Californ-I-A

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First I must apologize to all the friends I did not call or see—but August is just around the corner so I’ll see you soon! My flight left Narita at 4:30pm on Wednesday, April 26, and got into SFO on Wednesday, April 26, at 9:30am. Kinda freaky huh. It was an easy 8.5 hour flight over the Pacific (sidenote: I'm pretty much convinced that if you pre-order a "special diet" meal that it's way better than the crap you'll get otherwise. Plus, you get served like 10 minutes before everyone else). Elliot, the gentleman he is, met me at the airport (and even paid for parking). I was so stoked to be in the great state of California that there was no need for napping--so we headed straight for Taqueria Kentfield, where I enjoyed some truly delicious Mexican cuisine (GHOD it was good!). A lot of chilling (and food coma) ensued thereafter.

With the sudden passing of Elliot's grandfather, he took off for Texan funeral and I spent 36 hours hanging out with some awesome dudes, named Jake and Jeremy. These two very fine gentlemen escorted me to the famous San Rafael Farmer's Market where we had an awful good time considering it was just a Farmer's Market. However, I had not seen one of these fabulous bazaars in more than 8 months, so I was enthralled with it all and stuffed myself silly with all the free samples of local organic produce, Thai food, and Marin Co. beer. Good times.

On Friday, I met up with my parents in San Francisco. We ate dinner at a fantastic 100% raw, organic, vegan restaurant called Alive. Yes, it sounds super scary but the food was phenomenal and I highly recommend it.

Saturday was game day. Elliot took me to my first San Francisco Giants game and it was a blast! Jake and Gadiel came along to tail-gate and chug cheap beer before the game. The game itself was sensational--with the Giants beating the Diamondbacks by ONE at the bottom of the ninth. Sweet.

On Sunday, Elliot and I headed up to South Lake Tahoe to stay the Marriott, curtesy of my parents and their unused timeshare week. The "villa" was awesome--full kitchen, living room with huge TV and a DVD player, and a separate bedroom with a King bed and a bath tub with jets. Wow. Not to mention the sweet pool, 3 hot tubs, steam rooms, and gorgeous 80-degree weather every day. We went on some nice walks to the lake beach, to the high-class smokey casinos, and to the steam rooms. Being the cheap-asses we are, we never ate out (except Jamba Juice) and bought our meals at Raley's down the street and cooked it up in our fully-equipped kitchen. Ok, enough bragging, Tahoe was awesome.

As was the rest of my 10-day California dream.

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