Notes from the West Coast

Do you know it takes less time to fly to London from Boston that it takes to fly to California? In the same amount of time it took us to fly to San Fran for Easter, we could have gone to Paris!

Our trip to the left coast was nice, though. I didn't realize how much I needed a vacation. We were gone five days, and it felt like we had been away so long once we returned. That might be because New England burst into spring while we were away. More on that later.

It was my first time to San Fran, and I liked it. The in-laws plan to move there in five years or so. They recently bought a condo and plan to rent it until they're ready. In the meantime, we got to hang for free. What a deal!

We did all the typical tourist things as well as some excellent eating. We went to a baseball game at AT&T (formerly SBC, formerly PacBell) Park. Can't beat the bay in right field. Barry Bonds had only enough juice to make it to the warning track. Nice.

There were two elementary school-aged girls in the seats in front of us. I love eavesdropping on anyone, but listening to these two was most entertaining, especially since part of my job is thinking about what appeals to the grade-school set.

My favorite tidbit: their use of "hecka", assumably to replace "hella". It brought me back to the days when "H-E-Double Hockey Sticks" was part of the vernacular.