[1/30/2004--Note: this trip to Califormia was the first time for either Mark or I to take a trip to the west coast. We thought we would start a paper journal (leather bound) detailing the adventures and travels we did together in that journal. What's a more perfect first entry than a new location experience for the both of us? Well, that journal actually did not go beyond this first trip, our fundamentally lazy selves neglected to keep up with our adventures in these pages. However, this blog will fill this role, future reconstructions from our memories and letters to friends will start a documenatation of those exploits. My online journal has long become more than what I wanted for a travel journal, being able to link to our photos or related links to the places we've been, makes this a much more dynamic and interactive journal. Yes it is nice to have a book to hold and fondly recall those experiences as you touch the words on the pages. But this blog has become so much more practical and easier to maintain and use more frequently. Mark's entries are in italics, since we adopted a style of alternating our hand written entries within the same pages I wanted some way to easily discern between our writings in the blog.] Departure date: 3/6/99 9:35am from Columbus OH! Left for Columbus airport at 4:40am our little adventure began� [the flight leaving from Columbus was significantly cheaper than flying out of Pgh] Despite upset stomachs and uncomfortable seats, all went well with the flights leaving and departing on time (and arriving on time) with no screaming babies on board (Mark says: no fat women on board). Clouds were cool, twin cities dreadfully flat. I don't understand why anyone would want to live there (10,000 frozen lakes or not). Mark somehow resisted opening the emergency exit door in our aisle thereby saving us from some untold doom. Got off plane in San Jose, long mind numbing flight; there would have been tons of sights to see but the clouds were not cooperative. We passed over Devil's Tower, saw a few bits of the Rockies from the tiny windows. We didn�t get much sleep on the plan, ah well, it made the day extremely long. Martin picked us up from the airport and once we settled ourselves in, we started off slowly with trips to a couple of windsurfing (sporting) stores. I tried on a few seemingly impossibly small wet suits. I personally think they were designed so that you needed a heavy coating of grease to get into and out them with any ease. Somehow my hands were too big (or just couldn't compress enough) to fit through the end of the sleeves :) I thought it was hysterical! Mark had to give me a hand yanking the legs of the suit, he was more successful at sliding me off the chair than assisting an exit. We bought Mark some warm necessities for the ski trip tomorrow. We checked out the Bay, Mark rambled on about boats, we enjoyed the air that smells exactly like a Pier 1, rich fragrances of eucalyptus and odd flowers. Dinner we went out for some Chinese, had the Ma Po tofu, spinach with garlic, scallion cake, spicy sesame noodles� and those meat-freaks ordered some crazy meat dish. Overall very spicy, a bit too much heat for my tastes but still yummy.