Me and Ridd and Thomas had decided to drive out to San Jose, California to watch the Utes play the Spartans. We don't know why or how we came to the decision that this was a good idea... Well anyway, we left Salt Lake after Ridd got off work Friday morning (he works 24 EMT shifts). We left around 10:30-ish. The plan was to stop at Wendover and Reno and then get to our hotel in Fremont, CA, and maybe stop at some other stuff on the way depending how it felt. We got to Wendover right around noon and decided to eat something there, Thomas knew a little burger joint. We all enjoyed our burgers, lightly complained about the prices, and left.
We had seen something online about "the World's Largest Stuffed Polar Bear" being in Elko, so when we stopped for gas, we had to see this thing. He's called White King and he's like 10 and a half feet tall! So we stood there for a second and decided to go ahead and put a couple bucks in a slot machine while we were there...
This is my first ever gambling winnings!We left Elko and drove through the rest of the nothingness until we got to Reno. We all wanted to stop in Reno because none of us had done a Vegas weekend when we turned 21, so we wanted to make up for this shame and put 20 bucks on a blackjack table and find out what the fuss was all about. Well they weren't playing Blackjack at the time so we put our money into some slots. Needless to say Thomas and Ridd both lost 20 bucks a few pennies at a time (I only lost 10). At one point we thought to leave the penny slots and hit a quarter machine... that only sped up the losing.
By this time it was starting to get dark and we knew we still had about 5 hours of driving ahead of us, plus the hardest bit going through Donner Pass. I drove out of Reno and when we hit the canyon I remembered driving through it on the way to Tahoe so it was no big deal, except for the construction. We had to detour off the road a good half hour and go on this windy mountain road. When we got through the pass and to Sacramento we filled up again and Thomas took over the drive to Fremont (about 20 minutes north of San Jose). We got to our hotel, the "Good Nite Inn" which was the cheapest hotel in the San Jose area, but for 50 bucks this place was by no means a "hole" it was really a nice joint.
Now for Saturday, which we knew was going to be rough on us...
We had to get up around 6:30 and get ready to leave and hit the 7:50 BART (Bay-Area-Rapid-Transit) train, which we rode up to San Francisco using only one transfer. This is kind of a fun train ride as it goes under the bay and you can feel your ears pop. We got to San Fran early so we could get on the 9:00 Alcatraz tour and still have enough time to see the rest of the area attractions. We got off the train and we knew there was a light rail system that runs right up the Embarcadero (the street that runs North/South along the bay that all the piers jut off of). We saw a train, but we couldn't find anywhere to buy a ticket for it, like TRAX. We wandered around a little bit and decided to just walk over to the Embarcadero and maybe we'd see a ticket stand over there. We walked east and hit this big building with a farmer's market outside and a bunch of little shops inside (or more importantly, a bathroom!)
When those that needed to go...went, we started walking north up the Embarcadero. It was raining and cold in San Francisco. I had anticipated it being a little cold and maybe some fog in the morning, but I didn't even bring a jacket to California! Well we never could find a ticket stand so we just walked up the piers (it's a good 2.5 mile walk from the train to where we thought the tours left from). We pass a bunch of little "Bay Tours" and ships that take people out AROUND Alcatraz but we didn't see the one that takes you to the island and drops you off. there are shops all along there and we hit "Pier 39" which is the main touristy pier. Fisherman's Wharf is along past that in the 40s.
Once we got to Pier 39 we realized that the tours take off from a little bit back the way we came (around pier 33 I think) so we turn around and get rained on a little bit more. We finally get to this place and buy our tickets for the 10:30 tour! Plans are going smoothly so far...
This is Thomas waiting for the boatWe get over to the island and take the audio tour, walking around to all these posters they have on the walls depicting some escapes or certain memorable moments in the prison's history. The audio tour consists of 4 former inmates and 4 former guards all telling stories about the parts of the prison you are supposed to be walking through at the time. We got to see the three cells the the men depicted in the movie "Escape from Alcatraz" escaped from. There was even a tiny number 433 on the bars of the cell that Al Capone spent most of his time in.
and that's the ONLY mention of Al Capone in the tour
We ended up walking around the island for probably a good 2 hours and decided we needed to get back and eat something (if you noticed we've only eaten the one time in Wendover). On the ride back from the island I saw... Valerie Chipman? So I waved at her and said, "hey Valerie." Apparently this means, in some odd language, "Come on over and sit next to me and my two friends you don't know and we'll talk about my family and what everyone is up to these days" I guess it was okay for her to do that, it just got a little weird after the initial, "so what the hell are you doing here?"We left the boat and walked back up to Pier 39 to visit a couple little shops along the pier. I found a cool lead-paint-tainted shot glass (so I might not be using that one mom ;) We then walked to the end of the pier which, if you don't know, is where a good thousand seals hang out on these floating docks.
for the sake of Kristine showing this to Josh, yes these seals are all aliveBytheway seals smell like cows dipped in salt water. We left the seals (because, really what is there to do watching seals) and left pier 39 to get up to Fisherman's Wharf and some lunch. Thomas had been looking forward to getting clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Since I don't like any fish type anythings, and I'm not a huge fan of sourdough, I had tortellini. We ate in this little restaraunt that couldn't decide if it was a fancy place or not. By that, I mean, the waiters all wore tuxes, but the decor and plates screamed chain restaraunt like Applebees or something.
We left the Wharf and decided to take our chances on the light rails because we were on a deadline to get everthing done before kickoff at 7:30. We guess, correctly, that you just pay as you get on the car, like a bus. On the train some woman asked me if they could just ride this all the way to the end of the line... Her husband simply said, "Look at his shirt" (which was a Utah shirt with a camera around my neck)
We got back on the BART and got back to Fremont at about a quarter after 4. We had plans to drive down to San Jose and go to the Winchester Mystery House, which we knew was a 2 hour tour, so we were a little short for time. We ended up just missing the "special" tour which takes you to more rooms and behind the scenes, but we went on the regular 65 minute version which takes you to all the main attractions.
If you don't care to click the link, the Winchester Mystery House is this mansion in San Jose which was built by the widow of the Winchester rifle creator, Sarah Winchester. Legend has it that after the deaths of her daughter, and then husband, Sarah spoke to a spiritual medium in Boston. The medium apparently told her that her family had been killed by the spirits of all those killed by her husband's rifle, and the only way to ensure they wouldn't get to her was to build a house, and keep building a house. She bought an 8 room farmhouse and started adding on to it.... and adding on to it... The place was under construction 24 hours a day, 7 days a week... for 38 YEARS!! She build all sorts of crazy rooms, and stairways to the ceiling, and twists and turns to confuse the ghosties.
My camera ended up dying before the end of the tour so I didn't get a picture of some other cool stuff, like the chimney that they just didn't build all the way to the outside, or the front door that only Sarah Winchester and the men who installed in ever walked through. It really is an interesting place and I'll go back if I'm ever in San Jose agian, I'd recommend it to anyone visiting the Bay Area.
We left the Winchester at about 7:00, with a ten minute or so drive to the stadium, we were feeling pretty good about all the stuff we'd seen today. We were "Butts in Seats" 10 minutes before kickoff. You probably heard about the game, or you probably don't care, so I'll just say, the Utes didn't play particularly well, the offense couldn't sustain any momentum so the defense got a little tired but by the end we won and that's all that matters.
NOW Thomas had to be back at work by 2:00 Sunday afternoon.... This meant we had to drive ALL NIGHT to get back in time! We left the stadium and topped off the gas, and bought supplies (energy drinks, Powerade, a couple snacks). And we started the drive, Ridd first. We all agreed that one person would sleep in the back seat while the two other's stayed awake, when the driver got too tired to continue we'd stop and the passenger would take over, the sleeper would move to shotgun, and the driver would get some sleep. Ridd drove to Sacramento and we decided to get something to eat, we were all starving and WAY too tired to be driving. We eventually found a Denny's thanks to the GPS in the Prius.
After we ate we all felt great! I felt awake but it wasn't my turn to drive, I'd be sitting next to Tom. Tom got about halfway through Donner's Pass before he got too tired and pulled over. This was not really good news becuase Tom only drove about an hour... if we had to stop every hour to switch I don't think we would have made it. So I take over driving in the Pass... only it's 4 in the morning this time, and there's construction you'll remember. They have those really "too bright to be allowed to shine in tired driver's faces" lights set up, there's this concrete barrier on my left and the edge of a canyon barrier on my right... This is as terrified driving as I've ever been. Looking back, I really shouldn't have been driving.
Obviously I made it out of the canyon and I got a good 2 hours in before I had to pull over and get some sleep. I ended up not having to drive the rest of the way! Ridd drove through sunrise (I just couldn't make it even though I was trying), then Tom took over and drove the rest of the way (probably a good 4-5 hours).
Well we made it back to Salt Lake by 1, so Tom had time to even shower before going to work, the poor sap. I went home and promptly fell asleep on the couch for 4 hours. I still feel a little worn out, even after 2 whole days of normal routine and I will NEVER do that drive again! At least not until it's been a while and I forget how hard it really was...
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