I'm guessing Carl had a lot of built up frequent flier miles along with some vendors that wanted to do some nice things for him. Whatever the scenario, he provide plane tickets, hotel accommodations and SF Giants vs LA Dodgers tickets for me, him and his son, Michael to go on a "reminiscing tour" to the old neighborhood. (Carl can't remember anything and usually lies to his family or blames his bad memories on me)
We flew out on 9/11. Not the most exciting day to fly. But how I love those Biscoff cookies on Delta!!! I was just going to say to Michael "the worst landing I ever had..." when we just smacked hard to the ground! Everyone kind of made a "what the crap?!" noise, but I am always glad the flights are done. (not a big flier)
We got in our awesome Hyundai rental and were off! We went right to Togos for a sandwich. Ah, the good ol' days of Togos. We drove to the San Jose Mission, where Michael will be serving his mission, so he could drop off some photos and paperwork. We got to meet his mission president and such.
Driving to Cupertino was interesting on Hwy 85. We got to the Marriott on Wolfe Rd and dropped off our stuff. We headed over to the high school and walked around, while school is in. I was cracking up at all the people looking out the windows at us! Man, the school looked old. We stopped in to the office and spoke to a lady in there, asking about all our old staff. She knew some, not others, and then told us that my science teacher was having an affair with one of the other teachers and they finally got married. Funny thing is I always thought my science teacher was a lesbian!
Class got out as we were leaving. Man, nothing like hearing all the girls there using the f word. Gosh, isn't it sexy!?
We went over to Hyde Jr. High and walked through there, only to have a teacher lean her head out and say 3 men walking around the school could send it into lockdown. So we left.
We went up to SF and to the Safeway store in the Castro District. They have a nut bar there. We got some maple almonds and some other nuts. Geeze, we about o.d.ed (is that how that is spelled?) on nuts. We also ate at this wonderful Italian place. Yummy calzone. It was funny that the big glass windows were open and we were almost right on the sidewalk with everyone else.
We got over to AT&T Park for the game. That is my first time in the park. Wow! What an upgrade from Candlestick. We walked all around and laughed at the booing and yelling at all the Dodgers fans. You know, 90% of them just look like thugs!
Of course the Giants got hammered, but it was still fun.
Saturday we went to our street and walked around for a while, looking at all the houses and where all our friends used to live. I guess being older, and the trees growing so much, but the street looked so small. Our house looked good and the tree in the front yard is huge!
We went over to where our elementary school used to be and looked in the creek. We told Michael about the hours and hours of time played in it, and how every year we would have poison oak so bad that you wanted to die!
We found our Aunt June's house and knocked on the door. She answered and I just said Hi June. I'm your nephew Paul and this is Carl. She was a bit shocked. We went in and had a fun time catching up. What was real funny was she was on her computer doing Facebook! Classic. She looks a bit like my dad and it was interesting to think how he may have aged a bit like her. Her granddaughter is a 49er cheerleader! (I'm wondering how we introduce ourselves so she can get us tickets!!!)
We swung by and saw Matt Kakaio. I haven't seen him since 1985. He still is the coolest dude I know. We just laughed. And of course he has a big Minnesota Vikings poster up.
We went back up to SF for another baseball game. Awesome seats four rows up from the Giants dugout! But, they sucked even worse and got rocked again!!! I sat next to some Dodgers fans from Bakersfield. It was a husband & wife and their 2 teenage daughters. They were actually pretty cool, well, for Dodgers fans.
Sunday we went to our old church building on Bollinger Rd and walked through it. A Tongan ward meets there now. But it sure brought back some good memories. We went to the building on Stelling Rd, right across from De Anza. There aren't a whole lot of folks left from the 6th Ward, but we saw the Davis' (we stopped by there place the day before), the Danielson's, Thompsons, Dye's, Sister McGhie, Gary Davis, Carl Flock, and some others. It was pretty fun.
We also had to go by the Valco Mall and see where we used to slide down the banister of what used to be Bullock's and where we would play on the grass by what was I. Magnin. Man, that mall was our personal playground. We also went to where Carl and I wiped out on our skateboards. Ah, memories.
After checking out of the hotel we cruised SF one more time then went back to Oakland. We pulled into a spot to get a sandwich and there was a Raiders store right next to it. 2 Raiderettes were out front selling and signing calenders, but Cliff Branch, one of our childhood heros, was inside signing anything you bought! Carl bought a ball and Cliff signed it then took a picture with us. He was cool. And we did manage a picture with the cheerleaders, though we were supposed to buy a calendar. Yeah, whatever.
So, it was a fun trip and we had a great time. Thanks, Carl! Heck, maybe next time we can hit Hawaii! But we'll bring the womenfolk to that one.
