Tim’s Ramblings

Yup. Writing to you from the hotel room in San Francisco. So far, the vacation is going well. Jet lag is still hitting me but not as bad as I thought.

F and I got in Sunday afternoon and got to the hotel around 11:40ish. We were too early to check in so we had our luggage held at the door and went out to lunch. We’re staying at the Miyako Hotel in Japan Town in San Francisco. Yes…Japan Town. And yes, I’m going back to Japan next week. But the price was good and the reviews were ok so we decided to stay here.

The area of town…well….it needs a bit of work. It doesn’t FEEL like San Francisco. The buildings are too new and there’s not that many people here. We’re a bit out of the way from the center of town so…eh. But it’s not bad. There’s a mall attached to the hotel and near it that has tons of Japanese and some Korean restaurants and any sushi in San Francisco is better than most in Cleveland :)

We had lunch at one of those places where the sushi comes to you on a boat going around the bar. Not bad and it was a good lunch. By the time we got back to the hotel our rooms were ready.

The room is not bad. Pretty nice for a hotel room in the city actually. The whole “asian” decor is…suspect…but the bed is nice and the room is a good size. If nothing else, it’s a hell of alot bigger than my room in Japan! The focal point here is the so called “traditional Japanese style bath” in each room. It’s the whole “soaking bath” concept where you wash yourself outside and then soak in the tub. So the shower room is a good size and you do indeed shower outside of the bath. The problem is…there’s not much ventilation really…and the whole shower room smells slightly of mildew. You know…ever so slightly like a locker room shower… Which is unfortunate since if it wasn’t for that this place would be even better.

Bah.

But really, it’s not so bad and the wireless internet works fine and we won’t be in the hotel much anyway.

This morning, bright and early at 8am, we were on a shuttle bus on the way to our tour. We decided to do the whole “tour bus” thing and be a true tourist :) Today was a tour on Highway 1, Monterey, and Carmel. It was nice actually. Though I have to admit…the bus along with the scenic tour thing (aka…lots of farms…) and the tour guide was putting me to sleep. Oh well. Not that the tour guide was bad. On the contrary, he was quite good. Though his obsession with artichokes and brussel sprouts were a bit odd….

I also got to test out my new Canon Rebel too. It’s niiiiice. Very nice. I’ll post more pictures later.

Highway 1 was impressive. Those cliffs and the drop down off the highway could be a bit scary for some though. Especially with the bus and the cars all around us going quite fast. It was overcast as well so it really gave it that gloomy look which I don’t really mind.

In Monterey, we spent about an hour in their impressive aquarium. Some of the exihibits including a 3 story tall kelp tank was cool. They also had a pretty big jelly fish display. Apparently there is a bigger one but that won’t be open for another week. Got some really nice pics of them too and with the new camera, I was able to get pics like this.

Oooooh.

Looks better in full size with no compression….but what can you do?

Lunch was tasty and we eventually made our way to Carmel, the town where Clint Eastwood used to be the mayor. It’s very….quaint. It reminds me of Niagara On the Lake. Really nice shops with nice expensive clothes and such and lots of rich old people. Hell…Pebble Beach is down the street. I did stop by Lush however since F wanted to go. It’s one of those soap stores that sells chunks of designer soaps along with other stuff like shampoo bars and such. I don’t really go for overly fragrant soaps and such but I did decide to give it a shot so I bought a chunk of Sea Vegetable Soap. Supposed to contain kelp and such along with sea salt and so on. Not cheap but hey, if it work, it works. I’ll try it as soon as my current soap, Liquid Dial for Men, runs out :)

After that, after a quick stop at a Garlic shop, it was a long trip back. A ridiculously filling dinner at a Korean restaurant (it was sooo hot, temperature and taste both…but soooo good) and now I’m just sort of vegging out.

Tomorrow, we’re heading out to Fisherman’s Warf area to see if we can get a ticket for Alcatraz. Though everyone keeps saying you need to do this ahead of time and it sells out and such. So we’ll see. If it does, then we can do other stuff. Tomorrow night is the concert at The Filmore anyway. Gonna be fun :)

More updates to come!