This past weekend was spent in the bay area. Starting early Thursday morning, I picked up some frieds from Sweden (they were in San Diego, I didn’t go to Sweden) and headed up Interstate 5. Along the way I stopped off at Galco’s Soda Pop Shop. If you don’t know or haven’t heard about Galco’s. It is a shop specializing in rare, unique, and unusual sodas. I, being a big fan of something called Spruce Beer, bought and entire case of the stuff, possibly their last one.

Continuing north on the 5, my Swedish friends were impressed by how straight and long the road was. How flat and vast the central valley of California is can hardly be described, perhaps the only thing that rivals it is the ocean, it is something that just needs to be seen.

We made it to San Jose after about 8 hours of driving. For dinner we went to a buffalo chicken place called Smoke Eaters, which some of you may know from the television show Man vs. Food. When I ordered my food I asked for “spiciest sauce you have on the menu.” A mistake you might think, a challenge accepted says I. It was quite spicy, not sure how to describe the flavor, but the hotness had me in a sweat and unable to speak.

Friday Was spent at an Six Flags Discovery Kingdom… it is an amusement park.

Saturday we went into San Francisco. Utilizing BART we went from Daily City to the Embarcadero (Pier 1). From there we walked to Pier 39, aka Fisherman’s Warf. Contrary to what the pier numbers indicate, it was not actually 39 piers. At Pier 39 we ate at Boudin, famous for their clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. Not being a huge fan of the clam chowder, I had chili in a bread bowl instead. When through with the chili, I ate my bowl, delicious! From Pier 39 we walked to Coit Tower which is on top of Telegraph Hill. Quite a bit up (some 300+ stairs to the top of the hill). A nice view of the city and bay were the reward for the climb. From there it was a short walk to Chinatown and an excellent boba (bubble tea) place. We enjoyed our beverages in a park in Chinatown. After a good walk back to the BART station, we were on our way back to San Jose.

Sunday was spent driving back to San Diego from San Jose. Rather than taking Interstate 5 back, I chose to travel the 101. While the road takes longer, it is much more scenic and enjoyable (for the driver).