Bay Area

This is my favorite area of California, the weather is usually quite mild, its sunny, and there is a lot to do is a relatively small area. The one cool thing I have began to notice about the weather in California is first they is way more fog in this state than i have ever seen in my life and it affect the climate fairly drastically. Second, you can go over a hill in California and the temp. will drop 10-15 degrees, its crazy. We rolled into my Aunt Beth's house in the late afternoon got settled and then went to this organic burrito place which was amazing. We had some drinks but the night was pretty slow and we had to wake up early for surfing. I have always wanted to try surfing since I skateboard and snowboard, but I never really got around to it. We woke up at 8am to drive to an area right around Santa Cruz to meet up with our teachers. Our teachers, Taylor and Dave, were real cool guys and awesome surfers. After putting on our wet suites we carries our boards a short distance to the water. Now the air temp was probably around 70-75 and water was around 50 or so. We were all pretty nervous about getting in the freezing water but after about 10 min or so you get use to it and it doesn't bother you at all, we just kept thinking hot tub. Once we were all hot in heated in the ocean it came the moment of truth catching the first wave. Nate was first, success. I was next, continuing success(batting a thousand now). Finally CJ, sorry CJ no success (no worries he got up the second time). We probably surfed for a good 2 hours, I had no idea how much upper body strength it took and how much of a bitch it was paddling out but it all payed off once you caught a wave. After surfing we went to San Francisco, we hit up China Town, and went down to Fisherman's Wharf. One cool thing about SanFran is it's pretty mild during the day but it gets chilly in the evening so you get a good mix of all conditions. The following day we caught the train from San Jose to SanFran. When the train let out we decided to hit up the Haight Ashbury district, which was a good 2 mile walk from where the train was, and on top of all the hills in the city it was a good little hike. Haight Ashbury is a really fascinating area, if you don't know it was the epicenter of the counter culture movement in the 60's, this place is still a cool area a little touristy and filled to the brim with head shops but alright. After strolling down some streets we went to Golden Gate Park to an area in the park called 'Hippie Hill'. This place was quite the scene, there was a drum circle, people selling pipes, people smoking pipes, and people selling things to put in your pipes. Its a great place to people watch, we saw a guy playing 'asphalt gold' and then proceeded to do a song and dance with the same golf club. After the park we went back to San Jose and took it easy since we were waking up the next day to go to Monterey. Next day we headed out to Monterey which is a cool little beach town about an hour away. We stayed at my aunt's friends house which was amazing, it had beautiful hard wood floors, a hot tub, surround sound, and a good view of the ocean. We picked a good weekend to head up to Monterey since there was an Italian car show going on. So on every block there were Porsches, Ferraris, Lambos, Bentlys, and every other exotic car you can think of. We attempted to go on a sun set sail but the idiot working at the dock left us, soooo we went to a bar and drank. While at this pub we meet some interesting characters. The first was this highly inebriated bar tender from another bar talking shit about how all the exotic car owners don't tip and are pieces of shit. There is a bigger guy sitting next to her so we are kind of scared to talk to her with out bro staring us down so we stop talking to her. Then 2 girls come up to CJ and Nate with notes that have their number on it and "call me for a good time" written on it. We then began to have a discussion on whether or not they are prostitutes. Nate, my aunt, and I are convinced they are because who writes "call me for a good time" on a piece of paper. Well then Nate and CJ are determined to find out whether or not they are prostitutes or not so they go to the patio the find the call girls. Well that leaves my aunt and I with this surfer from Australia that was sitting next to us. His name is Hayden and he owns a surf company called Fiber Flex Surf Boards, he is a real cool dude. We shoot the shit about 'summer heights high', surfing, and other cultural differences, so check out his site www.fiberflexsurfboards.com. After several bathroom trips from Nate and CJ we come to find out that the girls that passed them the notes are not prostitutes they are just idiots that give out there numbers to any cute guys they see, way to go Nate and CJ your cute. So while I was inside, Nate finds a hat, asks a guy if he is a millionaire which he responds "I work very hard for my money" which Nate responds with "I work for the SEC so don't be stealing from us", then he gets his business card. Then once I come out to collect the playboys to leave I notice that Nate looks like he has been attacked by a badger and CJ is spitting game at one of the call girls. There is more to the story but you are going to have to ask CJ about that, its very good though if I say so myself. The next day we woke up early to head to Los Angeles, so until next time god bless america.

-mac



^^where the Grateful Dead lived