Big Sur Trip

Imagine this sign. Enter American mom, dad, two brats. Two brats start climbing cliff immediately. Parents say nothing. Dad watches. Mom does nothing but take photos with overly expensive camera she obviously doesn't know how to use.
Brats climb right past sign and out of sight. Brat one throws rock down. Almost kills other tourist below as it bounces off the bottom of the cliff. Dad says 'watch out'. Mom says nothing but takes photos of brats.
On the way down, brat two dislodges LOOSE ROCK, rock hits brat one on head. Brat one starts to cry loudly and annoyingly. Dad comments about brats pants getting dirty. Mom says nothing but takes photos of brats.
Brat one reaches bottom. Dad tells crying brat one that he was 'terrific up there'. Nothing about learning a valuable lesson about signs that are obviously there for public safety. Mom says nothing except take photos of brats.
Brat two reaches bottom. Mom tells brat two to stand still for a photos. Mom and brat scream at each other. When we leave Mom screams at us for wobbling the boardwalk as we leave.
Bloody hell.

I lied.

One more... some cheeleader action (please read that the right way). Did I mention 10x zoom?

one,two,three SMACK

Like watching rows of armoured cars colliding at an intersection. Last football pic I promise.

Game was fun. Here are some of the three teams they bring with them. An offensive team, a defensive team and another team for something else. It was the same with ice hockey - endurance and all-round skills are not their strong-point. Trust the yanks to specialise the hell out of every sport.
We saw some good plays and a relatively exciting finish but we almost froze to death on the aluminium bench seating that just sucked all the warmth out of your body through your arse-cheeks. Bring on the new stadium.

Football GAME (not footy match)

I kept referring to our upcoming American football game as a footy match and got told off for it. On Saturday afternoon we went to Stanford Stadium down the road to watch the Stanford Cardinals vs Notre Dame. Note that "Notre Dame" is pronounced in American speak as "noter daime". They really can't pronounce any French words i've learned (watch them try "Grand Prix").
Turns out this game was the final game ever at a stadium that dates back decades. Straight after the game they were to start pulling down the stadium to replace it with a smaller but better one.

SF City @ night

A little overexposed but it shows how bright it was.

GGB @ night

Deck

Last one. Promise.

Forward torpedo room.

Nice. It was incredible cramped inside. Definitely NOT made for people my height.

USS Pampantino

A submarine in SF harbour. We took a trip with Matt on friday into SF as an introductory tour for him and a chance to do all the little things I hadn't done yet. Put a tick in the box for:
*the submarine,
*clam chowder one last time,
*riding the cable cars by hanging on the outside,
*going into the huge Victoria's Secret store at Union Square (Sashi was shopping so we had an excuse).
All things above: very enjoyable ;)

Crazy times

Matt arrived wednesday (my replacement). The bastard stepped right into a thanksgiving four day weekend. So much for work. We expected him crash with jet lag but so far he has been killing us. The first night we stayed up till 3am. Every night he has been here has involved the consumption of at least a bottle of wine or tequila - and we just restocked this afternoon. We've been going out to dinner every night as well. At least we're going out with a bang.

Starting home

The nice men from the moving company came today and picked up my stuff. Actually it was one man from the moving company plus mexican helpers. They stuffed everything into inadequate cardboard boxes and sealed them in kilometres of packing tape. The worst part is I'm without my awesome doona for until I get home at christmas (assuming its arrived when I get back).
I don't hold much hope for most of my stuff making it home intact. But I intend to cripple them with inflated claims when it happens.
BTW - the weather is still mid-high twenties. Unbelievable for mid November.

Stripy men on skates

I have no idea what you call it when the Referee drops the puck in between the two players but thats what this is.

I should be a paparazzi

The match was really fun and exciting but the fights were even better. That's what 10x zoom is for.
Before the game we had dinner in the stadium. The "terriaki chicken" we tried consisted of.
1. Put three pieces of chicken on some rice
2. Squirt "sauce" on top from a sauce bottle. Yuk.
BTW - the Canadians kicked the Yanks arse's both in the fight and in the game.

Sharks vs Canucks

Wednesday night we hit the HP Pavilion to see the San Jose Sharks vs the Vancouver Canucks.
Contain yourself Brush.
The whole of central San Jose almost shut down with cops directing traffic to cope with the huge numbers of people driving to the game. And they do this like three times a week!
We actually left directly from work in San Jose so we got there about an hour early. Turned out to be perfect timing what with parking, and having to walk to the other side to pick up tickets. The stadium looked huge but wasn't much bigger than Melbourne's Tennis Centre inside.

Bakers Dozen

13 Work Days to go !!(minus Thanksgiving day holidays). Then home via London.