San Francisco Day 2

Ok so its about one week from San Francisco day 2 actually happened, but its still fresh in my mind so let me take you back....

4:45 AM 2.13.10: Alarm goes off, head to my cell phone and call Janning to see if he's awake. He is. Great! Time to get ready, and in minutes we're picked up to head to Tahoe. On the way, we stop over at a diner and eat some breakfast. Janning is feeling a bit tired so I take over driving for about an hour and a half, then swap out back to Janning. I have no idea how I fell asleep but I did even while Janning was speeding downhill @ 70mph dodging and weaving traffic.

I'm awoken by Annie while she points out the window. There's an awesome view of the Tahoe landscape with pine trees covered with snow from above. Ok, now i'm pumped. Soon after, we get to the mountain and its go time. Nicole had to get rentals and sign up for lessons which was on the other side of the mountain so we told her to go ahead while we get ready and change. Adventurous Janning decides that it'll be better to take the lift to the top and then ride down to meet Nicole on the other side instead of waiting for a shuttle. I was a little skeptical of that idea since I knew I hadn't gone boarding in over 2 years. But as soon as I strapped on my bindings, I knew I still had it in me and it all instantly came back. We made it down and I felt bad for Annie since she had to tread down a Black Diamond as her first trail of the morning. But it's all good we got through it.

The day was a blast, as we went up and down the many trails. Trying half pipes, rails, boxes, ramps, jumps and conquering and eating them at the same time. Let me tell you I had some crazy spills and hard falls that day, but it was fun all in the process, and thank God for my helmet. One of the most memorable trails was the very peak of the mountain which cashed in at 9,900 feet in the air and led to a double black diamond which to me felt like a verticle drop. But hey, CONQUERED IT!

We started to head home at about 5pm after a great time at Kirkwood Mountain. This was only the beginning of another adventure. Janning decideds to play Initial D and weaves and dodges traffic again at 70mph on the way back. I tried to calm him down, but didn't want to throw him off his game as I know one sudden miscalculation can = bad things. So I decide to take a nap. I awake to see that we're in a parking garage for a... Casino!! What a surprise! Janning says its just a bathroom stop, but we can get some free drinks while we're at it complimentary of the casino. Awesome! After the break we head back and stop for some German food in Daly City. I was so extremely tired and exhausted that I had no appetite whatsoever. So I gave Janning my Schnitzel dinner for his lunch tommorow, and shared a sausage platter with Annie. The suprise of the night was one specific sausage that tasted like... Nacho Cheese!! Just thinking about it makes me want to try it again haha.

On the final leg back, we get a carwash, run from cops, and the whole nine yards... what an adventurous day!! The next day was my last day in San Fran and was filled with good times as well.

Take me to San Francisco! day one

So here i am in San Francisco! I was going to wait to post anything until I can get the pictures up, but I wanted to share my experiences so far since its fresh in my mind. So here I am typing morning of day 3 staying at the Le Meridian hotel in the financial district of SF. What a wonderful last two days it has been.

Lets start with my departure from NY. Of course being me, I decided to sleep at 1, to wake up at 4:30 to catch the train to the airtrain to the flight and depart at 8. (Kudos if you even followed that last sentence) Arrived in LAX for a layover that turned out longer then expected due to weather conditions in SF. Finally got to SF @ 5. Thankfully, my friend Annie picked me up and we went to get some grub, long awaited Santa Ramen that I wasn't able to eat last year. I was amazed at the line already starting to form before doors opened at 5. This restaraunt has a huge following and opens weird hours. Overall, I personally give it a 3/5. However, as I've been told I didn't order their specialty which is the Special Pork broth, ughh.

The rest of the day on Friday me and Annie drove around SF to find her a nice snowboarding helmet. We got one at our last stop and she was ecstatic! She dropped me off at the hotel and I checked in, to await Janning to get off work. Few minutes later, Danny gives me a call and I am picked up for dinner at Naan & Curry. At Naan & Curry we meet up with Janning, Nicole, Sandy, Danny & Tammi. Good food & Good times!

After eating, Janning heads home to get some rest for tommorow's big day and maybe I shoulda did the same... but hey you only live once right? Plus I wasn't feeling the lack of sleep from the previous night before. So we go to Yancy's down the block and get our drink on. Took down a few shots and beers and talked the good talk. That pretty much ended the night and we were set to wake up in 4.5 hours to go snowboarding in Tahoe!!

God is Good

God is good, not just to me but to all of us. Interesting story for you. Last night, I was at a stoplight waiting. Then all of a sudden , boom, I get rear-ended by some kid in a hoopti. I pull over and notice that he isn't joining me. I get out of my car and yell at him to pull over, while mentally remebering his license plate number in case he tries to pull a fast one on me. He pulls over and gets out of his car apologizing. I ask him what he was thinking, as I was at the light for awhile and he obviously carelessly just hit me. He claims all fault and says that he dropped something in the car and reached down to get it and didn't brake in time.
I then go to see the damage on my car, cringing at the whole situation. But surprisingly... there was very very minimal damage. At the most small indentations from the screws of his license plate, and a few scratches. I was shocked... I already had a few scratches prior to the incident so it wasn't that much of a difference. I look up to the kid who looks like he's about to cry. He continuously apologizes to me saying that his insurance premiums are up to the roof, doesn't have much money and is very sorry. I decide to lecture him for a bit, and tell him its his lucky day. I let him go. Told him to drive more carefully being that he is in no condition to drive recklessly. Also told him that although it would probably cost me $300 to take those small scratches out, I'm going to let him go. God is good... and hopefully he is counting his blessings while he learns a lesson.

Lights Out

So me and a few friends that I haven't seen in forever (7 years), got together for dinner last night. As we were ordering our food, the lights started to flicker and then... lights out, pitch black. 10 minutes in darkness, the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate. We finished our beers and left Ryan's Bar and Grill. Outside we heard the cooks say it was island wide, so we decided to look for ourselves and went to the roof of the parking garage. In sight was the entire Honolulu span, with nothing but darkness in Waikiki, Nuuanu and pretty much the whole island except for Kapolei (about an hour away from Honolulu). So next step in an emergency I suggested we listen to the AM radio for news on what's going on. Sure enough, it was indeed an island wide blackout and estimated for an overall time of 12 hours til we get power back again. After hearing the news we cut our gathering short, and I got home to climb up a flight of 20 stories of stairs. With nothing to do, I made this short video of blacked-out Honolulu and then went to sleep. The power did come back at about 5am for us in Honolulu, but for my friends on the other side of the island haven't got their power back yet and it's currently 10:30am. That was the little excitement I had for the end of 2008, gave me a little "end of the world in Hawaii" like feeling for a bit especially with Obama staying in the islands. Haha oh man the little things that get me excited! Anyways heres the vid, of course you can't see much becuase it was total blackness except for the backup generated lights: