Davet Matthew's Band Concert

On Saturday I went to the Dave Matthew's band concert at the Shoreline amphitheatre in Mountain View. It is one of Ms H.'s favourite bands. They play a mixture of jazzy, bluesy, rocky stuff which I would class as relatively easy listening. I would have photos, however they said no cameras allowed, so I left mine in the car, only to find out there were hundreds of people who didn't get caught/listen and were clicking away, much to my envy. However the photos probably wouldn't have been that great, as we were positioned quite far up the grassy bank (I did take cellphone photos, but they weren't posting quality)..

The amphitheatre itself is massive. A giant quarter circle like slice, positioned at the base of a hill. The bottom half was seating, while the top half was a grassy bank. The amount of people there was probably at least 15000 I think, so car parking was a massive undertaking. Thankfully, they had lots of free parking for the event, even though it ended up being a slight walk..

The concert itself was good. I enjoyed it, even though I didn't really know the songs. It was relaxing to just sit and take it in..

San Francisco Again

So this last weekend involved a trip to San Francisco. Went out on the Saturday, only visited two places. Went by the City Hall which looks pretty cool at night. Needless to say the photo with the flash unfortunately turned out the best as my low light arm shaking skills were quite obvious in the other photos. The night itself was pretty low key. We tried to do some karaoke, however it was being dominated by drunken people and thus the wait was excessive. So we went to another place, which had an interesting décor. The ceiling had lots and lots of disco balls, while the walls had lots of mirrors cut into odd shapes, etc.
The next day was crossing off one of the things that I haven't done in San Francisco yet - riding the cable car. After waiting like 30 minutes with all the tourists, we managed to secure some outside rails. This is pretty cool because you just hang on to the rail as the cable car whizzes up and down the street. The cable that the cable car uses to propel itself isnt visible like the one in Wellington, rather sensibly it is found in the road.
It can be a little nerve-racking when you're going past another cable car, as they pass quite close to each other, particularly if it looks like the other person in the car hasn't pulled themselves in enough. But yea the day was very nice, a warm Autumn day, and the whole ride was very pleasant :) I recommend it!

Sacramento

So last weekend I went to the Californian equivalent of parliament. It wasn't a specific trip to see it, it was just a "Oh because I'm in the area" type thing. Which I am glad I did, because it's a pretty nice building, and I got to see/learn of California's history. As seen in my photos the building is very nice. The Governator does really have a prominent office entrance, with his name above the door making no mistake about it.
There are two debating chambers in the building, one for the assembly (green) and the other for the senate (red). It was a surprise for me to learn that the political model of Washington was pretty much replicated here in California. The dome itself had nothing in it, apart from a balcony type level and having a flash interior décor.


The reason for my being in Sacramento was actually to attend a wedding reception. Yes not the actual wedding but the reception... One of Ms H.'s friends was getting married, and she was Mormon. They got married in a Mormon temple, which doesn't allow non-Mormons to enter. Needless to say the reception was a sober affair, which I didn't mind. The food was good, however the highlight was definitely the chocolate fountain :] Mmmm chocolate covered cream puffs and strawberries..

San Diego Part Dos

So continuing my San Diego visit I went to Coronado & Old Town San Diego. Coronado is a very resort like place with beach white sand and a very large historic Victorian style hotel (the spiral structure is it's signature). Old town has some old buildings (like the Church) and could be part of a western movie.
I also went to La Jolla, and went to the cove to be specific. It's this little cove that gets packed out, and people go snorkelling just off shore as there is some fish life. Not that pretty but interesting nonetheless.
I managed to also capture a nice shot of Pacific Beach and the surrounding area from the plane when I left. In the background is Mt Soledad (I think I spelt that right), which I have pictures of below when I was at the summit.
I also went to Point Loma where they have a monument to Cabrillo, who was the first European to sail into San Diego harbour and set foot on shore. It has a nice vista, but when I was there it wasn't as clear as usual, because you could usually see Mexico and some offshore islands pretty well, which you couldn't really then. At the same place is one of the first lighthouses that was on the west coast of the United States.. Interestingly I met a guy from the Caribbean, and we got to chatting about cricket, and then we did a Brian Lara impersonation..

San Diego Part Uno

Well this last weekend here in the States was their Labor weekend. So I took this long weekend opportunity to fly down to San Diego with Ms H. :) We were lodging with her family, which was good as I didn't have to worry about where to stay, and how to get myself around San Diego :]

First up we went to the world famous San Diego Zoo. This is a pretty cool Zoo. It has heaps of different animals and you could easily spend the whole day there trying to see everything. Since we didn't have time to see all of it, we went to see our favourite animals and anything else that was along the way. It was an educational trip, as I found that a bearcat is indeed an animal, and that lynxes are actually rather large animals, and having one as a domestic animal isn't quite as feasible as I imagined.

My favourite animal exhibit was probably the Hippos, they were both in the water and were gracefully moving around for such chubby animals. One then came up to the glass and I just couldn't help myself hehe..


Next up was Pacific Beach beach. Pacific Beach is the area I was staying in so I was about 20 minutes walk from the water. It has a pretty nice beach, a couple of km long and gets some nice surf. It was refreshing to finally be able to get into the water and not change gender, as the sea up round the Bay Area is quite frigid. So I spent the afternoon doing some successful body surfing - Woop Woop :D