On the road - 10 part 2: Sunday in SF, Monday in the bratmobile

(Part 1 is here.)

I've been to San Francisco quite a few times before, and almost every time I've been bested by the notoriously capricious northern California weather. The first time I went to see the bridge, it was covered in plumes of dense fog. The second time was marginally better, but it was still raining and very cold. So I wasn't too surprised when the forecast for Sunday was rain and more rain. (Not just normal rain, if this hoax viral text message was to be believed. A very vile radioactive rain noxious enough to make you bald and give you nasty burns unless you exercised prudence by investing in raincoats and umbrellas. Ha. The perverted basement dwellers must have had a field day coming up with this hoax).

But my friend BS and I were both armed with some very hi-tech imaging gadgetry and were willing to take a chance. So out we went, with my cousin's freshly baked chocolate chip cookies to keep us some much needed company. We ambled along on the 101 North and hey what do we have here? His highness, the Sun king. The rain had decided to take the day off. After a nice couple hours, we arrived at the bridge.

Since the weather was so nice, we were able to take hundreds of pictures from all sorts of great vista points. Here are some good ones that I picked out at first glance (I think I still need to work on them a little bit before making prints or anything like that):

The funny thing is, it started raining almost as soon as we left San Francisco on the 80 East for Sacramento. Right on cue, I suppose!

The drive to Sacramento was very pleasant and the cookies kept disappearing at an alarming rate. A few miles before downtown Sactown, we spotted the exit for UC Davis. As good UCLA students, we decided to take a brief detour and give the campus a visit. As we glided past the deserted streets of Davis peering at rain soaked empty buildings, I was reminded of the fake city sets they have over at Universal Studios. The campus is very spread out and boasts, among other things, a food and wine institute and its very own tiny creek that flows right next to a huge apartment complex.

We spent Sunday night at BS's uncle's house.

Monday, the last day of our trip, we made the return journey. We took the 5 south all the way into LA. The 5 freeway is, of course, the carotid artery of California, cutting a straight, bold path through the state. It rained intermittently and this creates some amazing photo ops.

The aliens are here!

 

After dropping BS off at 9, I finally rolled into my house at 10 exhausted but content. A definitive experience, something to remember this spring break by.