Category: Domestic Travel

I’ve been to DC 4 times in the last 7 years. Not a lot changes here. People are still leisurely, the weather sucks and the traffic blows.
As Matt Harper says, “Northern Charm and Southern Efficency“.
Seeing how I’ve seen some of the old sights during my previous visits, I thought that it would be neat to see some things I dun usually see.
Like a staff-led tour of the Capitol building. It wasn’t too different than the regular tour except…
we got to go into the Chambers! No pictures allowed though. This is the place where people vote and fillibuster and raise your taxes! It looks a lot bigger on C-Span.
Don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow prior to the game. Maybe I’ll just sleep in and relax…
Naaaaah! That never happens!

This is the big big WWII memorial, located inbetween the Lincoln and Washington Memorials.


A lot of people were out, taking it all in. Each end (like the one above) is a theater in the war (Atlantic or Pacific) and has a listing of all the big battles that the US was involved in.
Not as solemn as the Vietnam War Memorial because WWII had a better ending, I guess.

Sleep? What’s that?
After last night’s adventure escaping Dulles and trying to find a place to eat that’s open after 2200, I met up with some old friends in the bar.
The great thing about away SC games is that you always run into old friends.
Two friends of mine came in about 0300. They were detoured from BWI to Annapolis due to StupidShuttle.
The relevance of this is that we all woke up at 0700 for a Library of Congress tour.

Yes, that’s the same Library of Congress that has a copy of practically anything that has been printed over the last 500 years.

The building is very ornate and detailed. And it was completed ahead of schedule and under budget, back in the day!
Probably because it wasn’t a union job…

The weather has been weird here in SFO for the past few days.
It’s been humid, extremely foggy during daylight hours and socked in except for 2 hours in the afternoon.
In other words, like many of the places I usually go (Singapore).
Labor Day is next next weekend which means my travel blackout period ends. That means I can go places again!
Actually, I’m cheating on that blackout period. I’m flying to IAD tomorrow AM for a weekend in DC. Haven’t been to DC since early 2001 when I had to wear a tux and it snowed.
Mah numbah-one Trojans are playing in the BCA Kickoff Classic against the Hokies. May there be lots of Hokie butt being kicked on Saturday!
The trip is getting off to a good start. I was able to use 500 mile upgrades outbound! 1st Class, food AND powerports!
yay. Pix and blogging to follow.

Visited the USS Midway today.
When it was active, it was the oldest carrier in the fleet. It was launched near the end of WWII, so it’s not as big as the current Nimitz class or even the decommissioned Forrestal Class.

Despite that, it’s still pretty big. A big tourist trap as well with pitches to buy stuff, get your picture taken and eating at the overpriced Fantail Cafe (that doesn’t take credit cards!).

It’s still an interesting piece of history. Even if it was slutted out as a beeg tourist trap.

I went to PetCoPark this evening.


Like PacBellPark, it’s the lynchpin of a big redevelopment area. It’s adjecent to the Gaslamp District and near the Convention Center where there’s a lot of neat places to eat and what not.
PetCo and PacBell are also compared because the stadiums are very similar. But PetCo seats 1000 more.

They also have a park area for US$5.00, you can picnic and stand in the standing room area to watch the game. That’s pretty cool.

Other quirks:
They have a dancing groundskeeping crew.
Fun.
Their mascots include a Padre (for the team) and a dog and cat (for the park).
Kinda tacky (the park mascots) since the team is supposed to be the star attraction here.
They serve Hebrew National Hot Dogs (cool) and the food is affordable.
Excellent!
I got a free t-shirt.
Always cool. That means they like their fans. Dun take them for granted.
Despite all these things, I like PacBellPark better. The Giants play there. Barry hits home runs into McCovey Cove. And even though you have to take out loans for it, the food is better. Even if food for four is equal to the price of a new motorcycle!

One of the excuses, I mean reasons why I drove down to Southern California this week was to get my car fixed.
I had some struts installed in my car 8 years ago by a shop down here. The struts have a lifetime warranty. In order to use the warranty, you need to swap them out at the original shop you went to.
So today was the day that I had the work done. It took longer than I thought it would (partially because I got out of the house at 1000). Brought the car in at 1030, got it back at 1500.
Forgot about the wheel alignment though. So I had that done. By that time, it was after 1800 and the day was done. So in short, it took all day.
Bummer. No Mexico today…

I said last month that I would never do another road trip.
Oh well.
Except there are good reasons, yes!
First off, it costs over US$200 r/t to fly to SAN from SFO with a six week advance!
That’s a lot of moolah.
Also, I need to get my struts replaced and the shop that did it is down in Costa Mesa.
So I decided to drive down, get my car fixed, go to San Diego for a conference and pick up some frens in LA on the way home on Sunday.
Painful.

So I’m off to Los Angeles again for the 4th of July weekend.
Why? Friend’s 30th birthday (he’s not happy about it, I’ll tell ya now!) and an excuse to go somewhere for the long weekend.
It’s also a good reason to go to Little Tokyo and have a lot of ramen and curry.
Mmmmm. Curry!
I got my gas bill from the road trip I took during Memorial Day. I have concluded that factoring the time spent on the road combined with the exorbitant price of gas, flying becomes more cost-effective.
So I’m flying down. Yea!

So this weekend has turned into the “LA Farewell Tour”, sorta.
My friends who are still in LA tend to live on opposite ends of the LA area.
Friend 1 is in Diamond Bar.
Friend 2 is in Agoura Hills.
Friend 3 is in Seal Beach
Friend 4 is in South Pas.
This is just the order I visited them this time around. If you map it out, you’ll see that each of these cities is on the fringes of Los Angeles. Weird how that works.
3 out of 4 are LTR’d or married. That makes hanging out or visiting a bit awkward. That and the distance changes things. And time too.
But I know that this is the LAST time that I do a “road trip” like this one. Tiring.
On the plus side, there’s a wittle puppy here!