IT: Farecast for travel planning

Recently at work I found out that Live has a cool new Beta product called Farecast. It incorporates technology from a company that Microsoft acquired earlier this year.

Disclaimer: Since I work for Microsoft I guess I'm supposed to say this is a cool site, but I think it is anyway. Feel free to ignore my biased opinion and just give it a try for yourself. Unfortunately it is mainly covering continental US now, not the rest of the world.

Probably the thing that I am most interested in is the 'Flights' component. There you can select your home airport and one or more destinations, choose how long you want to stay and what your time window is and search for matching results. Farecast prepares a graph like the one below. The intention is to give you an idea of when the cheapest time to fly might be. The table below the graph indicates whether airfares are likely to go up or down. Unfortunately if you've been following US airline news recently you'll already know the answer to that question, but it is handy nonetheless.

It looks like it is better to leave for Chicago in earlier rather than later in June. By the way, airfares are going up.

Many of the options are configurable including the length of stay, the exact airport, etc. etc.

The hotels section could also be useful, especially since it includes an option to compare against Expedia, Priceline, Hotwire, Orbitz and hotels.com. I've used some of these discount sites before, but not all at once in the search for the best hotel rate. Hopefully this means I'll really be able to get the best bargain rate for a decent hotel.

In the picture below I'm looking for hotels in San Francisco (I should go visit N & P). Here the hotels are color-coded by whether or not they are significantly discounted from their regular rate.

Hotels in San Francisco. Hey, hotel #8 is a bargain (unfortunately it is still $161 / night though).

Salem: Train Day

A couple of weeks ago we took the train to Salem (Oregon, not to be confused with the place where the Salem Witch Trials were held). We went on the train because we had a two-for-one offer and we wanted to see how train travel was in the US. We chose to travel to Salem because it is the capital of Oregon and we wanted to see another city.

We happened to take the train on National Train Day, which just meant we were given a nice sticker. We made pretty good use of public transport that day, catching a 6:00 am bus from near our place into the city and then taking the 7:30 train to Portland, where we caught a bus to Salem, arriving by 12:45 pm or so.

Getting off the train in Portland. For Portland to Salem we caught a bus for about 45 miles.

The train station in Salem, which is between Eugene and Portland.

When we arrived in Salem we took a stroll around the city. Willamette University has a very pretty campus that was worth walking around.

Willamette University. According to a local, you have to say Willamette so that it rhymes with dammit.

A Fraternity.

Eaton Hall, retro style.

We also toured around the Capitol Building, which is where they make the laws for Oregon State. It is actually the third version of the building and was built after the other 2 burnt down.

G doing her Incredible Hulk impersonation with the ruins from a previous Capitol Building.

The Capitol Building. The golden guy at the top has a pretty impressive axe.

The city of Salem has about 150,000 people so it is pretty small but it still has plenty of things to see and shopping areas to check out.

G posing near Pringle Park.

Pringle Park.

Waiting for the 6:40 am train back to Seattle. What a quick trip.

Games: TrackMania Nations Forever

If you like PC racing games, you might be interested in a game that has recently been released for free download. TrackMania Nations Forever is similar to Stunts, which I played many years ago.

Getting some serious air. I'm playing as the Spanish car on the left.

UPDATE: Now I've improved my car:

Camping: Daroga State Park, Wenatchee

Last weekend G and I went for a trip across the cascades mountain range to what they call the dry side of the cascades. Apparently all the moisture coming from the ocean gets trapped on the other side of the mountain range, causing lots of rain in Seattle. On this side it is actually pretty dry as you'll see.

It was pretty surprising to see that there was still a lot of snow as we went through Snoqualmie Pass and the trip back through Steven's Pass was spectacular. I'll probably put some photos up a little later showing this part of the trip, but G has already posted some if you're interested.

We camped in a place east of Wenatchee called Daroga State Park (named after three guys that started an orchard here before it was sold to the state). When we arrived and we were told that the unpowered camping sites (17 available) were over on the island. To get to the island you pack your stuff into a cart and wheel it over.

G wheeling our stuff on the island. I also took turns with the wheeling, honest.

I found the terrain to be pretty similar to back home in Australia. Below you can see that unlike the other side of the cascades which is green and covered with trees, this side is pretty barren. It would be great to go back in apple season though, since there were many many orchards around here.

Unpowered sites are on an island. Fortunately for us, we were the only people camping there so we had the island to ourselves!

Setting up camp. You're only allowed to pitch your tent on the sandy site provided for it.

Campsites in Daroga State Park were $14 / night for up to 8 people in one car. I thought the place was pretty nice, although it was close enough to a main road to hear trucks and traffic especially during the day. The nice vista was also spoiled by some serious power lines that cut through the powered camping area. Walking past you could actually hear the hum of electricity in the wires which was a little unnerving.

Brr, chilly. I called G a wimp when I took this photo, then I tried it myself and it was really icy in the water. Perhaps it would be OK in a few months.

Posing in front of our island (well for one night anyway).

Nice views.

The campsite had some pretty decent facilities including hot showers, BBQs, soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball courts and a small swimming area.

Seattle: Bonza Bash 08

Last year I missed out on the Bonza Bash when it was held at the Space Needle. This year it is being held at the Seattle Aquarium and I'm really looking forward to going along tonight. I've even heard talk of lamingtons (not lemmingtons as my US friends thought when I first told them) and other Aussie cuisine.