Notes from the Golden State

Tuesday August 7th, 2006

So right now I am sitting in a public library in the beautiful but rather small town of Klamath falls, oregon, having just crossed the border from Cali. I have been out of SD for a week and a day and it feels like longer, much has occurred ...
So when I left San Diego last week it was ridiculously hot ... like Africa hot. At least I thought it was (really it was like 82 degrees with very high humidity, but as many of you know my car was without AC so for me it was like swimming to work everyday), but in Santa Clarita, when I bought 2 liters of water, 2 liters of Gatorade and an iced tea at the gas station, I found out that it terms of heat tolerance, I am the weakest of the weak.

The cute girl at the counter, "How ya doin?".

Me, "Thirsty. It has been unbelievably hot down in San Diego and was the same through LA."

Her, "Its been hot up here too but todays not too bad, it's only 97. Last week it was up around 116. Whats it like in San Diego?"

Me, " ...."

Yeah, I don't do heat, thus, the northern route, which I started on Monday. I finished my goodbyes on Monday and after lunch headed up to Palo Alto.

I HATE LA. Just Hate it. You would think for having as many cars as it has, LA would be full better drivers. No. It took me 3 hours to get from Anaheim to somewhere else not that far away, 4 hours total to get through. It was a mixed blessing though, as I got through the central valley at just around 630, so I only liquified in my car for about an hour and a half before the weather lowered itself to the conditions commonly found in south american marshes.

Got into Palo Alto about 11 pm, ate some blueberries, stood in cold water for about 20 minutes and went to bed. I was staying with my Dad and Peg from Tuesday to Friday, they have a really nice condo in the center of town. Spent the week getting ready for the trip; spent far too much money at REI, twice (my purchases included a spring action mosquito net for head coverage in Minnesota, I here the bugs are the size of eagles and can punch holes in thick plastic), moved a garage full of goldstamping equipment, retrieved my new car from car guy mike (got a 2004 Pontiac Vibe, named Matilda, who is fabulous, she is an absolute beast on the road) hung out with my dad and Peg a bunch (mostly eating, JJ&Fs is a fabulous market/deli), went up and hiked the long ridge trail on Skyline(beautiful, windy trail up off skyline boulevard that rewards a pleasant shady uphill with a great view of the Santa Cruz Mountains?) and generally bummed around. It was great.

The weekend was much more hectic, as I went up to SF to stay with Dave and Emily and visit with some other friends in the city. The weekend involved drinks on the pier (#23, did you know the pier numbers in SF go down from high evens to low evens, then up from low odds to high odds. I didn't either and it made finding pier 23 a lot more confusing), sushi, midditerranean food with triple aple nargila, someones birthday (at which I met the distributor for Han korean vodka, who maybe has the best job ever), brunch with Scotts in-laws (but not scott, which made things more interesting as did the fact that the brunch degenerated into scotch tasting around 2 in the afternoon ... may scotch tasting is not a degeneration after all, as it was pretty good scotch ... mmm, blue label), mexican and karaoke for Daves birthday, a cuban ska concert in the urban jungle known as stern grove, dinner at betelnut, a fabulous restaurant which is still not worth the wait and late night drinks with Carla and Dave (different Dave) at the sumptous Oak Room, which is apparently not as packed with folage as it used to be.

The weekend was a total blast, I got to hang out with everyone I wanted to see, Ryan came up for the concert, Dave gave us a fabulous tour of the city with his impressive tour guide skills, and I just love SF.

And yesterday morning Matt and I got up at the, well too early and took of for Mt. Lassen National Park, which was awesome and will be covered next time. Until then