On Caltech Trip

I spent the weekend in Caltech with the Wendy. I really wish I brought my camera with me, but since I didn't, I'll use my super high resolution vocabulary to describe our adventures.

The trip started off happy enough. I had a full tank of gas, a dog bed in the back seat, a cliff bar, and a fizzy drink. Spirits were high, and the music was blaring. Unfortunately, the only thing left when I got to Pasadena was blaring music. It turns out the blaring music wasn't even really good except for Le Disko. Of course, Wendy didn't really hear ear to ear with me on that one.

Butt wrenching pains aside, I made it to Pasadena safely and enjoyed myself an up-sized Six-Dollar Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburger Combo. I found out later that the 'lighter' version of that burger is one of the worst foods in America. I didn't really mind that much and those mealy fries sure were scrumptious.

I met some of Wendy's floor mates. They all seemed like pretty cool people. Wendy's roommate was especially energetic. It seemed she was energetic regardless of the hour of day.

On Saturday, we drove around a ton and discussed deep things about rubber tires. Wendy was exasperated that I thought rubber tires were made from rubber trees. I mean, come on, ain't it freaking obvious?

We walked along the beach in Santa Monica arguing over this tire business. She made the very good point that science had probably found a better solution to the tire problem than natural rubber. I didn't buy it though. I bet her dinner that the jillions of tires on the road were made from good old natural rubber... And they were harvested from trees, dog nabbit!

I asked for two independent voices to verify my rightness, and was quickly rewarded with trustworthly Internet sources verifying my free dinner. Unfortunately, the other source turned rogue on me and decided to prove me wrong before I got my free dinner. Curses!

Dinner brought us to Korea Town in LA. I really wanted to go to Gui Rim Korean BBQ. The place was packed with people, and filled with delicious smoking meats. We stood in the entrance for a few minutes taking in the smells, but they were too busy to even put us on a waiting list. Instead, we made our way around the corner to E Hwa Jang, which we both thought to be delicious. Yelp seems to think otherwise though. Post dinner desert to wash down that *spicy pepper* (giggle) came in the form of clever self serve frozen yogurt.

I slept in the car the first night. It was pretty comfortable until the sun rose and baked me to a crisp. For the 2nd night, I slept on the floor in Wendy's room with *much* better results. The sleep was so superior compared to the night before that we slept well into the late morning the next day.

With our full night's rest, we set off to The Huntington Gardens. We walked through so many amazing greenhouses, conservatories, and art galleries. My favorite is probably a tie between the rain forest exhibit and the cactus exhibit. We covered a lot of ground, but by the time we made it into the air conditioned art galleries, I was pretty pooped. Wendy said she was tired, but it looked like she was still bouncing off the walls with energy.

Tiredness turned to hunger, and I started bitchin. We drove towards Old Pasadena and ate at La Fiesta Grande. I came out one big-ass burrito heavier, and heaps happier. I also got to eat all the cooked carrots from Wendy's soup. (HMMM I <3 cooked carrots)

After that we said our sweet farewells.

Traffic on I-5 North was dead locked. In my desperation, I took a giant detour with 33 North and 152 West. There was no speed limit signs in stretches of the 33, so I *ahem* ignored my speedometer for a while there. In my darkest moments, I came across my saviour. It looked something like this: . Note: skanky lady was not included in the combo meal.

By the time I made it back home, I wasn't really awake anymore. In fact, when I hit Santa Clara, I completely gave out and had a scary moment where I swerved into another lane. Luckily, I was the only car on the road at the time. I thought to myself, "hmm, I'm too good looking to die", and pulled of the road to take a half hour nap. By the time I actually made it back into my bed, it was 3:00am... Oy! What a trip!