Pictures!

I'll write a longer post later (maybe) summing things up or something like that, but in the meantime, here's the link to my Photobucket page with all my pics from the trip. they're broken down into 11 sub-albums, each corresponding to a different place i visited. I removed most of the really obviously bad pics (too dark, too blurry, etc.), but didn't trim them down much beyond that. so there's alot of repetition in places, especially big scenic landscape shots where i tried the same pic using different settings on my camera. the Oceanside album has pics from the wedding weekend.

PICTURES

Redwoods National Park & Eugene, OR

Gonna keep this one brief, i'm sitting in spivak's office on campus, he's over at the next desk reading a book...took about 8 hours to get from Sonoma to Redwoods National Park on Tuesday. Definitely a long drive, but with some glorious stretches of road, blasting down straightaways at 80mph with the ocean on my left and the music blasting, or slaloming through some great S-curves surrounded by old-growth redwood trees. Redwoods park was a great time, the hostel was nice, did some great hiking and also some cool scenic drives...the trees are stunning; reading about them or seeing pictures doesn't let you appreciate the true scale of these things until you're standing right next to one trying to stare upwards and see the top of it. Drove from Redwoods National Park up to Eugene, Oregon yesterday, Spivak showed me the town last night, checked out some cool bars...this morning grabbed some brunch and hit up another bar to watch the Oregon/USC game. As soon as i'm done with this blog post we're gonna get out of the math building and go walk around campus...very pretty campus! lots of greenery everywhere. His friends are throwing a Halloween party tonight, should be fun. Still no chance to upload pics, you're gonna have to wait until i get home on monday! Driving from Eugene up to Portland tomorrow. Might put up one more entry from Portland before i fly out, might not, depending on what time i get up to the city and what i end up doing while i'm up there.

Sonoma

As mentioned in my earlier post, spent the day today visiting a variety of Sonoma wineries and sampling their wares...visited the following wineries: Ravenswood (obsessed with Zinfandels and the only one i'd heard of prior to visiting Sonoma); Gundlach-Bundschu (one of the oldest Sonoma wineries, founded in 1858 and still run by the same family); Sebastiani (founded in 1904, the town's biggest and most powerful winery; currently trying to rid themselves of a reputation for shitty, mass-produced "jug wines" earned during the 70's and 80's and build a name as a quality winery); Buena Vista (the "original" California winery, established in 1857 and a state historical landmark); and Schug Carneros Estate (small winery, only ~30K cases a year, specializing in French Burgundian style pinot noir and chardonnay). Stopped in at the Plaza Bistro right on the town square for a delicious italian cold cut sandwich and a cold, tasty budweiser, which tasted even better after a day of drinking wine. one odd thing i've noticed, miller lite is not *nearly* as big a presence out here as bud, especially on tap, compared to back east...wonder why?

The town itself is very pretty, small, and "quaint". The wineries themselves are gorgeous, even though harvest just occurred/is ongoing so there's not a ton of grapes left on the vines. i got interesting tours of a couple of the wineries, and got some good pictures. however, i would have to say that i've been abit annoyed to be surrounded by pretentious wine assholes for a good part of the day. now, far be it from me to judge someone else's enjoyment of an alcoholic beverages, but some of these idiots are a little too much...seriously man, it's just a glass of wine, not the key to all the secrets of human health and happiness! combine that with the idiotic giggling groups of 20/30-something "OHMYGOD i can't believe we're in wine country!!! it's just like we're in Sideways!!!" girls and i was honestly rather glad to be done with the winery portion of my day. In the interest of preserving my legs for Redwoods National Park (and also out of sheer laziness), i drove the Pimpmobile around today instead of renting a bike...but don't worry! i didn't drink a whole lot at any of the wineries, so it was all rather safe.

after i was done with the wineries, i parked my car back at the hotel and walked around the plaza, took some pictures of the historical buildings in the park, did some people-watching, and was molested by a rather large and hairy (but very friendly) dog named Zeke. back at the hotel now, killing some time by writing up this post. gonna head back out in a little bit to watch Marvin Harrison cruelly and gleefully put the kibosh on the High Rollers' season and drown my fantasy football sorrows in a couple of beers. Looks like my drive tomorrow won't be as long as i had originally feared so might have some time to do a little non-winery-related historical sightseeing in Sonoma tomorrow morning before i hit the road for Redwoods National Park. As i mentioned earlier, i doubt i'll be able to blog from the park, so this might be my last missive before i get to spivak's in eugene on friday, barring any drunken blogging i do after returning from watching the game tonight...

...couple quick tidbits then i'm done:

a) talked to the Redwoods hostel this morning, apparently the bear was caught and released in a different section of the park. the hostel operator is cautiously optimistic that it shouldn't be a problem again...uhm, ok....

b) This is currently causing a lot of trouble for my good friend Frizzy and his new (and lovely) wife Nicole, along with (of course) a massive number of people living throughout Southern California. I was *just* in that area barely a couple of weeks ago; it's so beautiful, and it makes me very sad to think of all the destruction that's going on there right now. Take care of yourself guys, i'm thinking about you and hoping for the best...

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

forgot to mention this when blogging last night...received the following email from the hostel i'm supposed to stay at in Redwoods National Park later this week:

Hi Nitin. I hope this email finds you well. We have you booked into Redwood Hostel starting Friday night. Unfortunately, we have been experiencing a bear problem and may need to close the hostel for the weekend. Today, our front door was propped open and a large bear wandered in. National Park rangers are presently tracking the bear in the hopes of catching him (or her). But for our guests’ safety, we may need to close the hostel.

It is our hope to be able to remain open, but we can not if our guests are in danger. Whether we can stay open depends to a large degree on whether the bear is trapped tonight. Please know that if we must close, we will do what we can to help you find other accommodations. If you get this message, please call the hostel Friday morning, between 8-11am Pacific, at either the number below, or toll-free at 888-GO-HIUSA (when prompted to enter 3 digits, enter KLA for Klamath), to find out if we will be open.

Thank you and we apologize for any inconvenience,
Kaci and Ryan

Yikes! i'm gonna give them a call this morning before heading off for the wineries...hope they caught that bear!

Point Reyes National Seashore

As per my plan as described in the last post, i took the Pimpmobile north from San Francisco saturday morning, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and stopped in Sausalito for brunch and a Bloody Mary at a nice little waterfront restaurant...after that, made my way up to Point Reyes, although it took awhile because i took the 1 (the coastal highway) instead of the 101, which is fine because the 1 hugs the coast and offers great views (the whole point of this trip in the first place)...drove through a bunch of small towns and through some windy-ass mountainside roads before i finally made it up to Point Reyes...at that point, it was getting to late afternoon and the daylight was running out, so had just enough time to go check out Limantour Beach in the park before checking into my hostel...turned out to be a pretty clean hostel full of friendly folks, and it only cost me $20 for the night, and it's actually right in the middle of the park itself, so i can't complain...actually met a couple from MA who are biking clear across the country! they've already worked their way west from their New Hampshire starting point and are now working their way down the west coast...sounds like quite an endeavor, although i'd rather have a big purple cadillac any day of the week! found a local bar saturday night in the village of Olema, right outside the park, had a couple of beers, a *delicious* French Dip sandwich, chatted with the bartenders, and watched game 6 of the ALCS (boo Sox!) as well as the Illinois/Michigan game (boo Michigan!)...

...got a good early start to the morning today (sunday)...unlike last sunday in Monterey, i didn't sit my ass down in a bar and watch football all day...instead, i did a ton of hiking and exploring all throughout Point Reyes National Seashore park...let's see, i hiked the short "Earthquake Trail" close to the main rangers' station, where you can walk along the active San Andreas fault and learn about plate tectonics, etc...i climbed down 300 steps to see Point Reyes Lighthouse (climbing down was easy, it was climbing all 300 steps back up that really sucked, naturally)...hiked the Chimney Rock trail, checked out Drake's Beach, purportedly the spot where Sir Francis Drake made landfall during his famous 16th century, 3-year long globe-circling voyage, had lunch at Drake's Beach Cafe, right on the water (and the only food concession actually inside the park)...then hit up Point Reyes North Beach...then a quick detour into Tomales Bay State Park to dip my feet in the placid and relatively warm (actually, probably more accurate to say "slightly less cold") waters of Tomales Bay at Hearts Desire Beach, then went to the end of Pierce Point Rd at the far northern tip of the park to hike down to McClures Beach and also hike about a mile down Tomales Point Trail, where i got a couple great pics of a herd of Tule Elk grazing in a field with the bay in the background! my knee that had been bothering me earlier held up ok, but now my goddamn right ankle is hurting like a bitch...be interesting to see how it holds up for the rest of the week considering all the physical activity i have planned...

...anyways, got into Sonoma Valley wine country this evening with just enough time to check into my hotel and get out to a local bar to watch the sunday night football game and game 7 of the ALCS (f'ing Sox)...i got a *great* deal on this hotel room by booking through their website, even the guy at the counter made a comment about it (i'm paying $130 a night when rooms in this hotel typically go for $200+ a night), plus the room has a balcony and fireplace! very cool! not sure exactly what the plan is for tomorrow...there's a bunch of interesting historical stuff in Sonoma, but i've been doing a ton of that already, so i might skip it tomorrow and just check out wineries instead...would like to rent a bike and ride around town, depends on how my legs/feet are feeling in the morning! anyways, i'll probably figure all that shit tomorrow morning over breakfast...back with an update (hopefully) tomorrow evening! only a week left before i fly back to MD!!!!!

San Francisco, Day 4

So i ended up not doing Anchor Steam or Alcatraz yesterday...Anchor Steam tour was booked and couldn't find a ferry that would actually take you to the island; seems like every place was just offering ferry rides that took you around the bay and circled the island but didn't actually let people off! i did do one touristy thing though, rode a cablecar a couple blocks up Hyde street from the Wharf to Pacific Ave...then bussed over to Fort Point and got some great pics of the Golden Gate Bridge...after that, went down to Golden Gate Park...it was great! i put away my map and guidebook and just let myself get lost in the park...spent a lot of time in the San Francisco Botanical Gardens/Arboretum, a really beautiful place with tons of great plants, nice landscaping, and all kinds of random little paths going off in all directions, perfect for aimless wandering...also saw the Japanese Tea Garden in the park, which was kind of hokey/touristy...in general, yesterday was a little annoying because, being friday, the city filled up with tourists much more than the previous couple of days...but that was the nice thing about the botanical gardens, there weren't too many tourists wandering around and it was very quiet and tranquil...

...after the park, grabbed a couple beers on the Haight (closest neighborhood when i came out of the eastern end of the park), then bussed over to South of Market to meet up with my friend Sameer, we did a little barhopping in his neighborhood, saw some pretty cool places, i met some of his friends from the neighborhood and got a pretty good drunk on!

...anyways, it's been a fun/crazy 4 days in San Francisco, but i think i'm definitely ready to move on and leave the city behind me...the road beckons! the plan at this point is to cross over the Golden Gate Bridge, probably stop in Sausalito for brunch, then head up to Point Reyes! doubt i'll be able to blog from the hostel in Point Reyes, so the next post might not go up until i get to Sonoma sunday afternoon!

San Francisco, Day 3

Did a lot more walking yesterday, checking out the North Beach neighborhood, Russian Hill, Nob Hill, the infamous "windy road" on Lombard, walked around the Haight-Ashbury area, and saw a bunch of cool street art walking around the Mission neighborhood. In the evening, met with my friend Schiller, an old friend from college who lives just north of Golden Gate park; we hung out and had a couple of beers, caught up on old times, etc...

one cool thing about this city is how much cultural history there is, at least cultural history that i find interesting; for example, i already mentioned that i hung out at Vesuvio's, an old Beat bar; yesterday i was back in that neighborhood and visited the City Lights Bookstore; the guy who started (and still runs) that store is the same guy who first published Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl". Also stopped in and had a cappucino at the coffeeshop/cafe where Coppola wrote a lot of the screenplay for the first Godfather movie. Then of course there's the Haight, where i saw the Grateful Dead's old house and Janis Joplin's old house.

in any case, i am totally wiped out today from the last two days of walking all over this city. I did make extensive use of the bus system yesterday, so i'm starting to get the hang of moving around from neighborhood to neighborhood, but you still need to walk around to get the most of it. I think i'm gonna dial back my ambitions today, need to take it a little easy. Big priorities today are (if possible) to do the Anchor Steam brewery tour; possibly take a boat out to Alcatraz, check out Golden Gate Park (that could take up an entire day right there), and get over to Fort Point to get some good pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge (all the pictures i've taken of the bridge so far are from further away). The weather is (again) looking pretty gray and overcast this morning, but the last couple days it's started out like that and then gotten nice in the late morning/early afternoon...let's hope the same holds true!

This is my last full day in SanFran...probably! talking to Schiller last night, there's a chance i might end up back in the city saturday night after doing Point Reyes National Seashore all day...hard to say right now, i guess it depends on what all happens today/tonight...

San Francisco, Day 2

So i lucked out yesterday, very soon after i got out and started walking, the sun came out, and it stayed sunny and warm the rest of the day...did a TON of walking around the city yesterday! Walked along the waterfront on Embarcadero, from Fort Mason (where my hostel is), all the way down to the Ferry Marketplace, not too far from the Bay Bridge...along the way, visited the Pampanito, a WWII-era sub that's been turned into an exhibit, as well as the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, a WWII-era cargo ship that's also been turned into a floating museum of sorts...briefly walked down and checked out Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39, pretty touristy and schlocky so didn't stick around long...did see the sea lions at Pier 39, lots of tourists crowding around and taking pictures, but i've already seen a ton of sea lions on this trip (in Monterey and Santa Cruz), so i didn't stick around too long for that...the Ferry Marketplace is really neat, a cool glimpse into northern california artisan cuisine culture, lots of cool little shops selling all kinds of high-end/locally-produced/etc. meats, cheeses, breads, wine, a very good place to just walked around for awhile and take in all the sights and smells...

after my waterfront walk, i walked through the Financial District (including a brief stop in the Wells Fargo museum) and Chinatown. Luckily my "Lonely Planet San Francisco Cityguide" describes a bunch of good self-guided walking tours that help you get a feel for the various neighborhoods...stopped in at a bar called Vesuvio in North Beach; apparently, this was a big beatnik hangout back in the day...Kerouac and Dylan Thomas both hung out here at times.

Had a couple beers at Vesuvio, then had to find my way over to the Lower Haight to meet up with my friend Shannon, who i've known since the 6th grade...pretty confusing! there's lots and lots of public transportation options in this city, and every person you talk to seems to have a different recommendation for how to get from Point A to Point B...i did finally make it over to Shannon's apartment, we hung out there for a bit, then went out into the neighborhood...had dinner at an Indian restaurant in Lower Haight then walked over to a bar in the Mission, definitely a cool place, big backyard with lots of picnic tables set-up, hung out there and had a couple more drinks...at that point i did not feel like trying to negotiate the public transportation system again, so i grabbed a cab to take me back up to the hostel...only cost about $15, not too bad...

...as for today, my plan includes finishing the self-guided tours in this guidebook...that'll take me through North Beach, Nob Hill, Russian Hill, the Mission, and Haight-Ashbury. I bought a 3-day pass yesterday which gives me free access to all trains/buses/etc. so that should make it easier to get from neighborhood to neighborhood...beyond that, just playing it by year. if i can get those wrapped up today, i can try to do the Alcatraz thing tomorrow and maybe also rent a bike and bike across the Golden Gate Bridge, taking the ferry back from Sausalito...i guess i should also make an effort to ride on a cablecar...and oh yeah! i keep forgetting, i gotta look into doing the Anchor Steam brewery tour...shit, so much to do, so little time...

San Francisco, Day 1

Got into SanFran from Santa Cruz yesterday afternoon...decided to stay close to home, walked down Chestnut St. in the Marina district, had a burrito for dinner from some local mexican place, then went next door to the "Horseshoe Tavern", which bills itself as the "Non-Marina" Marina bar (apparently the Marina is a pretty high-rent district full of ex-frat douchebags and barbie doll wanna-be's, etc.)...pretty cool place, definitely a more run-down/laid-back place...knocked back a bunch of beers, watched the Indians spank the Sox, met some very cool local people, including one guy who went to U. Maryland and just moved out here from bethesda, as well as another guy who just moved out here after spending a couple of years living on a houseboat in Annapolis! ended up hanging out with the houseboat dude for awhile, he showed me a couple other cool bars in the neighborhood, including one owned by the family of SanFran mayor Gavin Newsome, and another bar with a big beer-pong/flip-cup setup in the back! i kicked the guy's ass in one-on-one beer-pong, but then we got our asses kicked when we played doubles against another couple guys...got invited to an internet launch party going on in the Marina friday night, complete with bikini contest...

...woke up this morning hungover as shit (surprise, surprise), and it's pretty nasty out there, it was pouring rain outside when i woke up, looks like the rain's cleared for now but not sure how long that'll hold up...i have 3 days to see as much of this city as i can...a daunting task! so now it's time to get out there, start walking, and hope the rain holds off for awhile...

Monterey and Santa Cruz

let's see, what did i do in monterey...checked out monterey all day saturday, walked down cannery row, walked down the coast guard wharf, took a bunch of pics of the sea lions gathered on the rock outcropping at the end of the wharf, walked down fisherman's wharf, as well as the municipal wharf...checked out some museums downtown, including the Custom House, the Pacific House, and the Maritime History Museum...also took a 3-hour Whalewatching cruise! the boat took us about 20-25 miles into Monterey Bay, ended up seeing about 3-4 different pods of whales, about 15-20 humpback whales total! some of them came up pretty close to the boat as well...didn't see any other aquatic mammals, but the whales alone were worth it...got a bunch of great pics, again, i'll do my damndest to post these pics ASAP, but can't make any promises...might end up having to wait until i get back to maryland...after the whalewatching trip, did some barhopping for a couple hours, met some cool locals, watched some football and baseball, all in all a good time...saw both the LSU and Cal losses, couldn't believe either one!

sunday, i had been planning on trying to do some kayaking in Monterey Bay, but once i got up sunday morning, decided to skip that instead and hung out in a sports bar in Monterey close to my hotel, spent about 12 hours there, watched the morning NFL games, the afternoon NFL games, the sunday night NFL game, and game 3 of the NLCS...didn't get into Santa Cruz until about 11PM last night...grabbed a grilled cheese sandwich at a local vegetarian hippie-dippie diner and went off to sleep...one nice thing is that, for once, i'm actually in a real hotel-type place...this is the first time since i left maryland that i've had my own bedroom AND my own bathroom!

wandered around Santa Cruz today and did some exploring...walked out to Municipal Wharf this morning, not much to see but did get some good pics of the city from the wharf as well as the sea lions chilling out on the pilings beneath the wharf...then drove up to Lighthouse Beach State Park/Steamers Point/the Surfing Museum/Natural Bridges State Park, hung out and enjoyed the scenery, took some good pics, etc. etc...then came back into town, wandered up and down Pacific Ave., the main commercial drag in town, checking out the various shops/restaurants/bars/etc...not a bad place but not a ton of things to do...one thing i did find annoying is the huge number of bums/vagrants/burnt-out ex-hippies or hippie-wannabes out here...i'm as liberal as the next guy but goddamn, these guys were even getting on my nerves! found a great local Irish pub right off of Pacific, watched some baseball, hung out with some Santa Cruz locals, etc...had thought of taking surfing lessons while i was out here (lots of surfing lessons available in town), but it's been gray/overcast/drizzling/chilly all day...plus, when we were on the whalewatching boat in monterey on saturday, i saw an absolute TON of jellyfish in the water, which kind of freaked me out...so decided to sightsee instead...will have to save the surfing lessons until i come back here during the summertime, when the weather/water are warmer!

so i guess that wasn't the most exciting update...that's not surprising since the last couple of days were fun and entertaining, but not crazy exciting...anyways, things should pick up over the next couple of days as i'll be heading up San Francisco tomorrow and staying there through friday...god help me, i hope i can find some way to get the absolutely ridiculous number of pictures i've taken in the last week and a half online! anyways, stay tuned...

Pain In The Ass

So i just wasted a solid hour+ of my time and have already spent $20 bucks on computer access at the Monterey FedEx Kinko's trying to get my pics uploaded, with nothing to show for it...apparently i've taken ~480 pics since i last put pics up on this blog, including wedding weekend pics, Santa Barbara, Big Sur, and Monterey aquarium today...got them all dumped on to the hard drive here before realizing there's no practical way to get them all uploaded to a photo hoster in any reasonable amount of time...and it would take hours (@ $0.20 a minute) to post them all directly to blogger...so now i've got all the damn pictures dumped onto a CD-ROM as well as the flash drive i brought with me...and it's getting late and i'm sick of sitting in front of this damn computer...so i'm gonna call it quits for tonight, i think i'm really just going to have to try to borrow a friend's computer in SanFran so i can get these pics uploaded to Photobucket and at least put the links to the albums in a blog post or something...damn it all to hell, i'm heading back to the hostel and going to sleep...back with an update tomorrow or the next day, but probably no pics until early next week at the soonest...

The face of the earth as the Creator intended it to look

That's a Henry Miller quote describing Big Sur, he lived here from (i think) 1944-1962...so this post is all about my Big Sur experience...i drove up to Big Sur from Santa Barbara on wednesday...if i was a better writer, i might be able to convey in words the beauty and majesty of the Central California coastline along this particular stretch of Highway 1...just stunning, beautiful views of mountains dropping into the sea, the ocean pounding against the rocks, tendrils of fog enveloping the mountaintops...so beautiful it breaks your heart...exploring Big Sur is like touching the face of God...took me forever to get up to my inn from Santa Barbara because i was stopping every couple of minutes to pull over by the side of the road and get pictures of each new majestic vista...

...got in wednesday night, checked in at the hotel (tiny room, basically just a double bed and an end-table at this place), hit up a late lunch and a couple of beers at Nepenthe, a famous local restaurant with outdoor seating looking out over 40 miles of coastline, then visited the Henry Miller library, where he lived during the aformentioned dates, now a hard-to-describe amalgam of bookstore, live music performance space, local hang-out, etc. etc...took a drive down to Pfeiffer beach, an impossibly beautiful beach where rough waves crash treachorously against massive rock formations, a place that you've probably seen in many famous movies in the past (including, i believe, From Here To Eternity)...

...yesterday (thursday) was devoted to hiking and exploring the Big Sur wilderness...did a total of 6 trails, about 10 miles of hiking altogether! did 3 trails in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, 2 trails in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, and another trail in Andrew Molera State Park...unfortunately, i think i might have blown out my left knee sometime during the day, as it's hurting like a bitch right now and i'm having major trouble getting up and down stairs...after the hiking, managed to find the local townie bar and spent the rest of the evening there, watching game 1 of the NLCS and getting shitty with some of the local yokels...

...drove up to Monterey this morning (friday morning)...spent the afternoon at the aquarium, which was very cool aside from the screaming/crying/whining bratty goddamn kids...grabbed dinner and drinks afterwards, now just posting to the blog before i head back to the hostel and get to sleep...not sure what i'm going to do in monterey tomorrow, gonna try to do a whalewatching boat-trip and/or a kayak excursion into monterey bay...

...so, i've got a shitload of pics to upload, including the wedding weekend, santa barbara, big sur, and aquarium pics from today...gonna see how it goes on this FedEx Kinko's computer, hopefully i can at least get some put up...if it's too cumbersome (or expensive), i might just dump them onto a Flickr account and put the link up on the next post on this blog...anyways, stay tuned and let's see what happens!

Santa Barbara, a brief recap

typing this on my palm pilot so gonna keep it relatively brief...

spent the whole day tuesday exploring Santa Barbara, which is a beautiful and fun town...walked out to the end of Stearns Wharf in the morning, took some pics and stopped in at Moby Dick's for a bloody mary to help kill my hangover from the night before...then walked up State Street, the main commercial drag in town...gorgeous! it was a warm sunny day, the street is lined with palm trees, the architecture is great, there's a ton of cool shops, restaurants, and bars, and it seemed like everyone was out enjoying the day...i can see why everyone is so friendly here, you'd always be in a great mood too if you lived in that town! had a delicious italian cold cut sub for lunch from Three Pickles, a highly regarded local sub shop...then went to the art museum, they have a great collection, lots of impressionism, modern art, asian art, some dali and warhol, good sculptures...definitely worth the visit (small museum so it didn't take too much time to get through)...then walked up to the Mission de Santa Barbara, much longer walk then you would think from looking at the map...but worth it, it's very pretty and you can learn some interesting CA history...got back into downtown too late to visi the Presidio but that's no big deal...for dinner, another ridiculously long walk to La Super Rica (blisters on both feet now), a cheap but great local mexican place on the east side of town...had steak tacos and mexican rice that were simple, fresh, cheap, and mind-bogglingly delicious...finished up the night sampling the goods at the Santa Barbara Brewing Company, a local brewpub...great beers and friendly service...the Blonde was my favorite, both the beer and the bartender! the hostel i stayed in was abit shabby but good enough for my purposes...

looks like i'm reaching the character limit for text entry on my PDA...gonna wrap it up here and talk about Big Sur in the next post, probably when i get to monterey on friday...cheers!

The Journey Begins! Oceanside to Santa Barbara...`

This is going to be a brief post, not much to talk about today...

...woke up this morning feeling pretty hung over and worn out from the weekend's dionysian bacchanalia of drinking and partying...after i finally got showered and dressed, first priority was to get out and pick up my rental car...had originally requested a Toyota Corolla or something similar, but there wasn't one available from their out-of-state fleet (keep in mind, i'm dropping the car off in oregon), so they had to give me the only available out-of-state car they had in stock, which turned out to be an F'ing Cadillac DTX!!! Holy mother-of-god, this car is freaking amazing...it's got a Northstar V-8 engine, XM satellite radio, GPS navigation, heated AND cooled seats, seat massagers, sunroof, leather interior, remote engine start, the works...plus it's in this sick-ass metallic purple paint...good god i wish i could post pics through this computer right now so you could see how kick-ass this damn car is...for the duration of this blog, i will be referring to this car as the Pimpmobile, or some variation thereof...only downside is that i'll be spending more on gas than i had originally anticipated...but hey, you only live once, right?

not much else to report beyond that, i got out of Oceanside around 1:3o this afternoon, took the 5 past Camp Pendleton, jumped on the PCH around Capistrano...the drive from there up to LA is absolutely gorgeous, driving through a bunch of really nice beach communities, including Laguna Beach...LA itself is nothing to write home about, but i can't really complain, because i got through the city with not too much hassle...north of the city, went through Santa Monica and Malibu, both of which are insanely beautiful...got into Santa Barbara around 6PM, checked into my hostel, changed, and went for a walk down State St...had some beers and some dinner (my god the mexican food out here is absolutely amazing) whilst watching the CRAZY Cowboys/Bills Monday Night Football game...then walked a little further up state st. to a tequila bar for a couple of margaritas...now back at the hostel, typing up this post and trying to decide if i'm goingt to head off to sleep or go back out and try to catch a nightcap...

...got a bunch of stuff on the agenda for tomorrow, including a visit to Mission Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Courthouse, the local art museum, some of the local beaches, the local wharf/pier, and any number of other activities...will try to jump online and put up another post tomorrow, but i'm really really hoping i can find a way to post some of the pics i took this past weekend and today! anyways, that's it for now, check back later!

Wedding Recap!

So! it's been a couple of days since i last posted. as i mentioned in my last post, the past weekend was pretty busy with wedding stuff so didn't have any time to jump online and update this blog. but i have time now! unfortunately, i'm now at my hostel in Santa Barbara and don't have access to a USB port to upload pics, so you'll have to do with a text description for now...this post deals with the wedding, if i have enough time left on this computer that i'm paying to access, i'll talk about today's drive from oceanside to santa barbara as well...

so the wedding was absolutely great! had an absolutely amazing time...friday night, had a pre-wedding reception at the house catered by a local mexican place...saturday was the wedding itself, friz and nicole staged the ceremony on the rocks behind the house overlooking the ocean, it was pretty much a perfect day, couldn't have asked for nicer weather, everyone was pitching in and helping out with preparations, cooking up the kebabs, etc. etc...ceremony was around 1:30 or so, followed by drinking all afternoon, cutting the cake, firing up a bonfire in the evening, capped off by a rousing night of karaoke that lasted till about 3 or 4 in the morning...friz and nicole actually rented out a machine and had it setup in the main room, connected to the main big-screen hi-def tv in the living room...you'll be happy to hear that i sang 6 songs myself, including Boogie on Reggae Woman (Stevie Wonder), Ain't Too Proud To Beg (The Temptations), Touch Me (The Doors), Cherry Cherry (Neil Diamond), Whip It (Devo), and Kung-Fu Fighting (can't remember the guy's name). It was a blast! everyone was singing, everyone was having a ton of fun, and that's all you can ask for, right?

Karaoke marked the end of the night on saturday, sunday then consisted of an all day cookout in the back of the house, another day full of drinking and hanging out...it was so much fun hanging out with a bunch of great friends (8 UFFL'ers, 7 of whom are Dulaney class 0f '96), as well as friz and nicole's family, and their friends who i hadn't met before...between the people, the weather, the setting, and the fact that two people i care about so much were getting married, i really could not have asked for a better weekend in any way, shape, or form...i have so many amazing and awesome pictures! wish i could post them right now, but you're going to have to wait until i get to a computer where i have access to a USB port...that's all for now, next post will be about today and the trip up to Santa Barbara, and the true beginning of my West Coast odyssey...

Pics - Thursday - San Clemente and the beachhouse

Here are a bunch of pics i took thursday...most are of San Clemente, with a couple of pics of folks hanging out around the fire at the beachhouse in the evening...anytime i'm in such a pretty area, i tend to take a ton of pics, and yesterday in San Clemente was no exception...there's a lot of pics in this post but even more that i didn't bother putting up...sorry if some of them are repetitious, i couldn't decide which ones to put in and which ones to leave out! probably not going to do much more blogging this weekend...rehearsal dinner starts in about an hour, and from there on out it's going to be wedding-related activities for the rest of the weekend...anyways, enjoy the pics...as always, click on any pic to see the full-size version...

walking from the parking lot down towards the beach

walking down to the beach and pier

on the hill overlooking the beach

looking down at the pier; the building on the left where the pier begins is the Fisherman's Bar and Restaurant, where we stopped for beers and delicious, delicious steak tacos

looking north up the shoreline. i think that building is some kind of National Park Service outpost

the road that runs alongside the walkway leading to the beach/pier

lots of surfers in the water yesterday

more surfers; i really like how this one came out, with the wave breaking right as i was taking the pic

more surfers. the clouds rolled in yesterday afternoon and partially obscured the sun for most of the time we were in San Clemente. On the downside, this made it a little chilly. On the plus side, the sunlight took on a really diffused quality breaking through the clouds, casting everything in an almost misty, dream-like haze. you'll see this in a lot of the pics in this post.

i'm really happy with this one. had been trying for a couple days to get a good surfing action shot, both at the beachhouse in Oceanside and in San Clemente. As you can imagine, it's pretty damned hard, you have to have perfect timing and a little luck. I think mine is due more to dumb luck than skillful timing. we were standing on the pier when i took this pic, which is why we appear to be hovering over the surfer.

don't know what they call this sport...parasurfing? paraboarding? something like that. anyways, it looks like a lot of fun.

the sun breaking through the clouds. pic taken from the end of the pier.

the ocean. pic taken from end of pier.

couple of fisherman fishing off the end of the pier

looking back at San Clemente from the end of the pier

this fellow was posing for us. he kept turning around to look at the camera and let us get pretty close. as soon as we were done taking pics of him and walked away, he flew over to another part of the pier where there were some more tourists and repeated the whole posing/preening routine for them. a local walking by had a good laugh and told us that this particular pelican is known around these parts for posing for tourists. i think the guy said they call him "Johnny Pelican". then again, he may have just been messing with the out-of-towners.

another Johnny Pelican pic

me and Strubes on the pier

looking north up the shoreline, waves breaking

another pic looking north along the shoreline

looking south along the shoreline

another view of the shoreline looking north

looking south along the shoreline

San Clemente, from the end of the pier, facing south

looking south along the shoreline (i warned you that some of the pics are pretty repetitive!)

looking south along the shoreline

sitting around the campfire, (l to r), jill, nicole, nate, and kristen

sitting around the fire, (l to r) kat, erin, and jill

SoCal, Day 2

pretty late right now, about 3AM thursday night/friday morning...good day today!

didn't think the day was going to turn out to be much to brag (blog?) about...didn't get to bed till about 3 wednesday night, slept in thursday morning...cooked breakfast for some of the beachhouse folks this morning, eggs/bacon/toast...then just bummed around for a good long bit, reading my book (Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen)...i've been on a HUGE Hiaasen kick for the last couple months, ever since my friend Hone introduced me to him...great writer, was a Miami Herald columnist for a long time...definitely worth checking out...

...luckily Strubes was more ambitious and suggested an afternoon road-trip...got a tire patched on the rental car (nail in the tread), then headed up the coast about 20-25 miles to a small beachside town called San Clemente...nice place! i'm not gonna keep trying to come up with descriptions about how beautiful every place i visit is, because this whole thing would get boring (more so than usual) pretty quick...suffice it to say, San Clemente is yet another little slice of heaven on earth...we hung out in the park by the beach for a little bit, then walked down the pier, got some good pics, then walked back towards the shore and had some food and beer at a place called Fisherman's Bar and Restaurant right at the end of the pier...they had a $3 happy hour steak taco thing going on, the tacos were absolutely delicious, as were the Hefeweizen's we were drinking...unfortunately the clouds were rolling in, it was getting a little chilly, but still a very cool place to hang out...after that we rolled back down to the beachhouse in Oceanside...

...later in the evening i had to drive down to san diego airport to pick up T-Mac...holy shit do i love driving in this area...getting through traffic in this area is like cutting through butter with a warm knife! i guess it helps that i was driving strubes' rental car, a kick-ass Dodge Charger...probably shouldn't even admit this in public, but in any case i managed to hit 105MPH on I-5N going from the airport back to the beachhouse...but sitting in the car you wouldn't even know it...i think that if/when i ever buy a car with a V-6, i'll be dead within the year!

definitely good to have T-Mac in the house, plus Nichols and his girlfriend Erin got to the house while i was out on the airport errand...so it was super-cool to get back to the house and be amongst the whole throng of good old friends...got a camp-fire going, hung out in the hot tub, etc., etc...and just been drinking since then...couple quick points and then i'm done...

a) to clarify a point i made yesterday, one huge difference between this part of CA and the beaches back home is that the places back east are mainly tourist/resort areas that are jam-packed during the summer and full of chintzy tourist places but abandoned during the off-season...whereas around here, the beach communities are year-round and actual regular people live, work, and play in these areas year-round...

b) i've always loved mexican food anyways but good god it is so amazingly delicious out here...if/when i ever move out to this area, i could definitely see myself eating mexican food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for the rest of my life...

c) seriously, i'm not even joking, i absolutely love driving on the highways in this area...most people drive fast, the slow drivers know to either stay to the right or get out of the way...i guess it helps that i was driving a Dodge Charger, but still...

anyways, that's all i have to say, next post will be pics from today, mostly San Clemente...fair warning, i took a ton of pics today!

Beach House pics!

here are some of the pics i took today, my first day in california. click on any individual picture to see a full-sized version!

looking south along the pacific shore, the view from the beach directly behind our house...gives you some perspective on how close to the water the houses are

looking north up the pacific shore, the view from the beach directly behind our house...it didn't show up very well in this pic but there's a long pier going out into the water a ways off in the distance

sun setting over the pacific

sunset over the pacific. pic taken from the back "yard" of the house, right next to the fire pit. to the left is the railing that helps one walk down the precarious stone steps to the beach below

twilight over the pacific, i really like the colors on the horizon and that one person just walking along the beach in this pic with the surfers bobbing on the water in the background

looking down at the firepit from the third floor balcony...clockwise, starting from the left: JR, Strubes, Justin, and Frizzy

surfers in the water just after sunset; picture taken from beachhouse balcony

view from the top floor balcony of the house, looking north up the pacific shore just after sunset

the fridge after our beer run! particularly notable is the "Pabst Genuine Draft" (second shelf, on the right, gold cans), which i've never seen before in my life...i had always thought the only Pabst out there was of the "Blue Ribbon" variety...

view of the living room of the beach house...(l to r), Jill (maid of honor), JR, and Nicole (the bride)

San Diego, Day 1

It's about 9:45PM out here on the west coast right now...been a long day! got up at 4:15AM EST in order to catch a 6:15 flight out of BWI...luckily i have Northwest Silver Elite this year, which lets me bypass normal security lines, otherwise i probably would have missed my flight! flew BWI > Detroit, quick layover in Detroit, then a loooong flight from Detroit to San Diego, got to San Diego around 11:15AM PST...it is nice to walk off an airplane and immediately look out through a huge window and see palm trees and open water just beyond the airport!

met up with strubler, justin and kat at the rental car terminal, picked up the rental cars (i don't get mine until monday but justin and strubes each have one for our time here in san diego)...had some time to kill before frizzy got done with work so we drove down to the Gaslamp Quarter close to downtown San Diego, grabbed some food and walked around a bit...then headed north about 15 miles to Del Mar, where Frizzy and Nicole's apartment is located...met up with them at the apt. as well as bunch of their family and friends who had already gotten out here earlier than us...loaded up all the cars with wedding stuff and other miscellanous stuff we were going to need at the beach house, then started heading further up the coast to Oceanside, where the beach house is located...

...holy shit! it was a truly amazing drive...the main interstate (the 5) was loaded with rush hour traffic so we took Coastal Highway 101 instead, pretty much driving right along the coastline for about 20 miles...it took pretty long because it's not an interstate, and we were driving through towns with stop signs and traffic lights, etc...but goddamn, it was one of the prettiest drives i've ever been part of...just small beach town after small beach town, nice houses, big cliffs going down to the water...this is definitely an outdoorsy place, there were tons of people out running, surfing, etc. etc...and i guess it goes without saying that the weather was absolutely picture perfect...this is also the first time i've seen the Pacific Ocean...it's kind of neat how out here, the towns come right up to the edge of the water, there's not as much of a distancing between them as you seem to find out on the east coast...it really seems like the ocean is an integral part of daily life and recreation...

...anyways, after awhile we finally got to the beach house in Oceanside...pardon me for repeating myself but holy shit! my first thought when we saw the place was, "hmmm, maybe my plane actually crashed on the way to california and i've died and gone to heaven"...this is an amazing place!!! it's 3 levels plus a loft, top level has kitchen and main living room with a widescreen tv, bedrooms on the second floor (each of the top floors has a balcony as well)...the bottom level (basement) is normally a "kids" room, in this case it's the single guy's room...2 bunk beds and a trundle bed...and a foosball table! and our own fridge and tv! the basement room/bachelor pad opens out to the back of the house, where we have an outdoor hot tub, a fire pit surrounded by chairs, a couple of lounge chairs, and table and chairs covered with a canopy...and you just have to walk down some stone steps and you're on the beach!

i did actually walk down to the water almost as soon as we got here (my first time ever setting foot in the Pacific Ocean!), and goddamn it is cold...they warned me that the pacific is much colder than the atlantic, but this is ridiculous! the water is ice cold right now...presumably it's only going to get colder as i go up the coast...which means i could see myself doing a lot of sunning/reading on the beach on this trip with very few actual excursions into the water...

not much else to report on today, it's been a long, long day, spent the evening getting settled into the beach house, went on a beer/food run, now we're all just hanging out watching Big Lebowski on DVD, one of my all-time favorite movies...

trying to figure out what i'm going to do with myself tomorrow and friday...wedding related activities don't start until friday around 4, don't have any obligations before then...the one thing i definitely want to do is check out the San Diego Zoo, beyond that i'm not really dying to do a ton of sightseeing in san diego, especially since we're in this absolutely amazing house and i don't feel particularly motivated to leave it! maybe try to make it down to Pacific Beach to have breakfast at the Green Flash as per my friend Olle's recommendation, but it's tough since i don't have a car of my own down here yet, so would have to walk/take the train most places...so aside from the Zoo i'll probably just hang back at the house and try to put a dent in the massive amount of beer we bought today! of course, my other big priority while this far south is to also consume massive amounts of mexican food...sorry to ramble on, hopefully as this trip goes along i'll get better at figuring out what i should write about and what i should just keep to myself! not sure how much blogging i'm going to do while down here in san diego since i figure any post would mainly consist of "today i sat around and drank a lot of beer and played some bocce ball"...unless i get some really cool pics or something...that's all for this post, next post is gonna have some of the pics i took today...

Introduction

I'm guessing anyone reading this blog already knows who i am and why i'm writing it. But for those who don't: my name is Nitin Goel. I'm 29 years old. Born in Minneapolis, grew up in Baltimore, currently living in the Washington DC area. Went to college at University of Maryland College Park and grad school at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Currently work as a Research Specialist in Process Development and Manufacturing for the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation.

The impetus for this trip is the impending nuptials of my friend Frizzy. Frizzy and i went to middle school, high school, and college together, and i'm lucky to be able to call him one of my best friends, from Comic Book Club and backyard fires in middle school, through our Denton 5 days in College Park, all the way up to the present day as the High Rollers routinely bitch-slap the Quacktastic Blue Ducks in the Umpstead division of the UFFL.

Frizzy lives in San Diego now, which is where the wedding will be held, a week from tomorrow. I will be flying out there, as will much of the rest of the Cockeysville/Lutherville-Timonium cohort. Now, i've never once in my life ever set foot on the west coast. Also, i have a ton of vacation time saved up at work. Finally, i'm turning 30 in january. These three factors combined together made me decide earlier this year that i should make the most of the opportunity and try to see as much of the west coast as possible while i'm out there.

I will be flying out to San Diego on Wednesday October 3rd. will be in San Diego for 5 days, until the 8th. At that point, all the Baltimore guys fly home, i pick up my rental car, and the trip begins! The current plan includes stops in San Diego (of course), Santa Barbara, Big Sur, Monterey, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Point Reyes National Seashore, Sonoma, Chico (gotta visit the Sierra Nevada brewery!), Redwoods National Park, Eugene, and finally Portland. Will fly from Portland back to Baltimore on October 28th.

I'm hoping to use this blog to share my pictures and stories with friends and family and let them keep track of my progress. It will also be nice to have a diary of the trip that i can look back at myself after it's all over and done with. Will try to post as frequently as possible, but since i'm not taking a laptop with me, it will be dependent on my access to computers and the internet.

Anyways, that's all for now. I have an obscene amount of packing, cleaning, and other preparation to get through in the 4-5 days remaining, so posting will probably be light-to-non-existent until i actually get to San Diego next wednesday. Check back for updates, hope you enjoy reading about my journey as much as i know i'll enjoy doing it!