Mike's Grand World

My final day in San Fran… so, what else to do? Take a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s a short 1.74 mile walk each way… and in the morning, it was foggy… By noon-time, the fog started to lift and the sun came out and it was gorgeous…

View from Vista Point

My my ... very tall!

Vista Point is on the north side of the bridge

nice pic of the bridge just before I left

The last thing I did (well, besides spend a little more time on the Public Shore) was visit the Intel Museum in Santa Clara, CA. It was free and Intel has a long history in INTegrated ELtronics…

Intel's first invoice

Robert Noyce, Intel's Co-Founder

Pentium III motherboard

WindowsXP error? Say it isn't so!

That was my vacation in a nutshell… I really enjoyed my trip to San Francisco…

I started off taking the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) to a station downtown where I can catch a cable car down to Fisherman’s Wharf…

The Powel and Mason Cable Car

That's a steep hill to go up

What goes up must come down

The Cable Car let me off right in front of Fisherman’s Wharf. I walked around and saw dozens of shops and plenty of places to fill the belly with all types of food… of course, there were many seafood joints…

Entering the wharf

The Cannery

Hooters! I had to have lunch there

I could smell that bread

Then down to the waterfront and the Piers. (on “The Embarcadero”)

Lots of flowers along the way

Time for a pic

Most notably, Pier 39…

Sea Lions o' plenty

A view of Alcatraz Island

With the Pier39 flag and Alcatraz Island in the background

Finally, the Alcatraz Bay Cruise Tour (the only official Tour I took.). This one did not dock on the island, but cruised around the bay. I found this one to be very interesting.

Downtown SF from the bay

The Golden Gate Bridge from below

Welcome to Alcatraz

Cell block on Alcatraz

One of the work places on Alcatraz

Well, the first thing I did was “hit the ground running…” going to the Apple Campus. The only thing that the public can do is visit the “Company Store” and walk around the campus and take pics…

The Company Store

by the 1 Infinite Loop sign

Then it was too late to goto any of the other museums down in the Santa Clara county area (The Computer Museum and the Intel Museum come to mind…), so I went to the hotel and checked in and did a little walking along the “Public Shore” walking trail that runs along Old Bayshore Highway. There were several hotels along that road that border the “Public Shore” walking trail such as the Vangard and a Mariott.

The view from my room of the bay

My Gorgeous Room!

Flowers behind the Mariott

A view of SFO

Benches behind my hotel

Going on a well-deserved vacation in a couple of weeks.  I am going to go home for a few days and I am also going to San Francisco.

Part I: Chattanooga
Taking Dana to Chattanooga to stay at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo over a weekend.  We are going to stay in one of the Victorian Train Cars and do much of the “tourist” activities on Lookout Mountain.

Part II: Huntsville
Going to Huntsville for a Monday afternoon before flying out on a very early Tuesday morning.

Part III: San Francisco
I don’t care too much for air travel …well, the part before take-off.  Getting to the airport, getting through security, getting on the plane and I have to change planes in Charlotte both ways.  I decided to rent a car since my hotel is near SFO at the Bay Landing Hotel.  I plan to go down to the San Jose area.  I may take public transportation to SF since I heard that parking near the Wharf is limited and metered.  I am going to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, however, there is a toll getting back into SF over the GG Bridge… cheesy!

Flying to San Francisco on Tuesday the 19th of August for 3 days/2 nights.  Leaving early on Tuesday and coming back on a red-eye flight on Thursday to maximize my time in SF.  I am going to go to the Apple HQ in Cupertino, the Intel Museum, possibly DigiBarn Computer Museum or the Computer History Museaum, and Silicon Valley.

On Wednesday the 20th of August, off to Fisherman’s Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz Island.

On Thursday the 21st of August, I am not completely sure… hopefully, play this one by ear.  Flight doesn’t leave until 10:30 or so, so I have all day to get to the airport and drop off my rental car.

Part IV: Huntsville
Getting back on Friday morning, I am going to spend the rest of the weekend in HSV with my Mom and visiting friends, just there an additional day.  I will have plenty of pictures and vids to share.  Coming back to Alpharetta on Sunday…