It was a pretty spontaneous trip because we didn't decide to go until Friday morning when the Banerjees invited us. We left on Saturday morning without reservations and headed down Highway 1. It was a fun trip filled with adventures.
We ended up being able to find a hotel/motel which was good, but it ended being burglarized which was bad. While we were sleeping, I heard someone jiggle the doorknob, but thought it was someone who was drunk that was at the wrong door. I remembered hearing people talk and it sounded like people were moving luggage outside. Edwin had gotten up and then came back to bed. I discovered in the morning that the police had been outside knocking on people's doors because there was a burglary.
(Edwin's note: I don't think an actual burglary occurred, but there seemed to be a loud and sloppy attempt(s). The screen was off of the window of the room below us, a car door was open and there was a lot of banging around out there. Still not a pleasant experience.
As a side note, I did get to eat my favorite carrot cake that night. It is at a cafe I would sometimes study at. Nice and chunky with walnuts, carrot shreds and some non-standard ingredients like pineapple. Nice cream cheesy frosting too.)
What was interesting to me is that there were at least 3 other hotels next to ours, and Edwin had just told us the night before that San Luis Obispo was very safe. The hotel itself seemed nice on the outside and it was not in a bad part of town, so I guess you always have to be careful. While it was a bit unnerving, we did not let this incident dampen our weekend.
We continued on to Hearst castle- summer home of media mogul William Randolph Hearst. There are 4 tours and many of them were sold out, so we ended up taking Tour 3 which does not take you to the main castle, but tours the guest houses and pools. What I remembered about half way through the tour is that we did Tour 3 the last time we went to Hearst Castle. Must remember for the next time I visit because these tours are rather pricey at $24 per tour. Another interesting tidbit is that the architect that designed the castle was Julia Morgan. Michelle and Mike are going to be getting married in January in the Julia Morgan ballroom here in SF. She was a pioneer among women as the first woman to graduate from Berkeley in architecture. She was also the first with a architecture license in San Francisco. She opened her own firm when she was 32. Not bad, huh? It's funny, in all the references to her, they called her Miss Morgan so I wonder if she ever married. Even back in the early 1900's, there seemed to be a struggle between a career woman and personal life. Anyway, it was a fun tour and obviously, I would go back and even take the same tour twice!
We came back through Milpitas and stopped for dinner at a Muslim Chinese restaurant called Darda. It was really tasty. We had a crab and corn soup, tendon in brown sauce, sesame onion cake, homemade noodles, and a spicy shrimp. The only thing that I wouldn't order again was the spicy shrimp. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't worth the value compared to the other things we ordered. Will definitely be going back.
Today, we went and picked up supplies for our tea ceremony. We also went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I thought it was good, but Edwin was disappointed by the ending which basically ended abruptly because Disney wants you to go to Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I still enjoyed it and will probably go see 3. As my Labor Day ends, I wish that I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow, but at least it's a shorter work week!
No comments:
Post a Comment