Monday - Saturday, November 16th - 28th

I only expected to spend 3 days in the Bay area but it obviously turned out to be much longer than that! The new plan is to leave this area on Sunday November 29th and head towards San Diego with a couple days stop in LA to visit friends! But what exactly did I do in San Fran that motivated me to stay for such a long period of time, you ask? Well, let me tell you!

Monday: Walked around Downtown SF - Immediately after getting off the BART I found out that Wicked was playing at the Orpheum and I decided that it was about time that I saw the production. I was determined see it before leaving SF, no matter what! The rest of the day was spent being a tourist, watching street performers and checking out the scene at the warf. Near the end of the night I heard some live music that pulled me into a bar. I sat down and listened to Albert Niland play acoustic guitar for about an hour. After I fell in love with his music, I purchased his CD and proceeded to talk to him about my fancy of his music and my trip. He shared that he was also a cyclist and was dreaming of doing a trip like mine (but in europe) in the near future. He agreed to exchange guitar tips for cycling tips.

I couldn't leave the downtown area without riding on the historic trolley! I took the trolley back to the Bay Area Rapid Transit. It was a very cool experience and I met some great people along the way that were very interested in my story.

One thing that upset me while I was down there was the number of homeless people in San Francisco. My experience would have been a lot brighter if it was not for the mass quantities of people asking for money. It saddened my heart to see them there in such 'desperate need'. It did not take long before my feelings of sadness turned into annoyance. How many times can you be asked for money or to buy a newspaper to support the homeless before you go insane... 1392 times is the answer!

Tuesday: Visited Berkeley. The school is gorgeous but the local area is thriving with homeless people still. I decided, while I was walking around the campus that I would check out the engineering department as a potential place to attend grad school. My experience was frustrating! I asked around and finally found the engineering office for graduates. I then talked to a lady about attending grad school there, just to be told that they have no information to give out about the program, they would not allow me to tour any of the facilities because all lab work is proprietary, they wouldn't introduce me to any faculty and I had to go online to get all my information about anything! Great! That is exactly what I was looking for when I decided to check out the campus in person!

That night we went to Trivia at a irish bar downtown - 2nd place, alright!

Wednesday: I was given a choice today of weather I wanted to go to Yosemite or see Wicked. I chose Yosemite! We drove the 4 hours to get there on Wednesday so that we could play around all day on Thursday. We slept in a heated tent and had a wonderful meal at the lodge (thanks Chris!)!

Thursday: Chris and I played around in Yosemite. We woke up early and hiked to Yosemite falls, Vernal falls and Nevada Falls. The views were amazing and the hikes long. I could not help myself but have a huge smile on my face all day! Unfortunately this 'play time' took quite a toll on our bodies and both of us had sore knees and legs the next few days.

Friday: Chris and I entered our names in the Wicked lottery. My name was the first one pulled, it was just meant to be! We met up with Barbara and saw Wicked. The seats were horrible. I think I had the worst seat in the whole theatre, but I moved back for the second half and it was phenomenal. I will just have to go again sometime, oh shucks (that's sarcasm for all you who don't know me well enough to understand that I will use this as an excuse to see it again)!

Saturday: Attended the Lupis Dance Benefit in downtown SF. Before the benefit we had burritos at la cumbre in the mission. Supposedly this is where the first burrito, as they are known today was made.

Sunday: Biked to Golden Gate Park and found a pickup ultimate game going on, so I joined in! It was fun to meet some locals and play a game that I have long missed since the start of my trip.

Monday: Helped Chris in the garden, Out the door, Saw 'This Is It" at a theatre downtown. The documentary of the concert was really good. If there was one thing that I wish it would have contained it would have been a dress rehearsal. Rainy

Tuesday: BIG GARDEN DAY followed by game night. I helped Chris install rock walls in her garden... the next day my upper body was a little sore and it took me a couple minutes to realize that it was due to gardening!

Wednesday: Drove down to Palo Alto to check out Stanford and visit Don and Doris (my grandmothers younger sister's house). Stanford was an amazing university. From the architecture to the landscape there was a welcoming and studious feeling about the place. At Don and Doris's house we had a lefsa making party! I rolled lefsa for the first time and it turned out that I am, in Wii terms, at a near professional level. Nobody believed that I had never done it before. Well, now that I think of it there may have been a time about 15 years ago that I may have rolled a piece or two at my uncle Mike's house in New London, WI. Who knows...

Barbara went to pick up her daughter Rachel at the airport for Thanksgiving. This made me a little nervous because I did not her to come home and feel like I had taken her family away from her so I made myself scarce for a while after she came home. I needed to see how she acted around the house before I said or did anything. In the end, everything was good and
The night ended with me reassembling my bike and replacing the chain followed by staying up till 3:30 in the morning playing Wii with Chris.

Thursday: Thanksgiving with the Lorents Family. FUN!

Friday: Updating Blog, Played a bunch of Wii, watched a movie. Just hanging out and having fun!

Saturday: Packed up all my stuff and prepared for an early morning departure. Then Chris, Barbara, Rachel and myself went to The Sound Of Music Sing Along Movie in the Castro.

Sunday: Predicted departure time is 8am