE ALL SURVIVED. We had so much fun. Pictures to come!