How I Spent My (Indian) Summer Vacation, part 1

It feels like we were gone forever, even though we were only gone for 17 days.

Our first stop was San Francisco, where CBC kindly let us crash for 2 nights.  Our first day there we saw an A's game--little AC's first.

During a trip to Golden Gate Park, little AC got her first skinned knee while walking on a curb looking at pretty flowers with big AC.

We then rented a car so we could head to Vallejo for our next stop.  We'd requested the cheapest car at $9/day, but not only was our reservation pushed back due to lack of cars (drivers were delayed from Monterey), by the time we showed up our only choices were a Mercedes SUV or a Mercedes sedan.  Big AC explained those were way out of our budget.  So the representative actually gave us the sedan for $14/day!  Sweet, right?

While in Vallejo, little AC made 2 new friends, though there were many tears and fights with the youngest one.  :(  We went to the Sanrio outlet (our hostess is a HUGE fan; you've no idea how bummed she is that Sanrio is not really a boy thing, since she has 2 sons).  Later that evening, my friend, Pablo, came over, since it turns out he only lives about 10 minutes from them.

Her first real tea party, with new Vallejo friends.  Needless to say, she now has her own set.

That Sunday we left and headed to the Raider game.  We parked at a BART station (no WAY did we dare drive that car to the Coliseum!!) and tried to find big AC's cousins before the game but were unable to do so.  After the game, we found them, said hi, were kicked out by CHP clearing the lots to avoid mayhem, and headed to BART.  We discovered we'd parked rather close to Jack London Square, so we decided to drive there and find a place to eat.  On our second go-around trying to decide where to park, we got into an accident.  A minivan flew into the intersection and CRUSHED the front end of the car.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  Being the good passenger that I am, what did I do?

I FROZE.

Big AC got on the phone and began calling the rental company's insurance line.  The other driver and one of his two passengers got out and made sure we were okay, and kept apologizing.  They were in their 20s and also dressed in Raider gear.  The only thing I did was get the plates off the minivan and location.  I had the camera in the trunk and did not take any pictures.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???  The driver and passenger were waiting to talk to big AC by leaning on the driver side of the car, when I heard the passenger say, "I'ma say my neck and my back hurt."  Their minivan, a '97 Dodge, had a white scrape across the passenger side, but that seemed to be it.  A few days later we learned, sure enough, that the passenger was filing an injury claim, and a few days after that, the driver claimed his car was no longer drivable.  (They drove away from the scene before we did.)

We turned the car in the next day; luckily, big AC had gotten insurance on it for fear of something like this happening, so we are not responsible for the car damage.

The rest of the trip we stayed in the only available room at a Good Nite Inn in Redwood City, which was a nasty smoking room, and not as close to Caltrain as we'd thought (we relied on public transit for the remainder of our trip).  Thanks to CBC, we went to the Conservatory of Flowers with my mom; saw our friend Mr. Duncan briefly; and had dinner with my dad--who arrived toting a paper Starbucks cup filled with white wine (!!!).  We even managed to have lunch (Japanese food, how I've missed you) with some of Art's former co-workers before heading to SFO.  And at SFO, while waiting for our flight, I received that email from Stanford expressing an interest in my resume....

(to be continued)