monday march 23rd 2010.

matt and i walked over to tom's house early to begin the morning with a quick breakfast---bagels, coffee, and lots of maps. tom must have been up hours before us printing off mass amounts of directions while drinking an entire pot of coffee himself, because he welcomed us by explaining we were already late. today was the drive up to sonoma valley---- with our first stop at---the geyser. 

riding shotgun, matt was named offical map reader, or offical teller of wrong turn-er. a few of tom's housemates had told him about the geyser the night prior, and tom was so amped up on seeing the one of a kind beauty, that after many wrong turns, bathroom stops, and more coffee breaks we finally found it.

greated by nellie, approximately 89 and working the front desk, informed us that today was our lucky day. not only was the geyser going off about every half hour, but there were baby goats to see, along with llamas and an informative movie on geysers. somehow we finalged our way through with the mention of our AAA discount and before we knew it, there it was right before our eyes--- the geyser.  yes, it was already in full action, spitting off it's fuel, as it continued to do about every 5-7 minutes for the remainder of the time we spent there. we made our way around the grounds in about 8 minutes, and realized where we were--- a tourist trap.

making the trip worth it, there were numerous videos and photo shoots, so by the time we had seen the geyser go off more than enough times, we came to the conclusion it was actually nellie pressing a button, and fogetting how many times she was really doing it--- all in all, it was the perfect way to begin our adventure in wine country. naturally the next stop was a much needed glass of wine. destination-unknown. it was in matt's hands as to where the map or  directions would lead us ...

 

our first stop actually was dry creek, in dry creek valley. we spent a good amount of time asking the most peculiar questions we could come up with, and of course frusterating the woman who was just trying to sell us her wine. the best question of the day came from matt, inquiring about charles shaw, and their vineyard, which led us to believe it was probably our time to move on to the next vineyard...                                                                 

i'm still  unsure of the name of the vineyard, but the way we stumbled upon the place is still just pure luck. the wine was red, endless and free. yes, it was a little spot we were calling our heaven for the day... espcially after we discovered the river connected to the vineyard itself. after filling up our glasses to the brims, we planted it down by the rapids for the remainder of the afternoon. atm began, and we met charlamay on set...  it was quite possibly one of the more serene moments i've had in awhile. 

the way we were enticed to our next and final vineyard of the day was by their false adveristing of oven roasted pizza- after only having breakfast and numerous glasses of wine we were ready for some lunch. once inside we learned there was no food to be served, just wine--- so without further ado, matt and i continued our wine tasting, while our driver took an afternoon break. however coming to the realization that i had a redeye flight to catch yet that night, we made the decision that it was time to get some lunch or by that time it was dinner and head home--still in hopes of attending triva night for a few hours before 'atm' spring break would come to an end.

talking char-la-may-- and jumping around as if no one was watching.

the drive back to san francisco was bittersweet. memories of the past four days and nights i had spent were going through my head like a movie reel. i hadn't had laughter tears roll down my cheeks in weeks like i did within those few days i spent with matt and tom. the time with them was more than i had imagined, in fact it was another trip that i will never forget. i hate goodbye, because i always get choked up, however i still  think tom has said it best when it comes to our goodbyes---which is, "this is to everything," just as simple and complex as that...so, with that, thank you both, and...

here's to everything that happend on spring break 2010...

xoxo, simon

sunday march 20th, 2010.

while visiting a future priest- deacon at the time, there is no doubt that you will be attending church on sunday. the exciting part of this is that mass is enjoyable not only because i know the person saying the homily, but that we get to show up an hour earlier than everyone else. this means lots of time to kill. who can say they visited haight ashbury before taking communion? well i can. matt, his 'rockstar' shoes, and i were mysteriously choosen to bring up the gifts-- now this is a great surprise to tom, who somehow managed to keep just a mere grin on his face the entire time. when mass had ended, i was informed by the boys that on sundays it's also dollar days at the racetracks--- WHAT. oh yeah. you better believe that we did all the san francisco touristy things in under an hour and headed straight towards the tracks. 

 

we found the 'full house' scene and had a mini photo shoot, where i was warned that if you picked the 'state' flowers they were somehow linked to the police and they would come arrest you. yes, gullable was also written all over my forehead. from there we drove down the windiest road in the world, and made our way to brunch for some more bloody marys. next stop, the tracks. 

now, this would be my first ever experience at the race tracks, and quite possibly not the last. while the boys were trying to make some $, i was distracted by the most unique, and rare breeds of people... yes it was dollar days-- hot dogs and beers. i was read the racers, and basically bet on them by name, there were some facts i absorbed that day about horse racing- the main one being---it's pure luck of the draw. all in all, i lost everything. in fact, the only person who one a mere $2.40 was tom.

our next place we found ourselves exploring - the park. we stumbled upon the most ginormous kites we had ever seen. i learned the fun fact that it was the place were they filmed the movie 'the kite runner'--- i also learned how many bridges existed in san fran-- of course there were a few jumps that had to take place in order for the experience to be worth remembering.

sadly, the day was coming to an end, and we had yet to have the perfect drink. so, heading back to the jesuit community, we came up with the genius idea of having a picnic up in the moutains to watch the sunset--- i don't know where the pear idea came from, but it somehow got turned into the idea of a pear martini--- which was really in all reality, sludge juice. the spot we came upon was indescribeable, the sunset was out of a movie, and the day itself was in my mind--- the perfect day.

 

xoxo,

simon

saturday march 20th, 2010.

tom and matt are extreme early risers--  i on the other hand, am a night owl. wondering how the next couple of days were going to pan out, i rose that morning with ease. the few beers we had the night prior helped me sleep better than ever, and feeling well rested i was ready for the day to begin. tom and matt picked me up at my little 'villa suite' and we were off for bloodies and breakfast. what i didnt realize was, tom was hungover, and in rough, rough shape. in fact, matt and i still to this day thought he was quite possibly dying because he turned down his bloody mary--- never ever, have we heard or seen him do this. clearly he was poisoned.

while tom insisted on a nap immediately following  breakfast, matt and i explored berkely a bit.  two cups of coffee later, he called to delcare he was ready for the biking adventure to begin. matt drove from berkely to san fran, while tom took his second nap for the day. the arrival of the infamous pier 39 was just as expected. -- a complete and utter tourist haven. we zoomed through the trap, snapped a picture or fifteen of the smelly seals, and made our way to the bike rental to sign our lives away. our trip was to consist of biking across the san francisco bridge all the way down to salsilito. now, normally this excursion takes the average biker just a few hours. however, for the three of us, a few cameras, a hung over biker with the smallest bladder known to man, we were able to make it last the entire afternoon. of course, once we reached our destination, there may have been a detour to the local bar, only to fufill our thirst of the accomplished bike ride with an afternoon martini and photo shoot.

by the time it was sunset, we realized it was the  ferry's last trip back to san fran and there was no way in hell that we would be able to bike back to san fran- specially since we thought everything was downhill to salisilito-WRONG. so, we put our bike bells to good use to find the ferry. we made it just in time to return our awesome bike helmets, and bikes just before their closing time. 

headed back to berkley, we ended the night with some pizza, a few pitchers of beers and lots of laughs. it seemed to be the theme that wherever we went---the crazies followed us--- little did we know what tommorow was to bring us...                                                                                                               xoxo, simon              

friday march 19th, 2010.

i like to think of myself as a pro when it comes to airports--in fact, i think  i've mastered the whole 'carry-on-luggage' liquid restriction, and you ask how in the world me- as a person with a million and ten hair products can fit all of those items into one teeny-tiny zip-loc baggy? well it's easy, i don't. i use TWO... yeaup, i've been doing this now since the airports band more than 3oz, and i think it's utter genius; specially since i've yet to be caught. the mere fact that i enjoy being at the airport, or the o'hare experenecei in general is probably shocking to some. however, even if they wouldn't require you to be two hours early for your flight,  you'd still find me getting there oober early for the mere fact of how much i enjoy people watching at the airport. i think it's hysterical the type of people that shuffle through the security lines, and the ones that are just so confused by the 'new laws', or the ones that get upset that they have to take their shoes off--- as if these rules are completly foreign to them. i watch this as if it's a reality tv show someone has yet to invent. 

my flight is on time to san fran, which is excitiment in itself, because as we all know o'haiti has usual delays for the most bizzare reasons you could ever think of. in fact sometimes i wonder if it's just because they need to meet their monthly quota of delays and need some laughs in the break room about angry fliers. anyways, i land in san fran around 10pm west coast time-- 

this adventure is to be with my cousin tom who is currently living and finishing up his degree in theology in berkeley. after 13 years of being in the seminary and jesuit community, he will be ordained a jesuit preist in june.  i realized that i needed to go visit before he moved to omaha--not saying i wont be making a trip out there, buttt california has a little more curb appeal than nebraska does-- he'll have to work on the sell for that one at a later date. 

so here begins the story of spring break 2010, with 'atm'.... 

   xoxo, simon.