Back

For the last two and a half weeks, I've been back in the SF Bay Area to take care of various things, meet with folks, and to take some time off with my girlfriend, Junko.

Arrival:
I was ok after getting off the plane, getting onto BART, and diagnosing a dead Dell LCD monitor for my dad before my brain shutdown and I went into virtual coma/zombie mode for the next 36 hours.

next week:
Junko and I went up to a B&B at Moss Landing (about 10mi north of Monterey) where we stayed for 2 nights.  This is a much better place than Monterey for seeing sea otters, seals, and wildlife in general. In Monterey, you might spot a sea otter here and there, but in Moss Landing they are everywhere! For the first day, we took a sea kayak to go up Elkhorn Slough. A curious (or was that aggressive?) sea otter actually winged our kayak. Although they're cute and fuzzy, its actually a little bit scary when they get too close to the wobbly kayak.

A group of otters kickin' back. My camera doesn't have a lot of zoom and we weren't supposed to get too close in the kayak:


Afterwards, we went out to the South end of Carmel for a nice dinner at the Rocky Point restaurant.  This place has a cool view and even some short hikes, but its food is absolutely terrible! The chicken I had must have been in the freezer for a year. Honestly, I've had TV dinners that were better...I still recommend the place for the view, but just get some drinks and steer clear of the food.

Rocky Point View:


Next day, we took a hike around Point Lobos and visited the Aquarium.


Unfortunately, my camera (a canon SD550) and I've heard, other high megapixel cameras with tiny CCDs (most point and shoots) have problems in low light conditions. The Open Water tank had a HUGE sunfish that looked like it got a little too much sun (very wrinkly) and a small great white shark that moved too fast for any reasonable pictures.


Maguro:


Last weekend:
Thursday was the Editors concert at the Fillmore. The show was sold out and really good!
After going to a Coldplay concert at the Shoreline, Junko wasn't really into seeing another rock concert (She mainly like classical). But a margarita  and having a "good looking" british guy for a lead singer helped make the show enjoyable for her.

Really bad camera phone shot from the balcony:


The saturday after was the Cal vs. Arizona game which was Junko's first football game. Cal roasted Arizona 45-27.
Taken on the same camera phone:


During my layover in Narita I saw this in the front of one of the stores:

If the thing included some disk space, I might have actually bought one.  Think of the possibilities!