I also wanted to go ahead and post about the highights of my trip. The plane rides weren’t as bad as I was expecting. They even played a double feature on the way back, showing both “Firewall” and “Failure to Launch”. Both were mediocre, but I thought that the writing of “Failure to Launch” was really good. The story was lackluster, but there were these asides of dialogue that were absolutely hilarious, e.g. “I’ll give you a Canadian goose”. The food at corp was gourmet and free, so that was good. Thursday night we drove to Santa Cruz. We had some Thai (I got the spicy lamb), I got a Santa Cruz t-shirt to add to my collection, and we headed out to try and find a beach. We drove along the coast and finally found some state park beach. It was closed, but we headed down to the shoreline. I have felt the Pacific ocean now. I wasn’t paying attention and the surf lapped at my shoes, so they got wet, though. :( Well, I should have known and I should have put on sandles, but hey, you live, you learn. Since our flight back was at 2pm, we headed back to San Fransisco early to see if we could get to see the Golden Gate Bridge. Which we did. Driving up 101 and through downtown, getting lost a couple of times, we finally drove across it. Well, I drove across it. We pulled a u-y and drove back, at which time we incurred the $5 toll. Unfortunately as I was driving, I wasn’t in a good place to take any pictures. Next time I’ll plan better. Also, why didn’t tell me that California was mountainous and dry? I always pictured California as hilly. Hilly like College Station, or the Hill Country, or Atlanta, but not mountains visible in the distance. Also, since California is near the ocean and the temperature is, I’m told, is very nice (perhaps I’m thinking of San Diego), I would have expected a bunch of rain and not a whole lot of heat. The combination of these things would, in my mind, produce ample green vegetation. Anyhoo, those were my highlights.

Why don’t they pour liquid nitrogen into the fountains instead of soap?