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Mark & Robyn's Travels
Our day began with our flight from Dallas to San Francisco. It was a mid-morning flight which gave Robyn time to get up and ready without being rushed. Our plane was a one-year-old Airbus A321, which are very nice and generally comfortable planes. I put us in the exit row near the front of the cabin so we would have extra leg-room. What I didn't realize was that American had put in exit row seats that were just a little bit smaller than the seats on an MD-80. Even though we had plenty of leg-room, Robyn was complaining about how her butt was squeezed in the seat. These planes also come with entertainment consoles at each seat and because we were in an exit row ours were lowered to the side. I could not get them to come up no matter what I tried, so after we took off I asked one of the flight attendants and she worked with it awhile and eventually it worked. I guess you need a physics degree to get the video screen arm to work, so glad that flight attendant was also a trained physicist. Anyway Robyn's video screen did not work, so being the good husband I am I switched seats with her. Luckily, there was nothing I wanted to watch and I had a book to read. Better to be the martyr than listen to three hours of complaining and sighing. Other than that the flight was uneventful. We left a little late from Dallas due to a minor mechanical issue (let me show you my shocked face) but made up the time and got to the gate in San Francisco on time. From Dallas this is still a long flight--3 1/2 hours-- which is about the limit for Robyn in a coach seat.
Even though we were now in the city that has the headquarters of Uber and Lyft, we took a cab to the hotel. As soon as we got into the cab Robyn had her camera ready and began taking pictures of anything she saw, such as AT&T Stadium, the Bay Bridge, the Ferry Building, a streetcar.
The cab ride was fine and we got to our hotel near Fisherman's Wharf without any problem. After checking in we decided to see if we could find a place to eat lunch, so we head out and walk towards Fisherman's Wharf and immediately run into a food truck call Codmother's. Robyn had read rave reviews about this truck on Trip Advisor so that is where we ate. I believe I saw this truck on Food Network and it was started by a woman from England to bring authentic English style Fish & Chips to San Francisco. I would say she succeeded, as it was really good, and of course after we finished Robyn insisted on taking a picture of me standing in front of the food truck. So hear I am in all my fat glory:
Afterwards we walked around Fisherman's wharf which although very touristy, it is still really cool.
I needed to head to the Moscone Convention Center to meet up with my Oracle consultant and pick up my credentials for the next day's seminar. So we took the shuttle bus that Oracle had arranged from the Fisherman's Wharf area. The bus ride was long and interesting but we finally made it to the Moscone and I picked up my credentials. The founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, likes to make sure his customers attending Oracle World are properly entertained, andthis year was no exception as he had Sir Elton John and Drake (I am old so I have no idea who Drake is nor do I care) giving a concert. Since I was only allowed one ticket and there were two of us and I had no desire to go to the concert, I gave my ticket to my consultant. I would love to see Elton John perform but not here.
Robyn had planned for us to eat at a restaurant she had found on Trip Advisor called Sears Fine Dining, and then we were taking a tour of the city in a restored 1970 VW Micro-bus with a tour group called Van-to-go (love the name). We hung out at Union Square before going to Sears Fine Dining and Robyn took a couple thousand photos and videos of cable cars. She also took a photo of how steep Powell Street is right outside of the restaurant.
Although I was slightly skeptical about the Sears Fine Dining it turned out to be an excellent and reasonably priced place to eat, I highly recommend it. After dinner we had some time to kill and went over to the Westin St Francis which is where we were going to meet the Van-to-go. I realized I had to go to the bathroom, so I thought no problem--I will use the bathroom in the lobby. Problem: to use the bathroom a room key is needed. Now I really had to go. So I told Robyn we needed to head to Macy's and find the restroom there, which we did. I was trying to get Robyn to walk as fast as she could, but that is all relative with her. I was certain I would be buying a new pair of jeans at Macy's after I had wet my pants, but we did make it and I was never so happy to see a men's room. However, now we were running late to meet up with the tour group, so we hurried as fast as our old and decrepit legs would take us (which is not very fast) back to the Westin St Francis. We didn't need to hurry as they were not leaving without us. The Van-to-go was just the sort of funky tour I needed and expected for San Francisco. The restored 1970 VW Micro-bus was very cool. Our driver and tour-guide Justin was what you would expect for this type of tour. He was young, energetic, and had the correct amount of sarcasm to keep me happy. The owner of Van-to-go, Eric, rode shotgun since Justin was still learning the spiel. Another couple near our age-group but a few years younger joined us for the tour. They provided water, wine, or beer to drink and I helped myself to a beer, and then another, and another, and one more after that.
For the next two and a half hours they drove us around San Francisco and told stories and jokes about the city. They said one of the classes of people no longer visible in the city were children since there were so many millennials living in San Francisco and none of them were getting married and having children. The high number of millennials meant there was also a high number of Uber and Lyft drivers driving through downtown. They pointed out the guys driving around in old U-Haul trucks picking up card-board boxes at night for recycling. They took us to the highest points overlooking the city such as where Coit Tower is located. They took us to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and then over to the Palace of Fine Arts which was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and is the one of the few surviving structures from the Exposition. They told us that George Lucas lived near the Palace of Fine Arts when he was writing the script for Star Wars and that the Palace gave him the inspiration for one of the characters, R2D2. Sure enough the Palace does have a resemblance to the famous drone from the movie, but I don't think that story is really true.
I was sorry when the tour was over but I was ready to get out of the van and find a bathroom, after drinking four beers in the van. I was now in worse shape than before the tour. We were dropped off back at the Westin St Francis which was of no use to me and Macy's was now closed. I used one of the self-cleaning public toilets across from Macy's, which was better than relieving myself in the street but not by much. It was pretty disgusting and Robyn said she would wait until we got back to the hotel.
That was our very long and eventful first day in San Francisco. Tomorrow I am off to Oracle World and while I am boring people with my talk about 'Cross-system Controls Risk' she will be having fun with the Van-to-go guys as she takes the day-time tour.
Even though we were now in the city that has the headquarters of Uber and Lyft, we took a cab to the hotel. As soon as we got into the cab Robyn had her camera ready and began taking pictures of anything she saw, such as AT&T Stadium, the Bay Bridge, the Ferry Building, a streetcar.
The cab ride was fine and we got to our hotel near Fisherman's Wharf without any problem. After checking in we decided to see if we could find a place to eat lunch, so we head out and walk towards Fisherman's Wharf and immediately run into a food truck call Codmother's. Robyn had read rave reviews about this truck on Trip Advisor so that is where we ate. I believe I saw this truck on Food Network and it was started by a woman from England to bring authentic English style Fish & Chips to San Francisco. I would say she succeeded, as it was really good, and of course after we finished Robyn insisted on taking a picture of me standing in front of the food truck. So hear I am in all my fat glory:
Afterwards we walked around Fisherman's wharf which although very touristy, it is still really cool.
I needed to head to the Moscone Convention Center to meet up with my Oracle consultant and pick up my credentials for the next day's seminar. So we took the shuttle bus that Oracle had arranged from the Fisherman's Wharf area. The bus ride was long and interesting but we finally made it to the Moscone and I picked up my credentials. The founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, likes to make sure his customers attending Oracle World are properly entertained, andthis year was no exception as he had Sir Elton John and Drake (I am old so I have no idea who Drake is nor do I care) giving a concert. Since I was only allowed one ticket and there were two of us and I had no desire to go to the concert, I gave my ticket to my consultant. I would love to see Elton John perform but not here.
Robyn had planned for us to eat at a restaurant she had found on Trip Advisor called Sears Fine Dining, and then we were taking a tour of the city in a restored 1970 VW Micro-bus with a tour group called Van-to-go (love the name). We hung out at Union Square before going to Sears Fine Dining and Robyn took a couple thousand photos and videos of cable cars. She also took a photo of how steep Powell Street is right outside of the restaurant.
Although I was slightly skeptical about the Sears Fine Dining it turned out to be an excellent and reasonably priced place to eat, I highly recommend it. After dinner we had some time to kill and went over to the Westin St Francis which is where we were going to meet the Van-to-go. I realized I had to go to the bathroom, so I thought no problem--I will use the bathroom in the lobby. Problem: to use the bathroom a room key is needed. Now I really had to go. So I told Robyn we needed to head to Macy's and find the restroom there, which we did. I was trying to get Robyn to walk as fast as she could, but that is all relative with her. I was certain I would be buying a new pair of jeans at Macy's after I had wet my pants, but we did make it and I was never so happy to see a men's room. However, now we were running late to meet up with the tour group, so we hurried as fast as our old and decrepit legs would take us (which is not very fast) back to the Westin St Francis. We didn't need to hurry as they were not leaving without us. The Van-to-go was just the sort of funky tour I needed and expected for San Francisco. The restored 1970 VW Micro-bus was very cool. Our driver and tour-guide Justin was what you would expect for this type of tour. He was young, energetic, and had the correct amount of sarcasm to keep me happy. The owner of Van-to-go, Eric, rode shotgun since Justin was still learning the spiel. Another couple near our age-group but a few years younger joined us for the tour. They provided water, wine, or beer to drink and I helped myself to a beer, and then another, and another, and one more after that.
For the next two and a half hours they drove us around San Francisco and told stories and jokes about the city. They said one of the classes of people no longer visible in the city were children since there were so many millennials living in San Francisco and none of them were getting married and having children. The high number of millennials meant there was also a high number of Uber and Lyft drivers driving through downtown. They pointed out the guys driving around in old U-Haul trucks picking up card-board boxes at night for recycling. They took us to the highest points overlooking the city such as where Coit Tower is located. They took us to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and then over to the Palace of Fine Arts which was built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition and is the one of the few surviving structures from the Exposition. They told us that George Lucas lived near the Palace of Fine Arts when he was writing the script for Star Wars and that the Palace gave him the inspiration for one of the characters, R2D2. Sure enough the Palace does have a resemblance to the famous drone from the movie, but I don't think that story is really true.
I was sorry when the tour was over but I was ready to get out of the van and find a bathroom, after drinking four beers in the van. I was now in worse shape than before the tour. We were dropped off back at the Westin St Francis which was of no use to me and Macy's was now closed. I used one of the self-cleaning public toilets across from Macy's, which was better than relieving myself in the street but not by much. It was pretty disgusting and Robyn said she would wait until we got back to the hotel.
That was our very long and eventful first day in San Francisco. Tomorrow I am off to Oracle World and while I am boring people with my talk about 'Cross-system Controls Risk' she will be having fun with the Van-to-go guys as she takes the day-time tour.
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