No Safe Place

I’ve been promising a comprehensive trip report but something always seems to come up. Bah! No excuses tonight. Here goes…

The Bride and I take an annual trip to the Bay Area to see Aunt Lily and Uncle Zinger to (a) see new sights and encounter new things, (b) catch the A’s in action, and (c)(most importantly) see our favorite relations not with our last name. We usually need an excuse to get out of Nevada because like most folks, we tend to get wrapped up in family dramas and work.

Saturday, July 12th: we motored out of Dodge around 10:30ish and headed west over Interstate 80. Followers of the news (and readers of this blog) know about the numerous California fires and we saw the thick smoke from them from Reno to nearly the Bay Area.

We got to Berkeley in good time with no road construction delays and checked into the TraveLodge, which was good for the price (though the Bride was disturbed by noisy neighbors (I was oblivious, as usual)). We rested for a few and headed over to the house and to the game in Oakland.

This was our first night game and everything was perfect: the weather, ballpark, crowd, and food. Wish I could say our team won, but they had their chances. The Angels were just too good and are probably heading for the post-season. I found myself looking around in the ninth inning, listening to the chanting crowd and feeling their vibes, and thought, “this is a perfect moment.” It was fun making that memory.

Sunday, July 13th: After a delicious breakfast at the local diner (the name escapes me), Uncle Zinger took us to the Berkeley Marina to do some geocaching. Candidly, I admit I was not thrilled at the idea but I was enthralled very quickly: hunting and capturing prey with shiny electronics and satellites. How can that be bad? When I found the first cache, I was thoroughly hooked.

(I suspect the womenfolk spent much of the time trying not to roll their eyes, but Mother Nature says they are the plant gatherers. We men are genetically destined to seek and bring down the mastodons. Since there are no prehistoric animals left in the Bay Area, geocaching will have to do.)

(Pix by Aunt Lily)

Here’s the part where I mention the great Mexican restaurant we went to that night. Uh…the name escapes me again but burritos with mango are great.

Monday, July 14th: we dragged our sunburned carcasses out of bed and hit the road. Best part of the day was driving around the Jewel of the Sierras (Lake Tahoe) and getting back to Carson without a flat tire.

It was a great break and The Bride and I are already mulling ways to impose on those guys again. In the meantime, I remembered that there are no mastodons in Carson, either. What should I do about that? ;-)