Weekend explorations

The Fella was in town this weekend for our monthly conjugal visit. (Which one of us is in prison? You decide!) It was a great excuse to rent a car and do some exploring of the gloriousness of the Bay area. I'm still operating sans camera and using my phone as a poor substitute, so please excuse the subpar quality of these photos. I'm doing my best to hold out 'til Christmas.

Saturday was spent doing nature things. We drove down to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, just northwest of Santa Cruz.

When I first saw the trees, I was a little disappointed. It was my first redwood experience, and I guess I just thought they'd be... bigger. After a while, though, I realized: they're fucking big.


Keep in mind the Fella is 6'2". No manipulating the scale here. Crazy, right?

Also at the park I realized that camouflage works both ways:

It's a tree! Disguised as a snake! Brilliant!!!


After leaving the Land of the Ents, we made our way down to the 17-mile drive, which is run by the Pebble Beach Company. It was a cold, overcast day--not ideal for standing on windy mountain sides and taking pictures. Still, totally worth it.


The Lone Cypress (the official symbol of Pebble Beach!): a study in fortitude, and solitude.

The coolest part of the drive for me--by a long mile--was Seal Rock. Seals and sea lions are awesome. They look like little puppies! Except, you know, not little. And kind of awkwardly fishy shaped. They bark and flap and nuzzle and share their rock with a raucous bunch of birds.


There were 25-cent telescopes, and while the mister was able to get a pretty cool close-up picture through the telescope view, my phone was not being so cooperative. I started cooing and shrieking as soon as I looked at them up close... might've freaked out the tourists at the neighboring stations. Sorry 'bout that, fellas.


We capped off our weekend with the Raiders-Jets game on Sunday at the Coliseum in Oakland. It was my very first live NFL game, and it involved, in no particular order: the craziest owner in the league, Brett Favre, approximately 348,973,150 penalty calls, sudden-death overtime, and a 52-yard field goal to win the game for Oakland. It also featured Raiders fans, a strange sub-species of football fan that quite possibly evolved in times of high stress where mad devotion and hyper-loyalty were naturally selected. See Exhibit A:


saisai: Hi! Can I take your picture?
gentleman above: Sure.
saisai: Your outfit is awesome! What's your name?
gentleman: Barbarian.
Not even kidding.

And of course, no long-distance photo opportunity would be complete without some flattening of heads:


I CRUSH you, New York Jets! See if you can play now that you are squished! Crush, crush, CRUSHHHH!

Because I had the sound mind to obliterate the Jets via crushing, I take full credit for the subsequent Oakland victory. Sure, green and white blood is on my hands, but who cares? I'm a winner!