Old Trees, Old Friends

Quick view of the courtyard area, from my hotel room window.

Today, on our “free day,” Liz and I signed up to go on a tour of Muir Woods. Liz was keen on seeing the Redwoods and it sounded like a great thing to do.

The only bummer was that, all day today, it was raining. Nonstop, cloudy sky raining. And as a result, I kept my camera tucked away for most of the time. So… not as many photos here, but I did try to take a few here and there, when the rain let up some.

On walking in, I spotted this interesting “First Amendment” area. Of course, it made me instantly think of this.

Going in, we were a bit worried since we had no umbrella. Lo and behold, the gift shop saves the day. Not only did we find ponchos, but we lucked out at how stylish they were to boot!

A brief reprise from the rain.

Liz vs. tree.

I love you tree.

According to the signs we saw, I think this river grows in size and it supports an annual run of salmon, swimming up stream to spawn.

A felled tree, lying on the hillside.

The second half of the tour (we had a tour guide that drove us around) was in Sausalito. We stopped here for a brief hour, grabbed a bite, and looked around at some of the shops. Nice, but nothing all that amazing. I think if we had more sunshine (or more time), I might have a different impression.

Around 7PM, we met up with my friend Kevin, who lives in Oakland. He suggested a nice Indian place in the Mission District, and we met up for a bite to eat.

The last time I saw Kevin… man, I think it might have been Alex and Linda’s wedding. It might have been that long ago!

We got caught up some on where we are with our lives, our jobs, our work. I found out more about what he does at Pandora, and learned that they might be looking for Flash freelancers. Part of me was tempted to go and visit his work place, despite my gut feeling that it would really only be a bunch of guys sitting in a different room, looking at a bunch of different computers. Nothing out of the ordinary, but still something I’d be interested in seeing.

We got into some interesting discussions: mostly about music, scooters, perfect pitch and whether people hear melody or lyrics first.

After dinner, we stopped in next door to a bar that Kevin’s fond of, called Casanova.

In the back, there was this raised platform area complete with a huge couch and this curtain/stage frame all around it. When we showed up, there weren’t all that many people… but fast forward another hour or so, and the place started to get pretty packed. We were tempted to pull the curtainstrings, to see if we could isolate ourselves and make it easier to hear/talk.

Me and Kevin, outside the bar.

Good conversations, and way too much time between hanging out. I’m a bit bummed that we missed two people tonight. Molly, Kevin’s girlfriend, wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t join us. I’ve only met her once, but… I got a really good vibe, and had a very positive first impression. Also, my friend Anne is in the area… but our schedules didn’t end up working out.

Ah well, next time then. All the more reason to come back and visit again.

Late night, a view of California, outside the hotel where our cab dropped us off.