Thursday
- Woke up so late! Packed in a rush and forgot two things - ear antiseptic and Allison’s earrings ):
- Found out at Thanksgiving dinner that some of our relatives live in Fremont. They offered to give us a ride to save us some BART money.
- Took a stop at our house so Tansen and I could pick up the things we forgot.
- Alex and Allison picked us up and we headed over to Alex’s place. So big o__o
- pictures, fuzzy panda tapestry, photo of young-Alex, bedtime
Friday
- Woke up some time in the middle of the
night morning to the sound of Tansen letting Max in. Went back to sleep.
- Alarm went off at 4. Allison and I rushed downstairs to bug and say hi to Max and Tansen, neither of who slept, then rushed back upstairs to get changed and pack.
- Out the door around 4:30.
- Long drive..
- Alex and Tansen finished off the two Starbucks fraps right away. No problems with snack shortages - Allison’s mom supplied us generously with junk food. :D
- Allison and Max swapped FF’s and started playing.
- Despite the coffee, Tansen fell asleep right off the bat.
- We played a game of 4-player Mario Party. XD Bonus stars were just finishing as we pulled up in front of Kass and Spark’s place at around 10:30.
- Lunch at Chipotle’s. Allison and I split a salad. The photos begins!
- Drove over to UCSD and spent the rest of the day wandering the campus and posing for Kass’s cinematography photo assignment. Cindy caught up to us and joined in. Photos went from noon-ish past sunset. My own camera decided to eat its battery. >_<
- Ginza Sushi for dinner! :D The employees still remembered Kass and Spark from years ago. We ordered a giant sushi boat - should have taken a picture.
- Boba for dessert! Just kidding. TapEx was closed.
- Went back to crash at Cindy’s dorm. I tried to finish more of the Neopets game challenge while everybody played a game of Munchkin. After it was over, Kass and the guys went to go check in at a Holiday Inn, and Allison and I stayed with Cindy.
- Found out I was missing my DS stylus
- Stayed up late talking. Eventually got to sleep around 1:30-ish.
Saturday
- Cindy made us breakfast :D
- Packed, and when the WoW fans (+ Alex) arrived we all went to fill up on caffeine at the nearest Starbucks. Left my camera and its self-destructive battery at Cindy’s.
- ZOO!
- The bus tour was great. Tiger cubs, baby panda in a tree, bears, sausage tree…
- The Wild Ones show. Saw some really cool animals - the Artic wolf and the clouded leopard were absolutely beautiful :) (Don’t buy palm products! The farms take over habitat space.)
- Skyfari Aerial Tram
- Expensive food. So expensive.
- peacocks, red pandas
- bug exhibit! Bird-eating spiders are friggin huge.
- Spent more than an hour with the otters, trying to get non-blurry pictures. Missed the sea lion show. Eventually Kass gave up and took a movie, and got some great stills from the frames.
- Left maybe 20 minutes before closing time.
- Went to Islands and got a really nice booth with a tiki-hut feel. We had a fantastic dinner, except that I forgot to ask for no cheese on my burger. Everybody ordered a Cola Lime Ice.
- Went back to Cindy’s to pick up my stuff and Allison’s. Said goodbye’s, and then left for LA…
- …which was the plan, except about a third of the way out of SD the car broke down. Alex and I thought we’d blown a tire, so we pulled over on the highway. Turned out the tires were fine. When we took the next exit to catch up to Kass’s car, Alex immediately decided there was something wrong with the steering.
- Calls to parents and AAA. Problems involved the absence of insurance holders, car dealerships and mechanics off work on Sundays, and Alex’s parents being out of cell phone range. Alex managed to move the car down the road to a Holiday Inn. Kass helped us get a room, and then she and Spark had to head back to LA.
- Camped out in our room. Nothing to be done except wait.
Sunday
- Checked out. Dumped some stuff in the car, then shouldered our backpacks and hiked off to the beach.
- Beach
- Dangerous trek down the sandy trail to the waterside. Found a bench and settled down.
- I decided to write T.I.C on the beach using rocks. Tansen and Max wrote an SOS nearby.
- Cell phone reception on the beach was bad, so after pictures and stickfighting we climbed back up and went back to the car.
- Cindy and her car-savvy friend drove down to visit us for a few minutes. He diagnosed the cause of steering implosion.
- Alex’s parents caught up to us a little past 5. Swapped cars, and we headed off to LA.
- Holy shit, traffic.
- Went to Kass and Spark’s apartment for dinner. Couldn’t stay for too long - it was already 9:30 or so when we left.
- Drove back
- word association game
- Insane fog for most of the drive. We could barely see 10 feet in any direction - followed the lights on other cars and GPS.
- Everybody tried to stay awake. I succeeded until the last few minutes, when we were heading back into the Bay Area. When I woke up we were circling UC Berkeley. With the fog and the absence of cars and people, the campus looked very surreal.
- Dropped off Max, and then Alex drove me and Tansen back home. Our mom woke up when we were outside and opened the door for us. It was a little past 4.
- Dumped my stuff and ate a little bit before going to bed.
I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend :) I only wish I’d remembered my camera battery charger.
pictures: Kass’s, Cindy’s, mine