Wednesday, June 20, 2012

San Francisco Trip



Thursday June 14 Georgetown – San Francisco

I headed to the airport, stopping at Jack in the Box to get a sandwich.  No problem getting an aisle seat since I had checked in on line only about 20 minutes after it opened.  However, I just missed the bus to Caltrain and had to wait nearly an hour for the next one.  But there was no trouble getting to the train.  That train was really bad – almost an hour late because there had been a fire that closed down BART and there was a Giants game so this train was completely packed from Palo Alto on.
airbnb

I dragged my suitcase quite easily to Roger Wood’s office where I was me by Delia his assistant who was very helpful!  I then dragged the bag further to the apartment which was everything it was advertised to be.  I walked around the neighborhood a bit to find the grocery and to look for a cache in the above ground world away from traffic. Susannah got off work early and we went to Safeway and bought food for supper. When Luis got off we ate on the deck and then went to the Ferry building where we saw fire dancers.

We inflated the air mattress I had in my carry on and I slept on the floor while the kids took the bed.

Friday June 15 San Francisco

I got up at 5:30 and made myself a cup of pressed coffee (with the coffee I had brought in my suitcase!) and sat on the gorgeous deck and enjoyed the view.

The purpose of the early trip was to go to the Palace hotel for the Turing Centenary.  Someone said during the course of the day and a half program that it was like being in a history book and watching all the characters step out of it.  There were 32 Turing award winners (oops – now we are supposed to call them laureates), all of whom are rock stars of computer science history.  There were panels and talks by most of them that had come.
turing
The entire program and its webcast is on line at
http://turing100.acm.org/

Suzanne Westbrook came back to the apartment with me at the end of the day and we ate leftovers from the night before, again on the deck and then went geocaching and walked around the neighborhood.

Saturday June 16 San Francisco

Up early again to enjoy the view and coffee.  We walked to the meeting via the Ferry Building Farmer’s market.  I picked up a few cherries as the rolled of one of the stands – yum! There were more exciting talks in the morning.  Jane Prey, Boots Cassell, Suzanne Westbrook and I walked to Union Square for lunch at Sears Fine Food restaurant.
IMG_1483
We walked back to the apartment for me to get my fancy clothes for the ACM awards banquet.  I walked back to the Palace Hotel and changed in Boots’ and Jane’s room.  There were gorgeous hors d’oeuvres and then a sit down meal.  It was fun to see everyone dressed up.  Boots and Jane wore dresses they had worn to their sons’weddings!

Once again I made the trek back to the apartment.  I had to pack because I needed to get the first Sunday am train to Palo Alto at 8:15, and drop my bag at the Palace first.  Lots of walking!
Sunday June 17 San Francisco

I had a quick breakfast and final pack before the walk to the Palace and to the train.  I was pleasantly surprised when Susannah met me at the Palo Alto Station.  We walked to the Stanford stadium , I bought a lei from a vendor for Luis, and Suze and I got there just as the graduates were marching in.  Luis got interviewed by the radio as he walked in.  It was awfully hot so mostly Suze and I watched from the concession area in the shade, standing the whole time.  The speaker was Cory Booker, mayor of Newark and he was fantastic! I actually cried.
graduationSmall2012-06-14_20
We three headed over to Memorial Auditorium where we met up with Edda and her sister Trixie and family for the Civil Engineering diploma ceremony.  The audience cheered Andrew Luck, the Stanford quarterback who got his undergrad degree.  There was a nice reception afterwards where I saw several people who had been in the Bahamas for Suze and Luis’ wedding.

Suze, Luis and I walked back to their apartment where I saw the cats for the first time since Christmas.  Then we all joined up at Café Epi for snacks before Edda et al, headed to Vacaville and Suze dropped me at the train to go back to the Palace for Ed council meetings.

Monday June 18 San Francisco

I got up early and walked to Chinatown to find a geocache near the gate on Grant Avenue.  Very interesting panel on on-line learning.  Breakout groups in the afternoon. 

Suze joined me at Chevy’s for a drink on her way to the train and before I went to the Ed Council dinner at the Thirsty Bear.  I sat with Alison and her grandson Noah and entertained him with paper games.  We all shared tapas.

Tuesday June 19 San Francisco – San Jose

I woke up just in time for my 6am ABET training and had all kinds of trouble getting signed on, etc., but I was able to join before any new info was shared and passed the course!  I finished just in time to close my suitcase and get to the Ed Council meeting.  We had an interesting group discussion on CS2013 Programming Languages, etc.  The close of the meeting was lots of reports, including SIGCSE. We had lunch at which I took lots of the leftovers and then Mehran Sahami took me and Owen Astrachan back to Palo Alto.  Suze and Luis signed papers on their new SF apartment.  She got off early so I waited with the cats at her Palo Alto place and then she and I went to Trader Joe’s for food for supper.  We watched the video of her wedding before she took me to San Jose to my hotel.

Wednesday June 20 San Jose – Georgetown

One more very early up – 4:00 am to get a 6:35 planed home. Once again I was able to get an aisle seat and had lots of room.  I passed through several little rain showers on the way home.  I made a late lunch or early dinner for us, using Phil’s new grill for pork tenderloin.  It was good.  I took a nap and then read while Phil watched the Red Sox win by a huge score.

No comments: