Notes from S.F.
Our story so far: We got up this morning, and had to change hotels. The new hotel is around the block from the old one, so JoCasta and I had to take our luggage and carry it from the old hotel to the new one, thus fulfilling another long-standing Star Trek IV fantasy--looking like an idiot on the streets of San Francisco. We looked like some sort of cadet review--with luggage! We went then to the convention center and got our booth set up for tomorrow. Apple has a huge booth, but they were still in the process of setting up as we were leaving... I'm hoping to get some good Apple swag from them tomorrow. Being able to get free Apple swag while giving away free NASA swag would pretty much fulfill my life.

After leaving there, we went to Fisherman's Wharf, where we took a bay cruise, which went under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, taking care of several of our touristy needs all at once. You could even look when we went under the bridge and see the Pacific Ocean, which I've never seen before. It didn't look any bigger than the Atlantic. We ate at Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf, and then cable-carred back in towards downtown. We got off and walked back through Chinatown (it was interesting to me the number of Asian people in Chinatown. I'd already been wondering how many of the people we were seeing in downtown San Francisco were actually locals, and how many were tourists... which is to say, to what extent the local people actually used the areas we were in. That question was really driven home as I was walking through Chinatown... I mean, how often do the Chinese people living there just decide, Man, I really need some jade doo-dads, and other quasi-Chinese looking stuff? Possibly my name written in both Chinese and English, in case I forget?)

We did a little shopping, including going to a closing FAO Schwartz, which was pretty sad (like an FAO Schwartz estate sale... they were even selling the computer software they used there), and a CompUSA that had like three seperate Apple sections (two of them were just computers).

So now we're at the new hotel for a while before dinner. No T1 line here, and fewer amenities in general, but still, not bad at all. And, hey, NASA's paying for it, so I can't complain. You know, I loved NASA while I was growing up, but now that NASA is doing things like paying for nice hotel rooms and buying me wonderful desserts, so much the better. So, that's the day so far. More to come...

:: :: 20:21 :: David :: [permalink] ::