Road Trip Part II

Jenn and I are now in Albuquerque, New Mexico at our uncle Andrew's house. We got here in the afternoon and have since played with our two little cousins Mason and Hannah (Dylan doesn't like being taken from Aunt Erin's arms), gone to dinner at the top of a mountain, and read bedtime stories. Before that we drove. And drove.

More to come in Part III! I'd put more on now, but it's 10 o'clock this state's time and I'm ready for some shuteye. Gute Nacht!

Road Trip Part I

Today Jenn and I start on our road trip to Wheaton. Our stops include Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, and Eureka, Missouri. Wish us luck! It's going to be a hot drive.

Frisco

These posts are a bit out of order, but I did promise to post about my weekend trip to San Francisco, so I should do that now before I leave on Sunday (which I'm really excited about, by the way!).
I've posted from Frisco before (Bert calls me a "noob" when I call it Frisco. Who comes up with fad words like noob, anyway?). Anyone who pays attention to the trivial details of this blog knows that the last time I was there I brought back pictures from the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio and the Ferry Building. This time Aunt Kathryn took me on a far grander, albeit more taxing, tour: the Staircase Walk!
Basically, we walked up and down the San Franciscan hills all morning, starting at China Town and ending down at Fisherman's Wharf. There we had the most delicious shrimp and crab I have ever tasted (possibly because it was real). We also stopped by Ghiradelli Square for chocolate and walked by the opera house and city hall.

The gate into China Town.The hill is so steep they actually built stairs into it!The view from the top is great, though.

Sometimes you forget that you're in a city.Visiting the WWII liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien.Aunt Kathryn's Queen of the World!The closest I hope to ever get to Alcatraz.
The beautiful city hall.

The next day we went via bicycle to Golden Gate Park, which oddly enough is not near the Golden Gate Bridge. The park is huge! You could lose yourself in it easily, and I admit that we got lost a number of times. We came across an AIDS walk taking place that day, a number of gardens and a greenhouse, an outdoor concert, and dancers in the park. The botanical garden was especially nice. Such a beautiful place I never would have imagined existed in a bustling metropolitan area.

AIDS Walk.
Accompanied by the all-too-notorious Stanford band.Golden Gate Park's rose garden.

Sitting under an innocent-looking carnivorous plant.The botanical gardens.
Rhubarb (along with lichen, moss, and conifers) grows in the prehistoric section.
If you ever wanted to know what Gingko Biloba is, this is what it looks like.
A beautiful sunrise on the day we went back down to Socal.

The Deathly Hollows

For the few of you who are not aware, the seventh and final Harry Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which I still keep on trying to pronounce wrong), came out today. Though it took me about 12 hours to read, excluding sleeping time, etc., the process of getting my hands on the book took over half as long.

I got to the local Barnes & Nobles at about a quarter to six in the evening. I presumed that the proceedings would be similar to the midnight party for the last book: a bit crowded, slightly disorganized, but a relatively quick process, assuming you can force your way through a geeky mosh pit.

Geeky mosh pit meaning hundreds of people looking like this^

The event was more organized than I expected; it was organized as far as the far end of the back of Staples! The line to get wristbands was a lot like Disneyland: it was long, and it took a long time to get through. Maybe the B&N people weren't so organized after all.

View from the back of the line. Time is 5:47.
...2 hours later...Look! we rounded a corner!
Finally, a view of the front (and boy, isn't a Starbucks sounding good now).
Wristband attained: 8:26.

Inside the Geek Hall...I mean, Great Hall! Of B&N, yes... Actually, these people are dressed fairly normally. The excited people must be upstairs.
12:01 arrives with thunderous cheers and the sound of tills.

I used to be a huge Harry Potter fan, especially leading up to the sixth installment (I figure that gets me the right to laugh at all of us crazy "Harry Potter Freaks"). I realized last night that I wasn't overwhelmingly excited about this book coming out. I supposed that part of the indifference is because I've been doing so many other activities that put the books in perspective as well as on the shelf. Despite this, the shock that the series is finally over is beginning to hit. This series has in essence been a symbol of my childhood; I've been following the books since I was a little kid. The end of the series represents the end of my childhood.

On that note, I need to start packing for that next stage in life. Next Sunday Jenn and I head out on our roadtrip to Wheaton, which doesn't leave much time for reminiscing about lost childhood and books. I've been leaving packing until after I finish the 7th book. Now it's time, I guess.

Go Write a Blog

Mi Madre has been hounding on me to write a blog. "Your last blog was about the last day of school. You've done so much since then!"

As you can see, I finally caved in. Not that I don't like writing blogs; on the contrary, I enjoy them very much. I only don't produce them often because I'm either doing so little that there's nothing exciting to blog about, or there's so much that I'm not here to blog about it. Since graduating, I have been all over Southern California and central Ohio. In fact, I've only had a few nights in my own bed these past three weeks.

It would take too long to write about everything that's happened in every mundane detail. It's all about the photos anyway, right? If you do want to know the greater details of my life, well, try to catch me sometime between my week in San Francisco that starts tomorrow and my road trip that begins at the end of July.

First of all, yes, I did graduate and get a diploma.
My good friend Kaylin visited from Ohio to see all of us [former] Pacificans graduate. Then we went to Disneyland through one of her other friends.
Woody got sprayed by a skunk, so we gave him a bath in tomato sauce. His fur turned a salmon pink color; it was entertaining while it lasted.
Soon after graduation I went back to Ohio with Kaylin. The place is overridden with geese.
Kaylin made me try White Castle. It lived up to its reputation as a greasy fast food joint. Ew.
There's corn all over the Midwest, but this cornfield was kind of strange.
The equivalent of the Discovery Center.
"Lift a car with the help of levers."
Pumping gas into my new car...Or not. I didn't get the point of this particular exhibit.
Kaylin posing as a news reporter.
It's my magic talents. What can I say.
Kaylin and I built containers to protect water balloons from a 25 foot drop.
Mine got some weird looks.
Will it survive?
Yes! The rubber bands manage to suspend the water balloon and prevent it from exploding from the impact.
Columbus Zoo: Home of the largest captive snake and the terrible albino alligators.
Clouds!
Barry: "I could watch these clouds all day"
More clouds. Ahh!
No gorilla.
Trekking through the jungle.
Wie niedlich! He looks just like Woody, except maybe not so pink.
Helping out a two-dimensional gorilla observer.
Not England, but close enough.
We waited in the rain for the local 4th of July parade.
By the way, the fireworks in Columbus were amazing!
Kaylin pumping flexfuel.
Back home again, I meet Jenn's boyfriend and we all go to the aquarium.
David pets the horseshoe crabs.
This was an amusing duck.
Tribbles!
San Pedro, near my Gma's house.
It's so beautiful I had to add a second picture. Don't complain about the haze in the photo; it's what prevents us from having 100+ degree weather.
Shakespeare by the Sea. Both shows this year (Merchant of Venice and Taming of the Shrew) were amazing.
Playing Risk with cousins.

That's what I've been up to. As you can tell, I've been quite busy. I promise to take more photos in San Fran!

R out.