San Jose
I went for a short trip to San Jose over Easter to visit my brother who moved there in January. Haha it's true, San Jose is like Richmond Hill. I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't as warm as I had hoped - thought I could spend a day in Santa Cruz; but it was overcast for most of the days and 15 degrees C. It was cool -I got to hang out with my brother, though they don't get Good Friday off. I finally convinced him to go to Lake Tahoe (located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and is 6200 feet from sea level). We went skiing in Squaw Valley; though I can't ski black diamonds (boy I so need lessons!!), the runs were great. I've never been skiing outside of Ontario so no adequate comparisons avail; except that my brother said it was better than Mt. Tremblant.

The best was sitting at the top of the summit looking down on the lake - it was so peaceful and silent. No birds, no wind, no traffic, no talking. Everything was just still; suspended, not in anticipation of anything, but decidedly suspended.

San Francisco

Took the Cal Train (like the Go Train) into San Fran on Good Friday. Earlier, I had searched for a church for a long time on the web; one I could go to in San Fran downtown - but I was really hard pressed to find one! Spent the day wandering the streets; and visiting the sites; but since I had no car and was taking public transit (I took every type of transit in the city - bus; train; subway; trolley) and walked a whole lot. It was good - the quiet travel time I got to spend in thought an conversation with God.

One thing I realized about myself - as much as I like my own solitude; I'm not a huge fan of travelling by myself. Partially cuz I was walking through some seedier parts of SF from the train station and when it got dark, I started to get nervous and a bit freaked. Would have liked to stay later; but felt like I had to get back to San Jose before it was too late.

The Bush Man - (this counts as a travelling dorkism)

I hung out at Fisherman's Warf for a bit (though not much to see; and the seafood stands were sub-par) - wanting to find a newspaper to see if there were any additional Good Friday services offered downtown, I hurried along the main street along the Warf. Suddenly this bush, beside the garbage can and newpaper box moved and the Bushman growled at me. I was soooo psyched out!! I literally jumped sideways 2 feet and screamed. All these other knowing tourists who were standing around watching the Bushman started cracking up like mad because I had such a huge reaction. He gave me some good advice as I paid him for his performance - to always look where I was going and especially in the corporate world. Nice man really - I had a good laugh after my heart started beating again.

Other notables..

I went shopping mad - I don't like shopping usually; but the outlet mall south of San Jose was pretty good - I spent the whole day there; don't remember how much I spent, but I know it's bad when I ended up signing up for a new credit card at Ann Taylor.

San Jose transit - no one takes the transit in San Jose - everyone has Beamers. I stood for over an hour waiting for the bus, and actually instead of the bus, I had 2 offers for rides. Not so good - I had to reiterate that I was waiting for the BUS and wasn't hanging around the corner for anything else. What a punk. I was pissed.

The last week and a half back in TO seemed to negate all the relaxation I had in SJ..sigh....