I'm recently back from my first visit to the wonderful city of San Fran. On this occasion I was over for a two day off-site (internal meeting) with my US colleagues to plan for next year. I recently came back from another visit to Hyderabad in India via Dubai and I've been piling up the miles on the road. In recognition of being away from home a lot my manager allowed me to change my usual business class flight status to two economy flights to allow my wife to come with me. So on this occasion it was the two of us! This was Camila's first visit to the US and she needed to go through a lengthy, absurdly bureaucratic process (and I mean absurd) including an interview before she got a ten year visa to visit the US. Eventually all was sorted out and we both found ourselves in SF for the first time. I spend two days at the internal conference and then we both took another 4 days off to the check out the city. We stayed in the highly recommendable W hotel, on 3rd avenue and Howard (the pancakes are a must). Which is a very modern boutique hotel which caters for the young at heart? It's location was perfect and it took us no time to get to Union Square as well as down to the port area.
Highlights on the trip:
1. Seeing what an Apple conference looks like. When arrived the launch of the new iPhone was in full swing and you could feel the buzz in the city
2. We checked out a baseball game and were lucky enough to be with the Microsoft team in our own corporate suite which was an experience
3. We visited Alcatraz which was a fantastic audio tour that I would highly recommend. You need to book a day in advance as it is almost impossible to buy tickets on the day.
4. We checked out the famous Fisherman's Wharf with its whining and belching seals which loiter around the front of the harbouring smelling badly in their hundreds.
5. We rented some bikes from Blazing Saddles (which brought back some memories when we were taking out the bikes as I met some young lads from Limerick who were on their J1 student visa for the summer [reminded me of when I did the same in New York, Long island]), from there we paid 32 dollars each, which i thought was a little steep, and spent a lovely hour cycling along the cost and over the famous Golden Gate Bridge and on to Sollenous before we got the 30 minute ferry back to leave the bikes back. Great views from the bridge and well worth the effort
6. We went to a very nice Brazilian churracaria and stocked up on some of Camila and I's favourite food: fejoada, manioc and of course picanha.
On the home we also hit it lucky as we got upgraded to business class, which we were delighted with, not sure why, but it helped a lot getting a few hours sleep before arriving in London. San Fran left a big impression on me. It is clean, there is a lot of green living taking place with lots of people recycling and cycling, the restaurants and bars are great, and there is loads of people using technology which is no surprise considering the HQs of Google, Apple, Facebook, Oracle and scores of startups are nearby and dotted across Silicon Valley. I'm really looking forward to coming back and maybe next time making a detour to Las Vegas!
