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In May 2002 I went to an the Apple World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose and spent an extra week afterwoods at San Francisco and Yosemite. The conference was a great experience and if nothing else opened my eyes to the real world (or at least a bigger one). I met some great people, learned lots and the only thing that could have been better was the food (stock piles of donuts for breakfast). On the weekend before the conference was the Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican celibration.
San Francisco and the Conference (6-10 May 2002)
On the following weekend a few of us from the conference checked out the sites San Fransisco. We rode the very cool cable trolleys, visited the cheesy Fishermans Wharf, stole foreign coins from Coit Tower and generally gawked at things whilst putting on bad Aussie accents.
San Francisco (11-12 May 2002)
Then I teamed up with Mike Cutter from Melbourne Uni. We jumped onto a free walking tour, organised by the hostel we were in, around the Golden Gate Recreational Area.
Golden Gate Park (12 May 2002)
Then we bused to the Golden Gate Bridge. It is big and red. Oh and Golden Gate refers to the entrance to the bay not to the color of the bridge. Pat Gibbons is a limo driver who took us from the Golden Gate Bridge to Fishermans Wharf. He talked about the tourist stuff as he drove and plugged a few resteraunt but also has the following claims to fame:
- He was a stunt driver in the movie 'Bullet'
- He was a star track runner
- He was a comedian writer for Don Rickles
- He lives in the most expensive appartments in SF
- He has swum to shore from Akatraz many times
He also had a collection of roses on his dash board and when ever he saw a woman he liked would stop the car (blocking the traffic) and attempt to give her the rose and his business card. Apparently he is looking for his fifth wife and today he managed to get a nice brazilian tourist to take the rose. Quite a character.
There was also a disappointing colony of seals at the wharf.
Golden Gate Bridge and Fishermans Wharf (12 May 2002)
The we jumped onto the ferry for a night tour of Alkatraz. Somehow we managed to get back before the sun had actually set but the tour was great. I could have spent the whole day there.
Alkatraz a.k.a. The Rock (12 May 2002)
The we hired a car and headed north to Muir Woods which contains some stands of Redwoods. These ones were big but only teenages. We didn't get to see the redwoods in Yosemite which are huge so I guess I will just have to go back ...
Muir woods (13 May 2002)
From Muir Woods we headed east to Yosemite. By the time we arrived it was dark so we found our cabin and crashed. We woke up we walked outside to be confronted with the hugest granite cliff I have ever seen which towers above you. Quite a wake up.
Yosemite is fantastic. We were there just in the peak of the spring thaw and the water falls were raging but the tourist season hadn't started. I intend to go back one day and spend some time wandering around the higher back country. Yosemite is fantastic.
Yosemite (14-15 May 2002)