What a beautiful day! We drove the 420 miles to Davis in just under 7 hours. We arrived at Garrett's just after 3pm. He's a great friend of ours that we met in Edinburgh -- he was a fellow EAPer from UC Santa Cruz. He welcomed us right into his home, where his mom was also waiting with open arms. Welcome to Davis!
We discovered that Garrett had just gotten off work (he's a cook at a pub in Sacramento) and he was starving. He said he wanted to take us "downtown" to show us around and to grab a snack before dinner.
To me, a kid from LA County, "downtown" has always meant Los Angeles. So when Garrett said "downtown," I thought he meant the nearest big city, which is Sacramento about 20 miles away. I thought, "Hmm, we've been in a car for 7 hours, but sure, Sacramento sounds awesome!"
But no, Garrett actually meant downtown Davis, which was about a 5 minute drive from his house. Garrett's house is really nice -- it's situated at the end of a very leafy cul-de-sac flush with walking trails and bike paths. He says he thinks his house must be 60 years old or so and that it is the only home he's ever known.
After a quick drive we found ourselves in downtown Davis, to which we took an immediate liking to. I guess it really helped that it was a lazy Sunday afternoon and the weather was pretty much perfect: blue skies and sunshine. It was warm enough in the afternoon to walk about in a t-shirt and jeans.
It is evident that Davis is a college town. Everything feels extremely mellow and all the streets seem pedestrian friendly. I read in Let's Go! that Davis owns more bicycles per capita than any other American city. There are bikes everywhere.
Garrett parked the car and took us for a walk down the main drag, pointing out his favorite haunts: the bookstore, a pizza place that supposedly makes the best pizza ever (Garrett says that they roll pizza sauce into the crust!), and a bajillion Thai restaurants. We ended up grabbing a snack and a beer at a place called Crepeville. It was delicious. Even Ashlee, the crepe-aficionado, was impressed.
After eating, Garrett took us for a walk through the rest of downtown, which butts up against the sprawling campus of UC Davis. As soon as a I stepped onto the campus of UCD I thought, "Yeah, I could go here." Again it could have just been the gorgeous day influencing us or perhaps that tall pint of Anchor Steam I had just consumed.
We took a wide lap through the campus, which we found to be a giant park. On every patch of grass we found huddles of young people strumming guitars, tossing frisbees, or just enjoying the sunshine.
We headed back to Garrett's car and after a quick drive through the rest of the city, we made our way back to his house.
Garrett's parents are incredibly kind. They welcomed us right into their home. Garrett's mom said she felt like she already knew us from all the stories she has heard and pictures she has seen -- hopefully nothing incriminating, right Garrett? They treated us to an excellent dinner and wonderful conversation.
We turned in early. We were a bit burned out from the drive and we wanted to make sure we'd be ready to tackle Sacramento in the morning.
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