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!)