7 September 2004
Weekend Down South
Two fun things I did while visiting my family during the holiday weekend:
- Dinner at Noriega's, a Basque bar, restaurant, and boarding house
I usually hit one of the several local Basque restaurants when I'm in my hometown, as it's one of the few cuisines that's actually in short supply in San Francisco. California's Central Valley has a robust Basque population, because their shepherding skilz synergize well with agriculture. Here's a review by the LA Times. Former local newscaster Karl Schweitzer happened to be there, drunk and mouthy.
- The Body Worlds exhibit at the California Science Center
Dude. Real human corpses (and a few animals), impregnated with plastic and flayed in various revealing poses. My brother and I trekked down to LA for this, first meeting up with Mark and Joanne at Canter's Deli for a quick lunch. I was actually mildly disappointed that the exhibit wasn't more shocking; the plastic gave the specimens a fake-looking texture. But overall it was a fascinating anatomy lesson—strongly recommended!