san diego

though i stayed w/ my friend, i was able to meet up w/ the rest of the orchestra by catching the train they were on at the irvine stop. it was a beautiful ride along the coast. soon after arriving, rich amoroso (violin) and i set out to walk along the water in search of a beach. unfortunately, there were none to be found so we continued along and eventually wandered into the city. there was a "little italy" section and he remembered a meal he had eaten the last time the orchestra was in san diego so we searched until we found the restaurant. rich is pretty serious about food, especially italian, so him being excited about this meal made me all the more ecstatic. we each ordered a small plate of pasta and a large prosciutto sandwich. we planned to eat half at the restaurant and the other half after the concert. it's always nice to have something to look forward to.

i thought the food was great and while he agreed, he told me his mother's and wife's cooking is far better. i can't wait for him to invite me over to one of his weekly family dinners!

we had such a great time, sharing stories and talking about the tour. i've been having a wonderful tour but compared to him, i feel like i haven't done anything. while in san francisco, he, david kim, burchard tang and chris deviney all went to play at the legendary pebble beach golf course. he even shot a 75! you may see him at the next pga tournament alongside tiger and phil.

then in l.a., he and several others went to one of the final tapings of "the price is right". although none of them were called to "come onnnnnnnnnnnn down!", it will be fun to look for them in the audience when the show airs on june 1.

then today (friday), while about half the orchestra (including myself) left for san francisco, he (and probably the same group) stayed in san diego to play golf at another great course, torrey pines. thankfully, they took lots of pictures.

today ended up being quite an adventure for me as i scoured the city for a rental car. i had been looking forward to returning to san francisco because it meant seeing my cute nieces again. but when we arrived in oakland, i found out that they were very sick (both had fevers of 104). since my cousin couldn't pick me up, i decided to rent a car and get to his place on my own. i just rented a car in l.a. a few weeks ago for a good price so i thought it wouldn't be a problem to get a car for one day. but what i failed to realize was that it was memorial day weekend. i started to worry after being told for the 6th time that nothing was available. so i headed back to the hotel hoping to find a way by public transportation. when i asked the concierge about this and explained my situation, she made a phone call and within 5 seconds, i had a mid-size car. apparentely, the hotel had some sort of contract w/ hertz. if only i had known this 2 hours ago......