When The Lights Go Down In The City..

Well it has been a busy weekend. I was scared of nothing happening for my four days off work, but I accomplished to enjoy it. Started it off by walking 6 miles in the rain from Kaiser, to my older doctors office, then back home. Then managed to get out and take BART to San Francisco for another 6-7 mile walk around. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera for any of these walks, but enjoyed having these moments for memory.

I know walking in the rain doesn't sound appealing to most, but the rain doesn't seem to bother me much. I had a doctor appointment on Friday, and my brother decided he would give me company for the walk. So got to Kaiser, and found out the news I wanted. (I found a lump on my neck, so wanted to get it checked out. Found out it is just an abscess, and was given medicine to take.). So after I was done there, decided I better make a deposit on my bill at my old medical provider. I was recently accepted back to Kaiser, but before them I was on CMSP. I have a bill that I have to take care of, so I make payments. This walk seemed like it was kind of far, but decided that we had nothing else to do.

My brother and I talked about all sorts of things. Talked about the highs and lows in life, and just talked about what ever crossed our minds. We grabbed a bite at Nations Hamburgers, where I made a mess of myself with a chili cheeseburger. I was trying to cut it, and somehow pushed chilli onto my sweater. After eating and washing my sweater off, we was off to head towards to the doctors. My aunt lives along the way, and my cousin just had a kid. So we decided to stop by there real quick, to see the new addition to our family. We didn't spend too much time, but it was cool to spend some time with family.

Finally, after we left there, we managed to reach our destination. It took a little longer then an hour to get there, and one minute to put money towards my bill. From there we decided to follow the train tracks to one of the main streets that take you to my house. Along the tracks, there was some nice sights to see. We saw sheep, trains with graffiti, and crossed a bridge with running water. Overall, it was a pretty good time I spent with my brother, and surprisingly, we didn't argue once. That is actually a big deal for us.

Then three days after, we made it to San Francisco. I have been trying to adventure out that way for a few months now, and it's been pretty hard since I don't currently have a car. My dad allowed me to borrow the car, and my brother and I head towards the BART station. BART is Bay Area Rapid Transit, which is our version of subways. I personally have always enjoyed the BART, and I liked the idea of not having a car to get around San Francisco. This time we was going to explore on our feet.

We got off at the Embarcadero and decided to just walk. We managed to find some nice parks, man made waterfalls, and things we wouldn't normally have found if we drove. We decided we wanted to go to China Town, but ended up passing it. So we journeyed back and found it. I have always wanted to go there, but never made it. This place is packed. The sidewalks are busy with tourists, locals, vendors, shoppers, everything. The thought of Chinese food sounded delicious. My brother decided to have chow mein and BBQ Pork. I went next door, and got three pork dim sums. I made my decision off of Andrew Zimmerman's tip, "If the place has a line, the food must be worth waiting for." And it just so happens, that was the best dim sums I have ever had. From there we checked out a few of the shops, found a pet shop with a giant parrot, and a gift shop with butterfly knives and fire crackers.

After we was done with China Town, I wanted to head towards Fisherman's Wharf. I love to get the Clam Chowder bread bowl, and watch which ever artist is there to perform. The artist of the night was One Leg Chuck. I love this place because there is so much talent that never reaches the radio. I have seen great performers every time I come here, and One Leg Chuck did not disappoint. He performed genres like reggae, then would switch it up to rock n' roll for his next song. I listened for about 20 minutes, and had to buy his cd. After a brief talk, he wrote his email on the cd, and said keep in touch. From there my brother and I was off to Ghirardelli Square.

I have been looking forward to getting a hot chocolate from Ghirardelli on a San Francisco night for a while, and it was accomplished. After purchasing it, we head towards the beach on the bottom of the hill, and just absorb the scenery. From there you can see the Golden Gate Bridge, and city lights all over, while listening to the waves crashing onto the water and sand. It was much needed. We spent about 45 minutes here before we decided to head back home.

Overall, I'd like to say, it was a good weekend, and a great time out of town. San Francisco has always been one of my favorite escapes. This has been the first time I have gone without a car, and a specific destination. I learned that you get to see a lot more things from being on foot, and will probably continue adventuring on foot, unless of course I have specific places to go to. Hopefully for the next adventure, I will have a way of taking pictures.

A Breath of Fresh Air

I have finally accomplished on getting out of town, and going on an adventure. This time to Santa Cruz, Ca. I was happy to receive a text from my friend Serena, asking me if I'd like to tag along on a trip to the Mystery Spot, and the Beach Boardwalk. So on Saturday, about 11am, Serena, Jake, Sage, and I was off to have fun under the sun.

So we started off by attempting to find the Mystery Spot, which just trying to find it, became a mystery. We spent some time lost on random roads, but I really enjoyed it because I go to see a lot of amazing scenery. After arriving to the Mystery Spot, we found out that we had an hour wait before our group was going to going to be able to take the trip, so we decided to go for a hike into the mountains across the parking lot.

Sage seemed motivated to find a banana slug, something I have never heard of before. She mentioned that if we was to find one, that you can lick it, and your tongue will become numb. Less then 5 minutes into the trip, we happened to find one. She was quick to pick it up, and Serena and Sage had no hesitation to lick it. I was kind of in shock to see them do it, but at the same time amazed that they simply didn't care that it was a giant ugly snail, on the side of a mountain. Jake and I refused to attempt to lick it, and began on our hike.

As soon as we started walking off, Serena and Sage was talking about how their tongue was numb from licking the snail. I decided that if we was to come across another, that I would have to try it. As soon as I said something, we happened to find another one. I kind of regretted what I just said, but decided "Hey, what the hell." I can honestly say I never licked a slug before, but there is a first time for everything, right? It was awkward, but unfortunately, my tongue didn't go numb. After attempted twice, Sage and I decided to put the Banana Slugs onto our face, and take pictures.

So we continued our hike, and got to see pretty nice scenery. It was much needed exercise for me personally, and I got to enjoy the outdoors, which I have been wanting to do for some time now. After about half an hour or so, we went back to the bottom of the hill to wait for our turn at the Mystery Spot. I have always seen the bumper stickers on peoples car about the Mystery Spot, but I have never heard anyone talk about it. So I was excited to see what this was all about.

The Mystery Spot is a place that breaks the laws of physics as we know it. They start by telling us that compasses seem to not work properly when you are within this 'circle' of an area that claims to have some sort of magnetic phenomena. They show you objects that look impossible to be even, then prove to you that it is. They had a piece of wood that they angled from a window of the cabin, and showed that the leveler proves that it is completely straight even though one side looks to be higher. Then to top it off, she takes a ball and puts it in the middle of the board, and it rolls off the end that looks higher. She even used random objects from the crowd, including water, and someones chap stick. Each time, the object would roll off the 'higher' end. Then you get to explore the cabin shown in the photo, and just have fun with physics. We all seemed to really enjoy the Mystery Spot. Then from there, we was off to the Boardwalk. *This picture of the cabin was not taking by us.

We showed up to the Boardwalk, but we didn't have too much sun left. We decided to spend some of the sun we had left, on the beach, and then make our way to the rides after. Well little did we know, the rides closed at dark even though the whole place was lit up. I, personally, am not a fan of rides, but Serena and Sage seemed to be looking forward to them, so that kind of sucked. They managed to get on one ride before it closed, but after that there wasn't anything else open. We still had fun hanging out at the beach, and just being out of town.

We ended the night with dinner at the end of the pier at a place named "The Dolphin." It was a pretty small restaurant, but the food was good. Then from there, we was on our way back home. I had a lot of fun with good company. There was nothing but laughs, and finally a chance to be around a lot of positivity. It meant a lot to me to be able to get out, and not feel stressed at all. The whole group is pretty funny, and never seem to come off negative. I like forward to hopefully going on more adventures with them.

-J