Dr Moo in California

So, I said that the weekend was over, but that wasn't actually true, because I booked the Monday off also. We decided to make a day trip down to Santa Cruz and then down to Monterey.

Although the sea is very cold, we wandered onto a beach in Santa Cruz and had a very nice paddle and wander. Great fun. Lovely day. Blue sky as far as the eye could see. I've been to Santa Cruz before, but I think I went to the wrong part, because it felt a bit like Blackpool (UK). However, if you drive a little further south, there are some very nice beaches and lovely scenery.

We then headed down to Monterey. Got stuck in a bit of a traffic jam. A car had somehow managed to flip through the air and slice a telephone pole in half. Very weird and there were news crews out and police. However, we got past this and finally arrived at Monterey. Another very nice place and we found another very good seafood restaurant to eat lunch at. The "Bucket of Fire" cocktail was particularly interesting shared among us (huge thing) and I decided to order something I'd never heard of (type of fish). Turned out to be gorgeous. Now if only I could remember what it was! Went for a nice walk around the area after lunch and did a bit of shopping. Finally drove over to the harbour to see if we could get on a boat ride, but most had closed for the day and the one reminaing was $44 per person for one hour, so we decided to leave it.

When we got back from Monterey, we went looking to see if we could find a replacement MP3 player for my uncle. His Creative Zen Touch 20GB MP3 player was stolen a few months back, so he asked if while my parents were visiting, we could try to find a new one for him. Thought we'd found a good one at Fry's (the new Zen Vision:M), but then it turned out that the price was wrong and it was much more expensive than shown on the device (doh). We also looked at Vacuum Cleaners and managed to dump the entire contents of a vacuum over the floor.

All in all, another very fun day.

It has been a while, so I thought I really should post something. Anyway, my parents are visiting me this week. They arrived mid-afternoon last Friday (14th) and are here until this coming Friday. As a treat, I booked us in at a hotel in the Fisherman's Wharf district of San Francisco and we spent the weekend there.

On Friday evening, we went out for a really nice meal on Pier 39 (Fisherman's Wharf). Obviously, the speciality in that area is seafood, so we went out for some very nice fish. I had a starter of crab spring rolls, followed by Sea Bass, Salmon and Prawns. Very nice.

On Saturday, we had planned to go up to Muir Woods National Monument, which is a lovely Redwood preserve about 10-15 miles North of San Francisco. Sadly, the weather turned rather bad and we ended up hiking through the woods in thick mud, with very inappropriate footwear. Still, the place is beautiful and despite the weather, we had a great time. We then headed back to San Francisco where we went down to Union Square and did a little shopping. Finally we ended up on Pier 39 again, this time at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Sunday we headed back after a lazy morning (both mornings we poisoned ourselves, by overeating at the breakfast buffet) and then spent the afternoon in Sunnyvale (where I live). We went out for a huge steak dinner at Cattlemen's and my father had a 2lb steak! Scary amount of food.

Finally it was the end of the weekend and we were back at my place. Sadly, my place doesn't have much in the way of furniture. I gave my parents my bed and tried to sleep in a chair, but failed. Ended up sleeping on the floor. Still, not too terrible

All in all, a very good weekend.