My transformation back to voracious American consumer started just after we stepped off the plane. Strip malls filled with small-business killers like Target and Best Buy littered the sides of the 405 freeway, enticing us with their gigantic iconic logos as we drove from LAX to San Diego. We miraculously arrived without spending a penny; many thanks to Hayley’s sister Lauren for picking us up and not stopping during our “oooooh”‘s and “ahhhhh”‘s when passing the aforementioned shops.

I met up with my buddies Brandon and Owen at CPK on Friday. We discussed work, Australia, America and the usual, and it was great seeing them. Afterward, Owen and I carpooled downtown to see the Pads destroy the Orioles in an interleague matchup. After the game, we boarded the wrong Trolley line heading eastbound. Upon realizing our mistake, we got off the trolley somewhere east of San Diego. A pimped out Escalade rolled by and some hardcore Mexican guy asked us for change. Being two short and not-especially-strong white guys, we were happy when the trolley arrived and took us back to the city. Much to our delight, we arrived back at the stadium just in time for San Diego public service to shut down for the night. We hailed a cab on Fifth Avenue and had the driver take us past my old house to Owen’s car in Fashion Valley.

Our seats in Petco Park.

We met Sean, Amber and their new baby at the Pizza Port in Carlsbad the following day. We chit-chatted for a couple hours about this and that while feasting on the Pizza Carlsbad, a pesto, artichoke, feta and chicken masterpiece on wheat crust. Afterward, we shopped at the Carlsbad outlets, where I purchased a pair of comfortable Lucky jeans. At night, we had a nice family dinner with the Jacksons at C-Level lounge on the San Diego harbour. As usual the food was fantastic, as was the company.

I surfed in Pacific Beach on Sunday, taking advantage of the rare northern summer swell. My trusty old Santa Cruz epoxy was just as good as I remember, which temporarily rekindled my passion for (i.e. addiction to) the sport. The waves were clean and chest high, just what I needed. Unfortunately, I don’t have a car in Sydney and I work in the CBD so I valued every minute in the water, furiously paddling back out after catching waves.

On Monday, Hayley and Andy went skydiving near the Mexican border. I filmed as best I could from the ground (yes, I have no desire to go skydiving); check out the video below. Both Hayley and Andy loved it. Hayley said that she would go again if I went with her… which will not be happening anytime soon.

Hayley and Andy skydiving near the Mexican border.

After a week in sunny San Diego, we said our goodbyes to Andy and Jackie and departed for Santa Fe, New Mexico for my brother’s wedding. The streets of Santa Fe were flooded from a fast-moving freak storm that just passed through the town. We checked into our room at the Inn of the Governor’s and met up with the rest of my family. Santa Fe’s unique architecture is modeled after the surrounding Native American pueblos and no building- including the state capital building- is taller than a specific old church in town. The low skyline exposes an expansive view of the surrounding mountains from pretty much any point in the town. Old architecture is a rare sight in America, where old buildings are demolished by natural disasters, or to make way for Wal-Marts.

Is this a shed or a door? Either way, it looks pretty cool.

Most of our time in Santa Fe was spent site-seeing and eating local cuisine. On our first morning, we took a tour of the town and art galleries. The guide made claims such as “Santa Fe has the third largest art market in the world behind France and New York” and “no shops ever go out of business in Santa Fe, despite the bad economy.” Many stores sport permanent going-out-of-business signs in the windows, so I think she may have been subtly hinting at the scam. Either way, I have not verified these statements but I’m a bit skeptical.

We drove out to Taos one day and played frolf in the Ski Valley (reminder: it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere). The mountains and rock formations outside Santa Fe are stunning, including the expansive Rio Grande Gorge west of the freeway. Stretched for time, we only spent a few hours in Taos but it was definitely a highlight of the trip.

The following day, we attended my brother’s wedding at the Loretto Chapel. The chapel’s claim to fame is a legendary spiral staircase built by a Jesus-like “drifter carpenter,” who used no nails in the construction. Nobody seems to know how the staircase was built, and the drifter left shortly after it was built.

The mysterious spiral staircase at the Loretto chapel. Jesus may have visited Santa Fe at the turn of the century to build it, although the truth is unknown.

The wedding had an elegant southwestern style with talented mariachis, premium margaritas and hors d’oeuvre quesadillas. We danced and celebrated the newlyweds and caught up with family. We recovered the following day, then said our goodbyes on Monday. Next stop was the Bay Area, California where I grew up.

With only four full days in the bay, we tried to relax as much as possible. We shopped as usual, but I also watched baseball and hung around the house with my folks. A few notable events were watching my nephew Tommy’s all star game and hosting a BBQ with friends. Both events were fun in their own right, and it was great catching up with old friends at the latter.

Skip ahead a few days and I’m now on the plane, three hours outside of Auckland. I’m sitting in a middle seat in the center of the plane, my throat hurts from the lack of moisture (edit – actually, it turns out that I was getting sick), there’s a screaming child in front of me and I’m sick to death of lame movies. I suppose all good things must come to an end. No worries, mate! After a short flight from Auckland to Sydney, we’ll be back home and ready to resume our adventure down under.

Tags: bay area, california, new mexico, san diego, santa fe

We said goodbye to the Bay Area today. As usual the week was over too soon. On Thursday, we met Tyler and Pete C. for lunch at Brenda’s in the City. I’d say it was in a shady part of San Francisco, but I always think that wherever I go in the city. It’s the only place I’ve been that has filthy dive bars immediately next to five star restaurants. Anyway, Brenda’s was good.

Tyler took us by the street in Full House. We saw five tour buses drive by in the ten minutes we were there. And one guy drove by with his window down and shouted, “Wassup Danny Tanner!!”

The view above the Full House house.

We drove to Fisherman’s Wharf afterward and walked around Cannery Row and Pier 39. Hayley has been pestering me since our last disaster* to visit the harbor area, so I finally gave in. It was fun walking around, although I wish we had eaten at a real restaurant instead of In and Out. Check out our pics, which are posted in a million different places, including http://mswebby.com/flickr/.

The next day my masculinity was put to the test at the Filoli Gardens in Woodside. It was pretty cool for an hour, then I lost it and ran straight to the deli to have a drink. It’s tough being a dude in that place. Ok, honestly it was fine.

One of Filoli’s many Secret Garden-eque pathways.

We spent the rest of the trip hanging out with my folks. Last night mom and dad took Hayley and I to the über fancy Le Papillon in San Jose to celebrate both our anniversaries. My meal consisted of a glass of very nice champagne, a generous helping of lobster bisque and a delicious Pinot Noir Braised Duck Breast with Sour Cherry, Green Peppercorn Gastrique and Black Forbidden Rice. It was pretty fricking sweet, especially since we will be eating much less extravagant meals for the next year and a half (starting July 29, I’m milking this country for all it’s worth, baby).

We flew out today. When we arrived at home in San Diego, we tried Skype video chat with my folks and it worked great.

* Description of the “Last Disaster” mentioned above: We were at the Golden Gate bridge lookout point a few years back and I went prancing down through the shrubbery to check out the famous surf spot at the base of the bridge. Halfway down I noticed that I was surrounded by many beautiful bushes with leaves of three, oily texture and red tips. Yes, Poison Oak, my worst enemy that used to attack me regularly in Junior High while Mountain Biking.

I sprinted back through those bastard plants, ran to the car, changed into my red “santa pants” as Hayley calls them and proceeded to flip out like a school girl. We drove a mile before stopping at the first house I could find. I jumped out of the car, stripped down to the bare essentials and drenched myself under their garden hose, all the while hoping they wouldn’t come out and ask me what I was doing in their lawn. Hayley had put the seat all the way back and was hiding, although I think she may have been laughing at me. She’s very good at that.

We drove another twenty minutes before parking illegally in front of the CVS on Van Ness and I ordered Hayley to get me (1) rubbing alcohol and (2) cotton balls. I scrubbed my legs, arms, face, stearing wheel, shoes, Hayley, etc… until I had finally convinced myself that the Poison Oak was sufficiently removed from my skin.

In the end I didn’t actually get Poison Oak. I guess that’s either because the hose and rubbing alcohol worked, or because it wasn’t actually Poison Oak.

Tags: bay area, breakfast, garden, photography, photos, san diego, san francisco, sunnyvale, Travel

Family time in the Weber family is more like a small convention than a regular get together. Only a small part of our immediate family was needed to fill a 31 person reservation. We booked one at B.J.’s last Sunday. When the kids ran by the hostess screaming and shouting, the B.J.’s staff immediately switched us to the private outside room. That’s just a normal outing for us, curve balls are just part of the game.

Circa 1982-1983

On Monday, Hayley and I took a private walk through Last Palmas park. I brought my camera along for the stroll and snapped a few shots of the majestic palm trees, the vidid pink flowers and the bastard squirrels that don’t stop harassing you until you feed them whatever it is you have in your hand. This one was recently fed and he was just chilling on the fence like a king.

Next, we drove out to Pinewood. The atmosphere is pretty much the same but everything is nicer and improved. The artificial turf field is incredible. Back in my day, we used to field ground balls on the blacktop. I have many scars from those days. Thanks Pinewood.

Afterward, we carpooled to the Tutankhamun exhibit in San Francisco. The line was totally disorganized, spread around two floors. Near the end of the line we picked up the audio headsets from the museum curators, high school students on summer break who have no appreciation for the exhibit. The entitled princess who gave the introduction showed little enthusiasm, chewing gum through the entire forty-five second presentation. Regardless, it was pretty interesting. National Geographic did a good job of describing the lineage of the Pharaoh and explaining the significance of the excavated items on display. They avoided controversy and speculation almost entirely; for example, the death of the child king and the curse of his excavation were barely mentioned.

We ate Turkish food for the second night in a row and it was delicious. We went to New Kapadokia in Redwood City. Check it out on Yelp.

Tags: bay area, california, family, san francisco, tut

We're departing on a long overdue, bay area flight in an hour.  Hayley and I are visiting my parents for the long weekend.  Today we'll probably go out to dinner and maybe see a movie.  As my sister says, it's all about the meals when you go to the bay.  Not that the food is that great, but when hanging out with family, most of the time spent in between the meals leads into other meals.  We might go to PF Changs, sushi, Erik's deli, who knows.  But meals are the highlight usually.

Tomorrow, it's a different story- we're driving up to The City (ie Frisco, SF, etc…) to see an exhibit on the Titanic.  Apparently they have all sorts of items that were found on the sunken cruise liner. Hopefully they don't mention Leonardo DeCrapio and the Spielberg epic- of course Hayley would be thrilled- because I'm more interested in the actual history of the catasprophe than the replication of it on the silver screen.  The City's always a fun trip, so no matter what happens I'm sure we'll find something exciting going on.

Monday we fly back to sunny (and at the moment muggy) San Diego.  Our cats are guarding the house so don't try anything.

Tags: bay area, eriks deli, flying, parents