17. “w” for winchester and wicked

Its spring break!  With spring break, we get lots of fun, lazy, and free time.

This spring break was somewhat special, as soon as our final exams finished, we headed to the airport!  We were finally getting to fly together up to Tammy’s house in Dublin, I would be joining her for the first couple days of break.

We arrived late at night but were still greeted with some home-made Pancit and Adobo, which were so delicious.  Tammy’s mom makes the best pancit I have ever had (not that I have had alot).  Also, the two doggies, Lucy and Linus, were there to welcome us with lots of doggy kisses and jumping on us.  Before everyone went to sleep we decided we would go to “the city” the next day.

We visited the local mall (Stoneridge) and got some delicious food at Nordstrom’s cafe, although these were fun, the main event of Saturday was going to see Wicked in San Francisco.  We headed for the city when evening arrived and arrived there about 2 hours before the play actually started.  We wandered around the city for a bit, ate some fries, and just observed the crazy things and people that surrounded us, it was quite fun.  With the show nearing though we headed into the Orpheum with all the mass of people and waited for the show to start.

The play was quite amazing.  There was never really a dull moment, almost all of the actors were really good singers and the story was intriguing.  The sets, special effects, and props all fit very well.  I really do not know what else to say except it was truly a great broadway show, the best that I have seen!

After the show we still had not eaten, so we headed over to Union Square.  We ate at the Cheesecake Factory and got to see a bird’s eye view of the square.  One thing I must say is that San Francisco amazes me.  From what I can tell its a little more visitor friendly than L.A, I think I can speak for Tammy also in saying we would very much like to explore every little bit of it some day.  Our Saturday trip to San Francisco turned out to be very exciting and eventful, a good way to start a spring break.

We couldn’t stop there though, Sunday we planned to visit the Winchester Mystery House and all its craziness.  Tammy and I were interested in visiting because I had never seen it and she had not been in a long time.  Also, our interest was peaked when we watched a documentary of the house and its history while avoiding studying one day.  We knew quite a bit about the house and were excited to actually see it in person.

Although, I always pictured it all alone in the country/desert, it is actually right next to a shopping area in San Jose.  Naturally, we visited the shopping mall, Santana Row, and had some food before we headed over to the house.  Upon arriving, we purchased our tour tickets and waited for it to start.  Our tour guide was quite enthusiastic but strict, he did not want any messing around.  Inevitably though there were two groups of rather bothersome kids who did not follow his rules.  Anyway, on with the tour.

Within the tour we got to see all the oddities of the house: “easy riser stairs,” doors to nowhere, stairs to nowhere, peculiar windows and doors out of place, and the hidden beauty of it all.  The tour showed us “160 rooms, 10,000 windows, 950 doors, 52 skylights, 47 fireplaces, 40 bedrooms, 40 staircases, 17 chimneys, 3 elevators, 2 ballrooms and 2 basements,” all in just 65 minutes.  The tour was thorough, but I couldn’t help wanting to stay longer to explore even more.  With that the visit was basically over, we got to go through a tour of the garden and see everything from the outside and visit the gift shop(didn’t buy anything though).

Monday was a little bit more relaxing than the previous two days, we had done all the sight-seeing and it was the last day I would be visiting.  It consisted of a lot of watching tv, playing with the dogs, and baby-sitting Dylan; all turned out to be quite entertaining.  A highlight of the day was visiting “Anything Bundt Cakes,” they make as it says,  a whole bunch of bundt cakes.  They were sooo delicious, Tammy and I opted for red velvet cakes but also came back with white chocolate and marble cakes for the rest of her family, and of course we got one that I could bring home to my family.  With that, the trip was over, they took me to the airport and I went back to my family.

As you can see our Spring Break was quite exciting: it was Wicked, mysterious, delicious, and just plain fun!