San Francisco

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Got up and took Tommy to work and he suggested taking the 280 to SF due to less traffic and a more scenic drive, he was correct on both accounts. I drove straight into the Mission District and stopped by the bike shop ken works at and talked with him for a while before heading off to grab lunch, under his recommendation, at a taco truck called El Tonayense. The tacos were absolutely delicious and simple, just meat, salsa, cilantro, and onions. The Al Pastor and Carne Asada were the best tacos I have ever had. I then headed to Ritual Coffee (missing their coffee cuppings, which are held every Friday, by an hour, oh well). I brought my laptop and kept myself busy until Dee was finished doing her errands. I randomly saw Scottie at Ritual (I used to ride bikes with him back in SD).

The next couple days in SF broke down as follows:

Finally went to Tornado. It was not as divey as I was expecting from others' descriptions and the lights were on a little too bright (like in SD) but the beer selection DEFINITELY did not let me down. Atmosphere was a little more relaxed than SD just because it was beat up a bit more.

Street Food Festival. Dee and I walked there from her house (not a short trek) without eating anything for breakfast. At one point, Dee turns to me and says "Ok, I am starving, I am about to start getting pretty grumpy. Just to warn you." A couple blocks later we run into the taco truck and after hearing me rave about it yesterday, we decide to get one to hold us over until the festival. The festival was PACKED and we were starving so we picked the shortest line that sounded good, Salvadorian food. We didn't realize that there was a whole 2nd half to the festival (neither did most of the people there) that had shorter line and food that was just as good. Either way, the tropical fruit agua fresca was good and perfectly complimented the emenada and tomal perfectly.

Philz Coffee. Philz has entire menu for all of their different types of coffee, explaining the flavors and type of roast. Each cup is mad individually with a drip filter. The quality of coffee is as good as ritual but a lot less pretentious, it is much more of a neighborhood spot. I had the "Soooo Good" blend and that it was, soooo good.

Little Otsu. A really cool independently owned stationary and zine store. Really friendly people working and a really great selection of things. Great for little gifts for people.

15 Romolo. After meeting Sellan, Denise, Philip, and Jupei for Sellan's birthday dinner, we met up with some others for drinks at various places, my favorite being 15 Romolo. They served classic style cocktails with all natural ingredients. Really great stuff, my favorite drink was the Rio Grande.

The trip was surprisingly short for how much I love SF (love it more and more each time I visit) but I wanted to get on the road and see other things. Besides, I will be back in April anyway.

From Half Moon Bay To San Jose

 

Being that I was on the schedule of a HS teacher, I was up early and decided to head out to Half Moon Bay. The morning was relatively clear for being in the bay area and I headed out to sit at the cliffs above the beach and relax. As I watched the birds fly along the waves, I started to notice a small pod of dolphins not far off the coast. After wandering around the beach, I decided it was a perfect morning for a bike ride so I went and grabbed my bike out of the car for the 1st time on the trip. With the exception of the horse manure in certain sections, it was a very nice ride.

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After Half Moon Bay, I headed over to meet Lou for lunch and then grabbed some coffee at Red Rock Coffee while I waited for Tommy to finish work. Tommy works for a small tech company and for those who haven't experienced what a tech company atmosphere is like, let me run you through what it's like. When Tommy is done with work, I meet him at his office, the 3rd floor of a pretty basic office building in Mountain View. With the exception of some conference rooms and an office or two, everyone works in one big room, seperated into their own areas, or sharing that area with someone else (two desks pushed together). Hanging from the walls are silly sayings, or ongoing office games they have going on. As an outsider, if you didn't notice the handful of people sitting at their computers, you would swear no work is getting done. People are working together, interacting, and the mood is definitely light.

I walk into the server room where the servers take up about 1/20 of the space of the room, while there sit 2 nice Foosball tables in the center of the room. We play some games of foosball (I get my ass handed to me as the other guys had quite a bit of experience under their belt as they not only play a lot now, but also played a lot at their last tech jobs) while the techs run some diagnostics on the servers. Tommy and I head off to leave but before we do, he goes to pick up some food. They get food fully catered once or twice a week (before the recession, all lunches were outside of work and paid for by the company). On the counter of the kitchen area is a brand new espresso machine with instructions on how to make different espresso drinks (before the recession it was a tab at Red Rock picked up by the company for all employees). All-in-all, after my last job, it felt like a giant play ground for adults. From my understanding, this is pretty normal, and for bigger companies like google, it is to an MUCH larger extreme. If you don't believe me, ask Dee.

After picking up Tommy, we went back to San Jose where we hopped on our bikes (like we used to do back just about as long as I can remember) and rode and checked out the local rose gardens and met some exchange students in town for the summer to work and learn English. They were really friendly and interested in talking with us, though I am pretty sure they were most interested in Tommy due to his impressive hair. After the rose gardens, we ate and drank, then rode some more, then drank some more, then rode some more (being completely safe of course), and then drank some more. We went to a place called Trials Pub where they had 3 different beers on Cask that you could buy by the pitcher, it was phenomenal. It felt good to be back on the bike and it felt good to be doing what I used to do (before the accident). Felt like things were beginning to get back to normal, even with so many changes going on.

Central California Coast

 

I got up early to start the day, but also so I wouldn't have to wait inline for the Hostel's free sourdough pancake breakfast which was actually quite good. They provide the batter, you cook your own. Some of the European guests had never had pancakes before so I had to explain how to cook them (gotta thank mom for that one).

After breakfast, I packed up and drove through Montana De Oro National Park, a nice coastal park with small beaches dotting the coast line and nice hikes to the top of the different peaks. I hiked up to Valencia peak, a 2 mile hike each way, with no water. That wasn't such a great idea but I made it back alright. After the hike, I drove to Morro Bay for lunch and stopped of at Giovanni's Fish Market where the woman next to me had a dog that was the spitting image (though skinnier and MUCH more calm) of my old dog Rocky. The oysters are Giovanni's were really good, very fresh and no need for the cocktail sauce.

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After lunch, it was time for Big Sur, a famous, beautiful, scenic, and tiring drive. About half way through, I stopped to check out the price of gas at the most expensive gas station in the U.S. and to get some caffeine in me for the remainder of the drive. The guy making coffee drinks was easily the quirkiest, most interesting barista I have ever experienced.

 

I continued up the 1 to Monterey and then drove up to San Mateo where I met with Tiffany for sushi and good conversation as always.  

Los Padres National Forest

 

I embarked for my travels on 8/18/09 around 10:30am. First stop? Irvine. I met with my old engineering professor and adviser, DDR, for lunch. It was good to catch up with him and talk about the environment, engineering, education, and the interrelationship of the 3. I was excited to hear that DDR was now the chair for Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCI, a very big deal. I also met with Jansen for one last pint at the Pub, Sunny, Steven, and ran into Marissa on my way to get coffee for the road.

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Once I did that, it was off on the open road! Nothing in the world to hold me back.....except for traffic on the 405....and the 101. But when I finally hit the 33, the fun began. I took the 33 because I had read somewhere that along the 33 was a cool small little town. The problem was I forgot to check what the town was called before I left and it was written down in my laptop, not on the paper I had with me up front. I later found that the town was Ojai which I skipped completely. The drive was not a loss though. The 33 was a beautiful drive, a somewhat hidden gem of southern California. The weather was nice and skies were clear which lended itself to beautiful views across the Los Padres National Forest (I was told later there are some natural hot springs along the 33 that you can get to only by foot that are supposed to be very nice).

The last 1/3 of the 33 was freshly paved which made for easy driving. As I began to descend from the mountains on the freshly paved straightaway coming down from the mountains, I started to smile, everything started to sink in, the trip had began. I wish I would of had more time to stop and take photos but I was racing day light (and the check in time at the HI in SLO). There are a lot of farms, abandoned buildings and equipment, and nice views along the 33 that I would have enjoyed stopping to see more of.  

 

I Hopped on the 166 as the sun was setting so it was a pretty dark drive. I had Kanye West on shuffle on the iPod and 15 seconds into Flashing Lights, I came up over a hill to see all the lights of Santa Maria break through the darkness. I found the Hostel and checked in with about an hour to spare. Not a bad place for $23/night.

A Preface

A lot of you are probably a little confused on the title. You are probably thinking something along the lines of, "Adrian, this makes no sense! You are far from ugly, the epitome of beauty and excellence in fact!" I would probably disagree with you(but only out of pure modesty of course). The name actually spurs from a stupid inside joke from 6 or 7 years ago between Rochelle, Sellan, and myself. But ever since, we have called each other uggs, ugglie, ugly, and just about any possible variation of the names, to the point where it feels odd calling Rochelle by her name. Last time I did it by accident she told me it sounded weird and to never do it again.

Anyway, long story short, Rochelle met the people at ugly dolls at a conference a while back and they gave her some ugly dolls and she gave me one (see above). Since it is hard to get any pictures of yourself when you are traveling alone (people get very intimidated by my camera), I decided to bring the doll along to represent me throughout the trip. Besides, I think it kinda looks like me. If you don't see the resemblance, what about now? Exactly.

I am going to try to keep on top of this as best I can but internet is sometimes a little scarce. In the meantime, you can see the pics from the going away party here. I will be posting all of my pictures from the trip on my picasa as well as some on my flickr (you can also see my pictures from Australia there). If you feel like a more up to date, ADD account of my travels (including my routes), you can follow me on twitter.

Here's to the good times, people, food, drinks, and stories of the past, present, and future. I'm off.