brokenrecord

I went to San Francisco with band from Thursday to Sunday, so that's why I wasn't around then. I probably won't be able to catch up with entries I missed, so let me know if I missed anything huge.

Friday
Met at school at 8 AM and made the long drive up to San Francisco. The bus ride was all right. I watched a few movies and read a lot of The Princess Bride which I bought the Friday before spring break, and I think I forgot to mention. We got to San Francisco around... I don't know. 6 -ish maybe? We ate dinner at Bubba Gump which was pretty good, then we got to hang out on the pier for not very long and then had to go check-in at the hotel. The hotel ended up being in Santa Clara because that was near where the festival was (...although we went to San Francisco three of the four days we were there and to the festival only the one day, so I don't see why we didn't just get a hotel in or right outside San Francisco. But whatever) so we didn't get there until 9-ish. I roomed with Emma, Soan, Jackie, and Galaxy, and we ended up getting like 3 noise complaints, even when we were talking pretty quietly. We stayed up pretty late (like 2-3 AM) but I couldn't fall asleep after everyone else finally had because I was getting sick so I got pretty much no sleep that night. It really sucked.

Saturday
Took a bus tour of San Francisco which was kind of lame. I really didn't like our tour guide because she seemed to just be making up "facts" and it was boring. We went to the Golden Gate Bridge and walked along it for a little while. Then we continued and saw the Full House house (well the exterior of it) which was kind of fun. I don't know. I don't feel like we really saw much.

After that lunch on the pier where I had delicious crepes with Emma and Soan. Then we took the ferry to Alcatraz. Alcatraz is pretty awesome, but... I already went there once with my family a few years ago and there are only so many times you can see it before it gets old. Emma had also seen it (and much more recently than I had) and Justin doesn't really care about that kind of stuff, so we walked around the outside trails and then watched the movies in the theater and about the Indians and stuff. Somehow we managed to kill like 3 hours.

After Alcatraz we walked along Chinatown but I didn't buy anything because there wasn't anything I really wanted. All the shops started looking the same after awhile. Then we had dinner at a place in Chinatown which I hated because we couldn't choose our own food, they just brought a bunch of dishes, and I don't like so many foods so it was tough to find anything I'd eat.

Then it was back to the hotel and we played Taboo for awhile. Galaxy, Jackie and I all went to sleep rather early, around 11:30-ish.

Saturday
The first two days weren't the best, but Saturday and Sunday got much better. Saturday was the festival. The concert/symphonic band played very well and so did the wind ensemble, which I'm in. We went back to the hotel when it was over for an hour because it had been raining. But it looked like it had stopped, so we went to Great America, which is this amusement park in Santa Clara that has rides that are basically just a rip-off of rides from other theme parks.

The first thing I did was this crazy free-fall with Emma and Andrew. They put us in a harness and lifted us 153 feet in the air and then we just fell straight forward until we were 6 ft from the ground and swung back up. It was really freaky at first, but it was so much fun. I stole pictures from Richard's facebook of us doing it that are posted below. After that we went on a bunch of rides and I went on rollercoasters with loops which I had never done before because I was always too afraid of it. But after the freefall I felt like the loops were nothing, and I ended up finding out that I totally love going on loops and that made me happy.

The awards ceremony was like 15 minutes at the theme park. Symphonic/Concert Band got 1st out of 2 bands and an excellent rating, and Wind Ensemble got 2nd out of 4 and a superior rating (which is better than an excellent rating, so our 2nd is pretty good. Plus, Mrs. Bentley said the judge's tape she listened to just kept going on about how parts needed to be covered and that was only because a lot of people didn't go to San Francisco, so we were at a disadvantage because of that).

We got to go on more rides after that which was awesome since the park was pretty empty at that point and we went on 4 rides in the span of like 30 minutes.

Went back to the hotel around 7:00-ish and I hung around with Soan and Emma doing nothing for a little while and then we played Mao with some people who had never played it which is always a lot of fun. I haven't played it in a long time, too, so that made it more fun as well. We were planning on not sleeping that night, but then Soan fell asleep at like 11:30 and she's usually the most "Let's stay up!" person, so Jackie, Galaxy, Emma, and I only lasted till like 12:30.

Oh but man the CW in San Francisco is so crazy! The played South Park, and then they played reruns from the first season of American Idol! I was like "wth is this?!" The CW here is nowhere near as crazy awesome.

Sunday
Sunday was also good. I mean, there were some problems with everyone getting sick of everyone else, but it was mostly good. We went to Ghiradelli Square at 10ish and had two hours to wander around. We had lunch at this diner and I learned how to play bridge (which I kind of knew how to play before, but not really). We also got delicious chocolate and shakes at the chocolate/ice cream place.

At noon it was time to get on the bus and go home. I kind of learned how to play thirteen with Emma, Daniel Shih, and Daniel Jenkins. I even managed to come in 3rd a few times! Then I played bridge with Emma, Soan, and Daniel Shih for about 4 hours, and I got a lot better at it.

We got to school around 8-ish and then I got to go home and finish all the homework I hadn't done during spring break. Much fun.

Anyways, it could've been better, but overall it was a pretty great trip.