After Comic-Con, we took Amtrak up to San Luis Obispo to visit Nick’s Godmother and her hubby. Amtrak is pleasant, but very slow. You can take on food, drinks, whatever, and the seats are very comfy. As we were waiting to board in San Diego, there was a big earthquake up in Chino – Nick felt it, but sadly, I did not. It was just a small ripple in San Diego, but it was big enough to cause Amtrak to travel at about 20mph all the way up to L.A. so they could check the tracks in front of the train. Amtrak trains travel at about 55mph most of the time despite the trains being rated for 89mph top speed. We finally arrived at SLO around 9:30pm. (Why this country can’t get behind high speed rail, I’ll NEVER understand.) As slow as it is, Amtrak beats the SHIT out of flying as far as comfort and hassle goes.
The visit with Nick’s godmother was great. Thanks to Lorie and Chuck for putting us up and treating us to a lovely dinner. We hopped back aboard Amtrak for the trip up to Walnut Creek CA for the family reunion. Once again, Amtrak was late to the destination – but it was not their fault: some moron left a shopping cart on the tracks and when the train struck it, a hose was knocked loose. It took about 30 minutes to fix.
We finally arrived in Oakland at 10:30pm to a station that is in a bad neighborhood, far from a BART station and has no taxis. Nice. We managed to find a cab to take us to the BART station so we could get up to Walnut Creek. It was about 11pm when we finally go to the hotel. We were pissed to lose Thursday, but what can you do? The ONLY train from SLO left at 3pm. Grr.
The San Francisco part of the trip was also really fun. Nick’s whole family came to CA to celebrate their Grandpa’s 90th birthday. Nick’s uncle Mike and his wife Debbie hosted the motley crew of 13. Friday night, they took us to Skates restaurant at the Berkeley Marina and paid for it. Oy! Then they had us over for a cookout on Saturday. All in all, I like Nick’s CA family better than the MI people. They are much more laid back and friendly. Nick’s sister was a bitch to me as usual, so we didn’t get to see Meghan and Kaitlin at all. Too bad. Meghan is going to move to NYC in a couple of months and I know he would have liked to hang out a bit. I don’t know what is wrong with his sister -Â she’s fine one time I see her and a total bitch the next. Whatever, she can kiss my fat Southern ass. The rest of the family was great and I hope to see them again soon. It was cool to meet Nick’s grandparents!
The big fun was, of course, the City. San Francisco is a lovely city with very cool weather. It was in the low 70s during the day and got down to the low 50s at night. Chilly! It was a nice break from the stifling heat and pollution of Atlanta. We visited the Cable Car Museum and the Wharf areas Friday afternoon and stayed over Saturday night. BIG thank you to Kelly for letting us crash in her flat! We got to have some quality time with Ted, Nina and Kelly which was really great. We also got to hang out and chat with Serena for several hours on Sunday. We missed Elaine this time, but we plan to NOT miss her next time.
This trip was totally about planes, trains and public transportation! LOL That is really the most tiring thing about traveling: the shlepping of your crap on every possible kind of conveyance. Oy. It was truly an action packed 2 weeks! We hope to not do a marathon like that again soon.
All in all: the trip was awesome and really fun!!
The home front was mostly kept up by our housesitter. She killed 2 of my plants, did not feed my wild birds and spilled ink all over my house, but other than that things were intact. I didn’t get too bent about the ink spots (it took OFF the finish) on my coffee table – which she admitted to when I asked about it – but I subsequently found ink on my tray tables and my couch. That did piss me off a bit. Especially since she was instructed to do art in the dining area. ::sigh:: I guess you can’t expect a 20 year old to listen or follow instructions very well.
Our CA adventure was very fun and very tiring. We’ve got this weekend off then it’s back to the crazy. We’ve got a wedding, a party to give and DragonCon in a row. Bleh. I’ve also got to plan and execute a baby shower somewhere in the midst of all that. FYI, the Bring Your Own Chops party is scheduled for Aug 23, look for the Evite.
…And the Pratt/Mizgala train kicks it into high gear :)
Har! Yah, I guess this is just a busy YEAR!
I need to get those Evites out!!
Since the Con is the next week, I suppose we’ll not see you at the partay, right? Sorry about that. I really needed to have it before Kate leaves for England. Not to worry, I’ll have another between Sep and my birthday.
:-)
I’ll try to make it, but yeah close to con and scrambling myself to get stuff in order, probably err on the side of no for the moment. no worries, we’ll party hard at Con.