Aventuras: A Cross Country Adventure With Two White Vans and a handful of Actors.

This blog promises many adventures. Here's my disclaimer, y'all: *This crazy cool blog is a creation of myself, they call me *tina*, an actress in the Kennedy Center Imagination Celebration on Tour Production of "Alexander Who's Not Going to Move." The opinions expressed in this blog are solely mine (mine, mine, mine!) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Kennedy Center, its board, or employees. Additionally, this blog is not supported by the Kennedy Center.* Got it???

Sunday, October 02, 2005

San Fransico, CA

Yesterday, Ashley and I hopped the Amtrak to Emryville just outside San Fran for a long overdue visit. I haven't seen my brother, Ken, in over 10 years, we think we decided, the last time being when he saw me play Maria in West Side Story when I was a sophomore in high school. But there was no problem recognizing him when I jumped off the train...he hasn't changed a bit.

Ashley and I piled into his car and got the driving tour of San Fran on the way to Ken's house. The city, at first glance, gives the impression of life and art. For those of you that know New York City, imagine someone chopped all the buildings in half and took a box of crayola crayons (the delux variety) and colored in all the grey and black buildings with colors such as fuschia, turqoise, yellow, mango, and sky blue. The permanantly mild weather has that effect on people, I suppose, there's no time to sulk in the cold and snow...no need to restrict color and creativity to inside one's own dwelling...display it on the outside for everyone to enjoy!

Ken's house is awesome, and he has plans to fix it up which are promising and fun. He has a "music room" with his keyboard, recording equipment, turn tables, and computer. He has a great kitchen where cooking happens. His toilet is in a seperate room from the sink and shower, how european. Great house.

We went to get a bite to eat, and as we were having lunch, the conversation moved to beer, as it sometimes does. I told Ken that I found my new favorite beer, Rogue, in Davis. He said that the Rogue Alehouse was literally a block away from where we were having lunch. Eureka! So we went and I bought a Rogue beanie and saw like 10 Rogue beers and ales on tap and smiled a lot. Pretty neat co-win-keedink.

We finished our little walk around town, and then took a little drive to pick up the custom painting that would be Ken's album cover for his new CD. On the way, we barely saw the Golden Gate bridge (San Fran fog abounds), and we took a pit stop a the ocean. There was a sand castle competition or exhibition going on which was very cool...and I got to put my feet in the Pacific. It wasn't so bad actually, coldwise I mean, probably because the air temp was so low. I'd been in the Pacific in Costa Rica, but never in the US of A. It was perty.

We met the artist who painted Ken's album cover at his house, and then went across the street to a coffee shop to view some of his artwork...all very cool, unique, beautiful stuff. I ordered a soy latte, and when it came, the barista had created a heart out of the froth on top of my drink (see pic above), just like the picture on the National Geographic cover that adorned my rehearsal binder for Alexander! Who knew that could actually be done! It made my day...the little things.

When we got back to Ken's sid eof town (North Beach), we took a walk to the Warf...to pier 39 specifically to see the sea lions! Supposedly, after the earth quake of '89, they all started hanging out at this spot. Boy they are cute (and boy do they stink). They are fun to watch as they play with each other, get annoyed, swat at each other, bark loudly, and most importantly...SPOON! These sea lions are all about body warmth and the spooning action. Although it was probably much more about keeping warm then affectionate cuddling, it was still cute to me.

After a brief detous to Trader Joe's to pick up dinner ingredients, we climbed the hill (oh the hills) back home and started cookin up the fondue. Apples, grapes, asparagus and bread dipped in different varieties of swiss with a little white wine to wach it all down...mmm...home cooking finally!!! Thanks, bro!!!

The last hour of our visit to San Fran was full of adventure: let me break it down for you. Ken called a cab, we improvised a little together on the guitar and piano, cab arrived, we ran out the door, cab left us hangin, we locked Ken out of his apartment, we ran down the street to catch another cab, the cabby told us he couldn't take us to Emeryville cause the Bay Bridge was backed up for miles, he took us to the Bart instead (like the metro) we caught a train under the Bay Bridge to MacArthur, we hopped a cab to Emeryville...and with minutes to spare (although more than we had anticipated cause the train was late)...we made it!!! Home to Davis by 12:15am and all is well with the world...

Today is our first real show with a real audience and such. Ken is coming to see the performance, which will be wonderful...hopefully I'll remember all my lines, wig changes, lyrics, set changes, doggy noises, and kick ball-changes.

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