US Trip: Davis

"What? It's time to leave already???" -- It's the same recurring theme throughout my trip.  You planned it for months and when the time came, it flew by ever so quickly.  What else is new right?

While we were having breakfast, a chopper was circling outside literally right above our head.  For a good 15-20 minutes.  A scene that Peter described as a norm in the neighborhood.  The only thing that was missing was the spotlight because it was happening in broad daylight. The next door neighbor told us that the road up ahead was blocked by police barriers.  Peter tuned the tv to the local station's channel to see if anything would turn up, but the crime, whatever it was, wasn't news worthy enough.  It was just another day in North Hollywood I guess.

I hope it won't be till 14 years later that we'll meet again, Peter ;)

The Winter 1997 road trip.

A friend was suggesting driving to Sacramento from LA.  I was like, Err?  According to Google Map, that's 4 miles short of 400 miles, which translates to 6.5 hours worth of driving.  I'd consider it if I was traveling with a bunch of friends and had the luxury of time, like when my friends and I went on a roadtrip way back in Winter '97 when we did a tour of SF-Yosemite-Las Vegas-Grand Canyon-Phoenix-Tuscon-San Diego-Tijuana-LA-SF.  That was something :)





This time around, I was by myself it'd be much more expensive to rent a car and drop it off in Sacramento.  No thanks. Flying was a better option :)

Shows how far LA is from Sacramento and Davis

Peter's house was literally minutes away from Bob Hope airport.  Along the way until we arrived at the drop-off area, I was telling Peter I felt like going to a neighborhood mall :D  It's that small.  Check-in and clearing the security check were quick.  What more can you ask for?

It was my the first time flying Southwest.  They have a unique way of boarding where you board based on the boarding group and position that's given to you when you check in... I slept once the plane hit its cruising altitude and only woke up when we landed in Sacramento 1 hour 20 minutes later (at 20 minutes to 3pm).  My eyelids seemed so heavy, I wonder why? :D
Gene was super kind to pick me up at the airport.  He was saying something along the line, I shouldn't be taking a cab since I flew all the way there.  Well, I wouldn't have minded.  What's a cab ride compared to the flight right?  The weather outside was super hot, well into the mid90's (~31C). At least it wasn't humid like back home.

The first order of the day (in Davis) was to look for a local prepaid simcard.  We went to a few places that were within reach - Best Buy, Verizon and AT&T.  BestBuy and Verizon had only prepaid phones to offer. That left us with AT&T.  Check this out, the AT&T plan includes text messaging service to well over 100 countries.  But guess what?  Malaysia is NOT in the list. No offense to these countries, but Kiribati, Myanmar, North Korea and Vanuatu made it into the list.  I'm just saying.

I don't see Malaysia in the list

Anyhoo, before going to his place, Gene brought me to the UC Davis campus.  I got to see the Memorial Union (that housed the bowling alley, games arcade, cafes), walked through the arboretum and the college town.  I may not have seen the rest of the campus, but from what I saw, I'd say it's a pretty big sized college.  It even has its own Amtrak station :)  Of course, I always compare any college with Brown and IU-Bloomington.  Size-wise, these two boasted 6000 and 32K-plus undergraduate population, respectively.  Yeah, that's quite a difference.

We hung out while waiting for Em to get off work.  Gene asked me upfront if I was allergic to cats?  Good thing that I am not, because they have a 4-year old cat named Tang.  It was cute and so much fun to see Gene trying to make Tang jump on the chair and give him a high 5.  It may have taken him a some time, but Tang did just that.  Amazing! Now, why didn't I get that on video?  Bah humbug!

The picture may not do justice, but that's one big cat. Packed with muscles.

Believe it or not, that's his favorite box and for a big cat he can certainly fit in it :D

When Em got home, we had Mexican for dinner and MIB-3 for dessert :D  The last time I saw them both was at their wedding 4 years ago.  Sure we talked then, but we didn't hangout hangout.  And it was super exciting to find out that they're expecting a baby in September.  Yay!  Wait, was it September or October?  Minor detail :)

Whoops, I thought I could combine the Davis story with that of Tahoe in one post.  Looks like I have to split them up.  Sorry about folks.  I hope it won't be too long of a wait.