My SF trip
I wasn't in the mood to actually write up my trip recently, but yeah, I had a good time visiting San Francisco with my sister. ^___^ Here I'll tell you the details and include a few pics.
I was sent to California for work purposes, as you probably know; I attended an administrative summit. The meeting was essentially exactly what I'd expected; however, getting to see the corporate office--a.k.a. the "Mother Ship"--was pretty neato. They've got a little kitchen with yummies and coffees, and lots and lots of offices and cubicles. Seems giant compared to our little five-person office in Tampa, and they even have a fountain in the main area.
After my hotel stay the night before, by chance I ran into two other admin girls who were staying at the same hotel, and we walked to the office together and also went out for coffee. It was pretty cool; I'd already had coffee in the hotel room though, so I decided to get an iced soy latte. Yay. We went to a board room and just sort of . . . covered a bunch of administrative topics. There's not much to tell because it's pretty work-specific and it wouldn't be interesting to most of you. It was nice getting to meet people whose voices I've heard on the telephone for years. I sat next to Janet, with whom I've e-mailed about stuff outside of work as well. We ordered in for lunch, and I got the most awesome cheese sandwich with minestrone soup and I was dipping it in the soup. Mmmmm.
After the meeting ended, I hopped on the BART train and headed for San Francisco. I met my sister on the platform and we took a bus to her neighborhood. Huzzah!
So I got to see P's place, and see her husband Yusuke again (distance has separated us for most of the time we've been acquainted, so I actually don't know my brother-in-law very well). They have a very cute little housey and it was very comfortable despite being kinda cold. (You know me, the big Florida wuss.) They had another guest at the time due to unforeseen circumstances; they were putting up the wife of a friend who had a TWENTY-HOUR LAYOVER, so she was there too for the first night I visited. And OMG we had the BEST dinner. Yusuke went out and got a couple avocados, some tempeh, and some other yummy stuff, and we made tempeh sandwiches.
Sister P sliced the tempeh and made a marinade for it, and let it soak for a while before grilling it or whatever, and then we put it on sammiches with cheese and avocado, and it was just OMG SOOOOOOO GOOD, I can't believe what a good sandwich it was. I had been expecting to like it, but it was just so perfect. I want to try to make it myself but I would probably get it wrong. ^__^ Sorry, no pictures of the food.
The next day we had a little adventure. We ate breakfast at a local place (where Yusuke was kind enough to switch breakfasts with me when it turned out they'd put cinnamon on my French toast), and then they showed me their neighborhood, which is near the ocean. Eeeeee!
Me and sister P! Click for bigger.
They live in a really interesting area where the hills are huge and the colors are much different from Florida. This was not the first time I'd been to the area, but the last time was almost a decade ago. Here are some pictures I took of the scenery:
While walking around the neighborhood, we went to some "ruins"--there used to be a spa or something down by the water, and now only the crumbling architecture remains. You can peer down into what it used to be.
There was also a building labeled "Giant Camera." Yusuke and my sister did not know what it was exactly because every time they pass it it is closed, but when I was with them, lo and behold, it was OPEN! So we paid the tiny fee and went inside, and it turned out to be a giant camera obscura. (That Wikipedia link actually pictures the one we went to, and explains how they work.) But basically, it's a sort of mirror-based giant camera that let us see a rotating view of the ocean and the surrounding area projected on a wooden bowl-shaped "screen" that you look down into. It must have been totally awesome in the seventeenth century (when these were first made, I think) to see an image projected somewhere else, even though in today's world we're used to digital images being thrown around every which way on any surface.
You can't see the image very well, but it was pretty dark inside and it's a hard phenomenon to photograph.
After sightseeing in the neighborhood, we hopped on a bus and went around to cool shops and stuff. We stopped for a snack in a coffee shop, and we didn't get back to the neighborhood until way after the restaurant we wanted to eat at was closed. :( We ended up ordering in Chinese food and sitting around watching videos together on YouTube. And that was about it! I had to catch my shuttle fairly early in the morning, and had a decent trip back except that my ears were still giving me trouble. Some lady next to me on the plane told me if I took a nasal decongestant it might help me get rid of my ear congestion quicker. :)
Oh yeah, and speaking of the airplanes . . . EVERY flight I took, all four planes, were full cabins. So, being rather low down in Group B boarding, I was usually looking for a seat when the plane was already pretty packed. What's hilarious is that a lot of people situate themselves hoping to avoid having a full row, so most of the empty seats were the middle seats by the time I got on. When the attendants were announcing that "Yes we have a FULL flight" and people were starting to look dismayed that they were all going to lose their buffer seats, they always looked DELIGHTED when I asked to sit with them. (And a couple of them even commented on it: "All right, we got the PERFECT person to sit between us!" Being small = win.)
The end!
I was sent to California for work purposes, as you probably know; I attended an administrative summit. The meeting was essentially exactly what I'd expected; however, getting to see the corporate office--a.k.a. the "Mother Ship"--was pretty neato. They've got a little kitchen with yummies and coffees, and lots and lots of offices and cubicles. Seems giant compared to our little five-person office in Tampa, and they even have a fountain in the main area.
After my hotel stay the night before, by chance I ran into two other admin girls who were staying at the same hotel, and we walked to the office together and also went out for coffee. It was pretty cool; I'd already had coffee in the hotel room though, so I decided to get an iced soy latte. Yay. We went to a board room and just sort of . . . covered a bunch of administrative topics. There's not much to tell because it's pretty work-specific and it wouldn't be interesting to most of you. It was nice getting to meet people whose voices I've heard on the telephone for years. I sat next to Janet, with whom I've e-mailed about stuff outside of work as well. We ordered in for lunch, and I got the most awesome cheese sandwich with minestrone soup and I was dipping it in the soup. Mmmmm.
After the meeting ended, I hopped on the BART train and headed for San Francisco. I met my sister on the platform and we took a bus to her neighborhood. Huzzah!
So I got to see P's place, and see her husband Yusuke again (distance has separated us for most of the time we've been acquainted, so I actually don't know my brother-in-law very well). They have a very cute little housey and it was very comfortable despite being kinda cold. (You know me, the big Florida wuss.) They had another guest at the time due to unforeseen circumstances; they were putting up the wife of a friend who had a TWENTY-HOUR LAYOVER, so she was there too for the first night I visited. And OMG we had the BEST dinner. Yusuke went out and got a couple avocados, some tempeh, and some other yummy stuff, and we made tempeh sandwiches.
Sister P sliced the tempeh and made a marinade for it, and let it soak for a while before grilling it or whatever, and then we put it on sammiches with cheese and avocado, and it was just OMG SOOOOOOO GOOD, I can't believe what a good sandwich it was. I had been expecting to like it, but it was just so perfect. I want to try to make it myself but I would probably get it wrong. ^__^ Sorry, no pictures of the food.
The next day we had a little adventure. We ate breakfast at a local place (where Yusuke was kind enough to switch breakfasts with me when it turned out they'd put cinnamon on my French toast), and then they showed me their neighborhood, which is near the ocean. Eeeeee!
Me and sister P! Click for bigger.
They live in a really interesting area where the hills are huge and the colors are much different from Florida. This was not the first time I'd been to the area, but the last time was almost a decade ago. Here are some pictures I took of the scenery:
While walking around the neighborhood, we went to some "ruins"--there used to be a spa or something down by the water, and now only the crumbling architecture remains. You can peer down into what it used to be.
There was also a building labeled "Giant Camera." Yusuke and my sister did not know what it was exactly because every time they pass it it is closed, but when I was with them, lo and behold, it was OPEN! So we paid the tiny fee and went inside, and it turned out to be a giant camera obscura. (That Wikipedia link actually pictures the one we went to, and explains how they work.) But basically, it's a sort of mirror-based giant camera that let us see a rotating view of the ocean and the surrounding area projected on a wooden bowl-shaped "screen" that you look down into. It must have been totally awesome in the seventeenth century (when these were first made, I think) to see an image projected somewhere else, even though in today's world we're used to digital images being thrown around every which way on any surface.
You can't see the image very well, but it was pretty dark inside and it's a hard phenomenon to photograph.
After sightseeing in the neighborhood, we hopped on a bus and went around to cool shops and stuff. We stopped for a snack in a coffee shop, and we didn't get back to the neighborhood until way after the restaurant we wanted to eat at was closed. :( We ended up ordering in Chinese food and sitting around watching videos together on YouTube. And that was about it! I had to catch my shuttle fairly early in the morning, and had a decent trip back except that my ears were still giving me trouble. Some lady next to me on the plane told me if I took a nasal decongestant it might help me get rid of my ear congestion quicker. :)
Oh yeah, and speaking of the airplanes . . . EVERY flight I took, all four planes, were full cabins. So, being rather low down in Group B boarding, I was usually looking for a seat when the plane was already pretty packed. What's hilarious is that a lot of people situate themselves hoping to avoid having a full row, so most of the empty seats were the middle seats by the time I got on. When the attendants were announcing that "Yes we have a FULL flight" and people were starting to look dismayed that they were all going to lose their buffer seats, they always looked DELIGHTED when I asked to sit with them. (And a couple of them even commented on it: "All right, we got the PERFECT person to sit between us!" Being small = win.)
The end!