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Copyright |
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©2005 Jason Cross
All Rights Reserved
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 Monday, November 4, 2002 |
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I left for San Jose on Saturday afternoon. My plane took off at 8:30 am, but 30 minutes into the flight we received a message from the ground crew that a diagnostics panel door had been left open forcing a return. We landed for half an hour and then took off for Salt Lake City once more. The plane was only half-full letting me get an aisle to myself. Another surprise was in store once we reached SLC - we were minutes from landing on the runway when the plane took off again! The tower signaled at the last minute for us to circle once.
I got into San Jose around noon Pacific time. It struck me that the San Jose airport was small - not much bigger than the Des Moines "International" Airport. Josh, my cousin Matt's friend, picked me up so we could hang out at his apartment until Matt's flight arrived.
Saturday night we went to the Imax theater at The Tech museum to see Star Wars Episode II on Imax. The large scale was impressive, though having so much action take place so high up on a curved screen became pretty painful on the neck. I highly recommend taking a small pillow should you go see it.
On Sunday we drove to San Francisco. Along the way we stopped at Stanford to visit the beautiful campus. Tne combination of palm-lined streets and spanish-influenced architecture makes the campus quintessential California. We stopped for a bit at the Rodin Garden where I had my picture taken by the Gates of Hell sculpture.
Once in San Francisco we checked into the downtown Marriott where we had a room on the 27th floor. We dropped off our luggage, let valet park the car and walked down to Fisherman's Wharf. Downtown San Francisco is impressive - fairly clean with lots of style and stores similar to the Michigan Avenue area of Chicago. We stopped at the Trolley Car museum along the way to the wharf seeing the machinery that ran the four remaining cable cars (which work by attaching to cables that run under their tracks to go up hills). We then caught a trolley the rest of the way to the Wharf.
At Fisherman's Wharf we took a boat tour of the bay. The boat went out for an hour passing under the Golden Gate bridge and circling Alcatraz. At Pier 39 there is a large group of sea lions that apparently showed up during the 90s and have never left. After the boat tour we made the long walk back to our hotel, stopping at and walking up Lombard Street, the curviest road in America.
On Monday we went back to the shopping district where I bought some sesame sticks at Harry and David. We then watched a bit of a large political rally for Governor Davis and some other Dems. It was interesting seeing a large public rally coordinated for television with announcements telling people to make sure that all signs were double-sided for the camera to view them.
We walked through China town where I looked for a green stone dragon for my living room - a dragon brings luck according to Feng Shui. I had been looking for one for a while and had yet to find one that quite fit exactly the style I was looking for - but in Chinatown it was found! Chinatown is a funny little area with lots of little souvenir shops, Chinese restaurants, and major chains in pagoda-style buildings. We found that dozens of stores were selling little chirping metal crickets that are powered by solar energy making a warbling high-pitched noise throughout the area.
We then walked on to Rockstar Software, creators of our ISP connection software. Gregor (aka The Pizza Archangel) took us to a great little italian restaurant hidden away nearby. I've been dealing with Rockstar for a few years now so seeing the office and meeting the staff was interesting.
After walking around downtown some more, we drove a few miles to the Castro area to visit Chris, the Lockergnome and a friend who moved out here from Iowa. Chris and his wife Gretchen live in a great apartment on the second floor of a side-street that's near a wide variety of stores and restaurants. We ate dinner at a place called Squat and Gobble - a bistro-style restaurant with great food. We then got coffee at Peet's - a Pirillo must! - and then went back to Chris' to mess with his computer and just hang out a bit more.
Finally we got back to San Jose and checked into the Hyatt San Jose where I will be staying the remainder of the week. More on this place once it's light and I can get a better feel for the place.
Pictures and more to come! |
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