And we're back! Yep, these two posts were made within a few minutes of each other. That'd be because I've been out of internet contact. I did pull up my laptop while in a mall in SF friday, but while there were several wireless networks, the public ones didn't appear to work (I suspect they were public, but only authenticated MAC addresses could be used on them). Oh well, so instead yall just get a pair of posts essentially from saturday.
The trip up and back was pretty uneventful. There was one weird bit with taking the bay bridge into SF: it was during some really heavy traffic, and I was in a leftmost lane. I couldn't figure out what lane I should be in, because some were marked FastTrack or something, and so when I saw a carpool lane (the first I'd seen in SF) I got into that one. We entered the toll booth area, and I was ready to pay the 4$, but the lane I was in came to a booth with no person in it, and it didn't appear to care that I was there (there was a screen, but it was hard to read in the glare, I recall it flashing up a 0$ sorta thing). So we went on, but I had this nagging feeling I was supposed to pay 4$ for the toll. I found out later that the nagging feeling was correct, but for the wrong reason: apparently carpools don't have to pay the toll, but carpools in SF are three people, rather than the two person per car rule in LA. So I shouldn't have been in the carpool lane, and thus would have had to pay the toll. Oh well, I just hope they don't get irritated about the carpool lane thing and fine me huge amounts. Coming back across the same bridge, we were all set to pay the toll, I had figured out which lane type would work (after talking with a native) and let me pay by cash, and then there was no toll booths at all going eastbound. Doh!
Anyways, here's how our stay in SF went: Drove up, got there about 4:30pm or so, received multiple calls to figure out where/what we should do. We ended up needing to delay til about 6:30pm before we'd have something to do, so we went looking for Cody's books, a bookstore I'd heard about. Finally found it after walking in the wrong direction a bit, only to find out that they had closed, and their Berkeley location should still be open. So we went back instead to the huge mall (between Market and Mission, and 4th and 5th). It gave the impression of being huge, with directory displays that didn't just have a flat listing of all the stores, but instead had a touch screen searchable index, and when you picked a store it displayed how to get there. I think it was actually smaller than the Beverly Center mall, but it gave the impression of being bigger. Hard to tell though, we only stayed for a little bit and went to three stores in a localized area of the mall.
We did see a cool store, which seemed extremely niche: It sold handbags, fancy ladies dress shoes, and half-trenchcoat-like coats. I spent a while trying to figure out how that could be economically feasible, but gave up. If you've got ideas, let me know.
After the mall visit, it was time for dinner! This is good, because we'd eaten a long time ago. We first navigated to pick up Weronika, and then headed to Little Italy to meet up with L's parents and sister. We arrived in Little Italy ok, and then spent the next way too long trying to find parking. Finally found it, and had an extremely good dinner at a place whose name I was too tired to note, and thus don't remember.
Zzzzzzz. Then there was a drive again and then sleep. Today, we met up again and L's sister joined us. (I don't know how to write about her - I think she reads this blog already, but I don't like using people's names. Except I clearly don't mind in some cases, so I'm not sure exactly what it is. I almost always keep myself and L partially anonymous in name, but not always other people... Sorry for the digression...) The plan evolved: Go to Berkeley! We found out that Cody's books in Berkeley had closed, at least the location on telegraph. Doh! But there was still Claire, a friend of Weronika and L, whom L hadn't seen in a year or so, so we met up with her for lunch and afterwards went to Games of Berkeley. Lots of great stuff there, we ended up buying a module for Serenity (written by Laura and Tracy Hickman!), and a board game based on Order of the Stick. Also very tempting were Exalted books covering Autochthonians, and one covering Fair Folk, plus 3rd edition L5R and Nth edition Paranoia. (The latter two Weronika did pick up, and I was sorely tempted to). There were also a ton of other things that were pretty cool: Arkham Horror expansions, which one of the store's staff said were excellent, in the we're all gonna die quicker version of excellent. I also saw the Sluggy Freelance cardgame, a Paranoia card game (It's mandatory!), lots of the new Magic cards, some great figurines (both painted - Hero Clix and some Mechwarrior type stuff, and unpainted - lots of great fantasy hero/heroine type ones, saw a great elven ranger that might have been Thiryal), and more stuff I'm forgetting at the moment. Anyways, this took up most of our time and we left late in the afternoon, luckily still early enough to miss the traffic (thanks Lem for the warning about traffic times!), though there was a little but it cleared up quickly.
The trip back was uneventful too, though I thought it worth mentioning that I was going to stop at the Shell on the hill (do people remember that place?), but we ended up needing gas and drinks about 25 miles before that point, so instead we waved as we went by. The only other thing of note was that I was alone in the front seat and we were listening to CD's. At one point we had put on the Postal Service CD I recently got, and it finished and started over. I took it out and asked for another CD to replace it (the case was in the back), and it took a little bit to figure out that the reason I wasn't getting any response was that they were sound asleep in the back. Oh well, I ended up listening to that CD three times through, and the rest got a nap. :)
6 comments:
Games of Berkeley is a great store!
I've heard the Dunwich Horror expansion of Arkham Horror is excellent. When one goes insane, one can get disabilities instead of going to Arkham Asylum. Also, there are some truly evil cards apparently in the order of fight an Elder God on your own. Kacie owns the expansion, so we'll need to have a game night where she can make it before I leave. I've been meaning to try the expansion for a while.
I'll be up in Berkeley next weekend, so maybe I'll buy the Dunwich Horror expansions. :)
It was a sad day when Cody's (on Telegraph) closed; they were a Berkeley institution. Their 4th St location in Berkeley is still open, but I've never been to that one. Supposedly they were driven out by the big chain bookstores, but the Barnes and Noble in Berkeley also closed so I don't know what their competition was. Maybe Amazon.
Anyway, for genre fiction I now go to The Other Change of Hobbit on Shattuck between University and Allston, which is conveniently next to the excellent Comic Relief. There are a few other bookstores clinging to life in the area, but none as good as Cody's.
Oh! I've been to The Other Change of Hobbit, but didn't remember it or we'd have made that a stop as well.
Mason: They also had the King in Yellow expansion, which looked a bit smaller, but the guy said it changes the allies into demented maniacs (amongst other things), sounded pretty fun. The Dunwich Horror one apparently has a whole new board that you play on, in addition to being demented.
I never actually went to Cody's, though I'll heartily second props for Comic Relief and The Other Change of Hobbit, though. I can never remember the "new" location for the latter, though, and so most of the time I drop by Berkeley I don't end up dropping in.
Oh, wait, was Cody's the one about a block before the end of the major hustle and bustle on Telegraph, on the south side of the street? Two stories, for the most part... I am suddenly remembering it. Hrm.
The King in Yellow expansion is one I've never heard of. There was a small expansion by some other name that didn't interest me. For the Dunwich Horror expansion, I knew about the other board. One can apparently take the train to Dunwich. That's the expansion I'm likely to get and that I have been thinking about getting for a while.
There is also a sci-fu/fantasy bookstore on Claremont. When I was there, they were selling a Jesus action figure for $6.66. I saw that on my first day living in Berkeley and I approved!
Sounds like a fun excursion.
On my blog I usually only use names instead of initials if they are for people I've talked to about writing on my blog and they seemed okay with it. Or else family which usually gets mentioned by name or "relation," for example "my brother." My roommates usually get full names because I've talked to them about it but I"ll use initials until further noted.
I am slightly tired so this may be a very confusing post. I'm sorry. Should not write comments on drugs (prescription drugs, the legal kind, just to clarify for people who don't know me...)
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