California: Day 7

Got up and had breakfast then we got ready to vo to Venice beach. Spent. Most of the time walking along the beach looking at stores. Saw a man making woodburning art using a maginfying glass and the sun to do his art. Another guy was selling sewing art, his sewing machine was hooked up to a solar pannel and ran purely on solar power.

We headed back to the hotel and checked out the pool. Decided the pool was a good place to relax so relaxed there until Buzzair and Christine had to depart for the wedding rehersal.

Tallwolf was worn out and got a lot of sun, so we rested for a short while and went out to a sushi place. Prices looked good, but ended up with small quanity of sushi so we were still hungry, but let it go. Went to hotel and waited for the rehersal dinner gang to be ready for the public.

Headed over and had drinks, got free shooter from the bartender that was water mellon juice mixed with some booze. That made buzzair puke (he he ing). Had a lot to drink and later on shots of jagermister and sambuca.

Headed back to hotel and ended up wrestling until I was too tired to remember much.

California: Day 6

Ate breakfast, walked to saloon for Frecklesfly to get her hair trimmed. Stopped at Circuit City to get DVD-RWs and get Frecklesfly then headed to the airport to pick up Buzzair and his wife.

Then went to dine at In Out, they have a limited menu, cheap burgers and fries, probably a lot cheaper than McDonald's! Wonder if they even use unreal meat.

Went to hotel to drop their luggage and the girls before meeting other men at tuxedo place. Left Santa Monica at approximately 3:30. Took us 3 hours to drive 87 miles for Xff's bachelor party.

Wind Tunnel was aweome - nice to see what the men will look like with wrinkles. Went to the local bar, beer and mixed drinks were cheap. We headed to another place for dinner and more drinks - Xff had a tequila shot from Reid. He looked like he was going to puke! After dinner, we had to face the grim reality of driving 70 miles back to our hotel.

We got back and discovered Frecklesfly and Christine made their own cards and were playing card games. We ended up playing a game before hitting the sack at three in the morning.

California: Day 5

Woke up at 6 to a nice view of the rising sun's orange rays shining on the mountains around the vivid blue Lake Tahoe. Two hours later, we were busy chomping on our breakfast.

Today we will spend approximately eight hours driving to Los Angeles. At one point we were approximately 2 hours away from Yosmite, wish we had more time to stop by. A sign I probably will visit California again.

Stopped at a famous restaurant, Andersen's Pea Soup. Located in the middle of no where along I-5 people come for their famous split pea soup. Had two bowls, and some fresh onion cheese bread; very delicous and filling (still full after two hours)!

Saw some dust twisters along the highway, landscape is very arrid and flat, unlike San Francisco and Tahoe area. Counted more than 95 trucks hauling tomatoes, but never saw any tomato farms along the highway.

The haze is absolutely thick as we get close to Los Angeles. We could not see the mountains that surround Los Angeles until we were approximately five to ten miles away! I feel bad for the snakes and other animals that live in these mountains.

After we got to our hotel, we went to the Santa Monica pier - saw a helicopter hovering above the water with its search lights focused on the water, seems like someone needed to be recused (and hard to be recused in the dark). Met up with Xff, Brad and his wife, and Reid to grab some dinner and drinks at the Library Ale House. Nice bar, but not good for Deaf people due to being too dark.

After that headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

California: Day 4

The hotel had the best breakfast service we had so far in California! Packed up and started heading to Lake Tahoe.

Went through Davis and Sacramento and as entering Sacramento, we saw a road sign on US-5o saying Ocean City, MD is 3,o72 miles away!

We finally arrived at our destination and had lunch at a nice burger place - they had wonderful veggie burgers, FrecklesFly had Michaelo burger with basil, mozzerella and tomatoes while Tallwolf and I had Southwest burger with roasted hot pepper, chiptole mayo, avocados.

Thwn we went for a walk through some historical estates and hiked along a nature trail with clear views of Mt Tammac (9,735ft) and the streams were beautiful and clear, made me want to jump in and drink the water!

After that, headed to the hotel and stopped at The Brewery on Lake Tahoe brew house, sampled 7 beer and we ended up ordering 2 Growlers, one of Wheat ale and the other of Amber ale.

Signed into hotel and headed to the open bar, after that, we headed to the casino building across the street, which is supposed to be in Nevada. Tallwolf won 45 dollars, I was not in a gambling mood so let it go and we headed out to get a late dinner.

The place we went to also brewed their own beer, I had wheat ale and their pizza was fantasic! We headed to the hotel and called it a night.

California: Day 3

Got up, ate breakfast, walked through China town looking for a store to buy DVD-RW to burn my father's images he kept on his memory card since 2004 so we could take photos. No luck, stopped at nice soup restaurant before heading to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Looked around a huge nice garden before finally getting to the bridge. Lots of idiotic people trying to bike across the bridge when it is packed with people walking around. Huge bridge and nice view of San Francisco across the bay!

Headed to Napa County to sample some wine. Think I liked Domaine Carneros the best. Maybe it would have been better during sunset! Went to V. Sattui and missed Robert Mondavi by 30 minutes, but the estate was beautiful!

Overall, the area has many wonderul buildings and beautiful grape vineyards!

Our hotel was another nice one! There was an enclosed courtyard with lots of roses and garden with a pool, beligan pissing boy statue and nice two tiered fish pond with swans. Nice happy hour with free snacks and booze.

Headed to a thai resturant that served good curry entrees. Frecklesfly ordered the uniquest one - Pumpkin Curry which turned out to be my favourite.

Went back to hotel and had wine for our nightcap!

California: Day 2

We got up, packed up and had breakfast before departing to San Francisco. The weather in San José was very cool and windy, a lot better than 30•C and humidity in Ontario!

San Francisco was foggy and cool - Tallwolf took us for a drive around the city, lots of high grade sloped roads and zigzat road scenery, Italian town, Chinese town.

Then we went to Pier 39, had a nice sourdough bread bowl of soup then we walked along Fisherman's Wharf, found a nice bar with 86 beer to choose from, had Prohibition Ale, so now 85 more beers remain to be tasted.

After that went back to Pier 39 to walk along the pier and see the Sea Lions in the harbour. Headed towards our hotel, stopped at Telegram Hill to have a view of the city at the top of Coit Tower. Signed into our hotel, explored it and had some beer before heading out to a Vegetarian asian restaurant for dinner.

The restaurant proved to be a good one, I had vegetarian "goose", Frecklesfly had mixed veggies with snow peas and tofu, and Tallwolf ordered vegetarian "chicken". After eating, we headed to San Francisco Brewing Co to have a pint of Obama Bock.

Headed back to hotel worn out and tired, called it a night.

California: Day 1

Arrived in San José at 7:14 PST, met Tallwolf and he took us to the hotel. Dropped our stuff there, had a grand view of San José from our room.

We went out for dinner and some beer at a nice Mexican/Spainsh restaurant before calling it a night.