Rough Draft

Fun Weekend

This weekend I had a chance to hang out with Dan who was one of my best friends in high school. He had told me he was taking a trip across the country, so we had been planning to get together once he made it out here. He got here around 1 on Saturday afternoon. After the quick tour of the apartment we went to BJs for lunch to catch up since he haven't really kept in touch and then I showed him the Apple campus, took him over to my office, and showed off Soundtrack Pro.

After lunch, we went geocaching with Andrew and Ricci. This is the third weekend in a row I've been geocaching, though this ended up being the least successful one. The first coordinates we went to put us in a residential area, so we think we may have typed the coordinates in wrong. The second one we went to we found the area it was in along this walkway, but after looking for quite some time, we finally had to give up. Fortunately we had success at the next cache (in a park at the west end of Stevens Creek Blvd) we went to. Dan actually found the cache so that was cool since it was his first time geocaching. The cache along the walkway was the first one where we've actually found the general area of the cache and not successfully found it. We need to check the clue on geocaching.com and go back there.

After the geocaching, we stopped by Jamba Juice because Ricci had a bunch of free coupons. Then we went over to Ricci's to play Settlers of Catan and some video games. We also watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou which I had gotten from NetFlix. It was pretty good, but I also thought it was pretty slow in some parts. I gave it 3 stars, though it's rating average rating is 4.5. Maybe I missed something about it. As far as Wes Anderson movies go though, I definitely like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums a lot better than The Life Aquatic.

On Sunday Dan and I went up to San Francisco. We didn't have any specific plans, so we parked at the Daly City BART station and took the train to 24th and Mission. We walked around a little while and Dan got some coffee at a place called Muddy Water. We passed a bunch of people dressed in costumes ranging from brides to pirates to Elvis. I later found out these were people running the Bay to Breakers race.

I suggested going to Golden Gate Park because I hadn't been there yet and I've been wanting to see the Japanese tea garden. After looking at a map at a Muni stop, we decided we'd walk a ways to the 'N' stop which looked like it would take us pretty close to the park. After getting to the park we then attempted to find the tea garden. We started walking in the direction we thought it was, and ran into this group of guys (they sounded British) and they asked if we knew how to get to the tea gardens. We said no, but that's where we were trying to get as well. We walked a ways and eventually found a map and started looking at it when another group of people came up and said they were also looking for the tea gardens. I said just finding the tea gardens was going to be a fulfilling experience. After determining the map was oriented upside down (north was at the bottom) we figured out which way to go. We walked a bit further and came across another, this time correctly oriented, map and verified we were going the right way. Along the way we passed this car that looked like a piranha. Then eventually we got to the tea gardens.

After getting to the entrance, we realized it cost $3.50 to go in. I said "That doesn't seem very zen." Of course I really didn't mind paying. It was a really cool place. There were a lot of really neat plants and flowers and lots of water. It would be a great place to just sit and read all afternoon. I had my camera with me and took some good pictures. This really just made me want to go to Japan all the more.

Next we made our way to the Golden Gate bridge. Unfortunately it was incredibly foggy and you could only see a few feet of it before it disappeared into the fog. We did walk partway across the bridge and then back, just to say we'd been on it. We took the Muni back through the city by way of Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown and eventually got off near Market Street. I decided I wanted to look for the Apple store since I hadn't been there yet and I was curious if they might have the Final Cut Studio and/or Soundtrack Pro boxes yet. We were standing on a street corner waiting to cross and then just as we did, I looked up and realized the Apple store was right there in front of us. Unfortunately, it was about 7:00 and it had closed at 6:00. In the minute or two we were by the store I was amazed at the number of people coming up to the store only to find out it was closed. Finally, we crossed Market and listened to a Funk street band for a few minute before getting back on the BART.

It was a really fun weekend and it was good seeing Dan since I haven't seen him in a couple years.