Atlanta - June 2012

Georgia 2012

Sunday 3 July 2012 - It was fantastic to see Natasha again; we went back to her gorgeous house in Smyrna where we met her dogs & cats, picked up her husband Andrew and set off into town. They hadn't been living in Atlanta too long so they had a list of tourist destinations they wanted to check out as well. We started with lunch at The Varsity - apparently it's an institution and it was absolutely packed and doing a roaring trade, despite being rudimentary and quite greasy. I learnt that if a vehicle is 'booted' it's had wheel clamps applied. We then crossed to the World of Coca Cola where I bought a City Pass that included entry to a bunch of attractions; it turned out to be quite a good deal. It was pretty cool how Coke get you to pay to be subjected to a couple of hours of immersive marketing - then again I guess it is an iconic product in modern society. The 4D movie was pretty good, the flavours of the world were curious, and the vault containing the recipe was a bit strange.

On the way back we stopped off for supplies for Natasha's menagerie, and then settled in to watch Ice Road Truckers - Andrew's brother was the night's episode's producer.

From Georgia 2012

Monday - I was feeling a bit sniffly so had a little bit of a rest day to start with, catching up on sleep, washing and emails. Andrew had a couple of errands to I came along as well. In the afternoon Natasha took me driving around some of the fancier neighbourhoods - suburban Atlanta is very green, all the streets seem to lead into forests with only occasional glimpses of surrounding habitation, you mostly feel like you're in a country lane. We searched for a bus route nearby but no luck - our game of Spot the Bus Stop was mostly uneventful; and by the looks of things, some of the routes we did manage to find only operate at peak hours. On the way back we stopped by a mall and with Natasha's help I finally got some new sneakers.

After dinner, during which our server had the most extreme southern accent that I've ever heard (particularly for a young white girl), we went to see Snow White and the Huntsman which was pretty good, though on the way home we all panned it for being a bit derivative.

From Georgia 2012

Tuesday - I had mostly recovered, and after some gardening Natasha & I headed out into the afternoon to start using my City Pass vouchers. We went to Fernbank Museum including the Scoop on Poop (ewwww) and IMax: To The Arctic. It was the day of the last Transit of Venus for the next century-and-a-bit, so after stopping for a coffee, and despite cloudy skies, we went to the Fernbank Science Center where some telescopes were set up, just in case. I was amazed to see the Apollo 6 command module which, unmanned, went to space and returned successfully. With half an hour or so to go before the start of the transit, we had a look at a special (albeit buggy) presentation in the planetarium, and then with the skies clearing just in time, we headed out to join the queue for the telescopes, which were set up under a big dome - alas there was no correspondingly big telescope for us to look through, but the small scopes were fine.

The queue moved slowly for an hour or so and we started making friends with our neighbours. Our patience was rewarded by a brief but spectacular view of the silhouette of Venus; and I managed to take a photo of the terrific view by holding my phone up to the eyepiece. I was surprised and delighted that this worked!

We had dinner back at Natasha and Andrew's place in Mableton and were joined by Joelle from next door - great fun.

From Georgia 2012

Wednesday - Natasha dropped me off at Hamilton E Homes station, and I bought a Breeze Card for travel on the MARTA. The train carriages are pretty much the same design as the ones in Melbourne - except that for the most part I was the only white guy. For such a major city that was originally established as a railhead, the suburban network was quite modest but it only took about 10 minutes to get to the centre of town. After the previous city tours on the trip I thought I'd try something different, after lunch I tried a City Segway Tour. It was the first time I'd tried one; the instructor, a budding thespian, took our group of about 8 through the basics and we were all up & going in no time. They were great fun to ride - it's a bit hard to know what you're actually doing, you just do it - eventually a bit tiring on the feet though. One of the other young guys took a spill when he tried a couple of hoon moves; a couple of times I inadvertently did a sort of pirouette & was sure I was about to end up on the sidewalk but each time the Segway managed to catch me. It was worth it for the great response from everyone we were passing. The actual tour aspect was not quite as interesting as other places - Atlanta is great for business and conventions but it doesn't have as much for tourists. It doesn't even have much in the way of a city shopping district, all the big retail and department stores are in Buckhead or in the suburbs.

After the tour I watched a bit of a Soul band playing a free show in Centennial Park; I felt a little bit conspicuous but it looked like a pretty cool event. I then had a look around the Georgia Dome precinct - there were lots of seniors around getting ready for the evening's Neil Diamond concert at Philips Arena, and then back to H E Holmes where Natasha kindly collected me. We had some dinner where we met up with Andrew who took his tea break while working late.

From Georgia 2012

Thursday - This time Andrew shared the chauffeur duties with the MARTA. I hadn't thoroughly researched how to get to Turner Field but Georgia State station looked sort of close but I ended up with quite a hike - at one point I followed a path and ended up in the middle of a freeway. Eventually I passed the Olympic Torch Tower and reached the stadium to take the Turner Field tour with 3 others who were mad baseball fans - I dropped in a few questions about the Olympics but it was a very baseball-centric tour. I'd had enough exercise so I caught the bus back to town.

Next up I did the CNN tour which was much more popular. We saw a mock-up of a control booth, the main TV studio and had a gallery view over the rows of journalists. It was all pretty interesting. Through Centennial Park again where there were lots of kids playing in the fountain (not a bad idea considering the warm weather!) and then I used my city pass for Georgia Aquarium despite having already been to a couple of aquaria in the last year. It was big production, a little bit corporate but generally pretty well done. I was a bit miffed that their list of penguin species didn't include my Eudyptula Minor buddies.

Back in the park I used the World Of Coca Cola's free WiFi to catch up on messages and again was befriended by a local guy which was great... until, as usually happened, they put the hard word on to spare some change - always pretty annoying. Anyway I headed into the downtown area to find somewhere for dinner but it was quite a challenge - once business closes for the day, everyone pretty much goes home & it's a bit of a ghost town. I wandered up to Underground Atlanta and had a look around, there wasn't a lot happening but the people were friendly without then hassling me.

From Georgia 2012

Friday - Natasha & I did some more gardening - again I struggled a little bit with my injuries but hopefully I helped. We then went for a drive with the dogs & saw a local covered bridge, and went for a bushwalk along the Chattahoochee River.

We drove in to Turner Field for the evening's Braves game against the Blue Jays. It was a big night as the Braves were retiring John Smoltz's number 29... however we were stuck in gridlock and not sure where our carpark that we had booked was. The signage and traffic control were abysmal, no-one knew where anything was and didn't really care, and the cars were directed in a vague loop around the stadium at snail's pace. When we did find our carpark it looked pretty dodgy but all worked out and we arrived during the 2nd inning. It would've been a very long game even if it hadn't extended to an extra inning. The Blue Jays conceded most of their runs through elementary errors; eventually the Braves took the points. Perhaps it was the crowd's "chopping" that intimidated the Blue Jays! The Friday Night Fireworks capped off a great evening.

From Georgia 2012

Saturday - Andrew and I went to check out the Cyclorama which was great - a fabulous historical document, presented in a terrific rotating auditorium, and our guide was brilliant. I got another souvenir of my trip - we had arrived just as a documentary had started in the theatre and I gashed my shin trying to negotiate my way in. Afterwards we had a look around the museum; amazing that so much blood had been spilt all around the area. We drove past a Greek party (a student thing, no souvlakis in sight) on the way out to the Atlanta History Center; we only had about an hour but it looked fantastic - lots of info about the Civil War, and also the Atlanta Olympics. We then called in at the Lenox Square in Buckhead (great name); I bought a great new pair of dress shoes to replace the ones that had disintegrated in San Francisco and we checked out a Microsoft store, along the lines of an Apple store - pretty cool.

After picking up Natasha we headed back into town to have a farewell drink at the Sundial revolving restaurant/bar, after negotiating the Escheresque carpark.

From Georgia 2012

Sunday - it was a drizzly day - good for packing up & heading home. Natasha & Andrew dropped me off at the airport and I was able to check my bag all the way through (apparently it's called "Interline" when it goes through more than one airline), although I was pretty sure it'd get delayed (I was right). My flight to San Francisco seemed to traverse the majority of the contiguous states. Then - yikes! - my flight to LAX was running a couple of hours late and I'd miss my connection through to Sydney. There were a few other flights that might have got me there in time but each was apparently full and had waiting lists. I joined the queue at the helpdesk, and became increasingly frustrated with the glacial speed of the staff. Our queue of a dozen or so people was quite stalled, and the attendants showed a complete aversion to anything resembling progress. My neighbour in the queue, Charlotte, was also trying to get to Sydney, and after checking the departures board I hatched a plan - there was a direct flight from SFO to SYD bypassing LAX completely, and if I could get on it I'd still be on schedule to get my correct flight to MEL. With the queue still stuck, I spied a customer service phone across the terminal and tried to call the airline to see if they could arrange something but I got lost in the prompts and gave up. Charlotte thought she'd give it a go, and before I knew it she was calling out to me across the terminal that she'd succeeded! We just had to get to the customer service desk and have our boarding passes reissued. Easy? Not quite - they had to get all the details to reroute the bags as well. But around midnight we headed out over the Pacific, landing in Australia just after sunrise - around 15 hours later. We were rushed across the terminal to the plane for the last leg home, only for a couple of more delays but then I was back at Tulla. Thanks Dad for picking me up!

Impressions:

• Atlanta seemed to be wall-to-wall fast food at times, which can certainly be convenient for tourists; probably not the healthiest though! All through the trip the locals were always very proud of their local chains.
• I can't quite figure out the insistence on having 'East'/'West'/'North'/'South' streets, block numbering & I think neither could Natasha & Andrew's GPSes - when they told it "Atlanta, Georgia" it would ask them which Atlanta they meant.
• Everyone is wearing Hollister
• Wherever you go, people think their traffic & public transport is the worst!
• My new HTC Desire mobile phone was a trooper - WiFi is common and I was never far away from being in touch via email and Facebook. It took photos that were just as good or better than my still camera and never needed batteries being replaced as a still camera would (once I'd bought the US USB charger).

Huge thanks to everyone who looked after me during the entire trip. I hope to see you all again soon!

Florida - May/June 2012

Florida 2012

Thursday 31st May - Orlando airport is huge - I think it took us 15 minutes just to taxi to our terminal. I picked up my luggage (yay!) and my Kia Rio rental car (as I sort of expected- but it was still disappointing, the taxes, fees, insurances etc more than doubled the price I'd booked it for but I did resist the special deal to upgrade to a convertible, particularly with lots of rain around and a hurricane just having passed). I was assisted with setting up my toll tag by an attendant... I think I was meant to tip him... and then, having been up since about 5am I headed out into steamy Florida for my second ever experience of driving on the right.

I headed straight to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for an afternoon of seeing the various exhibits; it was fun but there was a slight sense of "here's some cool stuff that we used to do" and "here's some life-sized mockups". I did the Shuttle Launch Experience ride which was quite good fun. I also noticed that the accents on some of the staff were so broad as to almost be caricatures.

I drove on to Cocoa Beach, where I Dream Of Jeannie was set. I had picked my hotel just because of a special deal with the airline, and it turns out that it's a little bit of a redneck holiday area, but the hotel was virtually beachfront and nice enough. After settling in a storm hit, and it showed no signs of passing; I dashed the few metres to my car, drove across the street to Denny's, and dashed inside - and was more-or-less drenched.

From Florida 2012

Friday - I started with my first ever swim in the very calm, warm & slightly muddy Atlantic Ocean under leaden skies. Then off to Disney World EPCOT - when in Rome & all that. I didn't have any small currency for the parking (about $15 or something I think) and the attendant didn't have change so she waved me though. The rain started with a vengeance and didn't let up until late in the afternoon, luckily I had a poncho so only my feet and shins got soaked while dashing between attractions. It was an interesting day, some of the attractions seemed a bit dated - but I enjoyed being flipped around at the end of a robot arm, and was delighted to hear the unmistakable sound of taiko from across the lake - I dashed to the Japanese pavilion and caught the end of the small performance. Good fun but in hindsight I probably would've preferred another day at Kennedy.

On the way home I started heading in the right general direction but couldn't find the right expressway and inadvertently went through Kissimmee (I recall a long, long neon canyon - so many malls and fast food restaurants!), Deer Park and Melbourne.

From Florida 2012

Saturday - as the sun beat down I headed back to the Astronaut Hall Of Fame for my Astronaut Training. There were about 18 of us enrolled, with a couple of family groups. We did various activities including some simulated shuttle landings, and my experience with the Google Earth flight simulator along with the fact that there was an odd number in our training rotation so I got to have a simulator terminal to myself and could practice everything twice as much, meant that I got the best scores for my landings and thus earned the role as Commander on our simulated mission, STS-309. We had a script to guide us, while the instructors threw a few unexpected scenarios at us. My Mission Specialists lacked a certain dexterity with their Robot Arm controls, and couldn't figure out the gas valves when we were all in danger of asphyxiating, and my Pilot didn't get the landing gear down until we were about 10cm above the runway and about to stall but we made it back in one piece. Our training concluded with a Q&A session with Shuttle astronaut Bob Springer and presentation of our graduation certificates. My ribs were still quite sore but they didn't hinder me in any of the activities.

I just had time to get back to the main visitor complex to take the KSC Tour which was amazing - the segmented Saturn V was absolutely huge and seemed so large to be incapable of movement yet the engines left you under no illusions about the incredible power they could unleash. From the lookout we could see the launch pads where humankind has launched itself into space. It was amazing - I'd be very keen to return one day and do some of the other tours, beside which I didn't get a chance to have a go on the centrifuge and it'd be great to see Atlantis when it's installed - and to see a launch would be brilliant.

I headed back to Cocoa Beach and stopped by the pier, a minor local attraction. I went for a drive to find some dinner and was very amused by the archetypal trailer trash couple in front of me in the queue at the gas station.

Sunday - I dropped off the car and checked in, using the Delta Airlines app on my phone as an electronic boarding pass - I was surprised how much better an experience it was to have one less thing to juggle through the checkpoints.

Impressions:
I'd been a little bit nervous about driving on the wrong side, and a couple of times a sanity double-check of every direction saved me from being somewhere I shouldn't, but there weren't any great problems.
I heard Gotye on the car radio a couple of times - "Somebody That I Used To Know" was on top of the charts.

Quebec - May 2012

Quebec 2012

Wednesday 23rd - I had views of Des Moines and Chicago on our flight to Washington Dulles, where thunderstorms hit while I was in transit. My plan to arrive in time for Joannie to pick me up after work started to unravel as the tarmac filled with planes that had landed but were waiting for gates to become available, while no planes were taking off. Our Bombardier jet set off over an hour late, and on landing a bunch of flustered passengers sprinted in vain for their connection to Paris. Meantime, I waited in vain for my luggage. Baggage Services had a small but quite angry mob to deal with in multiple languages; I was busy trying to remember the colour of my case, getting into the wrong 'missing bag' immigration queue and messaging Joannie who was parked outside. I must remember to ask for the free toiletries showbag next time.

It was brilliant to see Joannie again! Hard to believe it'd been 10 years. We dropped past her downtown apartment and then went out for a late dinner, of smoked meat(!), at Schwartz's. As we finished I had my first view of what would be a theme for my stay - there were nightly protest marches that had been taking place for several weeks and gaining momentum. It'd been dubbed 'Casserole Protest' as the marchers were making themselves heard by bashing pots & pans. There were lots of students and even families, and they would criss-cross the city each evening, noisy but mostly well behaved.

From Quebec 2012

Thursday - I had a good sleep-in, and was happy to get the message that my luggage had arrived & would be delivered that afternoon. I had a quick look around the neighbourhood & successfully managed to buy some lunch - I think I managed some hesitant French. I got a message from Joannie that there was a courier downstairs with my bag - I was expecting a FedEx van or similar but couldn't see anything... just a guy speaking French into his mobile. After a couple of minutes I asked him if he was the courier, and he said that he didn't speak much English - but yes. Instead of a van he just had a small sedan with bags through the back seat. It was great to clean up! Finally I felt presentable enough to go out sightseeing, and I headed down to the Old Port and before I knew it I found myself on Le Bateau Mouche cruise out around the old port and a short distance up & down the St Lawrence River - amazing to see such huge ships so far inland! It's a very broad river but didn't seem too deep - it had patches of rapids and lots of locks. It was a great way to view the city and enjoy the unexpectedly summery temperatures - most of the week it was around 30deg during the day and t-shirt weather in the evenings.

Joannie had given me an Opus card and in the evening we went to Mont Royal for a drink and dinner with a few of her friends which was great fun!

From Quebec 2012

Friday - I walked to the main tourism office in Dorchester Square and made it just in time to catch the city tour bus. I always find that these are a great way to get your bearings in a new city, but almost always have very annoying fellow passengers and guides. Our guide this time was very good but the trip was slightly marred when one passenger insisted on saving the last spare seat for her partner downstairs just in case he wanted to come up, despite another group needing one last seat - it got a little heated and a bit racist. The tour was reasonable (though I think Melbourne's free bus and tram tours compare very favourably compared to Montreal's $51 plus tips) and took us to most of the main sights around the city and the mountain. It also managed to get stuck for about 10 minutes by a goods train in the docks - the driver eventually U-turned and bypassed the blockage.

At lunch and a big weird guy sat down opposite me and started to quiz me about my meal but eventually he wandered off. I went back to the tourist office & started to map out the rest of my week, and then took a train to the Olympic Park. There were great views from stadium tower lookout and I took the Stadium Tour which was very good. The tour took us through the pool complex and I'm pretty sure that many of the Canadian Aquatic Olympic team's athletes were in final preparations for London 2012. (I was also impressed that they gave me a refund when the vending machine took my money.)

While I'd been staying Joannie had shown considerable interest in my ukulele and on impulse I thought it'd be nice to buy her a basic Mahalo as a thank-you present - she immediately took to it & asked me to start teaching her how to play it - fantastic! She mentioned she'd had a dream where I'd given her a uke - weird!

That night Joannie took me out to enjoy another Montreal delicacy - Poutine (describing it as fries with cheese, toppings and gravy is a start, but doesn't do it justice) at La Banquise. When we were heading back to the station, a summer storm hit - a sudden torrential downpour - we tried to shelter in doorways but still got drenched during the initial 10-minute burst; every time there was a brief respite we dashed to the next visible awning or alcove (the protesters continued on through the deluge). I was soaked through by the time we got back to the station after half an hour or so.

From Quebec 2012

Saturday - Joannie had booked us in for a morning at Arbraska zipline park with a social group; it was great to get out into the countryside & try our skills; we spent a sunny morning meeting the others and testing our nerve in the treetops, while the guides (dressed as fairies) buzzed around. We nursed some tired muscles over a picnic, losing and finding members of the group before turning for home (with an extra passenger). We stopped for a second lunch of fast food and then dropped by Joannie's parents' place. I had spoken to her mum on the phone when Joannie was staying in Melbourne & it was fantastic to meet her and her father, and to get to see their home - I was familiar with the address thanks to a few postcards & letters that Joannie & I had exchanged.

Back to Joannie's - and disaster! - my key to Joannie's apartment was missing. It later transpired that I'd left it at Arbraska, on reflection I'd put it with my bag during the picnic, but myself and another member of the group had picked up each other bags before realising and swapping - but the key had fallen on the ground. And then got run over by a mower, so the swipe card was destroyed. I paid for Joannie to get a replacement but there would be a few weeks' time before it arrived. (Hopefully everything's restored now!) If it was any consolation, while searching for the key in Joannie's car, I found the Blackberry phone she'd lost months earlier :-P The loss of the key wasn't a great hassle but I always hate inconveniencing a host. (I happened to turn on the radio at one point and immediately heard the story of a houseguest inadvertently burning down a family house though, so a lost key perhaps is not so bad in comparison.)

Later that evening we wandered through the nightclub district, most amused by the fashions, and through the Quartier des Spectacles district which had lots of public art set up, in particular some musical swings ("21 Balançoires").

From Quebec 2012

Sunday - We fuelled up at Canadian coffee chain institution, Tim Hortons, before heading to Les Cultures Gourmandes (multicultural festival) outside the Pointe-à-Callière museum, this year featuring Japan. This brought back lots of great memories of my previous two overseas trips. We looked over all the stalls such as martial arts and calligraphy, and enjoyed some takoyaki before watching the amazing Arashi Daiko. Having been learning taiko myself for just over a year it was great to see a performance by another group, and they were very energetic with lots of intricate choreography and drum setups requiring plenty of nifty footwork to get from one drum to the next; also they seemed to be having a fantastic time. One of the guys used a baseball-bat-sized drumstick very dextrously with lots of big wind-ups. I had a chat to them afterwards and told them about Wadaiko Rindo, they were very interested and we had a great chat.

Next, some more drumming - we went to visit the Tam Tams, a weekly drum circle at the foot of Mount Royal - It was good but I prefer taiko though! There were crowds of people (predominately hippies, at least for the day) enjoying the lawns and various activities such as recreating medieval battles using homemade cardboard & foam weaponry, and slackrope walking. Joannie & I walked on through the park up to the lookout at the Chalet, then past Beaver Lake and took a very squashy bus ride back down the mountain. We had a snack at Le Cagibi (ie, KGB) but Joannie was keen for me to try a bagel which took a little bit of hunting down. Later we stopped by an Australian pie shop, strangely enough. It was great to see all the Montreal streetscapes and visualise Joannie's stories about having to negotiate the exposed staircases in wintery conditions.

From Quebec 2012

Monday - I took a day tour to Quebec City. It was an early start, the driver was annoying (too much false charm, laughing at his own jokes at the same place in both languages, rapidfire switching of languages as if to subtitle himself, and way too many rhetorical questions) and the weather had suddenly become quite cool. We stopped for a quick orientation at the Lower Town restored historic (tourist) district and shivered through the guides' presentation. Two South Korean girls were not prepared for the cold and just as I was about to offer my extra jacket to the one that didn't have one, they slipped away from the group returning a couple of minutes later with a new souvenir windcheater. Our bus then took us to the Plains of Abraham park to take in some of the history, and views of the river which amazingly is tidal this far upstream, before we returned for lunch. The Koreans, Minam and Jimin, were kind enough to invite me to join them; they were on a rest day from their work as cabin crew for Qatar Air (I had met two of their colleagues on the Bateau Mouche) and we spent the afternoon travelling around together. After lunch our tour continued with a cruise on the Louis Jolliet to see the Montmorency Falls and then we explored the archaeology of the Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux underneath the plaza of Le Château Frontenac (partly to get out of the wind). The hot coffee at the hotel's Starbucks went down very well and gave Minam the chance to flirt with the barista. Despite the mild annoyances, it was a fantastic day, all the better for great company & hopefully I'll get to meet my Korean friends again one day!

From Quebec 2012

Tuesday - After breakfast at the local coffee shop I took the fabulous English tour of La Basilique Notre-Dame; there were about 30 people in our group (along with our very charming guide) & I felt a bit sorry for the Francophone tourguide who only had a single person on her tour. Downstairs I went to the À la Vie, à la Mort - Life Before Death, possibly a mistake as after a while it started to creep me out just a bit... I needed to have a good wander in the sunshine afterwards to clear my head. 

I then headed back to the Pointe-à-Callière- the Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History, to see their touring Samurai exhibition which was pretty cool (particularly the swords), and their clever multimedia 3D-projection history of Montreal and the subterranean foundations. I wanted to buy some shoes and Joannie had told me to head to St Catherine Street but I headed to the wrong section and I think I ended up in a section that was packing up after a pride festival the previous weekend. I caught the train back to the area around UQAM and did some window shopping until another big storm hit which was a great opportunity to explore the extensive network subterranean shopping malls which took me all the way back to Joannie's.

That evening we dined at Mon Shing, then tried to see a movie but it was sold out, so we went for a drink at Winnie's. On the way back we cut through the Complexe Desjardins and watched as some technicians trialled the programming of intricate movements of giant drop shapes suspended from the ceiling.

From Quebec 2012

Wednesday - I reprised my visit to my favourite new coffee shop, and then took the train to Montmorency, something that I'd done every day for years back in Melbourne. There wasn't much to see there - a nice big new cavernous underground railway terminus with a bus depot above; what looks to be an industrial estate yet to be constructed; and a new university campus that was almost deserted - but I successfully ordered brunch in French and dashed off some postcards. I finally took the suggestion of the ever-present billboards (which had been designed by Joannie's ex), to attend the Star Wars Identities exhibition at Montreal Science Centre. I hadn't been too enthused about it before but it was actually pretty cool to see a lot of the costumes, props and models from the movies. The narrative behind the exhibition was a bit contrived, but not too bad. I had a quick look at the rest of the museum, which was probably enough.

It was a fantastic afternoon so I had a last walk around the docks & neighbouring parks, past Cirque du Soleil's bigtop headquarters. Then, I went to the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal's "Zoo" exhibition - modern art inspired by animals. I'd seen the signs all week and thanks to their choice of font had read it as "200". I also spent half an hour circumnavigating the building thanks to a sign that said "this door is broken, use the next one", so I looked for another entrance, but it just meant to use the directly adjacent door. I don't think I 'get' modern art, I much preferred the old film of a frequently combusting Rube Goldberg machine, and also the exhibit of kids' work. I then just had a wander around the Place des Artes - there was a music TV interview of a rap star being conducted on a terrace with a few dozen screaming kids as backdrop. I still couldn't find any shoes I liked but I was befriended by an endearing bilingual senior citizen who told me a little about the good old days.

I met up with Joannie and we headed off to Parc la Fontaine to meet up with the Ukulélé Club de Montréal. My uke radar started to kick in and when I saw a group of people on the lawn I knew it was them before I could clearly see or hear them. We spent a sunny evening rehearsing their favourite songs such as "Le Lion Est Mort Ce Soir" in front of bemused passers-by - lots of double-takes, they had some fantastic players and heaps of beginners. It was predominantly conducted in French which I was managing sufficiently well by this stage. As it got dark we moved to a picnic shelter and had an open mic session (without a mic) and I redeemed my efforts from earlier in the trip by playing Reboot faultlessly. It was fantastic to meet everyone & compare notes and swap some merchandise.

Thursday - I was thrilled that not only did Joannie wake up to see me off, but accompanied me to the bus stop for the 5:40am Bus 747. Farewell Joannie & I hope it's not as long before we meet again! Before I knew it I was descending over Florida, there seem to be heaps of airports everywhere I looked, fingers crossed that the pilot could find the right one!

Impressions of Montreal: I was surprised to see IGA Supermarkets - turns out IGA started in North America. Someone should buy everyone in Montreal a compass - streets designated eg 'North' are closer to 'West'. It was great to see, hear and speak some French, I was able to remember or figure out quite a lot (eg echafaud for scaffold).

California - May 2012

California 2012

Saturday 12th May - United managed to lose my luggage twice during my trip, both times in somewhat understandable circumstances, but one cool thing that they do sometimes is put the Air Traffic Control communications through one of the audio channels which is great to listen in to. In Sydney an American guy spied my uke and we proceeded to have a short jam in the departure lounge. My first impressions of San Francisco from the approach were the banks of fog extending out to sea and swamplands around the edge of the bay, and of course the very hilly terrain. I arrived at SFO, eventually figured out the BART vending machine for a train into town, I walked the last few short blocks to my hotel which was a bit shabby (and there was a neighbouring exhaust vent roaring day & night), and I never quite figured out the taps and remote control, but I was out and about virtually the entire time so it sufficed.

First stop, via lunch, was to buy a 110V USB phone charger which turned out to be very handy - WiFi is becoming common enough that I could touch base with the outside world without too much inconvenience during the entire trip; and the pictures that my phone takes are comparable to those of my still camera. I spent the afternoon walking around trying to convince my body clock that it was not the middle of the night; I strolled down Market Street with diversions to watch - from a distance - the filming of a stunt car, which had several city blocks barricaded off. I continued along the Embarcadero, and then jumped on a double decker bus tour of Golden Gate Bridge, which was spookily draped with fog, and some of the other sights nearby. Much of the bridge approach resembled a wrecking yard with extensive piles of smashed up concrete and mangled girders - perhaps another bridge was being recycled? After the tour, the late-afternoon fog encroached over the Fisherman's Wharf area and set everyone shivering, my solution to keep warm - a clam chowder dinner - was moderately successful. A cable car ride back to the hotel and at 7pm I crashed out for a long, long sleep.

From California 2012

Sunday - I'd hoped to tour Alcatraz, but with a couple of cruise ships in town it was already sold out for the day, so I booked it for the following afternoon. My bus tour ticket was still valid so I used it to explore other parts of the city - lots of the distinctive architecture and prominent fire escapes as a reminder of the city's historic disasters. Later on in the afternoon I checked out the How Weird Street Faire - there was lots of doof music, elaborate costumes, interesting aromas - it struck me as being a very San Francisco sort of event. Dinner over WiFi and another well-earned sleep.

From California 2012

Monday - I checked in early for the NetSuite World 2012 conference, which was starting that evening. I took a ferry to Larkspur in Marin County to attend a lunch at "Jason's" for the local branch of a club that I'm in, it's always great to get off the tourist trail & meet some locals. There were lots of great views of the bay and bridges - and marshes and prisons, during the 35-minute trip; on the way back there were some Giants fans getting into town early for the evening's ballgame. I had a mad dash to Pier 33 to catch my Alcatraz ferry and had a fantastic late afternoon exploring the island. It's a spectacular location and the presentation of its history was top-notch. I'd been told by Uni to look out for a friend of hers, Jamie - but I'd completely forgotten up until when I had to hand my audio tour back - I checked out the attendant's name tag and it was her! I complemented her on how clever it was that everyone's audio tours tracked out different routes through the prison so that people wouldn't congregate and the tour didn't become a procession, but she said that everyone's tour was in fact the same, people were just getting lost.

I took a tram back to catch the opening night of SuiteWorld, and then a Muni bus to Madrone Art Bar for Motown Monday, where I caught up with Uni and Jamie and met some of their other buddies - it was a huge day & night, and heaps of fun! Uni has a new CD out and it's terrific.

From California 2012

Tuesday - I had a full day at the conference, meeting all the vendors, & lots of other delegates, attending the keynotes & meetings - another packed day. The presentations were great although NetSuite's business intelligence did not seem to extend to geography; their world map had the New Zealand flag posted in Tasmania. The Asia Pacific manger took his regional attendees out to a swish dinner which was terrific, it was great to swap ideas & experiences with other delegates and vendors.

From California 2012

Wednesday - jetlag had finally caught up but I battled masterfully - and somewhat successfully - through the morning sessions of the conference, including having to find somewhere to 'hide' my suitcase (stashing it under a table); the conference people had said it was too big to cloak, and the hotel wouldn't take it because I had been staying elsewhere. My plan for the day had been to leave in the late afternoon for Monterey but I became increasingly amazed by the lack of public transport from San Francisco. I expected regular buses and/or railway services to be running up and down the coast, but the best I could find was a Monterey Airport Bus which was very expensive, and impossible to book unless I had a flight number and local mobile phone. I had been offered a couple of lifts leaving at lunchtime and in the end I accepted one from Denise and her carload from Eugene, Oregon, who I managed to catch just in time - they were able to swing past & pick me up. (It was a shame to miss some of the NetSuite sessions but I'll be catching up online.)

It was a great trip - we swapped uke stories and compared notes as we went through a bunch of localities that I was intimately familiar with as the bases for many of the world's great technology companies. We visited some of Denise's friends for a cuppa & it was nice to see a Californian house from the inside for the first time. The traffic was a challenge at times, and the navigation wasn't always as simple as the maps and directions suggested, but we arrived at the Asilomar Conference Grounds for the West Coast Ukulele Retreat. The resort consisted of a collection of very grand, and old, lodges (I was in "Scripps") with communal meeting & dining rooms. There were several other organisations holding conferences concurrently with us - there always seems to be a correlation between ukulele gatherings and mental health events and this was again the case, with a Mental Health Conference being our dinner neighbours. It was fantastic to see up with Jim again after having met him on his visits to Melbourne, and to start to get to know the other attendees over the opening night dinner and instructor showcase.

From California 2012

Thursday/Friday/Saturday - we had daytime workshops & 'slam jam' practice in our assigned groups, generous cooked meals & gourmet tea breaks (which included choc-coated strawberries the size of small apples) prepared by the predominantly Mexican staff, and some spare time for socialising and exploring. I took a range of workshops, with an eye out for any instructors that we could invite to future Melbourne Ukulele Festivals. These workshops covered a variety of music styles & techniques, predominantly Swing for ukulele, the stylings of Roy Smeck, tropical rhythms, finger picking, soloing and some other party tricks. I think there were about 60 or 70 ukers, mainly from California and surrounds. The age group was a bit more mature than other uke gatherings I've been to - I was younger than most - I suspect that although it was great value, it was priced a little bit out of the range of many younger enthusiasts. There were some terrific characters. I've noticed that there's often parallel personalities in all the different uke groups and as I met people I was having fun mentally mapping them against MUKkers; "so this person is playing the role of so-and-so".

During most breaks I headed down to the beach just across the road, as did many of the other attendees. It was mostly bright & sunny but didn't quite fit my previous impressions of California: everyone was well rugged up and the water was bracingly cold. I waded in a couple of times but after a minute or so it actually started to hurt from the low temperature. I had wanted to go for a dip but the cold was too intimidating, though I did see a couple have a quick swim.

On Thursday evening we had a campfire sing-song (I tried to lead "Long Way" but to my surprise no-one knew it), on Friday there was a massed singalong (I redeemed myself by teaching "Jolene") and I enjoyed a late-night jam with some of the fabulous players in the Scripps lounge later. On Saturday there was an open mic where I played my Brass Traps song, "Reboot" and stuffed it up quite badly - however this meant that I got one of the best responses for the night, I'd have much preferred to have nailed it though! I also got to play with a couple of the small group performances.

Also on Friday evening I also made good use of Asilomar's WiFi to listen in to the Hawks beat the Dockers using the AFL Android app - it was fantastic that the technology all worked a treat and my muffled cheers attracted some bemused looks from other guests in the stately common room.

From California 2012

Sunday - the curtain came down on the retreat, I'll look forward to keeping in touch & hope that you all make it down to Melbourne, meantime - happy uking!



Denise was kind enough to offer me a lift back to San Francisco (after teaching me the "G IYQ" song) and we took a couple of side tracks - firstly we detoured south just slightly to take the 17 Mile Drive around the Monterey Peninsula - a very fancy and expensive-looking neighbourhood which includes Pebble Beach and other golf resorts, lots of very exclusive suburbs, and great nature views - full of sea lions, otters, forests and the Pacific Ocean. We then turned back towards San Francisco. Late in the afternoon after our break in Salinas, I fashioned a pinhole projector (with 2 bits of paper - one with a millimetre-sized hole in it) and observed the moon's silhouette start to move across the sun for the 2012 Annular Eclipse, and with about 15 minutes to go before the maximum, and after singing "Black Hole" to the carload, we pulled over onto a side road for the experience - at first I felt that I might be imposing on my fellow travellers by asking if we could stop for a moment to get a good view, but I think they were more excited than I was! Around 90% of the sun was covered; a couple of hundred km further north observers saw the moon passing right across the sun but not blocking it out - leaving the edge of the sun visible as a ring. (It was cool to hear that friends in Osaka and Tokyo also had the perfect view of the eclipse as it had passed right over them a few hours earlier.) We had the about the same amount of sun visible but the moon was just slightly to one side, leaving the sun as a thin "crescent-moon" shape, but curled around more at the ends. The maximum eclipse was around 5:30pm and light in the sky became a little eerie, our eyes adjusted so that it didn't really look darker, but there somehow seemed to be greater contrast... the colours seemed a bit different. We tried a few different ways of viewing the eclipse; the most reliable was the pinhole projector although the sun's image was only a few mm across. We also tried to put polarised sunglasses at right-angles but it was too glary, and we found that the internal reflections in prescription glasses also gave a clear image if you shielded your eyes from the sun itself.

The moon continued on its way and so did we. As we entered San Francisco some fog blew across giving us a direct view of the sun looking like a cookie with a bite out of it. The guys dropped me back at my hotel - thanks for a stellar day!

From California 2012

Monday/Tuesday - I embarked on the Extranomical 2-day tour of Yosemite National Park. Our driver tried to make a bit of a performance of his tourguiding which was somewhat dreadful. However he navigated us safely through Oakland and Dublin, past the rolling treeless golden hills covered in canals & windmills, breakfast at Oakdale & then up New Priest Grade Road, to our first main stop at Tuolumne Grove to see the Giant Sequoia trees - the world's heaviest living things (or something). The short hike was a good test for my ribs - I had injured my chest in a fall just before leaving (a subsequent scan when I was back home confirmed that there was no bone damage, I'd just torn something) which was a little bit uncomfortable to sleep on, and I was quite sore if I tried to breathe deeply but worst of all was sneezing which felt like a punch to the ribcage which would leave me seriously winded, so I took great precautions against the start of any sniffle! I made it through the walk OK but a bit gently. The trees were monstrous but it was hard to take it all in, it was a bit difficult to get a good view. We progressed on to Yosemite Valley and I was immediately blown away by how spectacular it was. Wherever you were and wherever you looked, it was breathtaking (notwithstanding my ribs)! And I continued to be impressed by how well the Americans maintain their National Parks - lots of facilities, harmoniously blended with the surroundings.

After the early start and annoying bus ride, I topped up the energy levels with lunch, and then caught the shuttle bus (much more user-friendly and efficient) to Curry Village where I'd booked a cabin tent - effectively a small hut with canvas sides & roof, complete with double bed, electric light & power points. Then, under glorious skies and with a pocket full of almonds (courtesy my roommate at Asilomar) that I needed to eat so as to not attract bears with any leftovers, I set off for Mirror Lake. This was a nice easy walk that would cover a fair bit of flat ground, so not too taxing on the sore lungs. Some Germans asked for directions but wouldn't believe me when I told them where they actually were. I'd hoped to walk a loop but a rock fall had closed one section of the track - in a way, a good reminder to be aware of any potential instabilities in the precipices soaring overhead.

I was zonked when I got back to camp. Unfortunately I couldn't suppress a very painful sneeze; I slept OK but spent most of the next morning feeling like I was going to keel over - until the pain suddenly lifted (mostly) at around lunchtime. I struggled through the buffet breakfast, amazed at the amount of food everyone was consuming; then I took the shuttle back to Yosemite Lodge and found some great flat-level walks - in the crowds around the base of Yosemite Falls, and then along the northern edge of the Valley past the Ahwahnee and then back to the lodge. The views in every direction were stunning; there were friendly critters all around, plenty of people in the main locations but heaps of space and solitude.

The tour bus turned up for the return journey; this driver was much more engaging, thankfully. We picked out some barely visible climbers on the immense face of El Capitan and were told how they take perhaps 5 days to scale the entire height, setting up hammocks mid-cliff and hauling their provisions up behind them. Then we set off on the long, tired drive back to San Francisco, stopping for some spectacular sunset photos on Treasure Island. It was an amazing experience to visit Yosemite and I highly recommend that everyone should go!

From California 2012

Wednesday - I was up at 5, having rightly ignored everyone's advice to book an airport shuttle, the BART was fine by me. Except for having to dodge a panhandler that was insisting on trying to help, despite my polite but firm refusals. It felt like the city was deserted at that early hour until I hit the airport which already had big crowds. Next stop - Montreal!

Impressions of San Francisco

• A couple of times there were major motorcycle ride-bys - one time with cruisers, and another they seemed to be mainly Vespas
• I quite liked the pedestrian crossing countdown that tells you how many seconds you have to reach the other side - a good hurry-up! I saw these throughout my North American trip.
• Not so pleasant was the intrusive pan-handling, and the guy taking a dump in a doorway :-P
• It was cool to see a Westfield shopping centre in prime position in Market Street

Next time: - Powell/Mason cable car & Lombard Street, as well as the Cable Car Barn & Powerhouse, Yosemite: some of the more 'vertical' walks, rafting.