With the sun breaking the clouds, yesterday's melancholy tunes were finally replaced with the rousing music genre of Acid-Jazz. With nothing better to do, I decided to continue writing and reading the rest of the afternoon. Sometimes, a quiet and uneventful afternoon is a bliss.

Day 4 (Excursion to Wine Country)
With a strong desire to release the energy that was lay dormant for the last 6 months due to the sedentary lifestyle at NYU Stern, Siobhan insisted on going for a run at 6:30 in the morning. Unfortunately, being running freaks, Brian and Chris were more than happy to oblige Siobhan’s wish. Reluctantly, I went with running with them. After the run, Brian went to work while Siobhan and I went for an excursion to the wine country - Napa and Sonoma Valley - with Brian’s car. Since this is a day trip, we skipped Sonoma Valley and went straight to Napa Valley. For anyone who is planning to visit Napa Valley, I highly recommend purchasing the non-topographic map depicting all wineries in Napa Valley from the Napa Valley Visitors Information Center for $3. It is well worth acquistion as all wineries are clearly marked on the map while on the backside of the map, you get a grid of all wineries and their operating information like operating hours, tours availability, etc. We managed to visit Rutherford Grove, Beaulieu, Duck Horn, and Van der Hayden wineries. Being impressed with the wines that I tasted at Van der Hayden, I broke the bank by purchasing several bottles of wine from the winery. Conversely, our trip to Napa Valley also coincided with the Supreme Court’s decision of allowing wineries to ship to out-of-state consumers. While this news received applause from the wineries, I couldn't help wondering why they didn't celebrate this landmark decision by offering Siobhan and me free wine tasting. Nonetheless, I can now order Napa Valley wines directly from Massachusetts. Nice!!!

Day 5 (Being Tourists)
Siobhan and I did the tourist thing by taking the cable car from Powell St. to Fisherman Wharf. We spent a good portion of the afternoon walking around the wharf and looking at the sea lions at pier 39. To complete our anarchic experience in San Francisco, we visited the infamous City Lights bookstore at the North Beach district of SF. After dinner, Brian, Siobhan, and I went to Canvas for amateur stand-up comedy.

Day 6 (Departures and Toastmaster)
I felt an absence of energy as soon as Siobhan left San Francisco for NYC earlier that day. It was a slow day yesterday as I did some reading and blogging in the afternoon before rushing out the house to meet Brian to attend a meeting of the Toastmasters Golden Gate chapter, of which Brian is a member. After the meeting, Brian left for Sacramento to visit his mother who will undergo a surgery on Friday. So, for the next 3 days, I will be staying all by myself at Brian's apartment.

Day 7 (Lunch with Sumer)
I took the BART to East Bay to visit Sumer, an ex-colleague, ex-boss, and MIT alum who influenced my earlier decision to apply to MIT. Since leaving MIT in 1997 he had started 2 new companies. He is glad that I am now attending MIT and taking the entrepreneurial path. It was good to catch up with him. For tonight, I plan on participating in a Yoga session at a Yoga studio a few blocks from Brian's apartment. I haven't done Yoga since I ended my marathon training last year. But the real motivation for Yoga is really the disproportional high number of beautiful women at the studio.

5/19/2005 7:50:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Travels

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