Continuing California .

DAYS 3,4, and 5: SAN JOSE, SAN FRANCISCO, and MONTEREY BAY/CARMEL .

My memory's going to have to serve me the further and further away I get from the actual days of my Californian adventure. I'm 'behind' on my blogging, I suppose, but it's okay. The trip still had its noteworthy moments!

Let's see... after the MJ day of LA and resting, we left for the 5 hour drive (estimated time) from Los Angeles/Northridge area to San Jose (an hour away from San Fran).

After this past week of so, I've grown a great tolerance for really long car rides. I'll explain later. (I've never spent sooo many hours in a car before... driving to Canada doesn't come close).

Back to Cali. Being in a car, staring out into the desert/farmland that IS the majority of California... I realized how HUGE Cali is... and how NOT urban it is. Besides the major cities, it's all rolling hills, brown and deserted, horse-and-cow covered, full of cherries, strawberries, garlic and wine.

The car ride = downtime to think, to be introspective. My thoughts floated to friends and work back home...floated to Kentucky where my soldier was. Floated to Canada where my dad and brother are... both of whom I haven't seen since January. Floated to heaven, to another world, to a future life.

I passed by signs for a town called Hollister and laughed; stopped by a cherry stand in the middle of nowhere, reached the suburbia that is San Jose, and enjoyed the company of cousins who greeted me on my first night with some chocolate martinis and downtime.

The weekend was busy: San Francisco on Saturday, and Monterey Bay/Carmel the next.

I made many observations when around these areas, which were both about an hour away from San Jose.

SF:
- Beautiful. The BAY. A stretch of piers and events. Definitely need a car to get around to everything. The weather was chilly, and the place was CROWDED.

- Tourism included: Fisherman's Wharf; the Golden Gate; a tower to see the city from above; the world's crookedest road; and some gigantic palace thing (the name of which slips my mind, but I think I remember a planetarium being there or something).

- That palace was PHOTOSHOOT-filled. People were getting their wedding/engagement shots down left and right; actual wedding parties and sweet 16's were around, taking group shots. The best part was the shooting of a Bollywood film in front of the palace. Heard 'ACTION' and wondered if I was a tiny blurred dot in the background of the filming.

- The gay parade was going on during that weekend; I didn't get to see the festivities (must've been at another part of town).

- The roads there ARE of course insane; I'd LOVE to drive a manual there, just to see how I could handle it. I would not want to live there though... sorry, the idea of killing my brakes on the downhills and getting around in heels during driving rain/any weather for that matter... no thanks. Earthquakes? Definitely a turnoff. I felt very sad for this city - its fate will be decided by mother nature's wrath/natural occurrences.

- Had dinner in South SF - a part all on its own - at a cousin's house. A little more suburban for me, which I liked.

MONTEREY BAY:

- Very nice. This is THE place I want to take tourists if ever I go back there with friends/people who've never been around Cali. Seafood restaurants abound, an art festival going on, the water nearby... calming, charming, small-town feel. The sun was out for a hot 95, weather the locals at church said was unusually gorgeous and warm. Clam chowder vendors tried to lure people into their restaurants with their samples. I got a tattoo there - oh but don't worry, it's a henna of a dolphin made by a nice Indian lady who I found out grew up in Jersey. What a small world.

CARMEL:

- A small, rich community which was only a few miles from Monterey... a place where I experienced the odd phenomenon that is FOG. That's right, fog. What WAS 95 degrees and sunny in Monterey soon became 60 and foggy, cold and windy. And to think, these places were only a few miles away from each other... but the hilly community, once blanketed in fog, made the beautiful beach in Carmel a freeze fest. The many many people who were there - no doubt to soak up the sun - soon began to leave. A man flying a kite had some difficulty. That was highly amusing. My nieces buried my foot in the sand. The sand was cold. I was cold. My nephew and I discovered a creature which looked like a mutated squirrel.

- Nevertheless the community was nice, highlighted by its beach and small-town expensive shopping district. Drive a benz here and you'll fit in. A nice weekend escape town.

- Apparently this is the hood of Clint Eastwood. He was once the mayor here. [I watched Gran Torino when I got back to the LA area.]

- Went back to San Jose and ate at a Japanese restaurant with a real SUSHI TRAIN - that was awesome. Played some bball (though lazily) til the sun went down with my nieces, nephew, and cousin. Rested for the drive back to the LA area.

- We were going to take the coastal route instead, which would take longer, but would be more scenic than the inland route we took on the way up to San Jose. Plans were to stay in a sleepy coastal town called Morrow Bay, then finally make it down to the LA area.


Segway into the "to-be-continued" section.


To be continued.

Yours truly,
AB.