I went to California. Here are some pictures.

I was sent to a conference in San Jose last week, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. [All pictures can be enlarged by clicking or opening in a new tab.]

This is the pool at our hotel, which was the probably the nicest hotel I'll ever stay at in my life. The pool was saltwater and on the roof.




Here's my delegate table, which was great. We had a lot of Table 20 Spirit! And I really loved being a delegate.



Here's a group of [mostly] Bethel folk deep in a discussion about mythology and the Bible. I had so much fun with the other young alums.


At the end of the week, we all traveled to San Francisco for some touristy things. One of those was Alcatraz, which is inhabited by many seagulls. This mama seagull was feeding its babies. Feeding them another bird. Our youth pastor said, "That was their brother."


This gelato place in Chinatown had the most interesting flavors I'd ever encountered, including ginger root, toro (the meat the comes from the belly area of a tuna), avocado (pictured here), and Budweiser beer (sign pictured here). I really wanted to sample the Budweiser, but my "tact over truth" personality took over and I decided I didn't want to get any disapproving looks from the person right behind me.


A street in Chinatown, including a branch of my bank, Bank of the West. Too bad I didn't get the whole Chinese name in the photo. Now I won't be able to find my bank when I go to China.











Picked these dudes up in Chinatown.



















Good job, TSA. This is a display at the SF airport, most likely about items prohibited on airplanes. Not that I would know for sure because the display wasn't at all labeled. Items were just haphazardly thrown in as far as I can tell. Notice the dust marks indicating more items used to be in here. Upside down brochures. And if I were going to take poison on an airplane, that's exactly the kind of container I'd put it in. One that's clearly labeled "poison."








The thing I most wish I had a picture of and would have taken a picture of had we not been en route to a public transportation connection and had I not been pushing a stroller was a sign in front of a restaurant in Chinatown that read, "Special Shat in Chicken!"