Before The Trip Fades From Memory And The Next Con Begins

Friday 2/27. Slept late and very well. Went to the lobby and again sat around visiting with folks. Had conversations with Matt A, imnotandrei, and even jaylake.
Hoped to find lunch companions, but it didn't work out that way. By late afternoon, I was starving! ala_too arrived, and we immediately dashed off for Indian food at a place about a block away from the hotel. I remembered this restaurant as one where whumpdotcom and I went to a wedding reception for one of his co-workers long ago.

Saturday 2/28. More conversations, no lunch, but consuite had more than enough in the snack and sandwich department. Ended up on a large dinner expedition with alanro, Jeannie B, Art W, tamiam and I gal I hadn't met before who did much of the talking. We waited for an hour in a packed Chinese restaurant, but had a nice meal. Later enjoyed a very nice conversation with dmw and others.

Sunday 3/1. I checked out and ala_too took me to the car rental place not far away. I picked up a brand new Toyota Yaris (not red- yay!) Then more hanging out and visiting. Up in the consuite, Art was trolling for dinner companions. He said he wanted to go to an Afghan restaurant next door. ala_too and I said, almost in unison, "we know a much better place!" We convinced him to go to Kabul. I'd already been there once this trip, but I had no problem going again. We picked up Ruth and Ian, nice local fans I didn't know, and off we went. It was by far the best meal of the trip, and it was gratifying that Art loved it too. At the end of the evening, we closed out the consuite, and I headed to ala_too's house.

Monday 3/2. My day of driving around. I started in Palo Alto with a pleasant lunch at the home of k6rfm and lin_mcallister. Tasty soup, and two very friendly new cats! Then I just drove. Through Stanford, up past my old office, back down Foothill Expressway, past both apartments Whump and I had, all the way to Saratoga. Then back to a Target in Mountain View to pick up a couple things for the trip home. There was a gathering of some of the lingering fans planned for the evening. While I was driving around, Whump had left a message with details, and I found I had a little more than an hour to kill. I remembered a cool park at the end of San Antonio road, with trails that lead around marshland at the bottom of San Francisco Bay. I parked the car and called Luke to tell him how much I loved him and missed him. Then I got out and walked around, It was drizzling and getting dark. The first thing I saw as I entered the park was something that looked like a cat walking through the tall grass, a long brown tail sticking straight up. As I got closer, I saw it was a male pheasant. I hadn't seen a wild pheasant in years! I followed him till he flew off. I wish I had come here earlier when there was more light. There were all kinds of ducks on the water, but I couldn't tell what they were. I did make out two Avocets feeding in the mud.
Then I drove to the nearby home of spikeiowa and voidampersand. The rest of the group consisted of vgqn, magscanner, dalmeny, dmw, whumpdotcom, and Jeanne & Scott from Madison. A wonderful evening full of wine, quiche, conversation, and nearly a dozen types of amazing cheese. I felt bad because I don't drink wine, therefore I have no appreciation for it. A bottle of very, very special wine had been brought from Australia, and was greatly savored by all the other guests. I had a tiny sip, but I honestly can't tell the difference between the finest, expensive, high quality wine, and hobo swill. It really tastes the same to me! I felt like such an uncultured boob. The cheese, however- I could go on for hours about all that wonderful cheese! I am thankful to have been included in this lovely gathering.

Tuesday 3/2. Lunch with ala_too at Miyake in Cupertino. Another restaurant on my list. Sadly, it wasn't as good as I remembered. Then another afternoon of driving around. I ended up in Half Moon Bay. It had been a while since I'd seen crashing ocean waves like that.
It was sunny off and on, cool and breezy. If I hadn't had such a big lunch, I'd have eaten in one of the restaurants at Pillar Point Harbor. I headed back to Sunnyvale, then dropped off the car. I asked ala_too to take me to a Korean place, as I have almost no experience with the cuisine. Despite my allergies, I want to be an adventurous eater. Strangely, nearly all of the food put down in front of me didn't appeal to me at all. Now it was time to go to the train station. I said goodbye and thank you to ala_too and
I went out to the platform to watch the train roll in. We left right on time at 8:39. I had a seat to myself, and stretched out to sleep as we left the Bay Area behind.

Wednesday 3/3. Around midnight, the conductor wakes me and a few others in seats nearby and says we have to make room for people getting on in Sacramento. I scootch back over to just my seat and try to fall back asleep. We sit for more than half an hour, but when we pull out of Sacramento, the seat beside me is still empty. I stretch out again and call it a night. My sleep mask and ear plugs have been a godsend on this trip. When I wake, the world outside is covered in snow. I go to the dining car for breakfast around 7:30. My companions are friendly, and we enjoy the scenery outside. Now I just want to be home. I miss my husband, I miss my bed and I miss my spacious, non-icky bathroom! Luke and I text eachother constantly, purposely devolving into the most poorly spelled lolspeak we can think of. An example, from me to Luke, still in my phone: "In u-jeen. Conducterer sez weer a litle behin skedule but wil try 2 mak it upz. Luv uu!" To which Luke replies: "Cant weight! Better get da partment kleen! Luv U!!"
We arrive in Seattle pretty much on schedule, and Luke is there waiting on the platform. I'm home! Yay! There is nothing to eat in the apartment, so we walk down to Hatties Hat for some meatloaf.

I had a wonderful trip. I was able to hang out with plenty of the cool kids, and also I was fine being on my own. I like a lot of things about the Bay Area. The weather of course, but also the welcoming nature of Bay Area fans. I felt like, if I had reason and opportunity, I could happily live there again. I made a new gallery of photos for this trip- don't worry Spike, you're not in any of them!
http://pics.livejournal.com/juliebata/gallery/0000qtpf

At Potlatch, I had conversations with both Jeanne G, and klages about the Tiptree bakesake at Wiscon. My project since returning home has been to write up a detailed description of how I've always run the bakesale. I completed that and sent it off today. Jeanne may be sorry she asked for such detail, it ended up being three pages long!

So now, it's time for another convention. Corflu is in Seattle this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it.