Travel: San Francisco

On the 20th we took a short 2 hour flight to San Francisco. George has already written a little about it and although I have a lot to say I'll try to keep this entry short(ish).

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf and this was very convenient to most of the tourist attractions we wanted to see. We booked a cheaper rate using Hotwire, which meant we weren't sure which hotel we'd stay in, but it turned out great for us.

Bike Tour (#1)
For me the best thing about the trip was definitely the bike tour. We hired two bikes from a place around the corner for $50 for both for the day (24 hours) including the bike, helmuts (though we had to ask), a bike pump, map holders and locks. We didn't actually keep the bikes for 24 hours, but we did spend about 8 hours riding about.

a) George about to start out. b) Heading towards Golden Gate Bridge (in the background) c) George gets a little nervous as we prepare to cross the bridge

They provided us with some detailed maps of trails and bike-friendly roads and we set off from Fisherman's Wharf over Golden Gate bridge. There were a lot of cyclists, runners and walkers on the track. Gee there are a lot of fit people in San Fran!

On the Sausalito side of the bridge. We made it.

Once we made it over the bridge we continued on to Sausalito, which is a nice little town in a hilly coastal area. We passed a trio of Brits on the way and had lunch there and then headed back up some fairly hefty hills to the other side again.

George at Ocean Beach. That's a lot of sand.

Then we continued along the coast to Ocean Beach again covering some pretty hilly terrain. After a brief stop we continued through Golden Gate Park, which is a massive park which even includes a golf course. Take a look at the Wikipedia page because it shows how much the area is in need of a park. Without the forethought of some city planners the whole area would have been consumed by urban sprawl.

Windmill in Golden Gate Park.

Having negotiated the coastline, we headed into the city again taking on some pretty hefty hills in search of painted ladies. In case you're wondering, George was keen to see this set of houses (yes houses) near Alamo square. Here's a pic mainly for George.

Painted Ladies of Alamo Square.

By this time it was getting late so we carefully avoided as many hills as we could and took our bikes back, feeling exhausted but happy. I can highly recommend this way of seeing the city especially since it really is very bike friendly there.

Chocolate
What better way to make up for a day of excessive exercise than to indulge in some good wholesome junk food? So that is what we did, heading to the famous Ghiradelli Square, which is known for its chocolate. Unfortunately it was raining by this time and the square was undergoing renovations, but we persevered and got massive icecreams.

Mmm chocolate. Just the thing for tired legs. Yes, it really is that big.

Pier 39
Pier 39 is a wharf that has been transformed into a tourist attraction, complete with many souvenir shops and plenty of places claiming to sell the best clam chowder. It is worth a visit, but probably once is enough.

Pier 39 - Tourists Galore, but worth a visit.

Bay Cruise
We took a boat cruise out under the Golden Gate bridge, which gave me another chance to add to my gazillion pictures that I've got of the bridge. The tour also went around Alcatraz and then back in. One hour cost $10 each, which I thought was decent.

On the Bay Cruise we saw a few people sailing around. Lucky folks.

Cable Cars
This is another thing you just have to do, but honestly once was enough for me. It was pretty fun going up and down some scarily steep streets with a guy continuously pulling and pushing levers to keep the cart in control, but I had enough after 15 minutes or so. It was $5 for a one way trip.

You Have to Ride a Cable Car in San Francisco.

We went past the world's crookedest street (Lombard St). See George's blog for a photo, but it did look painful for the owners of the houses. Still, the multi-million dollar house values would surely cheer them up.

Coffee and Candy
All that sight-seeing made us hungry and thirsty so we had to have a coffee in Little Italy and check out another candy store.

'Kid In A Candy Store' sums this up. Talk about captivated.

Wow, San Francisco with a Grande Coffee. What a trip.

The only slightly disappointing part of the trip was the visit to China Town, which was nowhere near as bustling and exciting as in Sydney. All up definitely a great place to visit. Hopefully we'll get back again.

Canberra vs Seattle

No, it's not what you think. This isn't going to be me convincing all the Aussies back home to pack up their bags and come over here to live (although you should definitely come visit)! No, this is just a post about how things were and how they are now.

I should also say that I'm not actually in Seattle itself, but I'm close enough so it'll do.

Weather
Canberra: It is basically sunny all year around. It gets a little cold in winter. The variance in temperature is higher than in Seattle.

Seattle: It rains a lot in Seattle, but its not as bad as you might think. There isn't torrential rain all that often and because it is often overcast you can do a lot of things outdoors. The summers are supposed to be beautiful here, since it typically doesn't get quite as hot as in Canberra and it doesn't rain that much at all.


Work
Canberra: I worked in Seeing Machines as a Senior Software Engineer. The job was great, people were awesome and I worked on some fun products. I was about 2 levels below the CEO in a company of about 30.

Seattle: I work for Microsoft as a Software Development Engineer. I'm now more than 10 levels below the CEO in a company of tens of thousands. The job is fun and there are people to do some of the work I would prefer not to have to do myself. I work on Visual Studio which is used by millions of people.


Commute
Canberra: It is often said that you can get anywhere in Canberra in under 20 minutes and that was pretty much true. I spent ~ 10 minutes getting to work and barely faced much in the way of traffic. Public transport back home isn't great, with service by buses only and often on an hourly schedule.

Seattle: Traffic here is much crazier than back home. There are only 4 major freeways (2 north-south and 2 east-west) and they get packed. It can take me upwards of 40 minutes to get to work. Public transport seems similar to back home. There seems to be a bigger cycling community here than in Canberra and there is more tension between motorists and cyclists.


Housing
Canberra: I lived in a 2 bedroom townhouse. It was small but easy to look after and very convenient. There are tax breaks for investors which encourages people to buy investment houses.

Seattle: I live in a 3 bedroom condominium that is basically like an apartment back home, but typically here apartments are developed specifically for renting (using cheaper materials etc) whereas condominiums are for owner occupiers and are supposedly better built. There are tax breaks for home owners which encourages homes to be purchased rather than rented.


Radio
Canberra: I would listen to FM104.7 and Triple J back home, with the former being a commercial station and the latter being government backed. If you're not from Canberra, you can listen to both stations via the net so take a listen.

Seattle: Primarily I listen to C89.5 which is a dance station run by highschoolers (really) commercial free. For commercial radio I listen to Kiss 106.1 which is decent aside from its morning show which discusses Britney Spears, Anna-Nicole and other celebs. Again they're broadcasting via the web so take a listen.


Sport
Canberra: Cricket, soccer and rugby are all very popular back home. Indoor soccer is pretty popular about town, playing on basketball-style wooden floors.

Seattle: Here it is all about basketball, baseball and football (American of course). Basketball seems to have the biggest TV audience. Indoor soccer is played here, but only on synthetic surfaces. Outdoor soccer is much more popular (and more than I thought it would be).


Power
Canberra: Its 240 V, 50 Hz power back home.

Seattle: Here we have 110 V, 60 Hz power. Many portable appliances like laptops and mobile phone chargers will work just fine (check the label), but others won't. Things that worked - laptop, mobile phone chargers, camera charger, small stereo (thanks Pete!), LCD Computer monitor, DVD player. Of course you need an adapter to make the physical connections fit. It is a good idea to take an Aussie power board and use a single adapter instead of using multiple adapters for each item.
Things that didn't - TV - it also may not work because they use NTSC here instead of PAL, desktop computer (although many desktops have switchable power supplies - just be sure to switch back to 240 V when you come back to Aus or it will go up in smoke).


Television/DVDs, etc.
Canberra: We use PAL format for TV signal. We are in region 4 for DVDs. We use DVB for digital television.

Seattle: Uses NTSC format for TV signal. In region 1 for DVDs (which are also recorded as NTSC). Uses ATSC for television broadcast. All in all, it would have been better not to bother bringing the TV!


Internet:
Canberra: ADSL is common and so is ADSL2. Wireless broadband is possible as well. Plans typically include download limits and throttling.

Seattle: Cable is very common here. It is treated basically like any other service (electricity/water) so you choose to get it connected and that's it. There aren't download limits and my cable is running at about 8 Mbps which is much faster than my ADSL at home.


That's a few of the things I can think of for now.

Australia: ANZAC Day

By now many folks back home will have fired up their BBQs and cracked open a cold one to commemorate ANZAC Day, which is celebrated on 25th April with a public holiday. For some it is just another public holiday and for others it is a sombre occasion that starts with a dawn service, follows with marching through the streets and maybe includes a couple of games of two-up.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Seattle: O. O. Denny Park

O. O. Denny Park is named after Orion Denny who was the son of a Seattle settler. It is located in Kirkland and is pretty easy to miss unless you know where you're going. There is a small carpark which leads to a beach on Lake Washington and there is another carpark which is for the trail and it is pretty easy to drive past thinking you haven't made it there yet.

Here George is standing next to the park sign which comes with the usual long list of rules for the park. In case you miss the rules there are even more listed on the web site from the first paragraph.

The walk itself is on a trail which follows a creek for a short time. The creek has been restored by volunteers with a 'Salmon Ladder' which is a gradual change in river height that allows salmon to jump upstream. There is also a short section that you can follow into a ravine which includes some fairly intense undergrowth and the occasional weird sight like the mushrooms below.

Mushrooms in the forest

This walk is more secluded than some of the others and is a bit quieter, even though it is easy to follow a side trail and end up back on a road somewhere. The best bit of the walk for me was the lush greenery which you can see below. I'm not sure how long the trail was because we took a few side journeys but I suspect it was about 2 miles or so.

Lush green forest

Seattle: Green Lake Park

George at Green Lake Park

Green Lake Park is one of the more famous Seattle Parks and it is much busier than Seward Park. It is located just north of downtown but it is still surrounded by the urban sprawl of Seattle. It is because of this that hundreds of people flock to the park to walk, jog, walk their dog, cycle, push their strollers, canoe or kayak (for $12/hour) or even to do some fishing (with pretty minimal effort though.

Lazy fishing - they don't even hold the rod!

I think as the weather gets even warmer there will be people swimming in the lake, out to pontoons like the one below. We were at the lake on Easter Sunday on a sunny day and to us it looked very busy but according to a friendly Subway server we talked to, on a normal Sunday it would have been much busier.

A pontoon for swimming

The main track is a loop of 2.8 miles which can be taken in either direction by pedestrians but must be navigated counter-clockwise by anyone on wheels. Despite this attempt to separate traffic we still saw a collision between two cyclists.

The area had the feel of a mini Lake Burley Griffin (for Canberra folks), although much busier and since it is so close to the surrounding suburbs, with more traffic noise. Despite this, the stroll was very pleasant with many big trees.

George with a monster Douglas Fir Tree

We were also able to see a surprising amount of wildlife. The park is renowned for its varieties of birds and we saw several types but we also saw some tortoises as well.

Three little tortoises showing off for the crowds

Not to be outdone, a duck managed to look very much like it was casually standing on top of the water. Closer inspection showed that it was cleverly perched on a submerged rock. Note that the show-off duck is the brightly colored male who is being circled by his unimpressed female partner.

Duck walking on water?

On the other side of the lake the highlight is the onset of spring and the flowering trees. It was fun walking through/under all the flowering trees. Here are a few examples:

Flowering trees

And here's a few more.

Flowering trees take 2

Take a look at a 360 degree panorama here.

George: Tully's Coffee

This is why George likes Tully's Coffee so much:

George at Tully's

The checklist:

• Comfy couch-style chair to sit on
• Place to put your coffee
• Warm fireplace
• Clean, bright environment
• Nice coffee
• Free Wi-Fi
• Friendly service
• A 'sit as long as you want' vibe. Nobody hurries you to buy another coffee or get out

Tully's are going public soon and it causes me to ask, should you invest in a company because you like the way they do business? The answer is that you should factor that in if you think other people feel the same way but consider other factors as well. For me the little differences listed above (like free Wi-Fi) steer me towards Tully's instead of Starbucks and this is despite the 21 year advantage that Starbucks has had to get things right. Starbucks started in 1971 while Tully's only started in 1992.

Then again, Starbucks stocks have gone down 11% this year, so it would be important to look very hard at the numbers before investing. This report is pretty negative about Tully's future (they lost $2.7 million in the last quarter of 2006), so maybe nice guys do finish last.

Seattle: Seward Park

I bought a book a little while ago called "Nature in the City: Seattle" and now that the weather is fining up and I'm still not allowed to do any strenuous exercise I've decided to check out a few of the sites mentioned in the book. The first is Seward Park which is located just on the edge of Lake Washington.

Map of Seward Park

The map above is shown in more detail here, where you can see that the park is a peninsula jutting out on the western edge of Lake Washington. Apparently the peninsula has been around for about 1100 years and was formed when an earthquake pushed the ground upwards about 170 feet. The walking trail which is shown in gold on the map above is a loop of 2.4 miles that follows along the edge and avoids the quite steep terrain.

Canoe paddling with I-90 bridge in the distance

The trail is actually a road that has been blocked off to allow walkers and cyclists to amble along at their leisure. There were quite a few walkers, joggers, cyclists and even a couple of people jogging with a soccer ball, but it wasn't too crowded. This is probably not the case in summer, since there is a beach (of sorts) for swimming were we even saw a couple of crazy kids swimming.

One of the beaches with rocks (no sand)

There is also a jetty and boatshed which I'm sure are well-used over the warmer months.

The jetty in Andrew's Bay

The park is pretty secluded so there isn't too much traffic noise despite it being not all that far from the city center. There are lush, tall green trees, plenty of bird life and a few patches of poison oak that are carefully signposted.

Here's a couple of nature pics from the park:

Leaf with water droplets. It does rain a bit in Seattle

Flowers - spring is working its magic

UPDATE: I went back in summer and wow, what a difference in the scenery and the number of people.

Movie: Reign Over Me

Adam Sandler is Charlie Finemore, a dentist who lost his whole family when the 9-11 plane crashes occur. To cope with his grief he has given up dentistry and taken on a reclusive lifestyle. Alan Johnson (Don Cheadle) is another dentist who is Sandler's old college roommate.

Johnson runs into Charlie one day and tries to work out what happened to Charlie's life (and of course to fix it). There is a very college-like feel to Charlie's apartment. He plays video games where he battles against the Colossus on a projector in his living room. His kitchen is continually being renovated and there are a couple of rooms that are just covered with sheets.

The movie is set in New York but it manages to show how Charlie is living almost in a parallel universe. Where Alan is meeting people and bustling in traffic, Charlie is zooming through the empty New York streets on a scooter at odd times of the morning. Many scenes show Charlie basically alone or with Alan in some deserted part of New York, either because of the time or the peculiar location.

There are a few other characters that add a little substance to the movie including Alan's wife (played by Jada Pinkett-Smith) who fears that Alan is becoming distant and there are the parents of Charlie's deceased wife who he is trying not to remember about.

Reign Over Me is a decent movie and it really made we want to zoom around New York on a scooter, but I didn't really like the way things ended with attempts to tie up loose ends too neatly.

Overall: 7/10