So I invited myself to stay with Juliette in San Francisco for a week. Additionally, I demanded she take the week off and do touristy things with me. This was all done on 3 weeks’ notice. I am very rude. I had never met Juliette (in person, of course) before, so this was one of the weirder sounding things that I’ve ever done (Spoiler: it all works out).
I flew to San Francisco on Saturday, August 31st. Something notable: I had never been west of Chicago before this trip. There was a bit of turbulence after our initial ascent, so the pilot was delayed a while in doing his spiel about the flight time and weather. When he finally did talk, he said we had just passed Chicago…I celebrated my intrepid spirit by paying $14 for in-flight wifi (additionally, I could watch the gamecast of the UT-Florida game, which was not really worth doing). Anyway, in-flight wifi is the best…the future is now, etc.
I entertained myself IM/iMessaging people that I was on a plane, and I spent a lot of time monitoring the landscape of our great country. I was fascinated by the green circles in the plains (Sorry for the glass :
Here is an interesting article about interpretting what you see from a plane. Basically, there’s a well in the middle of each of the circles that feeds a big sprinkler, and “‘At a landscape level you’re seeing a map of the aquifer.’ In other words, this kind of irrigation only works over aquifers, so the larger patterns of circles show where groundwater is easily accessible in the midwest.” SO FASCINATING…especially the second picture, where the green circles look to be in a riverbed or valley.
Anyway, I was excited for mountains:
And, luckily I had read in the comments on that io9 article about the weird colored (salt mine!) pools that you see as you come into SFO…I only got one crappy picture of some, but I was glad I knew to look for them:
I was coming off working nights and freaking out about what to pack, so I didn’t get much/enough sleep prior to flying out, and then when I was on the plane, I thought, “Oh crap, now I have to meet and stay with a stranger!” Luckily, I had demanded that Juliette make me a sign so I would be able to find her (it did not survive the flight home in the best condition):
With our in-person meeting out of the way, we had a bonding trip to Target and then went home, where I managed to watch the last bit of the UT game and take a nap…sweet, sweet sleep.
Eventually we walked to the Magnolia Gastropub, where I had some delicious french toast with mystery fruit on it. (Please note that Toledo is also a big city that also has a restaurant with “Gastropub” in its name…but I still think having “gastro” in the name of a place doesn’t make me want to eat there.) We left from there and went to the pier where the sea lions are!
We went on the Jeremiah O’Brian Liberty ship. Active in WWII, it is the only active Liberty ship in original configuration.
Brent:
Scuttlebutt:
You get to go down into the gears:
We also went to the Musee Mecanique. It seemed crazy to me that the machines still work with so many people in and out of there (it’s free to get in, and most things are either 25 or 50 cents to play).
I took this picture and posted it to facebook with the caption “Not Ohio,” and LM (for those in the know) said, “Is this in Put In Bay?” She’s so silly.
After some delivered Indian Food and a shower, I think that was about all I could take before collapsing in a heap of sleep.
