Sunday, June 13

We spent the night at Aubrey's Aunt and Uncle's house, which was just over the Golden Gate Bridge. We were woken up at some ungodly hour by a friendly white kitty meowing insistently outside our door. I shooed it away and we went back to sleep. And then the Duke's cellphone alarm didn't go off, and so there went our grandiose plans of taking the scenic route back down to LA. But then we didn't mind so much when we got to have a leisurely morning in one of the most beautiful houses ever. It was this amazing Japanese-style place, nestled in the hills, with a huge deck and amazing view. And there were deer walking around. And a koi pond in front. And Aubrey's relatives were really nice. It was good.

Then we set out, and stopped for lunch at what might be one of the weirdest restaurants I've ever been to: Pea Soup Andersen's. Kind of Danish-themed. And Pea Soup-themed. It was apparently a big highlight from Aubrey's youth. I can't really imagine a kid getting that excited about pea soup, but whatever. So... they had a lot of pea soup there. I liked it better than I thought I would. And there were some wacky hijinks.

But then, shortly after leaving there, we got stuck in one of the biggest traffic jams I've ever experienced. It was in the middle of nowhere, and we sat there for an hour and a half, moving about a mile, and it stretched on forever, and we couldn't see far enough to even tell what was going on, and it basically just sucked a lot. We entertained ourselves by pondering swiping the small funny dog from the car on our right. And then all of a sudden, traffic started moving, and we were finally on our way again. But we were all pretty cranky by this point, and creeped out from seeing the accident scene remnants, and then we passed the humongous smelly cow farm, and it was all very unpleasant and stressful. Anyway, we totally missed our soundcheck and the club was already open by the time we got there and started loading in, but luckily we had a little while to chill there and hang out with our friends before we went on. The show itself had a really rough start, the lack of soundcheck really bit us in the ass, and the first 3 or 4 songs were all feedback-y and painful. Once that was all sorted out, things started to be a bit more fun, and by the end of the set, we had recovered OK. But it is sorta sad we didn't get to have a solidly ass-kicking show in LA. Guess that means we'll just have to try again soon.

So much man.

Then we talked to folks for a long time, and said our goodbyes to the Duke, who was heading back to Boston the next morning.