Steak for dinner.
Tuesday evening I drove up to Sacramento for Leg Day. Right into the sun.
This has to be one of the weirdest roads I've ever been on; both underpasses are for traffic going in the same direction. Being on the left side of the divider, I felt like I was going to smash into a car coming from the other direction at any moment.
I went to check out Stones Gambling Hall.
Cool fireplace.
A restaurant there.
The poker room.
The booth they stream Stone's Live from.
There was a tournament going on, but I didn't know how long that was going to last and I didn't want to stay too late.
So I played cash for a few hours instead. Pretty fun game with fun players.
Big spaghetti dinner there.
I stayed at the Stirling Hotel. Originally I thought Ogii could come up with me, so I reserved a room someone a little neater, but she wouldn't really be with me all of Wednesday anyway, so she just stayed at home and worked instead.
The room number is Crocker?
Ah, it's a suite.
Decent room.
Looking down.
Nice bathroom.
The next morning, the tinted windows gave the sunrise a really beautiful glow.
Breakfast area.
Great stained glass window.
There was breakfast at the meeting but I already at at the hotel.
Everyone got a little gift.
Which was a portable USB charger.
They always have these mints.
Great for after a meal.
The day's agenda.
Our organization was meeting with three legislators.
Some of the talking points.
I've been interested in trying to get the Medi-Cal reimbursement rates increased for years now but it never happens; maybe some day.
A welcome from the COA president.
The COA keyperson of the year.
And his son, a legislator.
Some information on how to talk to legislators.
Onto the capital. There are already some people with signs on the corner.
The front of the capital.
Our first meeting was with Assembymember Mark Stone
We weren't meeting with Anna Caballero, and she already had meetings with many other groups that day, but since I'm in her district, I dropped of an info packet.
Some of the other groups at the capital that day.
Looking down through the rotunda.
The statue below.
The dome above.
Intricate lamps.
Pictures of previous governors.
Neat tiles.
A room set up like it was many years ago.
An old wall.
Taking a break in the legislative chambers.
Next a meeting with Senator William Monning's staff.
A group pic.
Us in the chambers.
Welcoming us.
Our last meeting was with Assemblymember Robert Rivas. He was in a legislative meeting so we met with his staff.
Although then he got out of his meeting, so we rushed to meet him. Dr. Redman knew of some hidden back-way stairs we could take.
They look rather old.
And out through an unmarked door.
Thankfully we caught up to him and had a very brief chat between his meetings.
There were some anti-vax protestors there as well. We all tried to stay far away from them; don't want to catch any horrible diseases.
After January 1st of this year, I can't use my Prius for the carpool lane alone any more. It almost never matters because I almost always drive with Ogii, but here it would have been nice.
In 21 minutes I'll be able to use the carpool lane, but then again, so will everyone else.
Lots of sheep.
The next day Assemblymember Robert Rivas, the last legislator we had met, was holding a district open house in Salinas, so we stopped by.
A fair number of people there.
Some appetizers.
His district covers a very large area.
Us with him.
After that it was off to our anniversary dinner at Patria, a German restaurant.
A room with lots of cuckoo clocks.
A larger room.
The bar.
Steins.
Nice painting.
Some interesting dishes.
Meat plate.
Us with our food.
Ogii got goulash.
I had the rabbit, which I haven't eaten since I studied in Germany.
Dessert.
A little nook with a piano.
The picture behind Ogii is of the nook.
Ogii hid a present on my pillow. It's a little too large to be a secret, though.
A little grill.
A collection of all of the cards we've given each other.
Up to San Francisco on Saturday. Nice sunrays through the trees.
They got rather lazy painting these lines.
I love passing this sign.
It's a rather weird fit into this parking spot.
Apparently plenty of other drivers have felt the same.
This guy didn't even try.
I can almost fit through these bars and skip having to walk all the way around the parking garage. Dumb hips.
San Francisco, land of a million wifi signals.
Yerba Buena Gardens.
A little lady bug on a flower.
Lots of flowers.
A neat one.
And another.
It was a beautiful day and many people were out in the park enjoying it.
Some painters.
Lots of initials carved in this tree.
The shade was a little too cool and the sun was a little too hot, so I kept moving back and forth between these two benches.
Is he spraying for weeds?
No, he's actually spray painting the grass. I didn't even know that was a thing.
A short timelapse video of him.
MLK memorial waterfall.
He had some great quotes.
And another.
A picture of him.
A picture of protestors in San Francisco.
One of his speeches.
Looking out through the waterfall.
A fair number of restaurants in the Metreon.
More over here.
A boba place.
Getting our goodies for the movie.
Which is an IMAX marathon of the three Batman movies by Christopher Nolan.
Batman Begins is one of my favorite superhero movies. It's really an amazing origin story while explaining every little detail.
There was a break between movies, so we headed over to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It has a giant Google Maps pin on top.
Nice brick.
The very top of the atrium has a walkway.
Which you can stroll across.
Questions on the way up the stairs.
Photographs.
Many pixels slowly coming together...
... to form an image.
Tons of printed Instagram shots piled up.
Composites of multiple shots of the same landmarks taken by different people.
Ceiling cat.
A great view out of a window.
An outdoor area with a huge plant wall.
He's in a hurry.
The elevators list what's on your floor so you can plan your visit as you wait.
Nice photographs.
A house.
With a great view of the ocean.
I'd love to live there.
A completely-red resin.
These are a bit more intricate.
As is this.
Another outdoor patio.
Crushed by a penny.
If we use the selfie camera on our phone, it comes out backwards.
So we have to go stand on the other side to make it look right.
The building looks like a spaceship from this angle.
Lots of spiders.
A very tall sandwich.
Popeye.
A giant sleeping head.
An office.
Andy Warhol. That's pretty simple.
Back to the theater.
For The Dark Knight. Not nearly as good as the first one; everything is a little too set up to seem realistic.
Checking out The View lounge in San Francisco Marriott Marquis after that.
They have a giant window.
Back to the theater for an interview with Christopher Nolan. It was live in Los Angeles and taped for here.
Then onto the last film, The Dark Knight Rises. I like this one more than the second but less than the first.
Very symmetrical vegetable.
A bunch of poppies in our yard.
Masses of purple flowers down the street.
Lots of different flowers.
There are so many types of palm trees. These wide ones are some of my favorites.
I don't like the tops on these; they're too small and goofy looking.
The fur on these looks funny, too.
A bit more traditional.
Another fuller one.
Aw, after we bought our new Galaxy S10 phones, Samsung announced a new phone, the A80, which has a gigantic 48MP sensor for the camera.
Ours are only 12MP or 16MP. Although since it's still just a phone camera, I'm not sure if all those extra megapixels will really be all that useful. A 16MP DSLR is still much, much better than a 16MP phone camera, so I doubt the A80 camera will be very useful for printing. Although it will be interesting to see.