muir woods

Went to Muir Woods National Monument this weekend with Jeremy, Dayana and Paul. It was a beautiful Saturday, sunny, not too hot. However, Paul and Dayana brought their dog Chica - seen here trying to squeeze onto the middle console
Muir Woods apparently does not allow animals. So that was a bummer, but they found some other trails to stroll around on though while Jeremy and I tried to do a little hike for about 2 hours.
This is the type of place better explained through pictures. So here you go.
These are from the path on the way into the park

Here are a couple from the trail itself

This one shows the remains of a burnt up tree

I love how the branches spiral upwards on this one
tree face!

there were so many ladybugs all over this fallen tree.

The Jeremy series...walking over a fallen down tree


Some more great shots

It was great to be out in nature, walking around in the trees. It is astounding how incredibly tall they are.
The only thing that could have made the trip better would have been hot chocolate with whipped cream waiting for us afterwards. Oh ya, and Chica not getting a tick on her 'you know what'. (It's true! She went pee in some leaves and got one on her private part! Poor dog...I'm happy to report it has been removed and she is fine.)

graffiti alley

So there's an alley way off Valencia St., next to a thrift shop. I've dubbed it graffiti alley, although I'm sure I'm not the first to call it that. I had posted a couple pictures already for when Ferris and I went there the first weekend I was in San Francisco.

I don't think I'm going to write much, but instead just post the pictures up for your enjoyment. I find them incredible.

On the way into the alley:

Ferris checking stuff out:
My favorite one:

Hearts of Gold, Fists of Fury!

These are more I took this past weekend when Jeremy and I revisited graffiti alley:

Oldie but goodie:
These two bunnies framed the middle of the building where there were stairs and windows. If you can't read it, the left one says 'No War for Heavy Metal' and it's farting a bubble that says 'We are scum'. The right one says 'There Goes the Neighborhood'.


I love seeing artwork up and around in the city. I already have a number of random sidewalk stencil art as well that I've taken pictures of.

They are definitely not as impressive as the wall graffiti, but they are really fun to come upon walking around the city.

Sealife and Ice Cream

Took the day off work and went down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Jeremy. It is a pretty popular aquarium. My roommate told me they even had a great white shark there at one point. Anyways their newest exhibit is sea otters!
They are so f'n cute! They like to float around on their backs and look all cute and cute cute CUTE! ack! Just in case you don't believe me, check out this youtube fav:
I didn't see that happen while I was there, but, that's ok..
Another highlight was watching this guy: move around the glass. I accidentally took this photo with my flash, didn't realize the setting I chose had auto flash. Poor Mr. Octopus.
I was also really impressed with all their jellyfish! They are mesmerizing to watch swim around. They really freak me out in nature, I can only imagine one of them wrapping their long tendrils around my leg and stinging me to death. However, these photos are just so surreal.

I think the highlight of the entire trip was experiencing what they call the Ocean Sunfish. Jeremy and I decided it looked like some floating rock blubber type creature reject from the neverending story. I could only sort of capture its oddness on film.



Another bonus to the aquarium. Monterey is fricken pretty.

After all that fun, we grabbed some awesome food at Blue Moon on Cannery Row. I had one of the best Ahi Tuna sandwiches ever! Then it was off to Santa Cruz for some old school arcade games. I'd like to point out I beat Jeremy 3 times in a row at air hockey. Then he schooled me at pretty much every other game we played. I was disappointed to find out that the skeeball room was closed! What the hell?!

We finished off right though at the local creamery - Marianne's. I had some delicious caramel ice cream with fudge swirl and oreo mix complimented with bittersweet chocolate.
Talk about some happy campers!

Pumpkin Face

So, this weekend I heard about a Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay. I was stoked. Being a little homesick, I was determined to check it out with my 'free' weekend. I'm pretty sure this was my first free weekend that wasn't already planned out for me since I've been here. (Trust me, I am NOT complaining).
Anyways, Ferris came with me. After the shitty rain we had on Friday, the weather was gorgeous. My co-worker warned me to take the 1, which was not a problem. For those of you who aren't familiar with the 1, it is the pacific coast highway, the route that hugs the coast for the length of CA. I only stopped off once, but I was more then pleased with my pictures. I couldn't get enough of those feather looking plants. They were all over the hillsides, blowing in the breeze. Plus, the sky color was just amazing.

The festival itself was free, and packed with people. Ferris and I walked around and happened upon the Kahlua truck! So, we stopped and sipped/gulped on some delicious frozen treats. There was some music and way too many arts & crafts being sold for my taste. I did get a glimpse of the pumpkin pie eating contest. It was hard to see around the crowd, but one girl looked up from her pie with a 'oh my god, what the fuck am I doing right now' look on her face, then her dad did all but shove her face back into the pie with his 'c'mon! get back in there!' cheering.
We finished off the trip with a sugar high, I opted for the pumpkin 'tart' which was basically a miniature pie with some canned whip cream on top and Ferris got the pumpkin roll. We figured this place would be good seeing as they've kept the same pie recipe since 1927.
It was pretty darn good, but then afterwards I saw an even better looking slice of pumpkin pie complete with homemade whipped cream and I couldn't help but feel a little cheated.

The Job Scenerio

The past couple of days have been pretty crazy for me. Last Friday I accepted a position at Teecom, an architecture engineering consultant firm. This was sort of unexpected, since the position was offered to me within 10 minutes of me leaving the interview! Needless to say, I called my Oakland newfound friend Jeremy and we got ice cream...wait, it was gelato, to celebrate.
The thing about Teecom is that the position isn't quite for a mechanical engineer, it's a junior design engineer. Doesn't sound much different, but it would be a completely different field for me, and sort of a niche. This was both scary and exciting.

Fast forward to Monday. Sparkfactor Design. This is a product development consulting firm. Similar to the days when I co-oped at Fitch and Altitude. Fun company, great people, very creative environment. We interview and THEY offer me a position. This is the type of job I dreamt about in Boston, having a product development company take me under their wings and teach me the ropes. I feel this is the type of company that will make or break me as a mechanical engineer.

So, after a lot of debating back and forth, I realized I need to work for Sparkfactor. If I have any hopes of really becoming a good mechanical engineer, this is where I need to be. Granted it's going to take me twice as long to commute there, but in the end, I think this is going to be the best decision.

Now, I'm going to sit back, enjoy the rest of my week/weekend and set up my new bedroom! Yay!