Had a busy couple of weekends with Rick visiting and us doing much sightseeing. I've been too busy to blog.
The weekend before the one just gone was a long one on account of Martin Luther King Day on the Monday. We spent Saturday in San Francisco, Rick and I at Camp Sysadmin, as previously mentioned, and Sarah pottered around on her own (photos here).
On Sunday, Rick and I went for a reasonable (28 kilometre) bike ride around the part of the bay accessible from the Stevens Creek Trail in the morning, and in the afternoon we all drove into the hills to check out the Lick Observatory.
You can see the observatory as a little bump on the top of the mountains on a clear day, but it's deceptively further away than you think, because it's actually on top of the second line of mountains, not the first. We didn't expect to find ice and snow or for it to be zero degrees (Celsius) at the summit. We made it up just before 5pm, which was closing time, so we'll have to go again earlier in the day (and more appropriately attired) to check it out more thoroughly. Some photos here.
On the Monday, we did a bit of a group outing with a few other people from work, including Tanya, who is visiting from the Dublin office and also in extreme tourist mode. We took a Caltrain in to Millbrae, and then switched to the BART for the remainder of the journey. Finally, we took a cable car from Powell station over to Fishermen's Wharf, where we wandered about for a bit, and then had a nice $11 cruise on the bay for an hour and a half, which went around Alcatraz and under the Gold Gate bridge. After that we caught another cable car back downtown, wandered around for a bit, and then met up with a few more people from work for a beer, and then had dinner at a nice Irish pub that we found. Photos from that outing here.
On the Saturday of the weekend just gone, we drove to Monterey, mainly with the aim to hire Segways and fang around on them. Mission accomplished, and it was very affordable too. I think we'll definitely do that again. We also need to visit the aquarium. I really liked Monterey. It reminded me a lot of Berry, on the New South Wales south coast. Photos here.
Finally, on Sunday (i.e. yesterday), we drove back to San Francisco, where Sarah, Rick and Tanya did the Alcatraz cruise/tour thing, and I spent most of the time riding the cable cars and street cars. The $10 day pass purchased on the cable cars is great value, as it seems to be valid on all of the San Francisco Municipal Railway (affectionately known as the "muni").
In the afternoon, we all went on a bus tour of San Francisco (the same one Michael and I did in July, but with a different driver, and slightly different route).
Finally, we had a really nice dinner at an Afghani restaurant a few doors down from the backpacker's hostel that Tanya was staying in. Photos from the day here.
Rick flew out tonight, and hopefully had a good time while he was here. We're certainly feeling a bit weary from all the sightseeing, but having visitors is always a good excuse to get out and do it.
Next weekend, our friend Brett is visiting from Canada. No rest, I tell ya...