Commute

With the Bay Bridge closed off, my normal 2 hour commute home from work tuned to 1 hour. Because the bridge is closed off both in both directions, the extra traffic that I drive through in the Emeryville area was non existent - less cars heading in the same direction as I.
The drive was great with the exception of 4 cars that seemed to be lost. They must have been the only 4 people in the entire bay area who didn’t know the Bay Bridge was closed. As we all drove towards the closed turnoff to the bridge, the 4 vehicles slowed down. A minimum 1000 yards of open road was ahead of them as I tailed them at a speed of 40 mph for a few miles. Jerks.

Dinner and Kings

Posted for September 15, 2009
We got back to the hostel at about 7. After refreshing ourselves, we met up at the lounge area for dinner at 8. One of the guys suggested an all you can eat Parilla Restaurant. With 7 of us attending dinner we split up in two groups and hopped in 2 cabs. Written on a torn piece of paper, we handed the address to the cab driver that was given to us by one of the guys. When we got to the restaurant, we asked for a table to seat 7 while we waited for the other group to arrive. 10 min had passed and the other group had not yet arrived. The host went ahead and seated us. We sat down at our table and contemplated if we were in the right place. Both cabs had left at the same time but split up during the driver over. We then checked the address written on the torn piece of paper and notice two different addresses written on it - one on each side. We concluded the other group must have gone to the other restaurant so we decided to stay and eat. After dinner we walked around the marina a bit then headed back to the hostel.

We got back to the hostel and saw the other group. After a brief exchange in stories, we all joined a group that had started a game of Kings. 2 Decks and an epic game that made everyone stumble off their seats.

With everyone including my self already wasted, 3 of us decided to hit a bar. I called it a night at 5 am.

Air Show

Posted for September 15, 2009

I got out of bed at 11 and got ready to meet up with the gang. We made plans to eat lunch, head to the Zoo, then to Uru Recoleta to pick up my jacket. Leaving he hostel at about 1:30, we headed towards the subway and ate at a pizzeria. While waiting for our pizza, I noticed an Air Show was being televised. In doing so I notice something more in detail – the Obelisco which is one block away. I then started to wonder if it was live. It was. I mentioned it to one of the guys and we both walked outside to observe if it really was taking place. We walked half a block, noticed the large amount of people in the street, looked up, and sure enough, the Air Show was taking place right above our heads. It wasn’t very spectacular, an assortment of jets that fly by but nothing special.

After we finished our pizza we headed to the subway to the Recoleta area. We trekked it through the borough and made our way to way to Uru Recoleta. After I Picked up my jacket we decided to skip out on the Zoo and took a cab to Palermo. We didn’t walk around Palermo due to time and daylight constraints, but we did manage to make our way to a little area that had a few bars and a pool hall situated next to each other. We grabbed a couple tables and had a couple beers.