Chapter 2, in which I hang out in Sacramento

The 1^st time I was in Sacramento - before I found out that I'd have to return to SF to visit the INS inspection office - I walked over to the Capitol building, where I had an opportunity to watch the state assembly in session. Everybody was walking around & chatting with each other while individual politicians delivered eloquent speeches to them. On the way back I walked through this amazing park filled with trees that had trunks too wide for me to get my arms around.

The day after I got my I-94, I took the Greyhound back to Sacramento. Even before I got on the bus, I recieved the distinct impression that Greyhound in the US is a somewhat different beast than the one in the great white North. There is no Greyhound stop in Fremont, where my uncle lives, so we drove to the nearest one, which was in the next town. Apparently, Fremont used to have a Greyhound stop but the city forced Greyhound to shut it down because they didn't want people coming there on the Greyhound!

The bus was late so we struck up a conversation with the only other person at the stop, the lone Greyhound employee. Judging from what she told us, it seemed that driving between Fremont & Oakland so as to catch a bus that travelled between Oakland & Sacramento would save a fair bit of time, since there was a long layover at Oakland otherwise. My uncle offered to collect me from the Oakland stop when I returned. We were on the verge of driving to Oakland to catch the connecting bus when the bus finally deigned to make an appearence. The ride to Sacramento, layover & all, was fairly uneventful, since I just read through a chunk of Sophie's World en route.

Once I got to Sacramento, I explored the big mall near David's office. The kewlest feature of this mall is a giant sand sculpture depicting The Little Mermaid. A few spots had been disrupted by little birds but it was still a breathtaking sight. I wish my camera hadn't been indisposed at the time :-(

Later on, while I was chilling in David's office, the office gardener dropped by to water his plant for him. There was a plant in her little trolley so I asked her about it & she ended up letting me have it to replace the one I was forced to leave behind in Canada.

The next day, Renata & Matt picked me up from David's office in the morning and we went to Renata's friend Juli'ene's house, where her brother let me use his air rifle to take shots at random junk in the backyard. Gotta love those American guns... Once I had confirmed that I was lousy shot, we drove to a nearby lake to see if the water was warm enough to swim in. It wasn't. Matt didn't think so, however, so we watched him swim in water that was scarcely above 10 degrees. I told him he should move to Canada ;-)

Afterwards we went to visit Matt's family, who are a fabulous bunch of people. Well, I only met his mom, brother & parakeet but extrapolating my experiences with them would indicate that his sister & dad must be equally fabulous. I didn't take to their dog quite as well but I'm told that nobody ever does. Matt's mom wrote down their phone number for me & said to call them if I ever needed their help while I was here. I was quite bowled over by their friendliness.

The following day David took me to apply for my social security card. Because he needed to pick Jane & Josie up from school - they had just returned from a 5-day camping trip - he left me at the social security office. Unfortunately, I soon realized that I needed to know my phone number & address to apply for the card. Not an unreasonable requirement, except that I had no clue what these were, since I hadn't even seen my apartment yet. Fortunately, I still had the piece of paper with Matt's number on it so I convinced the security guard to let me use the phone marked "not for outside calls" to call the number. I got Matt's mom to look my address up in one of my older posts here and Renata looked my number up on her cell phone. Pretty resourceful, eh?

Later that day David's family took me to the state fair. It was a lot like the CNE, although there was a cattle show and an elephant ride. A surprisingly high number of rides required that I be wearing real shoes. At the end of the day, we sat on the golden bears at the park gates. The golden bear is the official mascot of California. We also rejuvenated our tired feet by sitting on these little chairs that massaged feet. The CNE has got to get some of those!

After we left the fair, I met up with Renata & Matt for what was supposed to be a LAN party. However, only 5 of us showed up so I ended up having Matt teach me how to play his favourite RTS while we made & ate guacamole, which everybody around here seems to call 'guac'.

The next morning, David dropped me off at the Greyhound stop so I could catch the 12:30 bus to Oakland. We got there at exactly 12:30 but I already had my ticket & the bus driver hadn't boarded yet so I figured everything would be OK. Boy, was I ever wrong! I used my plant to save a seat on the bus & then informed the driver that I wished to place my suitcases in the cargo compartmnt of the bus. He told me that I couldn't get them onto the bus until they had been tagged. Having no clue as to what he was talking about, I inquired as to the nature of this tagging. He explained that I needed to satnd in line at the ticketing counter to have tags put on my baggage before he would consent to stowing it in the cargo compartment. I rushed off to the counter, stood in line for several minutes, got the suitcases tagged & returned to the bus, only to be informed that it was full. Unlike Greyhound Canada, where they will commission another bus if yours fills up, the US Greyhound made me wait over an hour for the next one.

When I was finally able to board the bus, I realized that my plant had gone on without me. So I inquired as to its potential whereabouts in Oakland. The dude at the lost'n'found desk actually asked me if it was a weed plant! He eventually suggested I check the lost'n'found in SF so I went to SF for the 3rd time. Fortunately, they did have my plant there & were able to return it to me.