Lily's Pond of Fictional Reflections

Today at least half the snow we saw yesterday was gone; instead there were semi-green fields - beautiful, and almost like a completely different park again from yesterday.  But there was still enough snow left to build a giant snowman!

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Today was the day to do the more classic San Francisco sights: Cable Cars, the sea lions, Azkaban Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Muir Woods.  The weather tried to do all it could to convince us to turn back, but except in the case of Alcatraz, we were steadfast.  The catch phrase of the day was one from someone yesterday, who told us “It’s like this all year round!” in the kind of voice that suggested that would be a good thing.  And we were looking at each other trying to to say: You’re kidding, right mate?  It’s frigging freezing!  We’re from Brisbane.  We tried our best, but we couldn’t pack clothes warm enough for this weather.  And no one here sells warm clothes, because it’s apparently spring.  Which means, by definition, it’s warmed up enough to put away all the woolens.

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So day one of our little jaunt began, as always, on extremely little sleep. 

Yesterday we made the decision to finally FINALLY take the plunge and, rather than struggling with printouts from Google Maps, purchase our own device, add on US maps, claim the duty back when leaving Australia, and have it available to the family pool for various trips.  Hubby’s never used a GPS navigator before, so he’s dubious.  I know better.  :)  So, we now have purchased a Garmin Nuvi 1350, which promises to keep us on track, at least in Australia.  He's known semi-consistently as The Colonel, in response to the rather pretentious British voice we chose for the directions after laughing ourselves sick at the absurd Australian accent that had come as default.  Honestly, it reminded us of the Google Maps April Fools Day prank.  :)

( Too long, don't read - just look at the pretty pictures... )

Despite being light on sleep, however, once we’d settled in and chosen beds (Penski declined to sleep with Hubby in the double which would have let me have a bed to myself, which I thought was most ungentlemanly of him), we headed out for a bit of minor sightseeing and some clam chowder.  We ended up walking all the way from Union Square to Fisherman’s Wharf, through Chinatown and via Coit Tower (ie. the telegraph tower on highest hill around) which had seemed like a doable way to beat the post-flying stiffness at the hostel and stay awake/physically exhaust ourselves a bit. But after charging about trying to make it up the hill and down again before the sun set, we ended up very nearly falling asleep in our soup. If I'd had the clam chowder as well, we would have needed a lifeguard for the drowning risk.  Agatha, it seems, doesn’t like any kind of fish product, particularly after vigorous exercise.  I’m not usually much of a fish person, but I enjoy shellfish and crustaceans quite a bit, usually.  At the moment, however, it seems not.  Luckily I realised this early when I considered running to the bathroom to throw up while reading the menu, ordered something vegetarian that she didn't like much either, but significantly better than the obligatory spoonful of Hubby’s chowder.

We caught the tram back to our hostel, and slept all the way through to 10am the next morning in real, horizontal beds that were warm and soft and, after a 24 hour transit day + sightseeing, absolute heaven.

So, finally to the real reason we'd gone over: TechEd, the major technical education conference for those using Visual Studio or other Microsoft development tools.

Of course everyone knew we were looking forward to the keynote: given by Bill Gates as his last speech as full time chairman of Microsoft. And yeah, it was pretty damn cool to see Bill speak in person. He talked a bit about history, a bit about himself, a bit about the future, but mostly about upcoming tech. He really is just a big geek, and I think that’s kinda cool.

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Nearly done: all that remains is the Kennedy Space Centre, and home again. :)

Fortunately, it seems that DC is not entirely deserted, because breakfast was much easier to obtain than any kind of sustenance the previous night. Possibly because our tour started from Union Station, the major crossroads of DC transport, but still, it was nice to see that the place wasn't solely occupied by lost tourists as we'd begun to suspect.

( On with the tour though... )

(Note: Back in Australia now and catching up on the days in between now I've got some time - may take a few days to catch up completely)

Leaving New York, today was another big driving day, particularly since Lily the Queen of Navigation took us through Maryland by mistake. Um... oops?

Fortunately it wasn’t quite as far out of our way as we’d feared when we first saw the “You are now entering Maryland” signs – we probably only lost half an hour in the entire operation, so we must have learned something from Indiana. :P The most notable thing about the drive, actually, was getting out of the flat country that we’d been driving through for most of the trip (with the exception of going through the Catskills in New York) to go over hills and under them, through them and around them, with big leafy trees and rocky crags all around. Easily the most beautiful drive of the trip.

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I’d been expecting to sleep badly – they call it the city that never sleeps, and the constant blaring of taxi horns and regular whine of a police siren hadn’t stopped during the time I was aware of it, but I guess it was just such a long day that I slept the sleep of the exhausted.

After an excellent cherry danish to go, we landed at the tour company we’d booked, and headed off on the first of the loop tours around NYC. This one was Uptown Manhattan, the highlight being Central Park, where we got off and walked around for ages before emerging only a fraction of the way further on. You hear about the size of central park, but the place is seriously massive. Interestingly enough, it was apparently a completely blank canvas when the landscapers came in to create it – just soggy marshland. Every tree, every hill, every lake, every rock – everything has been deliberately placed by the landscapers.

( Aren’t you sick of pictures yet? )

Yesterday was a lazy day – we slept in, caught up on jetlag, read books, and caught up on internet/computer deprival on iviolinist’s unbelievably comfortable couches. If we ever actually purchase our own couches, rather than just stealing Hubby’s parents’ old ones, we now have a goal to aim towards. We also went along to iviolinist's church, which was fascinating being our first experience of a catholic service. We finished up the day by going to see Prince Caspian, which was lots of fun, particularly since I’d almost entirely forgotten the story and so wasn’t going “oh, they changed/left out/added this” the whole time.

It was very sad to say goodbye to iviolinist (and her couches!), who’s been a fantastic host, but it’s time to move onto the next legs of our trip. We set off at 8am to allow plenty of time for the border crossing into Canada and all the attractions therein – including an unprecedented opportunity to meet up with the most paranoid member of the Orion community: Gus.

( Canadia! )

All in all a spectacular evening – tomorrow, Journey Behind the Falls and Maid of the Mist!

After a somewhat jetlagged morning, we set off at about midday towards Battle Creek in Michigan, where iviolinist lives, who’s putting us up for three nights while we acclimatise.

The way across from Chicago is around the bottom of Lake Michigan, taking us briefly through Indiana. Unfortunately, shortly after crossing the border we missed an exit and subsequently made the brave decision to make our way through back streets across to the highway we were meant to be on. It was just a couple of kilometers to the north, after all, so it couldn’t be too hard to find... could it?

After about half an hour of driving, however, we realised that we’d somehow got turned around and were in fact going not vaguely north-east as we’d thought for the past half hour, but due south. *facepalm*

How this happened, we must put down to the confusion of the small incident we had getting off the highway, when we realised that then road we were on was not, in fact, the continuation of our exit ramp, but as we’d gone through the toll booths had invisibly merged with the entrance ramp. This meant that even if we wanted to turn left, we should still remain on the right side of the divider. Fortunately, the lights were red for oncoming traffic, and there was only about two metres to reverse back to get on the right side of things, so we were out of the way before anyone (except perhaps the lady at the toll booth) noticed. Still, there remains some confusion as to whether we encountered a small wormhole that teleported us from one side of the freeway to the other, because the map does say that the names of the towns we were encountering at first really were on the other side of the highway to what we turned out to be.

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To top off an awesome night, we went to the new Indiana Jones movie, which Hubby and I have been wanting to see. It was all quite unrealistic until the aliens came. :P No, seriously, it was pretty darn good, and we all enjoyed it.

Daylight savings (and the winter-summer crossing) along with the jetlag makes an instinctive feeling for the time rather difficult. We’re used to the sun setting at about 5:15, not 8:45! Fortunately, by the time we made it out of the movie theatre and it was almost midnight, and thus finally actually dark. Given the level of general exhaustion, it even seemed like the right time!

G'bye everyone!

Plane to US leaves tomorrow at crack of dawn (ie. 11am, which is the crack of dawn when you allow for customs, etc.)

Software is not bug-free and Mystery Festival play is not finished. Have left a mostly awesome version of the former for the final preparation before the demo and the latter is about halfway done and I've at least got the story sorted. I'm planning to finish the play on the plane and email from iviolinist's.

When *that*'s done, I'll be on holiday. Am I capable of doing a bodge job to get it finished? We shall soon find out.