San Francisco

Well, I've finally gotten around to uploading some photos, which can be seen here. Still no videos though (sorry)... I haven't really gotten a chance to convert any videos to any decent quality due to lack of hard drive space, but I'll see what I can do before the end of the month. In the meantime, enjoy the photos, and this short summary of what's been going on in the past couple of weeks.

Escape from LA

Los Angeles was pretty uneventful. The most I really did there was check out the public transport system and buy a book. I wasn't too interested in doing a lot of things in LA due to the pollution. Even on a sunny day, it still seems overcast due to the smog. I'm probably a bit biased due to the fact that I've gotten sick every time I've been to LA in the past (presumably because of the pollution) but I just was not motivated at all. I'll probably go back there to visit Santa Monica though (which I'll touch upon later in this post).

After the farcical experiences of the Amtrak delay and the Greyhound queue, I decided it would probably be best to pay a little extra and just fly to San Francisco. Getting to the airport was convenient enough. There was a nearby station that ran an airport shuttle for $3 one-way, which was quite a bargain. Peak-hour traffic meant that it took a little more than an hour to get to the airport, while a delayed incoming flight meant that the departure time for my flight was about half an hour late, but after dealing with a 10-hour lineup for a bus, I had definitely become a lot more tolerant for shorter delays.

The Bay Area

I was picked up from the airport by one of my many aunts that live in the San Francisco Bay Area and wasn't really given a lot of time to rest, as another one of my aunts was taking me to Monterey the next day. Monterey was pretty cool. A seaside community in an area full of quaint little towns and lots of golf courses. I visited the aquarium, which was cool albeit quite small, then went to visit a couple of the famous golf courses in the area, namely Spanish Bay and Pebble Beach. After that, we took a slight detour and visited Carmel, which was full of really old-school looking country homes, some of which looked like the stuff from fantasy books.

After a family dinner at a Chinese restaurant for my grandma's birthday, I went over to my cousin's place in the city, where I've been staying for the past week and a bit. I haven't really done too much so far. I've had a few short strolls in the city, but mainly I've been watching DVDs and reading stuff at the bookstore across the street.

It's a kind of exciting time to be in the Bay Area right now, because the local NBA team, the Golden State Warriors, are currently in the second round of the playoffs. Sadly, they're 3-1 down against the Utah Jazz after 3 mediocre performances in several departments, so they could go out as soon as tomorrow night. I'm hoping they win 3 straight to make it to the conference finals.

Road trip

While I've been relaxing a lot as of late, it should only last until the end of the month. At the start of June, Liza is visiting from England for her summer break, so we're going to hire a car and do a loop around the southwest. The current plan is to visit some national parks, such as Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon, and also some cities such as Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. We'll probably loop back around through Los Angeles too, and have a look at Hollywood and Santa Monica, before heading up Highway 1, taking the scenic route back to San Francisco. It'd be harder to do than taking a bus tour, but it gives us more time to visit what we want to visit, instead of having to stick to a tight schedule and a fixed itinerary. I'm really hoping that the parking and camping isn't too rough.

Anyway, I guess that's it from me for now. If anything exciting comes up, I'll be sure to post something about it. Ciao.