NorCal Trip, The End (Old Town Sacto), and Survivor In The Park

(As promised...)

- So Day 3 of the NorCal trip started off with my waking up two hours before my alarm clock was to sounds (thanks, Mom). We left our hotel and headed to my cousin's donut shop, where I loaded up on about four cups of coffee, a donut, and a ham and cheese croissant.

(Tangent: If I were forced to eat one breakfast item for the rest of my life, a ham and cheese croissant might be that item.)

After fueling, we loaded up my cousin's van, and our party was joined by a family friend/tour guide, Jerry. We first dropped by a farmer's market, and bought a ton of fruits and veggies. We bought some roma tomatoes, asparagus, and a bag of snow peas, among other things. The prices were pretty nice; $2.00 for six roma tomatoes, e.g.

After that, we drove to the state Capitol building in Sacramento, where my sister and mom continued to embarrass me by acting like tourists: they took tons of pictures, ooooh-ing and aaaaah-ing as they took each shot. Worse, my cousin--she lives up there, btw--had her camcorder with her. I declared that we were visors, cheap sunglasses, and city guides away from reaching full tourist status.

(Oh yeah, my sister was still wearing her LA Dodger sandals. Also, both my sister and mom were woefully underdressed; they complained of the winds all day [Thanks, Krunk, for pointing out that severe over- or underdressed people are also possibly tourists]. )

After that, we drove a few miles to Old Town Sacramento, where we had a late lunch at some cheap Italian buffet--the food was awful, but damn cheap. After that, we walked around and browsed through a couple of stores; I bought $12 worth of salt water taffy at one of the candy shops.

(Tangent: Peppermint taffy used to be my favorite flavor, until I tried some caramel apple and orange cream taffy. Peppermint is now, at best, #3 on that list, and I still haven't tried a ton of other flavors I bought.)

(Tangent #2: Thanks, Krunk, for pointing out that groups of people that congregate into souvenir shops are also possibly tourists. I may have to make a blog entry about how to spot a tourist, based on my own experiences.)

We also visited the Sacramento River--much nicer than the Los Angeles "River"--and did a lot of walking around, snapping pics. Soon after, we left Old Town and headed for my cousin's house, where we grilled up a ton of those veggies (and damn, were they tasty!). I also had a real thick London Broil, that I grilled medium rare. I should have cooked it a bit longer; tougher cuts of meat, like London Broil, need to be cooked a bit longer, IMO.

Day 4 of the NorCal trip involved us going back to the donut shop, fueling up again--3 cups of coffee, a couple donut holes, and then a quick stop to Carl's Jr. for a burger--before we took off for SoCal. We said our goodbyes, left at around 1:15pm, and despite a couple of stops, we got back in town at around 7pm (not bad for 300-350 miles!).

- Today, we dropped by Warner Center Park in nearby Woodland Hills, because Survivor was in concert! I was only familiar with a couple of songs they wrote--Eye of the Tiger and Burning Heart, of course--but then I found out that they also sang Search is Over (this song was AWESOME, live). The concert, as a whole, was great; of course, they ended with Eye of the Tiger! There were some sound problems at the beginning of the concert, but for a free concert, I can't really complain. I didn't appreciate the knuckleheads that kept standing up during the concert--the pavilion has no seating, so people sat on chairs or the grass--and I really didn't appreciate the older woman that sat on my right, and lit up a cancer stick. Another woman came up to her, scolded her about the cigarette, busted out her wooden fan, and starting waving the smoke towards the smoker; too bad most of the smoke was sent right towards me. Eventually, the woman got a clue, put out her cigarette, and left.

By the way, did I mention that "Search is Over" is an awesome song?

Next time (maybe in a few minutes), I'll be talking about Billy "John Kerry" Donovan, the Yankees, and a few older stories that I haven't gotten to for some time.