November 1998 – I accompanied my father, grandfather, and uncle to a relative’s ranch in Laytonville, California, a three-hour drive North of San Francisco. We spent a week in a cabin, hunting (well, not me) and enjoying nature. It was gorgeous.

August 30th, 2007 - GTC Dramatic Dialogues performs at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California, for the first time. Again, we flew into San Francisco and drove from there to our destination. Rohnert Park is about an hour North of San Francisco, between S.F. and Laytonville. It was surreal to retrace steps taken almost nine years ago, particularly since my reason for being there was completely unrelated.

Riding in the back seat of our rented Honda Civic, I texted my friend Joey, who currently lives in California. “I’m now in the same time zone as you!” We were in San Francisco, but he lives in L.A., so we weren’t close enough to meet up in person. He texted back, asking if I was doing a show in California, which I confirmed. I also told him, “We went back in time two hours so we could have breakfast again.” I never got tired of treating our time zone change as actual time travel. This is how I amuse myself.

It was still mid-morning in San Francisco when we arrived, and our show wouldn’t begin until 8:00 PM, so we had most of the day to enjoy ourselves. We decided to spend the majority of the day in San Francisco. We stopped at a Starbucks on Irving & 19th and plotted our course. We did the tourist thing and headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf to walk around and get lunch before going to Rohnert Park. Driving around the city, we admired the houses and speculated about how many millions of dollars they each cost.

Wandering aimlessly, we came upon the S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien, a Liberty Ship which carried supplies at D-Day. Today, it’s not only a museum, but still actually functions. We climbed all over the ship, inside and out, enjoying spectacular views of the city and the bay. Pelicans soared past the ship, cruising the bay for food, flapping their wings in unison. We explored the inside of the ship, poking our heads into crew quarters (currently in use) and eventually the engine room, which was crazy neat. The engine room was a few stories of pipes and catwalks and levers and ladders — it was dizzying. When it was time to go, we passed through the gift shop briefly, and surrounded by Rosie the Riveter merchandise, InAir toy planes, and an enormous diorama of the invasion of Normandy, I got serious D-Day Museum flashbacks.

Being in San Francisco, we had the opportunity to get really good, fresh seafood, which you just can’t find in Minnesota. Pretty much choosing a seafood restaurant at random, we ate at Alioto’s, where I had excellent (if expensive) Shrimp Creole.

The path to Rohnert Park took us over the Golden Gate Bridge, which, of course, was spectacular. We drove with the windows down, and I craned my neck in every direction, trying to see everything at once. The landscape was gorgeous, and I was in awe of how three-dimensional it was, being from the very-flat Louisiana and living in the pretty-flat Twin Cities. The hills were steep, and the land would look almost vertical, with houses tucked among the trees, above and below one another. Unfortunately, I decided against borrowing my girlfriend’s digital camera for the trip, which I deeply regretted. Whenever we were presented with a gorgeous view, Jen (another GTC actor) would say, “Take a picture, Clarence!” It was sad.

We checked into the Rohnert Park Best Western and hit up the nearest Safeway for some beer to enjoy post-show (Michael was once again our moderator on this trip, so beer was a necessity). Ah, being able to buy liquor in the grocery store. I remember that. And hey, it’s California, so they had beers from Alaskan Brewing Company! I got a six-pack of Alaskan Amber, which I hadn’t had since Skagway (two years ago!), and split it with the others that night.The show went well, and we had a good time. Hopefully, the school will ask us back next year. On the way back to the airport the next morning, fog was rolling in, cascading over the hills and enshrouding the Golden Gate Bridge, making the members of the bridge look like they extended upward into nothing. While we didn’t get the same sprawling vistas that we had the day before, the fog was another kind of gorgeous.

If they book us next year, I’m definitely asking Michael to assign me the show again.