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Mark & Robyn's Travels
The plan for today was we were each on our own until 2 in the afternoon. I was heading downtown to the Moscone Center to participate in the Oracle World Session on using TCG reports in the GRC module to lessen risk across multiple platforms. I know how to lead an exciting life and by golly I can bore the best of them. Here's a fun thing to do--see how long it takes for someone's eyes to glaze over and roll back in their heads when you start explaining what the Governance, Risk, & Controls module of Oracle is all about. This will also cure insomnia. It takes a special person to be able to speak about these subjects and takes an even more "special" person to be able to sit through a presentation on the subject. Robyn, on the other hand, was going to be heading out with the Van-to-go guys again. Bet you can't guess who had the more fun morning. We were then going to meet back at 2 at the hotel and head over to Fisherman's Wharf to catch a sight-seeing boat for a one-hour tour around San Francisco Bay. (You know how much I love boat trips!)
First order of business was breakfast. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Express which has a free continental/buffet breakfast. When I am traveling on business and staying at a Holiday Inn Express such as the one in beautiful(?) Snyder, Texas I will choke down a bowl of cereal before heading into the office. When I am on vacation I avoid the hotel breakfast and head somewhere else. Robyn was ready with a restaurant to visit due to her research and it happened to be right next door. So here is another plug if you happen to be staying in the Fisherman's Wharf area--go to the Hollywood Café which is on North Point right next to the Holiday Inn Express. They give you a lot of food, it is very good (a little pricey) but better than anything else you will find in the area. The place is also small so get there early or prepare to stand in line, and there will be a line.
After breakfast we headed our separate ways, me on the Oracle World shuttle to the Moscone Center, and Robyn to meet up with the Van-to-go guys. If you have never been to something like Oracle World it is hard to describe. There are multiple 45 minute sessions over various Oracle topics and products running all day for four days. There are three reasons to go: 1) Go to enough sessions to justify your company paying $1700 for you to attend (remember I was free); 2) Network for your next job; 3) Get as much free **** as possible given out by the various vendors. Twenty years ago when I started attending similar conferences sponsored by SAP I did all those things, now meh I don't care. One thing I didn't want was a bunch of free **** to haul back to Dallas, been there done that and literally got the t-shirt. Our session being late in the morning on the last day of OracleWorld was not expected to be heavily attended, and I questioned the sanity of anyone actually attending. I was asked and I was going to fulfill my commitment. I was surprised (and so were the other panelists) that we actually had around 50 people attending our session. After it was over and I was walking out with my consultant a woman stopped us and said this was the most informative and interesting session she had attended all week. We thanked her and all I could think of was, gee if this was the one of the most interesting she had attended what sort of boring **** had been presented earlier in the week. I hurried out of the Moscone to catch the shuttle bus back to my hotel.
Now while I was part of the most interesting and informative session at Oracle World, Robyn was getting a good look at San Francisco during the day. Along with everything we saw the night before she got to see many things I did not get to see: China Town, Lombard Street, the famous houses The Painted Ladies; and the coolest thing of all George Lucas's LucasFilm headquarters in the Presidio. At Lucas Film she took pictures of a statue of Yoda, Boba Fett (he was the bounty hunter who captures Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back and then becomes a meal in Return of the Jedi), and of course Darth Vader. I have attached many pictures from her tour.
After our morning apart I met Robyn at the designated spot that Van-to-go picked her up several hours earlier. I met the other driver for the tour company, Lucca, who Robyn said was very entertaining. We once again headed over to Fisherman's Wharf, as Robyn wanted to buy some sourdough bread from Boudin's Bakery, because you know there is nothing I like doing more than hauling bread back from San Francisco on an airplane. Anyway despite my whining we bought three loaves, which I ran these back to the hotel while Robyn waited for me because we still had a harbor cruise to take and I was not about to carry the bread on the boat. While we are waiting to board the boat I started noticing the seagulls at Fisherman's Wharf, and these are by far the largest and fattest seagulls I have ever seen.
The boat ride was a one hour cruise down the harbor to the Golden Gate Bridge and back around Alcatraz. It was nice and sunny but very windy. If you have read any of my previous blogs for our trips to Europe you are aware I am not a big fan of boat rides. Because of the wind and choppy water this one rated in the bottom third, not the worst but not the best. There were a lot of kite surfers and wind surfers out in the bay which is cool to see, and Alcatraz is really cool to look at, but the best part of this boat ride was the large group of Chinese most likely all related. The oldest man wanted a picture of each family member and he had them pose the same way looking off into the distance with San Francisco in the background. What made this funny was he decided to do this right next to where Robyn was standing, including several times stepping on her foot. I don't know what I enjoyed more watching him pose an re-pose his family members or Robyn's rising level of anger. He was very apologetic to Robyn and even offered to take her picture. She refused. Good lord I wish she had accepted.
After we got back to Fisherman's Wharf we headed over to the restaurant we were going to eat at that night. Lucca the Van-to-go driver had highly recommended Scoma's, as it was one of his favorite restaurants. Earlier in the afternoon we had made reservations but we were early so we sat at bar. The upper bar at the restaurant has a view of the bay so that was where we headed. We engaged the young bar tender in conversation and he said he didn't know how long he would work at Scoma's but the view he had was fantastic. The food was really good and I highly recommend it if you ever are near Fisherman's Wharf. Tomorrow we fly home to end this short trip.
First order of business was breakfast. We were staying at the Holiday Inn Express which has a free continental/buffet breakfast. When I am traveling on business and staying at a Holiday Inn Express such as the one in beautiful(?) Snyder, Texas I will choke down a bowl of cereal before heading into the office. When I am on vacation I avoid the hotel breakfast and head somewhere else. Robyn was ready with a restaurant to visit due to her research and it happened to be right next door. So here is another plug if you happen to be staying in the Fisherman's Wharf area--go to the Hollywood Café which is on North Point right next to the Holiday Inn Express. They give you a lot of food, it is very good (a little pricey) but better than anything else you will find in the area. The place is also small so get there early or prepare to stand in line, and there will be a line.
After breakfast we headed our separate ways, me on the Oracle World shuttle to the Moscone Center, and Robyn to meet up with the Van-to-go guys. If you have never been to something like Oracle World it is hard to describe. There are multiple 45 minute sessions over various Oracle topics and products running all day for four days. There are three reasons to go: 1) Go to enough sessions to justify your company paying $1700 for you to attend (remember I was free); 2) Network for your next job; 3) Get as much free **** as possible given out by the various vendors. Twenty years ago when I started attending similar conferences sponsored by SAP I did all those things, now meh I don't care. One thing I didn't want was a bunch of free **** to haul back to Dallas, been there done that and literally got the t-shirt. Our session being late in the morning on the last day of OracleWorld was not expected to be heavily attended, and I questioned the sanity of anyone actually attending. I was asked and I was going to fulfill my commitment. I was surprised (and so were the other panelists) that we actually had around 50 people attending our session. After it was over and I was walking out with my consultant a woman stopped us and said this was the most informative and interesting session she had attended all week. We thanked her and all I could think of was, gee if this was the one of the most interesting she had attended what sort of boring **** had been presented earlier in the week. I hurried out of the Moscone to catch the shuttle bus back to my hotel.
Now while I was part of the most interesting and informative session at Oracle World, Robyn was getting a good look at San Francisco during the day. Along with everything we saw the night before she got to see many things I did not get to see: China Town, Lombard Street, the famous houses The Painted Ladies; and the coolest thing of all George Lucas's LucasFilm headquarters in the Presidio. At Lucas Film she took pictures of a statue of Yoda, Boba Fett (he was the bounty hunter who captures Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back and then becomes a meal in Return of the Jedi), and of course Darth Vader. I have attached many pictures from her tour.
After our morning apart I met Robyn at the designated spot that Van-to-go picked her up several hours earlier. I met the other driver for the tour company, Lucca, who Robyn said was very entertaining. We once again headed over to Fisherman's Wharf, as Robyn wanted to buy some sourdough bread from Boudin's Bakery, because you know there is nothing I like doing more than hauling bread back from San Francisco on an airplane. Anyway despite my whining we bought three loaves, which I ran these back to the hotel while Robyn waited for me because we still had a harbor cruise to take and I was not about to carry the bread on the boat. While we are waiting to board the boat I started noticing the seagulls at Fisherman's Wharf, and these are by far the largest and fattest seagulls I have ever seen.
The boat ride was a one hour cruise down the harbor to the Golden Gate Bridge and back around Alcatraz. It was nice and sunny but very windy. If you have read any of my previous blogs for our trips to Europe you are aware I am not a big fan of boat rides. Because of the wind and choppy water this one rated in the bottom third, not the worst but not the best. There were a lot of kite surfers and wind surfers out in the bay which is cool to see, and Alcatraz is really cool to look at, but the best part of this boat ride was the large group of Chinese most likely all related. The oldest man wanted a picture of each family member and he had them pose the same way looking off into the distance with San Francisco in the background. What made this funny was he decided to do this right next to where Robyn was standing, including several times stepping on her foot. I don't know what I enjoyed more watching him pose an re-pose his family members or Robyn's rising level of anger. He was very apologetic to Robyn and even offered to take her picture. She refused. Good lord I wish she had accepted.
After we got back to Fisherman's Wharf we headed over to the restaurant we were going to eat at that night. Lucca the Van-to-go driver had highly recommended Scoma's, as it was one of his favorite restaurants. Earlier in the afternoon we had made reservations but we were early so we sat at bar. The upper bar at the restaurant has a view of the bay so that was where we headed. We engaged the young bar tender in conversation and he said he didn't know how long he would work at Scoma's but the view he had was fantastic. The food was really good and I highly recommend it if you ever are near Fisherman's Wharf. Tomorrow we fly home to end this short trip.
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