Day 1 - 8/27/16 (The Ultimate Wine Run):
Sean and I had signed up for The Ultimate Wine Run 5k at Lake Las Vegas awhile back. We got our race packets yesterday AS WELL AS OUR MEDALS. (Yes, they gave the medals in advance at packet pickup, which kinda killed the motivation imo!) Today, we showed up to run at Lake Las Vegas. Parking was $15 ($10 in advance) but we refused to pay and wound up parking a couple of miles from the start, having to power walk, and almost missing the start of the race because of it. Lol We got to the start just in time though! The race was extremely "undulating", as I've heard so many people say lately, and totally owned me. Sean had decided to run with me though and kept me motivated while playing Pokémon Go. Yes, he was playing Pokémon Go WHILE RUNNING WITH ME. I was absolutely dying and he was just casually catching Pidgeys and even a Tauros! Hahaha At the end of the race, I took a little time to recover before we got our cups of finish line wine and tried riding a mechanical bull they had there. Then they did a raffle and a few other things and Sean managed to win a bottle of wine in one of their little side events! They didn't have any placement prizes or even timing chips as it was a fun run but a bottle of wine was plenty to show for our efforts!
Heading back into Vegas after the wine run, we stopped by Danny's parents house where we'd been invited to Danny's mom and brother's birthday party. We hung out and ate with them for a good couple of hours til we finally had to head home and get ready to go out of town.
Sean and I had gotten a booking through Uship to transport someone's flatscreen TV from Vegas to Berkeley, CA. We'd already picked up the TV. Now it was time to load it up, pack, and start our long road trip overnight! Once we were ready to go, we buckled in and I drove us up while Sean got lots of work done in the car.
Day 2 - 8/28/16:
We pulled into Merced around 8:20am, I think it was, and met my mom and youngest siblings Juliet and Jarod at the Burger King on Childs Ave for some quick breakfast. We couldn't stay too long though since we still had obligations northwest of there.
We continued to Berkeley after that to drop the TV off and then got in touch with my sister Liz. She and her husband Kyle were home at the time so we headed over to their place. Liz is taking classes at the City College of San Francisco now and when we arrived she was working on homework. Kyle was watching TV on the couch so Sean joined him while I went to nerd out with Liz. She was working on Trigonometry at the time. I couldn't believe it! She's a smart girl but I never imagined her being motivated to learn any math beyond maybe algebra. I couldn't help but grin watching her find function inverses and whatnot. Math had always been my number one subject and one of the things I'd prided myself on most growing up. It'd been about a decade since I'd done any serious math though and I'd never taken a trig class. (Instead, I'd skipped from geometry to calculus and continued through classes as they were presented, assuming I'd pick trig up somewhere along the way.) Looking at Liz's work, I was absolutely clueless! It turns out I had learned what she was covering once upon a time and it came back to me pretty quickly as we got into it together but it took a couple of minutes for me to get up to speed with each concept as I was presented with it and I was absolutely ecstatic and thoroughly impressed when Liz was tutoring ME, explaining to ME how to solve these problems! I'm not cocky about my past knowledge at all but I dedicated so much to my education growing up and never saw Liz's interest in certain subjects such as math so to see her not only attempt it but master it this way was just incredible and so heartwarming. Anyway, we ended up getting through nearly all of her math homework and even spending some time Google'ing silly math t-shirt jokes for awhile til she had to get ready and head to work.
Once it was just Sean, Kyle, and me, we decided to get out of the house and walk to a semi-run-down, single hoop basketball court a block or two away where Kyle's taken to playing basketball lately. Sean and I were dead tired but staying vertical was the only way to keep us awake so we went and played for a bit. A neighborhood kid even came and played with us for a bit. We caught some Pokémon while out too. Pretty successful excursion, really! :D
Sean and I finally had to get a nap in when we got back to the apartment so we crashed on the couch for a few hours. Then we hung out with Kyle til Liz got home, went out to stop by a liquor store, got lots of Pokestops on the way, hung out back at the apartment, watched Death Proof, had some drinks, ate, and eventually called it a night.
Day 3 - 8/29/16:
According to Liz, Kyle never misses work (though I assume sick days are an exception?) but in the morning he slept in and was late. He ended up just not going so my sister decided to skip school and stay home as well. I felt somewhat personally responsible but couldn't do much other than get out of their hair towards the end of our trip and decide not to come back too frequently. Lol
So we all spent most of the day in the apartment but finally left in the late afternoon, I believe it was, headed to a sandwich shop called Little Lucca in Burlingame for lunch. There, we got HUGE, ridiculously delicious sandwiches for maybe $10 each. Sounds like a lot but each sandwich fed at least two people. We didn't eat our sandwiches there though. Kyle took us to a pretty park nearby instead so we could eat and do some Pokémon hunting!
Later, Kyle drove us up through and around a hilltop neighborhood with nice views and expensive houses.
Then we went to a mall not far away for a little shopping. Sean and Liz bought an awesome Harley Quinn hat for me. Totally not worth the $20 they spent but SUPER awesome. Then we got a Sharks hat as a going away gift for Kyle's soon to be former boss, a smoothie to share, and some Asian snacks and bits.
Back at the apartment a little later, we snacked and watched some movies before finally going to sleep.
Day 4 - 8/30/16:
Kyle had work in the morning but Liz was free so we hung out with her all day. We made chocolate chip pancakes with a side of peaches for "breakfast". (It was probably after lunch time at the time.)
Eventually, we made it out of the apartment and went to get groceries at Food Maxx. While putting the groceries away not long after getting back to the apartment, Kyle got home from work. Quinn was already there with a friend of his.
Liz, Sean, and I went to the pool and hot tub for a bit then. The pool was super cold but we kinda got used to it and had a lot of fun playing around together in it before thawing out again in the hot tub.
We caught a few Pokémon including a Tauros after that.
Kyle and Liz had both made us food since we'd arrived. Sean and I had brought snacks and quick bites but it just wasn't the same. Accordingly, we'd picked up ingredients at Food Maxx and promised to make a shepherds pie to share. Sean spearheaded the operation, of course, but Liz and I helped too. In the end, it was a big success! Everyone loved it - Kyle, Liz, Quinn, Quinn's friend, me. Good job, Sean!!
After dinner, we all sat around sipping beverages and watching stuff til it was time to sleep.
Day 5 - 8/31/16:
Liz had to go to school today but Sean, Kyle, and I eventually got the Bart to downtown to meet her between classes, catching Pokémon along the way and throughout the day.
Liz had made a list of tons of exciting things to do. She didn't have a lot of free time but she made good use of the time she did have with us.
She took us to Nordstrom cafe where we shared a couple of bowls of lobster bisque soup, an extremely delicious soup, some kind of lemonade that she ordered, tea that Sean ordered, and some entree that Kyle ordered. Everything was so good! Nice view too! Sean and I had been there once before with Kristina Proctor and Chris Danford but it'd been awhile!
Liz knew all the most visually appealing spots in the city! She took us up a hotel where we had amazing city views looking out over the city from a restaurant window. She took us to pretty, old brick church with an awesome interior and super high ceiling. Then we went walking around near the Metreon catching lots of Pokémon. By the end of the day, Sean and I probably had over 20 Tauros between us!
Liz had to get back to class at 6pm but Sean, Kyle, and I stuck around the area to wait for her to finish. While waiting, we got alcohol from a liquor store nearby and drank it slyly in an alleyway like homeless people, sharing it out of a brown paper bag and chasing it with an energy drink I'd brought. Lol We had a fun buzz then which we enjoyed while wandering through the mall nearby. We got samples there and even scored a free pretzel each at Wetzel's Pretzels! We took our pretzels for a walk, shared a little with the countless pigeons we found outside, and eventually wound up at a place called Top of the Mark. My sister had actually recommended we go there just before sunset to enjoy another wonderful lookout point. The place was far too fancy for any of us but we did manage to make it up and get some pics while enjoying another awesome view! We got more liquor and soda from a shop just a minute down the street from there and took it for a walk to Union Square where we drank and caught Pokémon til it was time for Liz to get out of class. Then we walked to her school and met her at the exit!
Liz had parked semi-close to there so we drove us all home, stopping to grab more liquor on the way. Then we all played fun drinking games like King's Cup and Ride the Bus on the balcony together til we were all pretty done!
Day 6 - 9/1/16:
Kyle had to work in the morning but he was really in no condition to go. To make matters worse, his truck battery was dead and his truck was parked in a no parking after 7am zone. We were all drunk still but had to get up and help sort things out. Kyle took Liz's Audi to get to work and Sean, Liz, and I tried to jump Kyle's truck with our Prius so we could move it to a better parking spot. Unfortunately, the Prius refused to jump the truck. We tried to push the truck next but it was kinda stuck on the curb and we didn't have much luck with that either. Kyle had forgotten his work boots though so he had to come back anyway. The rest of us waited at his truck til he arrived and then helped jump the truck with the Audi.
Back at the apartment, Sean and I made omelet and sausages for everyone. Then we got a little more sleep before it was finally time for us to head out. We said our goodbyes and then went to kill some time til our next Uship gig.
Our first destination was Food Maxx. We got some energy drink there and then continued to a boba shop we'd found on Google called Milk and Honey Cafe. I got the BIGGEST cup of boba smoothie I'd EVER seen there for $5.25. So yummy and really good value! We took the drinks to Horseshoe Lake to do more Pokémon hunting while enjoying the outdoors then. We walked around, took in the sun and sights, relaxed on a park bench.. When it started getting a little chilly, we finally left and found a Starbucks for some WiFi.
When the time came, we made the short drive to a place called Foster City to get our next Uship item: a Coke vending machine! We had to pay a $5 toll to get over the bridge but it was a lot faster than driving all the way around the water. We got a funny look and some skepticism when we showed up to load the Coke machine into our Prius but I'd checked the measurements and it fit in the car perfectly. It was heavy as shit and took 3 adults including Sean, the guy we were picking up from, and me to load it but once it was in it was no problem!
We started south to drop off the Coke machine then, stopping in Merced to visit family again along the way! We got some gas and Taco Bell in Manteca before getting to Merced shortly thereafter. Then we met my family at their friend Paul's house where we all hung out, snacked, and exchanged more gifts and things we had for each other.
When it started getting late, Sean and I said our goodbyes and got back on the road to Paramount, CA.
Day 7 - 9/2/16:
We finally made it to Paramount early in the morning. It was too early to drop off the Coke machine though so we parked at at Food 4 Less and got some sleep in the car.
It was 1pm when we woke up. We used some McDonald's Friday deal they've been offering lately to get free medium fries with any purchase and got a cheap sandwich and medium fries each. Our bodies weren't happy with that but at least we weren't hungry.
Then we dropped the Coke machine off in Paramount, CA and got paid $150.32 after fees for doing it!
We needed to get some work done then so we went to a Starbucks for a but to do that. Then we got some energy drinks at a grocery store and started towards home. Traffic was awful though so we stopped at an Ikea for a break. We got a meal with LOTS of extra meatballs (20 total!) plus free coffee and tea and got some more work done while trying to wait out the traffic.
Once Ikea closed at 9pm, we tried driving again but traffic was literally the worst we'd EVER seen by far on account of Labor Day weekend. In fact, we later found out it'd made the news.
We decided to stop again at Food 4 Less to get some food and got some great deals there!
On the road again after that,where there were back or side roads, those were completely full of unmoving traffic as well. At one point as we were driving on the 15 freeway towards Vegas, roads to each side of us that we didn't even know existed were lit up with cars driving 0 to 15 miles per hour. We tried to take side roads whenever possible but much of the trip to Vegas only seemed doable from one major freeway. It was like trying to get to EDC except that it lasted several times longer. We even tried taking a break at a rest area but that was so busy with everyone else who'd given up that there was no point in even trying to stop and use a restroom. It was a big rest area but there were probably 2 or 3 times as many vehicles there as there were parking spaces and drivers were forced to park illegally in no parking zones all around the lot because of it. Even when we finally made it to Primm, just over half an hour from Vegas in normal traffic, we saw all the gas stations and parking lots there completely full of drivers who'd just given up. We'd had to make a lot of stops to try and wait the traffic out and didn't get back to Vegas until TWELVE HOURS after we'd initially started driving, attempting to get home. It was 4:30am when we got to our driveway. We managed to crawl in the house with all our things, make "dinner", bath, and cuddle up with a movie to get some rest but it was probably going to take a couple of weeks to recover before trying to leave town on another roadtrip.
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