sunday april 6, 2008

NC, Berlin and LA / San Francisco, CA / 23 months ago

It's been a busy month of travel between North Carolina, Berlin and Los Angeles. Two parts work and one part play, Now that it's over I'll be glad to not spend 40 hours in a coach airplane seat inside of 30 days for a long time, if ever again.

Charlotte was easing into Spring with bright, exploding pear trees that resemble cherry blossoms, just with less of a red tint. While in Charlotte I rented a Prius and I have to say, they're more fun to drive than they look. So much fun in fact, I have been considering trading my car now in for a newer model Prius.

Berlin was almost indescribable. I will say that I absolutely loved the city as a whole. That's pretty good considering that I was only there for three days, the weather was either snow, sleet, rain, wind or overcast and the fact that I don't speak German. While I was there my friend and childhood neighbor also happened to also be in town vacationing and though I had just seen he and his wife in Charlotte, we managed to meet up for a brief visit in a coffee shop one afternoon to escape the snow. All in all I think I walked about six miles and slept about 14 hours total.

Long enough to get home, unpack and begin to settle, Dara and I were off again. We spent a quick weekend in LA visiting some friends and eating our way through Silver Lake. We even managed to catch up with Brett and Gina who gave me private sampling of the new Rancid album due out this September. First impression, it's a damn good record.

This weekend I am off to Chicago and followed by a day trip to Cleveland on my way home next Monday. After that I aim to be grounded in SF until the end of June when my sister graduates from Kellogg @ Northwestern.