California Dreamin'

California Dreamin'

On an early, early, early Saturday morning a week or two ago, my wife and I took our first steps on a much anticipated vacation. I'd like to share some of my memories of it with you, but I don't think I'll use the same format as I've used in the past. I used to chronicle other vacations day by day what we did, what we ate, where we went and maybe even how much it cost. I don't believe I'll do it that way this time. I think I'll just share some of the things we did and maybe visit each one of those memories in a bit more detail than I might have done in the past. Maybe that will make it more enjoyable for the casual reader.

Or maybe less boring?

Our trip started really early as I may have mentioned before. Our original airline tickets had us leaving sometime shortly after 7 am from Cleveland Hopkins. But some weeks ago I'd received a revision from American Airlines. It said that the departure time was now 6:10. O joy. Since we live an hour away from the airport and they want you to be there 2 hours early, so... Let me see. Yep, up at 2, on the road by 3, at the airport by 4 and then we waited. We boarded at about 5:45 and at our scheduled departure time we...

No, we did not depart at that time. Some oil had been noticed below engine number one and they needed to investigate a bit before we would be cleared for take off. About 30 minutes later they determined that the oil was some residue from maintenance performed during the last stop and we were good to go – no leaks. We finally lifted off around 6:45 and were on our way.

Before that departure, however, while we were in the departure lounge waiting to board the aircraft, we happened to notice the flight crew arriving. One of the flight attendants looked over at us waiting customers and said, “Good morning!”

No one said anything. I mean, it was early and we were all apparently a bit groggy. She stopped in her tracks, did a left-face and re-examined us again. “I said GOOD MORNING!” she restated in a manner that resembled that of a Marine Corps drill sergeant. This time we all responded with a hearty good morning ourselves which garnered a smile from the attendant.

I whispered to my wife at that time, “That attendant will probably have us singing gospels before we achieve cruising altitude!” We found out that I wasn't exactly correct, but close. Later on while we were waiting permission to take off, that attendant introduced herself to us as Miss Patches and spent about 5 minutes kibitzing with us and doing her darnedest to wake us up and make us happy, happy, happy! She had us clapping and laughing and saying hello to a nearby child who was flying with us whom she'd made friends with earlier. A charming lady and an asset to her employer. We were all smiling after her impromptu show.

During our week stay in California, we stayed as guests in my brother's house in San Jose. He'd recently bought a house and was pleased to show it to us and make us feel at home. It is quite a nice place and we were very happy accepting his hospitality for the week. He had put a new bed in “our” bedroom and had things ready for us when we arrived. We were all set for a week of fun, frolic and no problems.

Of course our friend Murphy (of Murphy's Law fame) had other ideas.

The first morning we awoke in our sunny bedroom we found that we had some unwelcome visitors. A contingent of small ants had found their way to our abode and were starting to set up residence quite near our bed. My brother had been fighting battles with his ant population for some time now in his new house, but was unaware that they had made inroads in the guest bedroom. A quick spritz with the ant killer and we were insect-free the rest of the week. I really hated to embarrass my brother by telling him the news about our new “buddies”, but we really wanted the bedroom to ourselves for the week. He was chagrined, of course, but, like a good innkeeper and a better brother, he took care of the problem. We all got a good laugh out of it, too. There was another household problem that arose during our visit but it was overcome also with the help of some professionals and some dollars. I promised him I won't go into that one. Just let your imaginations run wild!

My brother invited some of his friends over on Sunday afternoon for a get together and we all enjoyed a pleasant afternoon of conversation, noshing on various tasty appetizers, having a few drinks and eating a very picnic-like lunch of hot dogs, potato salad and baked beans. I was pleased at how gracious his friends were to us wandering Ohioans and the afternoon went by in a flash. Chuck (my brother) is blessed with bright, articulate and fascinating friends.

We had an interesting encounter on Monday night while we were out to dinner. The three of us were eating at a local Marie Callendars restaurant and we were occasionally hearing cheers and some raucous laughter from somewhere down a hallway. It wasn't really intrusive, but it made me curious as to what the occasion might be. Perhaps a banquet in another room or maybe a reception? After finishing our excellent dinner, my brother and wife headed to the restrooms and I wandered toward where the commotion was coming from and stuck my head around the corner. As I should have guessed earlier it was the bar and they had on the Monday night football game. One gentleman and his wife motioned me over and asked if I wanted to join them. They were having a great time, had reached the jovial level of inebriation and seemed very friendly. We chatted for a few minutes and imparted to each other the quick biographies which were apropos to strangers meeting in a barroom. He said that he had some connections to Ohio and mentioned that he was from the “216”. I had to think for a moment before I realized he was talking about a local telephone area code! Since most of my area of Ohio had been changed from 216 to 330, I told him that we now called that the “classic 216” and that it was just up near Cleveland now. We chatted some more like we were old, old friends and I was sorely tempted to join their merrymaking, but I still had some catching up to do with my brother and told the lively couple that I had to leave. It was a very nice moment. Small encounters like that were the whipped cream and cherry on top of a nice trip.

We traveled to San Francisco on a day trip on Tuesday through the incredibly busy rush hour traffic that everyone takes for granted out there. Luckily the highways we traveled on had a “diamond” lane, a lane reserved for cars with more than one occupant, electric vehicles and buses. We fortunate diamond-laners zipped along almost at the speed limit and passed thousands of slowly moving cars each with one driver on board. This was a reminder to us that living in Cali wasn't just blue skies and nice weather most of the time. There are costs and downsides.

We didn't do the “normal” touristy stuff in San Francisco that day. We'd done that before and we had more off-the-beaten-path targets for this trip. We visited the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park for a few hours and checked out their exhibits and other neat stuff. Then it was off to find the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets, the birthplace of the hippy generation, for an I-was-there photograph. After searching here and there for a while, we happened upon Ashbury Street and soon after were taking a picture of the famous street signs. Then we were off to a preferred eatery of my brother's – Tommy's Joynt. This place was a very cool restaurant and an acknowledged historic landmark of the city. Very cool with large, colorful psychedelic signs painted on the outside of the building and layered with hundreds of old beer signs all over the inside. Excellent meats freshly sliced for each order and a huge assortment of beers from around the world. We had a tasty lunch there and soon were off to another San Francisco landmark – City Lights Bookstore.

I'd been a fan of the author Jack Kerouac since I'd been introduced to him back in the '60's. Reading him lead me to other “beat generation” writers and to the place a lot of them called their home away from home, the City Lights Bookstore. I'd wanted to visit there for quite a while but had never had the chance to get there. This trip I made sure it was on the top of my “to do” list.

The shop is in an old building very close to Chinatown. It looks like it carries books that you just might not be able to see in other stores, political things, historical, poetry, just lots and lots of fascinating books just sitting there waiting for your perusal and your purchase. I obliged and left with three books and a t-shirt. I'd have loved to buy more but didn't want to blow the entire budget for our trip at one stop! And it would have been so EASY to do that!

The next day was a long-planned visit with an old Air Force friend. Joe and I had spent 18 months as Air Weather Observers in the Panama Canal Zone at Howard Air Force Base back in the late '60's. We'd become friends there and promised we'd see each other after we'd returned to “the world”. We'd accomplished that in 1970 but not since, so I was anxious to see him again.

We drove from San Jose to Half Moon Bay. That trip consisted of a drive across the coastal mountains from Silicon Valley (where my brother lives) and over to the seashore where Half Moon Bay sits, an interesting drive over some quite ruggedly beautiful terrain. We met Joe at the public library where he works along with the other librarians on staff – a nice bunch of people. Joe took us on a stroll around the little town and pointed out some of the highlights therein including his church. As a side note, one of the congregants of the church decided he'd learn how to do stained glass. As one of his early projects, he designed and created the stained glass windows for this church! They were quite beautiful to start with and more amazing for the fact that it was an almost beginner who'd created them. Very impressive! We then went to a local beach and checked it out. Joe and I continued to talk about the “old” days and generally catch up on what had been happening in our lives the past 44 years. That conversation took a while! Then a coffee break at a local bakery, more conversation, a trip to the harbor to see the boats and then we had to say adios. The time for our return trip was getting short. We'd planned on taking the “scenic” route back to Chuck's house – Highway 1 along the beautiful California coast. We took that drive and feasted on the views from a number of vantage points on that fifty-mile stretch of beach. We ate an early supper on the pier in Santa Cruz and “enjoyed” another twisty-turny trip across the coastal mountains to his valley home. An unplanned treat was the daily special at the restaurant on the pier – Gilda's - prime rib dinner for a very agreeable price! Another nice Cali day.

The next day was when we stopped at a few of the places that made Silicon Valley what it is today. We stopped at the Intel Headquarters and visited their small but excellent museum showing how they make the chips that run a lot of the microcomputers in the world. It's a fascinating story. Another stop was at One Infinite Loop, the Apple Headquarters where we took pictures and visited their company store. Another quick stop was at the Facebook HQ for a photo op. Then we hit the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. They had a large amount of exhibits that highlighted the evolution of computing, from the abacus clear up to the networking systems of today. Highlights for me were the IBM 360/30 mainframe identical to the one I worked on in the early '70's and one of the wooden prototype Apple-1 computers constructed by Steve Wozniak. It's signed Woz on the front and our docent (tour guide) said that particular machine was probably worth in the neighborhood of $200,000 or maybe more. One similar had sold recently for about twice that amount. Very interesting.

On our drive back to Chuck's house that afternoon he had me detour past a very large construction site. He proudly said that what I saw going up was to be the San Francisco 49ers new football stadium. It's in Santa Clara, just up the road from his home in San Jose and just next door to the Great American Amusement Park. When it's completed it will hold the record in the NFL as the stadium furthest away from its host city – over 38 miles. It's expected to be completed for the '14-'15 football season and also will be the Super Bowl host for the following year. Levi Strauss & Co. purchased the naming rights, so it will be called Levi Stadium. It looks huge from the ground! As a further note, my brother just started work on this site as a construction electrician. His first assignment will be working on the solar panels on the roof of the stadium. I hope he's not too concerned with heights!

My brother Chuck had remembered how fond we were about Mexican food so he took us to one of his favorite Mexican eateries on Friday night. He also had invited his friend Dave to accompany us, so there were four of us that evening. The food was very good, the margaritas were plentiful and the strolling mariachis made the evening quite special. We were glad that he'd saved this particular treat for our last night there.

There were other adventures we experienced during our sojourn on the West Coast, of course, but most were probably more interesting to us than maybe they would be to you, so I'm taking pity on our gentle readers by culling the chaff and only displaying the gems.

Or something like that...

The California we saw this trip is a beautiful place with a lot of wonderful people who welcomed us with open arms. We enjoyed ourselves immensely and are already talking about how soon we can return. Check it out yourself if you can. You'll be glad you did!

(Even if you have to massacre a few ants from time to time!)