WoW has been successfully installed and I log in. My girlfriend's monitor is smaller than mine at home so things are kind of squished and I'm unfamiliar with her keyboard. I'll make it work. My husband is zipping up my addons and configuration files to post so I can have things ready for raiding on Sunday. Oh wait, it's a holiday; raiding is canceled for that night. I'm not complaining and do my daily dungeon and frost boss on my paladin since she is still very much in need of the badges.
I've started working on my out-of-town excursions and looking into local hostels since hotels are atrociously expensive here. So far it looks like Monterey will be an overnight trip with a visit to the aquarium, some whale watching, and enjoying the History Walk while Santa Cruz will be a day trip with Boardwalk exploration and viewing a roller derby game. I haven't started making plans for San Francisco or Los Angeles at this point; I may not make it that far depending on time and funds.
It's around 2p before I head into downtown again. My plans for the day are two-fold: find a Fry's so I can purchase a cheap digital camera and find an In-and-Out Burger for dinner. I'm not sure my stomach will last quite so long and I stop in at Johnny Rockets near the light-rail station. It would appear they are a chain but I've never heard of them.
I take the light rail down to Campbell and visit Fry's Electronics, picking up a camera, bag, and 4GB card for $125 after tax. It's a dent in my credit card but I want to have pictures. There are a few In-and-Out Burger places in the area but none are easily accessible by transit. I decide on the one at Eastside Transit Center since it'll take about as long and require less walking based on maps.
I've determined that outside of Downtown, San Jose is not pedestrian friendly. I make it to Eastside easily enough; the accordion buses that run routes 22 and 522 are pretty fascinating. However, there's no easy way to cross the highway that separates the transit center from the shopping center where In-and-Out Burger resides. I can see it, just over there, teasing me with its glorious burgers and fries. I begin my walk toward a cross street where I hope to find pedestrian signals. The way is a mess with no actual sidewalks and a choice of dodging traffic or twisting ankles in sinkholes; do they have a gopher problem in San Jose? Regardless, as I begin to near a side street, my hope wanes as I can not see any pedestrian signals. I'm not about to play Frogger across a busy highway and return to the transit center for a bus back downtown. My stomach is growling and I'm missing Portland's numerous sidewalks.
I hop off the bus at First and Santa Clara and notice a small pizza shop across the way, "Extreme Pizza". Reviews on Urbanspoon are reasonable at 90% with 11 votes, so I stop in. They remind me of Pizza Schmizza except more dark and with a far more normal decorum. There's no alligator sausage on the menu but they have the same smart-arse humor. I order a pizza and sit down to watch the local San Jose soccer team while it's being made. Downtown itself is extremely quiet for a Saturday night and I head home, pizza in tow, to watch the Karate Kid via Netflix.
Reviews
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Johnny RocketsAmerican
$$
Nothing spectacular here. I ordered a root beer with light ice and a shot of Vanilla; could barely taste the flavouring unlike The Roxy back in Portland. Since I wasn't terribly hungry, I only ordered their Mini Chili-Cheese Dogs which were tasty enough but it's pretty hard to screw up a hot dog and they were not quite worth the price paid. The decoum was amusing and I expected a gaggle of school kids in poodle skirts to come flying out of the back doors at any moment. Service was decent but pushy on the sales; no, I don't want fries any more now than I did when you asked me 10 minutes ago. I think I'll stick with Sonic.
Extreme PizzaPizza
$$
As I was absent-mindedly munching away while watching The Karate Kid, I realized that the pizza I was eating was actually quite good. Worth the price? That's a little hard to say. For what I paid for my little Indee pizza, I could have gotten a large from Pizza Hut or Papa Johns. I happen to like evil, corporate pizza, thank you very much. I would have liked it more if they had slices instead; it probably would have been cheaper as well. They were showing local sports and appear to be the sponsors for a local fraternity; I think I prefer Pizza Schmizza more, if for no other reason than their decor gives you something to look at while waiting for your food. Maybe their subs are more reasonable, but I think the price is a bit much for their pizza and $2 for bottled water is enough to make me consider someplace else in the future.
Ack! We could have told you about Johnny Rockets. We have never had a good experience about that place. We've gone once or twice when neither of us could think of anywhere we wanted to eat and were disappointed each time. We have a joke now whenever we can't agree on a place to eat that we could compromise and go to Johnny Rockets becaue that way neither of us would be happy.
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