It’s official now. On Tuesday I will start working for a new company. I will be a member of the marketing department for Appliance Therapy Group in Chatsworth (Northwest LA County). I had a week between ending the last job and starting this new one. I have research to do about the new companies old marketing materials, but in the meantime I scheduled a trip up north. What follows is my account of that trip:
Tuesday 22nd – On The Road
The better part of Tuesday was spent driving. We left North Hollywood around 10:30 am, had lunch in the car while stuck in a traffic jam for an hour and a half (a small section of the highway was “flooded” and so reduced to one lane), and arrived in San Jose around 5pm. Our lodging for this trip was at Amy’s cousin May’s house in San Jose. There is some debate about whether her house is actually a million dollar home, but it was very nice nonetheless. San Jose in general is a very peaceful place. We passed IBM’s laboratory on the way (San Jose IS silicon valley after all). Much of the countryside is reminiscent of Ohio, with many winding roads ducking in and out of hills and valleys. The valleys tend to be a little wider and flatter than Ohio’s though. Part of this terrain included “scenic” route 152. Upon entering 152 (off of the 5) we slowly started to notice a large flat plateau on the horizon. This (perfectly) flat hilltop seemed to stretch from one end of our peripheral vision to the other. We were traveling perpendicular to it and before long it became obvious that it had to be manmade. The minute after you realize that fact is pretty overwhelming, probably akin to driving right up to the great wall of china (if it was flat). The road goes almost to the base of this massive earthen wall before making a sharp right and heading up into the hills around the reservoir. Upon climbing a few more miles there are vista points where one can look back upon the reservoir. It is an amazing site. It turns out the dam is the fourth largest embankment dam in the United States and holds almost thirteen acres of water behind its massive front wall. Click here http://www.valleywater.org/media/pdf/san_luis_map.pdf for a good map of the reservoir. The massive wall that we approached from the 152 appears to be at least three miles wide.
After dinner with May and her two children John and Amy (I swear…if the Long and Chang/Liu families ever get together nobody will ever know who is talking to who…) we planned out our activities for the next two days. May had many good maps and suggestions for things to do.
Wednesday 23rd – San Francisco
After a quick forty-five minute drive we drove through the streets of San Francisco. We took the 101 north, which disappears into street driving on its way to the Golden Gate bridge. We took the scenic path around the bridge stopping at many vista points. We then proceeded to Pier 39. The Pier turned out to be way too commercial for us. We decided to eat at Bubba Gump’s for lunch (neither of us realizing that it was a chain restaurant). The food was horrible all around, but the view was fantastic. From our table we had a clear view of the bay, including both bridges and Alcatraz. From Fisherman’s Wharf we headed to Lombard street to take the famous twisty block for a turn or two. After that we headed towards downtown to pick up my friend Aaron. Aaron (not Montes) is a friend from OSU art school that is now taking graduate art classes at the SF academy of art (http://www.academyart.edu/fa/index.asp). His tour started with Coit Tower, a tower that peaks above the city at the other end of Lombard street. After taking in the view from the (free) parking lot we took the rickety elevator ride to the observation deck at the top of the tower. From this view it became apparent how small the city really is. In fact, if one were to rip I-270 from its roots in Columbus and lay it over SF, most of it would be over water (of the ocean, or bay respectively). In fact, to go from the golden gate bridge to downtown is akin to going from The Shoe to the Brewery District in Columbus.
After Coit we took another trip down Lombard before parking in the posh Marina District directly across from the Palace of Fine Arts lagoon. We walked around the Palace, a stunning Romanesque structure with colonnades encircling a structure with a golden dome. Check out this link to see what I mean: http://www.nps.gov/prsf/places/palace.htm
The homes in the area are all custom and unique, but smacking up right next to each other. We walked around the neighborhood for awhile just to take a look at them. Just as we were speculating on the price we found one that was for sale. The brochure (“take one”) hanging from the For Sale sign said the home’s starting price was 2.7 million. At first these homes look tiny because the front is so small and smacked up against its neighbors. Upon further inspection one finds that the homes stretch backwards long enough to provide ample room inside, especially considering that many of them have four stories.
Next we decided to take a tour of China Town. After wiggling our way around one way streets that seemed designed to keep us out of Chinatown we found parking in a spot just a block up from the Transamerica building. We walked from China Town to Union Square and then the Metreon. Supposedly SF’s Chinatown is the largest in America. I’m not sure about that, but it certainly is the coolest and most authentic. It is a very interesting place and slowly you realize that none of the buildings are newer than thirty years old, adding to the authenticity. Even the post office is built like an authentic Chinese palace (in miniature). As we walked to Union Square we realized that the architecture all over San Francisco is some of the best and most thought out in America. Every building has a distinct style, most of them looking very modern but even the older buildings seem to have been built with the future or at the very least regality (if that is a real word) in mind. The Metreon fits in perfectly with this design aesthetic. See for yourself here: http://www.metreon.com/
After arriving at the Metreon Aaron had to leave to attend a night class a few blocks away. In a few minutes Amy’s friend Catherine picked us up and we went out to eat with her and her boyfriend. Ironically, the restaurant was two blocks from where we were parked in Chinatown. The restaurant had the dimensions of a trailer home, but was intent on squeezing as many people in as possible. See for yourself at their official website (http://www.bocasf.com/site/start.html). (the picture you’ll see is the WHOLE place…) The food was excellent, but tiny. It was the epitome of the restaurant where you get a tiny plate with a tiny little blip of meat. Dinner for the four of us came out to $108. Thankfully Catherine and Jimmy decided to treat us when they saw our wide eyes when the check came.
Thursday 24th – Pebble Beach
On Thursday on May’s recommendation we headed south towards Pebble Beach and its famous “17-mile” drive. Our favorite spot was in Monterey Bay just down the street from Lover’s Point. We spent a few hours just walking out on the rocks and getting close to the breaking waves. I even cajoled Amy out onto a cliff for a photo (currently the last thumbnail in the gallery). As we were walking back to the car a man stopped us and said he could take our picture. After doing so he told us we should go to San Juan Batista where you can see the fault line. Neither of us had actually seen a fault before and got really excited. The Mission wasn’t too far off the path we’d have to take to go back to May’s so we decided to check it out. Turns out the fault line is currently covered by a thick growth of thorny underbrush and can’t be seen at all. The town was one of those old west towns that went to sleep in the 19th century and has yet to come out of its coma. A sign on one of the buildings said “established 1856.” This was the sort of town that many a spaghetti western could have been shot in (if Italy wasn’t available). You can see the nicer side here: http://www.pbase.com/onehot45/san_juan_batista
On the way back to May’s we saw a small vineyard with free wine tasting. Just before eating dinner with May we stopped into San Jose’s downtown. Very small. Akin to an Akron with rich people. We stopped in for its Japan Town. It turned out that Japan Town was actually Jackson Street with a few blocks of Asian cuisine restaurants.
Friday 25th – Oceanview
We started on our way back to Los Angeles an hour earlier than we had left on Tuesday. We took the 101 the whole way back. It ended up taking about three extra hours (over the 5). About an hour from Los Angeles we came around a hillside and there was the La Conchita landslide on our left (http://www.opl.ucsb.edu/grace/lc/lc17.html) and the Pacific on our right. The mudslide is quite an amazing site. When you look at where the houses are and how the hills are shaped in the area it boggles the mind as to why anyone would put a housing development there. I guess that is the sacrifice that people make to live by the ocean.
I may put up a slideshow of photos from our trip in a few days, but for now I’ve spent enough time fixing up the “art” photos gleaned from the trip and adding them to the gallery. I also have quite a bit of “homework” to do to prepare for my new job.
Just when everything is looking up, along comes a downer. It looks like I may have Jury Duty on my birthday…
Aaron just called me to say that Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air lives down the street from us on Camarillo (about two blocks from here). He saw him outside in his weekend clothes arguing with a gardener. If you’ve forgotten who Carlton was…http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005355/
