The wife and I got back yesterday from a super-quick trip to California. The main purpose of the trip was a baby shower (My first, and I have to say it wasn’t bad – males were forced to go upstairs and drink beer and watch tv while the women played all those ridiculous shower games) in Pasadena. After driving from LAX to their house, I don’t think I could live out there. LA is just so enormous and car-centric. And the Pontiac G6 we rented is a prime example of why Michigan and the American car industry is having such a hard time – it was uncomfortable and unmaneuverable (I’d expect a turning radius like that from an 18-wheeler, not a mid-size sedan). Although the wife liked having the trip counter and stuff in the middle of the dash, so she could reset it at each turn as we followed Google Maps directions.
Before the baby shower, however, we landed in San Jose and spent the night with a brother-in-law before taking the train up to San Fransisco to stay with another brother-in-law and his girlfriend. Pictures will be up on Flickr later, but this trip especially has reminded me that I need to take another photography class – I’m less happy with each successive batch of travel photos I take, I think.
We also went to see a show at the SF Museum of Modern Art. Wow. It was certainly interesting. The show was Weimar New York, and it was not quite what I was expecting. The show is mostly drag, not surprising for the area. But as the night went on, it was increasingly risque. After three hours, when we decided to call it quits (It was 1AM at this point, and the wife and I were still more or less on East Coast time), they had arrived at full male and female nudity. It was an interesting show, although I’m not sure I’d recommend it. We were talking afterwards, and a brother-in-law remarked that he was unaccustomed to being in the top 5% of the conservative end of the room. I felt the same way – I think I’m pretty liberal socially, but the crowd in there made me feel like Mike Huckabee. It was liberal even for San Fransisco.
Anyway, it was a good trip, although much too short.