California!

I’m in California! Than and I got here Friday night. We flew into LAX, picked up our rental car (waited in line for a really long time - annoying!), drove up the 101, and ended up staying in Ventura that night.

Yesterday we drove through Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo before getting on the 1 (aka the Pacific Coast Highway). I hadn’t made that drive before, and I after doing it I have to agree with everyone: it IS one of the most beautiful drives one could make. The coastline is absolutely gorgeous, and of course there’s Big Sur. We stopped by the visitor’s center at the Hearst Castle, but because we didn’t buy our tickets ahead of time (we couldn’t know what time we’d be showing up there), everything was sold out for the day and we couldn’t go on the tour. Oh well! At least I got a picture of the castle (albeit a very far-away picture). Pictures will be posted probably when I get back to TX - stay tuned!

We completed the drive in Monterey, which is where we stayed last night. There’s a huge motorcycle race going on (the Red Bull US Grand Prix - apparently a pretty big deal), so it was really annoying/stressful trying to get a hotel here. But they had a bunch of cool events going on downtown, which made up for it. Today we’ll be doing the 17 Mile Drive around the Monterey Peninsula, checking out Pebble Beach, before going to Santa Cruz to check out downtown there and the University. After that, we’ll be headed to San Jose, which is where we’ll be for the next 6 nights.

So here are our CA plans so far: I have Java training during the day for the next Mon-Fri. On Monday (tomorrow), will be checking out a Giants game in San Fran, where Barry Bonds will hopefully do something historic. Tuesday will be hanging out with Brenden at Pixar. Probably will check out the Stanford campus. At some point I’ll meet up with a couple of friends - which reminds me, I need to hit them up!

After San Jose will be a day at Yosemite before heading back to LA for two days. Not sure exactly what we’ll be doing in LA, but probably the Getty museum and Hollywood. Will definitely get some dim sum and bubble tea!

FYI: I haven’t bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows yet. Than’s been making me wait it out and has been threatening to make me wait even longer! He wants me to finish my current book (Xenocide) first, and he doesn’t trust that I’ll be able to discipline myself (i.e. read all the time instead of doing fun stuff). Well, he may be right. :) But hopefully, if I play my cards right, I’ll have a copy of it in my hands tonight!