despite the bad weather, friday night me, taka, eric and tina headed out for some good driving and better eating. we stayed in ventura (on the very cheap at a marriott hotel) and spent all of saturday in santa barbara on and around state street. other than the white knuckle driving on the way up in the rain, it was a very laid back weekend, with lots of window shopping and a lot of good eating. on saturday we watched coraline in 3d at the arlington theatre on state street which is a 2000 seat old-timey theatre that actually looked a lot like the theatre that coraline goes to when she’s in the other-neighbor’s downstairs apartment. it was a good film, but it was pretty creepy, i would think too much for a kid, but maybe i’m just a wuss.

but the focus of the trip was to eat lots of good food. i was seriously full the entire weekend, even eating a full breakfast before the gym and immediately after. we only ate at recommended restaurants or ones that were 4+ stars on yelp! (other than a breakfast we ate at the marriott buffet which wasn’t very good).

if anyone’s heading to santa barbara from redondo beach, here’s some places we ate that were great:

the counter (trendy burgers) in el segundo
casa de soria (mexican) in ventura
brophy brothers (seafood) in santa barbara
pete’s (cafe/coffee shop) in ventura
wood ranch (bbq) in camarillo

this weekend was the final rosarito to ensenada ride. i think this was the 6th time i rode the event and unlike past rides, i took this one pretty slowly. i hadn’t done much training for it and i rode my knobby-tired, retro mountain bike so it was harder than it had been in the past. spending that much time on my bike though, riding through a familiar course had me reflecting a lot on past rides. my first ride was the fastest and most hardcore, and the tandem ride with taka was definitely the most fun. at times, this one almost seemed like work, but being the last event made it special anyway.

most of this trip was just a carbon copy of the other rides: getting lost on the way down, eating tacos, fighting about politics, drinking beer, waiting in long ass lines at the border. for the first time in all my trips to mexico though, i got the montezuma’s revenge :( i’m not even sure what it was from (maybe this popsicle, or maybe when i rinsed my toothbrush). the whole trip i was making fun of eric for being so cautious about the water so i kinda deserved it i guess. saturday after i went to sleep it hit me pretty hard and kept me up all night. by sunday morning i was so dehydrated that i felt like i had a major hangover and the ride back home was pretty miserable. today my system is cleared up, but i still feel like i got beat to shit. not only is my whole digestive system fucked, but my bicycle seat wasn’t properly adjusted so my ass hurts, the mountain bike puts me in a different riding position so my back/neck is sore, and for this 4+ hour ride i wasn’t wearing any sunscreen, so my arms are burnt to all hell.

anyway, at least this was the last ride. probably the worst of all rides and defintely the worst experience in mexico but at least i was there for the final event. in a way i’m glad that there’s not going to be one next year, ’cause otherwise i’d have to come up with an excuse not to go. other than a cancun trip that taka wants to go on, i’d be happy if i never cross that border again. hasta la vista mexico!

here’s me and eric right before the start of the event. i filled my shorts with boxes of nerds to throw at the kids.

when things are good, they’re good, and when they’re bad, things can be miserable. on tuesday, taka and i flew to sfo to catch 1 of any 6 different flights to japan or korea (which is just a hop away) to attend taka’s sister’s wedding in fukuoka. the flight from lax to sfo was uneventful, ballin’ in first class, but sfo to japan was another story. for 5 hours we continuously were bumped off of flight after flight. early in the day we started drinking a beer for every flight we missed, so after the last flight departed without us, we were feeling not only defeated, but drunk.

our backup plan had been to stay in san fransisco and try for the same set of flights the following day. however after being beaten so badly and with most flights for the next day already almost full (and being drunk), i opened my wallet. turns out a pair of roundtrip tickets to japan, 14 hours before you want to leave when most airlines are completely full is kinda expensive. in this case “kinda” is a euphemism for “are you fucking kidding me?!” but these are the things you do for family. we both hadn’t been back to japan since our wedding, so it would’ve seemed pretty disrespectful if we didn’t show, regardless of how good of an excuse we had and we’d both been looking forward to this trip for a while; lord knows taka was deserving of a vacation.

so as i sit here blogging away in the most expensive economy seat ever sold, i vow to never again fly standby to any destination where my presence is required. standby can be great if you have a few days to waste and plenty of backup destinations, but a raving, screaming bitch when she has a bad day.

(i actually wrote this in the plane about a day ago and just now found a chance to upload it here in a small internet cafe in ginza)

with rising fuel prices, the airline industry has been getting pinched pretty hard. three airlines have closed in the last month, and while taka’s airline isn’t likely to go out of business anytime soon, they’re changing some of their policies for part time employees, so that they can take way more time off if they’d like (and i guess reduce payroll costs). this works out great for her, because she primarily keeps the job for the benefits, and she could use a little extra time off.

so this weekend we flew *cough*first class*cough* to san francisco and stayed at the marriott (of course) near 4th/market (right next to the apple store/virgin music) which is pretty much in the center of everything to do over there. the weather was great to just walk around and be tourists. we went to the museum of modern art, the park at the metreon, china town, and ate and drank at lots of swanky places.

san francisco just seems to have more culture than los angeles, although i was getting pretty sick of all the hipsters wearing skinny jeans and riding single speed bikes, and girls wearing ballerina shoes. we saw this one hardcore hipster that had a t-shirt on that read “irvine sucks.”

back when i first started working for my company, i had had a chance to meet this guy, who was just a total normal engineer. he left about a year after i started and went to nasa and tomorrow he has his first mission to space. i haven’t personally talked to him since way back in 1998, but i definitely wish him luck. it’s kinda cool to personally know someone who’s actually going into space.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/reisman

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/03/10/space.shuttle.ap

or at least not really… we had first class standby tickets for new york, but since there was some fucked up weather on the east coast earlier in the day, the flight before ours was canceled which filled up both of the red eye flights we were going to try to get on. since we were at the airport and ready to go somewhere, we went with our back up flight which is always empty late at night: sin city.

we were disappointed, but it might’ve been for the best. the weather was in the high 20’s in new york, and my unreliable iphone weather reported a mix of cloudy weather and rain and snow. in an attempt to humor ourselves we stayed at new york, new york and drank and gambled and partied. since we were there for a couple of days we also just kinda hung out, shopped, watched i am legend at the theatre and taka rode the insanity ride at the stratosphere. we’ll try for new york again in the spring when travel isn’t as hectic and the weather is tolerable.

not quite the real thing, but vegas is always a good second choice

and damn, there’s nothing better than after having spent a weekend in a hot, humid, public transportation-going city than to have your buddy pick you up from lax at 1am in his convertable and blast down the 405 in the cool night air (thanks eric <3)

i flew into o’hare on saturday morning, after a really crappy flight on jet blue. i got a middle seat between two fat women, my little tv screen was broken and my tray table wouldn’t stay straight. so #1 lesson: fuck jet blue. taka met me at the airport, we checked into our hotel (the embassy suites rule! they had an open bar from 5-7:30p every day for guests so we got plastered) and headed to the row of pubs around wrigley field. lots of good beer and food around that area and the people were super friendly.

it turns out that the reason that flights and hotel rooms were scarce/expensive (more on this in a moment) was because there was a USA vs. Mexico soccer game and a huge gay pride festival on sunday. anyway, 3 different waitresses we talked to on saturday said that the thing to do on sunday was the gay pride festival so that’s where we ended up on sunday. turns out it’s a pretty big event with floats sponsored by nbc and bank of america, and lots of gay dudes dancing and chicks flashing their boobs. we actually ran into some of taka’s classmates as we were walking down the streets drinking booze (which you can do there!)

afterwards we walked around the park and out to the beach to check out lake michigan, which seems as expanse as the ocean. we finally made our way back to our hotel (as good as their public transportation system is, it still takes forever to get anywhere), just in time for the last few rounds of the open bar at our hotel. by the time they closed up, we didn’t have the wherewithal to find a place to eat, so we clumsily had dinner at the hotel’s restraunt and called it an early evening.

on monday morning we headed into downtown to do some more touristy stuff… we ate chicago dogs and chicago pizza at some pretty authentic looking joints, and went to the oberservation deck of the sears tower. i come to find that the sears tower has been the tallest building in the united states since 1973. for some reason i had thought the wtc towers were taller. you can actually feel the building swaying which is a little freaky.

so yeh, everything about the trip was great, except for the flights. my return flight was supposed to leave at 5pm, but because of everyone that flew in for the weekend parade and soccer match, all the flights were overbooked, and poor me was flying standby. after 3 hours of standing inline with bitchy customer service and 3 missed flights, i finally got on the last damn flight outta ORD at 10:25p. so #2 lesson: fuck o’hare airport.

lots of pics when i find my card reader :)

Last night i went out with the boys and we ate steaks, drank beers and argued politics. When i got back to my apartment, i noticed a hole punched halfway through the door! The door’s hollow, so it wouldn’t've taken much to do it, but i can’t figure out how the fuck it could’ve happened. Anyway, the great part about renting is that it’s not my problem, and i’m gonna have my mom check in on the place a couple times a day.

And damn, i always here people raving about how great long beach airport is, but i swear it’s easier to fly to japan out of lax than it is a domestic flight outta here. Long lines, rude people, and it looks like a set from an 80’s sitcom, like when the bundys went to the airport or something.

Anyway, my flight’s boarding… Kentomatic out!

when i go to visit her later this month, i’m prolly gonna have to take the same pic, since that sign has to be one of the most classic ones in chicago.

she spends most of her time studying, and i guess the tests that she has to take are pass or go home, so there’s not much room to mess around. she’s doing fine though, and i’m sure she won’t have any problems. she said all of her classmates (50 of them) are all super friendly and supportive, and it seems like a college dorm type atmosphere, so regardless it’s a good experience for her.

ben flew out there last weekend to hang out with his friend vanessa and they met up with taka on sunday. oh, poor lonely kent.

well, kinda couples weekend… there were varying leveless of couplesness, but it was a fun crowd. me, taka, mike, lisa, al, elaine, ben and vanessa (in order of couplesness) stayed in rosarito this trip. we assumed that that’s where all of the 10,000 riders in the rosarito to ensenada ride must party, seeing that we’ve stayed in ensenada and inbetween before with no luck. turns out bicycle riders don’t party… go figure.

we didn’t get into town until about 8pm or so on friday. our hotel was a 10 minute walk or $3 cab ride to the downtown area. we ate tons of tacos and drank buckets of beer and listened to funny covers by a live band at macho taco for a few hours and i got to bed around 1a. our hotel was kinda creepy. it was as huge as a regular hyatt or something, but only the 5th floor was lit. the parking garage seriously had 10 cars in it, and the people running the frontdesk looked like crazy mafia or something. lisa had read lots of reviews (after we had booked/paid for it) about how it was corrupt and dangerous and terrible service… but for all the worrying and creepiness, it was actually a decent place, although a bit overpriced.

the ride was awesome. it had rained the day before, but cleared up just in time for the start of the race. in the end the only people that rode were me, mike and taka. al had busted his foot, and everyone else was there just for the good time. we finished the ride in a little under 4:30. we actually started at the start line this time (unlike the last few times where we started about a mile ahead), so the first hour was with heavy traffic. after the start gun went off, it was 10 minutes before we even got on our bikes. i think had we skipped ahead like we’ve done in the past, we could’ve saved at least 45 minutes. we only made 2 brief stops for bathroom breaks (freakin’ women) and other than that no stopping, no walking. taka set a fast pace up “el tigre” (1000ft climb in 2 miles), and was dinging her bell and yelling “passing on your left” as me and mike chased. at one point when i went to put my hand on her back for a bit of a push, she pushed off me and pulled away. she had something to prove and i was so impressed and proud :) i told her i’d build her a road bike for the next ride, because if she can haul ass up those hills on a 40lb mountain bike, she’ll fly on a sub-20lb road bike.

the finish line fiesta was sponsored by corona this year, so we just chilled, ate crazy tacos and drank coronas for a few hours. by the time we headed back up to rosarito, i was pretty dead. we showered and by the time we headed out to get dinner, rosarito was pretty much a ghost town. we grabbed dinner at a lobster restraunt and then me, taka, mike and lisa headed back up to the rooms, and i’m actually still not sure what the other guys did, because the 4 of us woke up early on sunday and headed out to beat the traffic.

anyway, tons of pics coming, stay tuned :)