i keep a diary

November 18, 2008

San Francisco Work Trip & Driving to LA

I had to attend a 3-day work conference near San Francisco and then immediately after, drive down to Redondo Beach to attend Emily & Tim's wedding! Meredith decided to come with me and make a week out of it.

Tuesday, November 18th

meredith
Leaving Stuytown and heading to the airport on Tuesday afternoon.
elevator ˆ meredith
Rush hour.
taxi
meredith
Meredith getting her DS game on.
nintendo ds ˆ taxi ˆ videogames ˆ meredith
This was the first time I'd ever seen one of these machines in an airport. Now, they're everywhere!
airport ˆ vending machine
meredith
Meredith played Zelda for most of the flight!
airplane ˆ nintendo ds ˆ meredith
Neon squiggle art that greets you in the SFO airport...
airport ˆ art
meredith
...gets a THUMBS DOWN from Meredith (he said meta-ironically through a poorly framed and out-of-focus digital picture he'd carelessly shot from the hip).
airport ˆ art ˆ thumbs down ˆ meredith
meredith
Unforgiving art critic.
airport ˆ escalator ˆ meredith
meredith
Peep our fly rental, son.
rental car ˆ meredith
The ILM conference was down in Santa Clara. By the time we drove down there and checked in, it was after 11pm PST.
chair ˆ hotel
We ordered a room service pizza...
food ˆ pizza
...and did a little TV watching. (But man, after years of getting used to fast forwarding commercials on a DVR, watching regular TV is PAINFUL).
bed ˆ hotel ˆ tv

Wednesday, November 19th

meredith
Aw yeah, room service breakfast!
bed ˆ breakfast ˆ food ˆ hotel ˆ meredith
I got a breakfast burrito with hasbrowns...
breakfast ˆ food
...and my toast came tucked into a little napkin blanket to make sure he stayed warm.
blanket ˆ toast
After my day of conference lectures, Meredith and I drove 45 north from Santa Clara back into San Francisco...
san francisco
me, michael s
...to meet up with Michael...
me ˆ michael s
mike doyle, tanya
...and Tanya and Mike Doyle!
mike doyle ˆ tanya
me, mike doyle
I've never had a bad time with this guy. Not once.
me ˆ mike doyle

Thursday, November 20th

andy b
The next evening, we drove back into San Francisco again, but this time we arrived a little earlier and we met up with Andy and a bunch of other people for...
andy b
...a delicious Vietnamese meal in the Tenderloin.
food ˆ vietnamese
meredith
Crepe peep!
creepy ˆ eyes ˆ meredith
alysha, andy b, meredith, mike doyle
A passerby kindly offered to take a photo so I could appear in the photo. Thanks!
san francisco ˆ vietnamese ˆ alysha ˆ andy b ˆ meredith ˆ mike doyle
alysha
Afterwards, we went around the corner to one of Alysha's favorite hockey-watching locals and we caught up a bit before driving back around 2.
phone ˆ san francisco ˆ alysha

Friday, November 21st

My conference ended at noon on Friday. After, we packed up, checked out and hopped in the car to drive 350 miles to Los Angeles to attend Emily & Tim's rehearsal dinner!
hotel ˆ palm tree
Southbound.
driving
Driving south through California is gorgeous.
driving
me
I lost my sunglasses and had to borrow Meredith's because the sun was bright and it's hard for me to drive without them (I get so squinty).
driving ˆ sunglasses ˆ me
About an hour and and a half south of Santa Clara feels like the middle of nowhere. The road is beautiful and mostly empty.
driving
me
You can put the cruise control on, light up a smoke...
driving ˆ smoke ˆ sunglasses ˆ me
...and enjoy the California trees.
driving ˆ trees
meredith
About and hour later we pulled over and got our Denny's on. Mer got pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns AND a biscuit! Haha. Holy shit.
food ˆ pancakes ˆ meredith
I got the veggie burger. Very tasty.
food
After, we gassed back up.
gas station ˆ rental car
me
I picked up some new sunglasses so I didn't have to keep stealing Meredith's (because she is also very squinty in the sun without them!).
sunglasses ˆ me
My favorite thing about driving from San Francisco to LA via the more inland route is how many strangely different types of country you drive through. There are grassy hills.
driving
Then it gets more arid and scrubby.
driving
Oh, only another 267 miles? Faaaack.
driving ˆ sign
Back to rolling grassy hills.
driving
Then some dry ones.
driving
Then some old ones.
driving
See what I mean? Every 10 minutes the landscape looks totally different.
driving
Like an improbable number of changes.
driving
I love how you can see the road wind into the distance ahead.
driving
I swear I didn't re-order these or anything. You literally go from these hills...
driving
...to this desert...
driving
...to deciduous trees...
driving ˆ trees
...to palm trees...
driving ˆ palm tree
...to a barren wasteland of oil-pumping rigs...
driving
...all of those scenery changes happened in LESS THAN thirty minutes of driving!
driving
A couple of miles after the oil fields we stopped to gas up and ended up finding the best gas station mini mart in the entire world. If any of your friends from another country is visiting and wants to better understand America, you should probably just take them here. The place starts of with fancy bejeweled tchotchkes like these classy frogs.
frog ˆ truck stop
Oh, but what's that you say? Your grandma is more of a collector of tropical knickknacks? BAM!
elephant ˆ palm tree ˆ truck stop
Ginormous pink gemstones with roses etched onto them? Done and done. No matter what your nan's into, they've got her covered.
pink ˆ truck stop
Yep, even you, Abuela!
donkey ˆ truck stop
meredith
Then, without warning, the merchandise in the cases goes from Grandmaland to Stabbityville.
knife ˆ truck stop ˆ meredith
Punching with this is totally cheating.
knife ˆ truck stop
There were literally cases and cases of this stuff. On and on.
knife ˆ truck stop
At a gas station rest stop on a major highway in California. Under $20! Whadda deal! This place is obviously most ideal for those Grandmas gassing up on their way to dole out some brutal vigilante justice. GRANDMA STYLE!
knife ˆ truck stop
So wait, let me get this straight. You've designed a giant spider shooting a knife-web out of his face that stabs into a knife-holder / lizard-clutching-a-skull sculpture and you're going to get it manufactured and sell it for $19.99 at truck stops? Yes, I agree that you are probably going to be a millionaire.
knife ˆ spider ˆ truck stop ˆ wtf
Check out these guys! I mean, they look cool and everything but I really can't imagine being able to using something like this effectively in battle. It looks like it would take like 10 seconds and both hands to even unfold both blades. Haha. Eventually, the "fantasy knife" section turned into...
knife ˆ truck stop
...the "trucker" section! Complete with naughty lingerie angel decals...
sticker ˆ truck stop
...Johnny Paycheck CDs! (Yeah, that's right. He wrote Take This Job and Shove It!)
cd ˆ truck stop
And tiny bats that you can stash next to your drivers seat!
bat ˆ truck stop
Er, I mean "Tire Tester," Officer.
bat ˆ truck stop
Back on the road in time to watch the sun set behind...
driving
...the weird low clouds that suddenly swooped in to cover the valley.
driving
Then it cleared up again.
driving ˆ sunset
Six hours and ten minutes after departure: Los Angeles!
driving ˆ los angeles ˆ sign
Then it took us another TWO HOURS to go the remaining 25 miles through LA to Redondo Beach.
driving
emily, rachael
We checked into our hotel, dropped our bags off, changed and headed right back out to the rehearsal dinner! Here's Rachael with bride-to-be Emily!
emily ˆ rachael
emily, tim
The dinner was awesome.
emily ˆ tim
me
This is the expression of a man who drove 500 miles and then OD'ed on tacos.
me
blair, meredith
Later that night, Meredith's friends Josh and Blair came down from LA to visit. They met at camp in high school and hadn't seen each other in YEARS. Good times!
blair ˆ meredith

1 comment

  • nylundnovember 9, 2010

    As someone who has family in SF and LA and has made that drive many times, the scenary ceases to be interesting after the 2nd or 3rd time. You take that route for quickness alone, but even then, sometimes the beauty of the coastal route is worth the extra time.

    Also, I can't believe you didn't mention "cowschwitz" (as in Cow Auschwitz), as the locals call it. Its the absolutely horrible (and horribly smelling) cattle ranch halfway beteen SF and LA. You can't have missed it. About a million cows packed shoulder to shoulder for as far as the eye can see. Its enough to make even the biggest burger fan turn vegetarian.