first approach in IMC

I got my IA on June 2nd. June 17th I took some friends up and I poked
through a puff of a cloud. It was IMC but only about 0.01 hours but
it counted. Well today I was flying back to the bay area from
up north. SQL was reporting scattered at 2500 and I wanted to shoot
an approach with my pilot friend as safety pilot and without ticking
off approach for the GPS into SQL or waiting forever to shoot it.
I figured I'd shoot the HWD LOC-DME 28L and then break off VFR to SQL.
Well my friend said, "hmm, we'll be flying through some clouds. cool."
He's starting his IFR training tomorrow. Well about 2600 MSL we
entered the clouds. We broke out inside the FAF about 850 MSL (800 AGL)
with an MDA of 400. No problem at all. I got 11 hours of actual during
my training and the probably 20 hours at night (good substitute) so I
I'm semi-comfortable in IMC but certainly won't push it in LIFR.

Interestingly, they usually have you maintain VFR at or below 1000 until
the shoreline. It was clear for the most part past the shoreline.
We broke off at 700 and turned to the shore. I quickly realized it
was a bad idea. I basically did a circle
to land back on 28L. Tower knew what was happening (they knew I was
goiing to SQL VFR). While on base
they arranged for an IFR clearance to SQL (route = Radar vectors).
I got RV out over the bay and cancelled IFR.

Wow. I thought only "real" pilots did this stuff. I'm not
about to start going down to minimums in the mountains, single
engine at night but for the first time I realized, "wow, no
instructor and, holy sh*t, I can really do this."

Gerald Sylvester