The journey, bringing us from Danville through long, desolate roads in the suburbs to the joint, was unforgettable by itself. Eli drove the 7-seater around, showing us ranches of horses, cows, even the rare llamas (camels with sheep wool on them!). There were some detours, detailing interesting places where Gary biked past. I never seemed to get tired of the hills and greenery... haha.
And finally, destination: Go-Kart. What do I remember?
The shuddering murmur of the engine. The burning smell of diesel and tires. Your vision, encased in aluminium, shrouded through a visor. A continuous landscape of scarred tracks and black walls, interrupted by spinning monsters that crashed you. Or you crashed them.
It was my first time go-karting. Very, very fun :) I did alot of reckless drifting and banging into the walls, and the jarring impact really goes down to the bone! Haha, good stuff. GS was a complete fail, and wound up doing 5 circuit runs less than us. Which means everyone lapped him umpteen times... you can see the scores below.
The rest of the day was spent with GS and Toby, exploring more of the towns around San Francisco... I just enjoy being with these guys so much! Really appreciate how they've been perfect hosts this whole time, bringing me around and catering to my every need. Owe a big, big thank you to them :)
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The beautiful weather continued.
Gary, needing to get out of the office for the day (he says he's prone to causing destruction while he's in the office haha), took me and his son Max out for a roadtrip. Well... except usually I associate "roadtrip" with a tough four-wheel SUV, or a sedan with peeps screaming out of the windows.
So would you call riding in a BMW M5 a roadtrip?
Oh well. You get what you get :p
We went cruising to the coast near Cliff House and the Sutro Bath ruins. A really unique attraction, accompanied by a rocky shoreline and crashing waves. We didn't explore every nook and cranny, but it was exciting just the same :)
The Bath used to look like this!
Next stop: the Marin Headlands across the world-renowned Golden Gate Bridge.
We rode way up to the top, where breathtaking scenery of San Francisco and the Golden Gate bridge lay before us. The ruins of an old coastal fortress emerged out of the hills for us to explore too.
Close by, as we traversed the coastline, we found the Point Bonita lighthouse and Bird Island (without birds, they'd flown for the winter).
Nearby was beautiful seaside town Sausalito, and Point Reyes... Gary left it for us to explore next time!
We stopped for lunch at Mill Valley, a small but quaint town with an European feel to it. I kinda liked its architecture...somewhat Victorian, like old british cottage-ish. Tried my first burger in the U.S, a gigantic beef burger topped with an overly generous serving of Blue Cheese! It was really, really strong... i knew i should have gotten cheddar :p
We were sleepy after a long day of sightseeing and exploration... but we just couldn't miss out on the Muir Woods, a sacred grove of giant redwood sequoia trees, so we wound through the hills further, into the nature reserve. It bore great historical importance, being co-founded by President Roosevelt (that "Teddy" Roosevelt) and patronized by the U.N. committee. Deeply humbling to hear of the lives of the great pioneers that cared, like the naturalist John Muir, whom the woods was named after. These people fight for the things that are bigger than us, and themselves. Things larger than human society. We have the fortune today to look at what they had the foresight to see, envision and build.
At the same time, i don't think you have to be fighting for something more impactful on the world to qualify for greatness. Everyone can achieve greatness by doing the things they do. As Leo Tolstoy extolled in "War and Peace", we all make history, each and everyone of us; peasant to peasant, royalty to royalty. We all have our own paths in life. And i think it is so wrong to think that you're doing something more important than others, that you deserve more respect for doing so, that your time is worth more than others. Because anything we're doing can be so inconsequential in the course of history, yet so cardinal to the life of someone!
It was delightful talking to Gary too, learning from his experiences, understanding the american lifestyle and the values he held dear (and already tried to impart to young Max, haha). And about how financial trading is a trade, not a career, and how it makes a difference. In particular, i could relate to the fact that there is really so much more than the career landscape in SG that students like me can see from the tiny, tiny well that is SG. I'm tired of people gushing about, say, a banking or consulting job, about the "prestige" or the "high pay", when there is the world out there. Yes, the world. Shouldn't you WANT to see the world before making your choices? Or do you think you already know "enough"?
Call me stupid then. Because I'm still trying to know what i do not know. And slowly but steadily, i'm finding out :)
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First week, midweek.
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