I don’t even know where to start on this one.

Jane and I spent the week (March 28th through April 5th) in and around San Francisco recharging our batteries with some friends and family. We decided to make it a road trip so we could visit people in Portland, Eugene and Sacramento along the way.

We left Friday night after work on the 27th to drive down to Portland so we could stay with my mom and have a mini visit. She put together a great breakfast for us the next morning and we head out to make it down to Sacramento by Saturday evening.

The drive was beautiful but 9-10 hours in a car can really do a number on your backside. You would think the rando stuff would better prepare me for that, but it didn’t really seem to help. I shifted around in my seat pretty much the whole way down.

We got in to Sacramento a bit later than I was hoping to, but we had time for a drink with my cousin Monica and Angela at their local dive that night. We crashed out early though. They were nice enough to put us up on an air mattress that they bought just for our arrival.

The next day we spent some time shopping for sun glasses and I got to finally wear some shorts since the heat was really picking up as the day went on. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it has been 6 months since I’ve been in weather that warm. It was both welcome and off putting. I don’t think Jane and I were really ready for it clothing wise.

We left for the city that afternoon for a hotel that we had booked for the week near Union Square. The drive seemed to take forever and I was a bit surprised by the 4 dollar toll in to the city. For some reason I thought it was just over the Golden Gate bridge, not every major highway in to SF. We were lucky to have the cash because we don’t often carry any. We repeatedly took out cash all week since almost everywhere we went was cash only.

The first thing we did was for for a walk and get some Chinese food. Of all the touristy things that were possible, this was the only one on my list as a “must do”. I don’t remember the name of the place we ended up on, but it was pretty amazing. It was a world away from the over fried crap they sling as “Chinese” elsewhere. I can barely even eat Chinese food anymore.

We made plans to hang out with some Seattle friends that were in town on business that night but ended up falling asleep in our hotel at like 7pm. It was a pretty sad scene. The tired just really caught up to us. From then on, we made an effort to push ourselves so we wouldn’t waste any of the trip.

We got some breakfast at Squat and Gobble on Haight Ashbury the next morning. Our friend Mike Kenny was nice enough to meet us there. We’ve known him since we lived in San Diego and he is always a really fun time. We were all talking about various terrible taboo topics much to the disgust of the other patrons of the restaurant.

He showed us around the Haight and walked with us in to Golden Gate park. They shut down the park to traffic on weekends and there were tons of people biking around and plenty of people just enjoying the day. There was a couple who converted a stroller in to an outdoor stereo and choreographed dance moves while on roller skates. It was… a sight. Mike mentioned that dancing skaters are common in the area.

He split up with us and we went to the de Young art museum for an Andy Warhol exhibit. There just happened to be an Yves Saint Laurent exhibit on display that stole the show too. We had to sneak some photos from our phones since they weren’t allowing any photography. The museum was pretty incredible but a bit pricier than I was expecting. Still, we had a great time, but our feet were killing us from all of the walking.

Still, we are troopers, so we picked up our friend Paul who happened to work nearby our hotel and drove out to see his new place in La Fayette. He and his girlfriend Rabia found a great little cottage with a pool and everything.

We all went to see Portland’s Red Fang. They completely ruled it. Jane and I ended up down front for their closer song “Prehistoric Dog” and got in the photo they took of the crowd on their blog.

We spent the night playing Spot the Stevil. I had asked Stevil from How to Avoid the Bummer Life about what to do while we are in the Bay Area and knew that he was going to be at the show. I didn’t know exactly what he looked like though. I knew he probably had Vans on and I knew that he had kind of curly hair. It was a pretty fun game. I guessed it was one particular guy who later ended up almost getting in a fight with some ladies over the moving crowds during the set. I was correct. He was loaded.

And then on Monday… boy this is going to be a long entry.