Livin the Life ~New Years 2011~

This New Years vacation was spent in the "hella" cool bay area. I took the Amtrak from Bakersfield to Stockton and my family from Discovery Bay picked me up. I spent a few days with them and then stayed with my friend Julianne Amstutz in her hometown of Saratoga (San Jose). Our first day together was spent visiting the headquarters for Google and Facebook in Palo Alto. I was amazed at how large those facilities were! The next place we visited was Stanford University. It was quite beautiful there and if I had the money/GPA smartness, I wouldn't mind going there. 

Our next trip was to a place that has a lot of California history, San Francisco! I loved it there. It was quite different from So Cal beach cities. We took the train in from San Ho. Places visited include Pier 39, Ghiradelli Factory, Fishermans Wharf (sourdough clam chowder bowls! :D), shopping in Union Square, riding the Trolley around town, calling a cab a few times, and of course the beautiful, amazing Golden Gate Bridge! It's everything that I thought it would be. 

 The next day we headed up to Twain Harte (just south of Lake Tahoe). We had made arrangements to spend New Years there with Abbey Lemmon and a few friends. At first I was a little skeptical because thought that because so many people had backed out that it was going to be a boring New Years celebration. In the end, I ended up going and it was altogether very fun. We all got to know each other more. It had snowed, rained, and the sun came out. It was a perfect mix of weather. Some memories we made was "Elvis" the huge Elk head hanging on the wall, our "Rascals" furry pet rings bought at a market downtown, our deaths that we plotted by Betty and Khan (the next door neighbors). As the final day approached, we were all sad to leave our adventure but knew that we'd see each other soon at school.

Spontaneously, we decided on our way back to San Ho to just keep traveling and continue into SF, again! Though this time was quite different because I was driving. We had to take a toll road that went over a bridge. We ended up making it into the city and our first stop was Coit Tower. It had an incredible view! After that we visited China town. That's always a must in a big city. Later we drove to the houses that were used for Full House. It was so cool to see something that was from a movie. One of the last things we wanted to see in SF was Haight and Ashbury. We did a quick drive thru just to see what's the big deal there. On our way out of the city we drove down Castro which was quite funny to tell you the truth. 

Randomly, today on Jan. 5, Julianne, her friend Arianna, and I drove to Santa Cruz to sight see. It was so beautiful there! I loved the combination of the forest and the ocean. Very different from San Diego. We strolled through downtown and visited a few shops. After we had enough of that we drove to UCSC. Wow! What an amazing campus. So dark and forestry. I would love to go to school at a place like that. We drove to the lighthouse and walked along the cliffs all awhile viewing the incredible surfers.  As we approached the lighthouse I read the sign in front of it. I had no clue that surfing started in Santa Cruz by 3 Hawaiian princes! As the sun began to set we decided to head back home. It was a nice relaxing day.