Fear the Crab

Friday, 9/17: Despite yesterday’s “disappointment,” we somehow managed to spend well over an hour wandering the mall. I guess the perseverance of shoppers can rise above such trials and make the most out of the day. I ended up buying two pairs of jeans at the Levi’s Outlet, and was in and out of the store in less than 10 minutes; a majority of that time spent trying on jeans and paying at the register.

We also found the main reason we came to Gilroy in the first place, The Garlic Shoppe. This store features a variety of goods centered around garlic, chief among them being the “Garlic Dude Dust” that claims to enhance any type of food. Being a lover of garlic myself, I can’t wait to try it out on some steaks. We also got a few bottles of marinade and other goods as gifts.

However, we didn’t want to lug around all the condiments, sauces, and other spices. We also weren’t sure how well they’d hold up in our luggage, so we decided to mail them back home. It was decided that we’d ship via USPS with those flat-rate boxes, rather than go through the store’s shipping, primarily because the group wanted to save money (shipping via the store itself would be charged by the total price of goods, not the total weight). We packed most everything in bubble-wrap and required two large flat-rate boxes to ship all our purchases to my mother-in-law’s house. They should get through the postal system unscathed, right? Right?

Lunch was at a Wienerschnitzel, another fast-food franchise that doesn’t exist in our hometown. This time I got chili on my hamburger since we were going to eat in, and I don’t think I was that disappointed. This selection was based more on convenience, as it was near the local post office, and mostly because someone in the group wanted a hot dog.

Our disappointment was instead reserved for Vallejo. Relying on Google Maps to route us to our reservations at Motel 6 Six Flags West, we somehow found ourselves in a trailer park instead. Calling the Motel 6 was difficult because they gave us street names we did not recognize, or landmarks we couldn’t find. After driving around for half an hour and making several calls to Motel 6, it turned out to be just up the street from where we were at the trailer park. Maybe Google will update their map later, but at that time the route really gave us headaches.

The interesting thing about that Motel 6 was the placard in the room giving us safety tips. In addition to the typical “please lock your door” advice, there was a warning to not answer the door even if someone claims to be an employee of Motel 6; instead we were to call the front desk to verify. Rather ominous?

The next stop would be the San Francisco area. This would be the multi-night stay and represented the most amount of time in one area. Before our vacation started I had planned for a couple of places in the San Mateo area; I thought it would be a good starting point for the various places we wanted to go and see. Additionally, motels and hotels in San Francisco city were typically more expensive, and did not offer free parking.

Unfortunately, finding room proved to be more difficult, and the better part of our evening in Vallejo was spent hunting for the next stay. It turned out that the time we’d hit San Francisco was when the Oracle OpenWorld 2010 convention would be in town. This event brought in thousands of people and ate up all the lodging in San Francisco. Those places that still had room, had jacked up their prices by $100, and they weren’t ashamed to admit why. Every place we called, from San Bruno, San Mateo, Burlingame, through Pacifica, either had no room or were too expensive for us.

Eventually we found room at the Travelodge in Palo Alto, near the Stanford University campus, and booked our last-minute reservations from the 18th through the 22nd. At $89 a night (per room) we felt very fortunate that there were openings and that the price hadn’t gone up. And, from what I was led to believe from friends and family, the Stanford-side of the US-101 is a rather nice place.

Dinner was at the Denny’s next door to the Motel 6. It was convenient and we were tired, so it was nice to find a near-enough place we could just walk over to. I had a “southern omelet” that was very filling, likely because of the biscuits.