California Trip

After almost 4 years, I finally got a chance to visit California again. Sept. 3, 2005, 9:30 am, I boarded an Alaska Airline plane at Sea-Tac international airport, and left for Oakland, California. The journey had a challenging start, to catch the plane, I was forced to get up at 6 am, attempting to catch bus no. 230 on 156 street by 7 am. Due to unfamilarity, it took me almost 40 minutes to find the bus stop, and almost missed the bus at 7:02 am. Once boarded on the bus, the trip was fast and smooth,amazingly took less than an hour to reach the airport.

I arrived Oakland, CA at 11:40 am, and my friend Jason had already waited for me. As one of my best friends at Berkeley, it's a such a joyful moment to see him again at the first site exiting the gates.

We went directly to the Totai Japanese Sushi Buffet and started a big lunch. The food is delicious, and as usual, I overwhelmed my stomach just a litte :).

After a brief rest at Jason's apartment, we went to play badminton. I haven't played much sports lately, and was excited about that opportunity. The badminton club looked very professional, and by the time we have arrived, it has already filled with experienced players. Looking around, Jason and I were two of the few less experienced ones on court :), but that didn't discourage us from enjoying the games. Who said "the important thing is to participate"? I couldn't agree any less! We threw ourselves into the games for more than 3 hours till almost every muscle groups started to have pain. We then giving up "killing ourselves" and went to dinner at 8:40 pm.

Jason brought me to Mei Lin Ge (Shanghainese Cruisine), and we had a big dinner there.

The next day, we visited Berkeley. To my surprise, there are quite a few changes at U.C. Berkeley after I have left. Several buildings elected and changed the campus view in a refreshing way. I took several photos on this Sunny day, and was very pleased to be back again.

In the evening, we had hotpot (Xiao Fei Yang), and enjoyed a hilarious movie: "The 40 year old virgin".

The next day was the labor day holiday. I met my college friend Nevin who was also visiting California at Taiwanese Restaurant at Milpitas. Every dishes there had way more food I could handle.

In the afternoon, I went back to Jason's apartment complex and relaxed myself in the spa. After a short nap, Jason and I had hotpot again at home, and went back to Seattle afterwards.

What can I say, it was a fun and relaxing weekend.