This blog is a brief, picture-laden glimpse of my recent trip down the coast. With me were my girlfriend Eri and my old friend Emily. I'm moving to Ann Arbor in a month, so I figured one last West-coast hurrah (for now at least) was in order.
We met up with Emily at my bro's place in Federal Way and then headed south to Eugene. (The previous day I had a gig with Milonga, pictures here). We stayed at Eri's friend Gabe's place, although Gabe was in Europe at the time. Then the long, arduous drive to Monterey.
FYI: It's a long, looooong drive from Eugene to Monterey. We left breakfast around 9:00, and got in at 8:30... pm. But when we got there my grandma cooked us some kickass steak and other foods. My uncle Scott was there, and we talked about business and how he's moving to Brazil soon. So once I'm no longer a poor, underworked graduate student I can take a visit.
7/4/7
After my grandma cooked us a nice breakfast we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (one of the top in the world). I've been a dozen times or so, but it's always worth going again.
Eri under the kelp tank.
I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus' garden...
Emily in the waves.
Watching the turtle rock-hanging.
For lunch we went to my other grandparent's house, where my grandma cooked us sukiyaki. When I was I kid I called it "super-yukky" and refused to eat it (yeah, I was a brat at times), but this time I dug in and it was good.
Grandma L. kept filling the sukiyaki bowl. She designated Emily "Tea-chan," the tea server. She tried to make me the rice server, but Eri was closer to the bowl and became the official "Rice-chan."
Then back to the other grandparent's. My uncle Mark and aunt Diana were there, and we hung out for a while. Diana, demonstrating her technique for creating invisible watermelons.
Asilomar Beach After a hot day of walking the beaches, we decided to get some ice cream. Emily thoroughly enjoyed hers. ouwaaaa!
We arrived in San Francisco in the evening, with just enough time to find our lodging and check out some fireworks. We didn't see any big official firework shows, but there were a bunch of crazy people in Mission Dolores Park lighting off stuff. At some point the cops started driving by saying something out of a megaphone, but nobody could understand what they were saying. Probably something related to the fact that fireworks are illegal there.
After we got tired of M80s and smoke, we wandered around and found a El Salvadorian/Mexican place that was still open.
The service was REALLLLY slow, so Eri decided to show us some of her Thai Chi moves.
Emily countered with, "Oh yeah, well I have a cool shirt."
7/5/7
Emily booked us a room at this house in the Mission District. The room we reserved, the Pyramid Room, was somehow double booked, but we ended up with a larger room anyway.
In the morning we decided to take a stroll through Golden Gate Park, which is larger than Central Park in NY.
We didn't go in here because it cost money. But Eri decided to celebrate anyway.
This art museum looked kind of like an alien space ship.
Turtles!
Eri monkeying around by the monkey tree.
The Japanese Tea Garden cost money too, so we passed it up.
After lunch eating a tasty but gruesomely overpriced Kobe burger, we set sail for Alcatraz. It was pretty cool--places to see, and a walk-though audio tour with former inmates and guards.
On the boat ride over the wind was brutal.
The "Indians Welcome" paint is from the late 60s when Indians took over the island to protest the government taking their land.
The island is now a bird sanctuary. We found a baby seagull hiding by a garden.
Following our return voyage, we took a look around Fisherman's Wharf.
Emily was pretty cold from the wind, so she bought some really tall socks.
We took a walk up to Coit Tower, but we forgot to take any pictures of the tower itself.
You can just barely see Alcatraz in the background
After sleeping in a bit and moving out of our room, we took a trip down to Chinatown.
There was a street musician playing an Urhu (a Chinese classical violin), which was pretty cool.
As we were walking down the street, a lady invited in to a restaurant for some Dim Sum. As you can see, Emily was getting pretty hungry, so we decided to go in for lunch before she tried to bite anyone.
The balcony of the restaurant.
After wandering around some more and buying a wok brush, we got back in the car and headed north.
We stopped in Redding for dinner and a driving change, and Eri asked some locals where to get good authentic Mexican food and were directed to some mediocre Mexican food.
After a long drive, we got to Emily's brother's place in Rogue River, OR (near Medford).
We left Emily's bro's place and hit the Denny's in Grant's Pass on the way out of town. As should be expected, Emily had Moons over my Hammy. She's really into the moons.
Next stop, the Oregon Coast--Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area. Sand dunes as far as the eye could see. It was windy--quite windy.
Sand dollars
Eri, playing on the beach.
Emily, removing the shark teeth from my back
Emily was getting desperate for a way out:
But after making a sand angel everything was a-ok.
After the dunes, we kept heading north to Bob's Beach (Eri's favorite).
There's some great tide pools there, but the tide was in so we couldn't get to them.
I heard slimy tails are the new black.
A cave. Unfortunately, not enough time for exploration.
Later in the day, we ended up in Newport, OR. Eri guided us to the wharf area, and we happened upon the Rogue Brewery, where we had dinner. Emily wasn't very enthused at first, but after a few Growlers she was in good spirits.
So, not much interesting to tell for the rest of the trip... except from some crazy person almost ramming my car near Olympia. We got back to Isaac's place around 11:15 pm, and then headed back to Spokane and Moscow the next day.
Overall, a great trip. Emily and Eri, you dudes rock!
Mount Shasta
