NoCal Chronicles, Day 2

Yesterday, Kelsey and I headed off to a couple of "side" sightseeing tours before Tracy and Shelby got in town last night.

The first: University of California at Berkeley. I'm not sure of any real reason I wanted to go other than the reality that I'd heard it was a beautiful campus laced with hippies. Well, it was a beautiful campus, that's for sure. It was surprisingly filled with garden-variety college students heading to class or lunch...so maybe the university higher-ups keep them hidden anytime they think visitors might be coming. Anyway, the only bastion of blatant liberalism I could find was that there was a bistro in the library called "The Free Speech Movement Cafe." I had my picture made by it.

(unfortunately, the Mac G4 I'm using this on, when using the Internet Explorer browser, doesn't support the latest Blogger graphics so there'll be no photo posting until I return...sorry)

I also had my picture made by a sign that read, "Summer Jobs To Defeat The Bush Agenda." There was a phone number to call, too. I was wearing a Texas Rangers baseball cap, so I think if anyone were to try to use that photo against me if I were to ever run for public office, well, it'd be a wash. Maybe I could actually use the photo to FURTHER my political career! Oh, wait...I don't believe government changes hearts and minds, so maybe I'll stick with my current line of work rather than public service.

Then we crossed over the Bay Bridge to the intersection of Haight & Ashbury. Since I'd introduced Kelsey to the San Francisco based jam band The Grateful Dead only two days ago, I figured that was a good field trip. It was filled with guitar players with cases open playing for tips. Tie-dye was only prevalent in the stores making money off t-shirts...the locals are more into dreadlocks these days. Kelsey got a good shirt: "Haight/Ashbury: Land of the Free, Home of the Dead." Nice.

I'm amused to no end by my sister and her fiance. They're getting married this weekend and have all sorts of errands to run and are in the middle of various decorations to their home. I've also discoverd that my higher-order life-liver sister's neatnick tendencies (think Monica from the show "Friends") are pretty funny to toy with. I find myself thinking about putting glasses on tables with no coaster just to set her off. The serious side of that is that she's a very good hostess and makes sure her guests are happy and comfy. That may just be a lost art in our world.

Shelby had a wonderful day yesterday...one of those days she'll remember for a very long time. I won't steal her blog thunder, but maybe next week she'll tell you in her own words...but as I dad, sometimes it can be very difficult to keep a poker face when you're as proud of your child as you can possibly be.

Today, I think we're off to the site of this weekend's wedding to tag along with my sister as she takes a lot of stuff to store there for this weekend and after that I'm not really sure...but driving around with the GPS sure makes heading out and doing stuff less intimidating...