Day Twelve
Wednesday May 11, 2011
Jimmy and I went trekking to BevMo's at lunch, a huge alcohol store. I needed my final ingredient for gummi bears in vodka - vodka. So I bought a bottle of Swedish mango vodka for dirt cheap and I'll begin my grand experiment when I'm back in New Zealand. I'll keep you updated.
We went for dinner at this Hong Kong-style Chinese restaurant. I ordered the "Special Chicken" and it was cold steamed chicken, which was unusual but not terrible. What made the meal bad was the Hong Kong milk tea - I had forgotten how terrible that was.
Not long to go :(
Posted by Jeremy at 5:59am on Wednesday May 11, 2011 :: 1 comment :: 
Day Eleven
Tuesday May 10, 2011
Back to work today. I tried Xcode4 to see if it would help fix a whole bunch of my linker problems. Do you remember the outrage when MS Office 2007 introduced ribbon-style navigation instead of toolbars? It's basically the same with Xcode4 - they've completely changed the way projects and files are treated and it's utterly confusing. There's no improvement and worse, it didn't fix my linker problems at all.
*TABLE FLIP*
I went to a Chinese place for dinner where I had a combination seafood dish with tofu and rice. Such a relief :P
Posted by Jeremy at 5:03am on Tuesday May 10, 2011 :: 0 comments ::
Day Ten
Monday May 9, 2011
We had another late start but we timed our departure from the apartments so that there would be plenty of time to get to Pier 33. We stopped by the Ferry Building again to grab some lunch - I got an Italian sausage sandwich from Boccalone, the "Tasty Salted Pig Parts" shop.
The day was really windy, rather reminiscent of Wellington actually, and the gusts were worse on the ferry to Alcatraz. But what a sight to see - both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge in full splendour as we motored over the choppy waters to "The Rock". The prison tour itself was interesting, with many of the scars left by bombings and prisoner fighting still remaining. The views around the bay were fantastic, and although it was windy and cold like yesterday, it was brilliantly sunny with no signs of fawg anywhere.
Back on the main land, we sought out some food. Tobias and Mike had both recommended this burger joint called In N Out, so we tried that (the alternative was Hooters next door). It was tasty, but a bit salty for my preference, but it's all part of the American experience, I told myself. We parted ways with Jimmy and headed up to the Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza. I found out from this lady while walking around the Presidio yesterday that the cross-section of the cable I'd been looking for was at the plaza, so Tony and I headed in that direction via two bus routes, and I was extremely excited to see the famous cross-section that I had taken a picture with 15 years ago <3
I also didn't remember the Golden Gate Bridge being that massive. Truly a magnificent sight to see. We walked to the first supporting structure, staying far away from the edge of the platform as the vertigo started setting in. We took a few photos and admired the fantastic views while we could, then headed back to town.
On the way back, we stopped by the International House of Pancakes where I ordered a stack of four New York Cheesecake Pancakes. Omg it was sooooo goooooooood!
Posted by Jeremy at 4:58am on Monday May 9, 2011 :: 1 comment ::
Day Nine
Sunday May 8, 2011
We hit town again, this time going from the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building down by the Embarcadero to Pier 33, where the Alcatraz tours depart. Stepping into the Ferry Building felt like stepping into the Annual Food Show at the Caketin - specialty food stores offering some free samples and bustling with people. It was great, but not really for me - it's not like I'm actually cooking while I'm over here!
The Alcatraz tours had sold out for today so we bought tickets for tomorrow and continued our trek. We made our way further around, returning to Pier 39 where I bought $10 worth of taffy <3 and we got some better photos of the sea lions (since last time it was dusk). Further on, I got some seafood chowder in a bread bowl for lunch and we continued around to see these old ships that had been restored at Hyde Pier.
From the ships, we walked to the famous section of Lombard Street which has been named the crookedest street in the world. Then from there, we walked all the way down to the Presidio area to see the Golden Gate Bridge. It was an amazing sight, though the tips of the supporting structures were shrouded in fog (or fawg, as the Americans say). We also visited the Palace of Fine Arts, which has an amazing building decorated with columns and a huge dome with statues of muses adorning the outer rim.
Tired from all the walking, we bussed back to Powell Street. We saw a whole bunch of yellow go-karts that you can hire for touring the city, but they had balloons attached to them and people in Mario-themed costumes driving them - it was Mario Kart IRL!
We took the BART to 16th Street Mission to meet Tobias at the Monk's Kettle - also a favourite of Mike's. It was great to catch up with him and hear how he's settled in to San Francisco and how his new job is going. We spent some time at Amnesia around the corner before he left - Jimmy and I stayed a while listening to the live bands playing there, drinking soju (HAHAHAHA) and beer before heading home.
Posted by Jeremy at 7:53am on Sunday May 8, 2011 :: 0 comments ::
Day Eight: End of the Week
Saturday May 7, 2011
I can't believe it's been one week already. I feel like I've gotten so much out of this trip than the previous times I've been to America. In 1996 I was 10 years old, and it was basically YAY DISNEYLAND. In 2001 I was with my stingy high school friends, and it was more of a stop-over than anything - we did go to Six Flags Magic Mountain, which was awesome, though. This time, I'm an adult so I can do what I want, eat and drink what I want, go where I want, and I've got a good job so I can afford to pay for everything I want to do.
So today is Friday, Friday and it quietly marks what was a relatively busy week. I've been writing heaps of documentation, trying to plan out the project and create a blueprint of how various systems are going to fall together architecturally. At 5pm, we left work (the company we work for have a private meeting and we're not allowed in) and hung out at the local Mexican place, Hola!, where I proceeded to get drunk off my face again, after only one $4 margarita. In the space of 90 minutes, I went from sober to drunk to hungover. Oh, and because it was Happy Hour at Hola!, we got free food. YAY!
So I'm taking it easy tonight, just recovering from my one drink. We've got an early start tomorrow to do some more sightseeing.
Posted by Jeremy at 3:54am on Saturday May 7, 2011 :: 0 comments ::