CA Hiking

My cousin Todd and I left the Chicago area this morning and got on a flight to Oakland to visit the SF Bay Area, visit my sister, Kelly, and take a few backpacking trips. 

We had a very early flight, around 6:30am.  While waiting for the limo, I turned on CNN and knew that we would have to deal with (what I thought was) minor sercurity issues.  The evening before a airline terror plot was uncovered in London.  I didn't realize that I would have to get rid of my toothpaste at the airport...But besides taht we did not deal with any major delays - which is lucky on our part, because as the day wore on the delays started to build...We did have a minor delay once we arrived in Oakland due to a lack of electricity...they had to be a manual baggage claim because the luggage belts were not running.

We took a few mintues to get some last needed items for our backpacking trips we were going to take.  One of the trips was to Sword Lake about a 3 hour drive east of the Bay Area.  This is an annual trip my sister and her friends do.  Every year there is a different theme.  This year was "Summer of Love - hippies."  We needed tie-dye for the trip to fit in with the them.  The shirts I saw in Madison were somewhat pricey for a one-time trip usage.  I figured I would wait until I got a chance to go to Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco...If I am going to spend good money on tie-dye, I might as well get it in Haight.