In-N-Out lives up to the hype; IKEA, not so much

Now that I’ve been in Sacramento for 10 days or so, I’ve become more familiar with the way things work around here and   am able to find my way around town fairly easily.  Overall, things are good: our apartment is in a decent area, although there are pockets of sketchy parts, but every city has these problems; the temperate got up to 103-105 a few days in a row, but it was tolerable; works begins tomorrow and I am excited for that. 

One thing that Katie and I notice is that proportion of tattoed people here seems to higher than back home.  Not sure why that is, and not saying it’s a good or bad thing.  I will say, however, that I’m thinking about getting a tattoo on my left shoulder blade so that I will feel like I fit in.  Any suggestions?  I’m thinking butterfly or some other insect . . . .

Before I came out, friends of mine insisted that I had to try fast-food joint In-N-Out Burger once I got settled.  I knew that I would try it but was skeptical as to how different it could be from a standard Wendy’s or McDonald’s.  Were my friends’ high praises legitimate or were they simply due to the fact that they had eaten in a far off place that didn’t exist in Ohio?

                                                                                 

                                                                               

I’m here to report that, for the most part, the compliments of this restaurant are justified.  The burgers are fresh, they taste delicious, and the kitchen appears to be very clean.  My wait was a bit long, but that’s to be expected given the crowd that was there at 12 noon and the fact that the food was prepared fresh.  I’m a big fan of the Wendy’s Double and In-N-Out’s Double-Double is right up there.  I might even have to give In-N-Out the nod in this debate due to their staff’s competence and friendliness.  The fries at In-N-Out and good, but not great.  As with the burgers, the key aspect of the fries is their freshness.

Prior to lunch, we stopped by the local IKEA to get some much needed furniture.  Apparently this place is all the rave.  The Chicago location was always packed when I drove by it, Ohioans are going crazy over the mere building of a Cincinnati location (”We got one.  Suck it Indiana.“), and my friend Stacey loves it.

Katie and I left the store empty-handed, and that’s mainly why I say that IKEA did not live up to the hype.  Among other things, on display inside the store were a dresser, a dinner table, and a desk chair, all of which suited our tastes.  It took us an hour or a little more to meander throughout the store and find what we wanted, but that time was for naught when we found out that all three items were out of stock.  While some of the items on display were indeed marked as out of stock, all indications were that the furniture we wanted were available.

In the grand scheme of things, leaving IKEA with nothing probably won’t matter much.  We’ll likely return at some point for a few items, and I really enjoyed listening background music provided in the store — it’s much more modern than anything you’ll find elsewhere.  My point here is that for my purposes IKEA is not the end-all-be-all and first time shoppers should go in expecting to find everything they wanted.

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