Desperately needing to catch up ...

I think I'm about a month behind at this point. So time to, well, catch up. At least a few weekends, hopefully, before I decide to pass out for the night.

We left off ... where, jeez, I can't even remember. Oh, Fleet Week, right. Okay. So ... wow that five weekends ago. Sorry for the stream of consciousness.

The following weekend I spent in St. Louis, where I was able to visit my grandparents and aunt (and sister, for a short time). Plus, I had my first interview experience, which was good. Since I really can't compare it to anything, I think I'll leave it at that. My grandfather took me to a Rams game on Sunday, which was great, as I had never before been to an NFL game. Yes, sacrilege, but since when have I ever been a diehard Wisconsinite. Unfortunately no pictures from that weekend.

The following weekend, I headed down to Cuperinto to meet up with Matt Gustafson '08, who has been just incredibly nice to me the entire time I've been here. I took the Caltrain down to Mountain View, had a quick lunch, and went back to his house to meet up with a few of his friends to go on a hike. We drove up to the top of a ridge, and, in Matt's words, "moseyed" down a trail for a couple miles. It was a very relaxed hike, while offering some spectacular views. Here's Matt looking down in the valley below:

The rock that we hiked up (also great for climbing, lots of handholds). There was also a sweet cave in the back that everyone piled into.

Further into the hike, Matt on a very dead tree:

And a nicer view into the valley:

After the hike, we headed over to the the house that one of Matt's friends, Rebecca, had been house-sitting. We managed to cook a delicious meal (with and without cilantro) of tortillas/burritos with peppers, mushrooms, chicken, guacamole, beans, etc. Mmmm. Afterwards, we sat in a hot tub, enjoyed the really nice evening, and jumped on a trampoline for a while (Bryan managed to fall off and get the wind knocked out of him). I also got to sleep in a bed for the first time in a while at Matt's house. Wonderful.

The next day, I said my goodbyes to the Gustafsons and headed further south to Santa Cruz. I really had no idea what to expect, but in a nutshell, it's a surfing town. Also sports some just incredibly beautiful views along the coast. I started in the middle of town, wandering up and down the main street and meandering to a Patagonia outlet.

I had my fair share of shopping (not much was open Sunday morning), so I headed closer to the beach. 

There happened to be a big surfing competition in Santa Cruz that weekend. I grabbed a seat and watched for a while, amazed at the surfers and dismayed at my camera's short lens (there were a ton of guys with ridiculous 1600 mm lenses there). 

Oh, the Santa Cruz coast:

A view of the main street in Santa Cruz:

I had a ton of free time that day, so I also looped down to see a park that was recommended by a Patagonia employee called Natural Bridges State Beach. I was lucky enough to see probably several thousand monarch butterflies, which stop annually at this same location as a short rest for their weary wings as they migrate south. Apparently, there's a ton of milkweed there, which is primarily what they eat, plus it's very sheltered from the wind. Cool.

From the park, I headed north to attempt to see the UC Santa Cruz campus. Note that I was walking this entire time (by the end of the day, I'm pretty sure I had clocked 25+ miles). After getting to the top of this massive hill where the campus lies, I was dismayed to find out that, according to the trusty iPhone, the campus was hugemongous! I took a quick break and ended up not seeing any of the buildings on campus, mainly because I didn't want to get back to the city too too late. So from there I headed back to the main part of town, grabbed a bite to eat, took the 17 north to San Jose, and hopped on the Caltrain back to the city.

I really didn't know where to put this in a post, so I suppose here is fine. One of my favorite Palin posters that I saw in the city (I went back to the apartment just to grab my camera). Awesome. It was up election morning.

That's all I can muster for tonight. Much more to come.