Landing in San Francisco

15 November 2007
Thursday and my last full day in San Francisco. I finished up at the office a tad early and went to a local place called the Elephant Bar for dinner. Before walking in, however, I walked over to the bayside and snapped quite a few pictures of planes landing and taking off from San Francisco International Airport. The light was fading so the quality isn't quite what I'd like, and the telephoto on my little camera doesn't have quite the oomph I might like, but still the photos aren't so bad. Here's one:
.
I even managed to get some of the "mountains" and a sunset. Anyway, the Elephant Bar was overpriced and the beer taps weren't working, so I left. I'd spotted earlier in the week a place called Finn McCool's so I plugged that into the handy Garmin GPS device that I got with the rental car (a sleek Pontiac G6 GT) and went there. They didn't serve food. I had a few beers, stopped at the In-and-Out (again) and went back to the hotel. I had an early flight out. Sometime in the dead of night, I started feeling uncomfortable and by about 3am or so was full-on sick. I slept fitfully the remainder of the night until my 5:30 wake-up call. I blame Paul and Laura for making me sick. :-)
Cheers.

~KR (15 November 2007)

Listening to:
Everything I Do, I Do It For You by Bryan Adams
on Billboard Top 100 of 1991

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture: f/5.5
Focal Length: 23.2 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire, auto mode

Tags: SAN+FRANCISCO+AIRPORT, THE+ELEPHANT+BAR, LANDING, PLANE, AIRCRAFT, BRYAN+ADAMS, CANON, PHOTOBLOG

The Swingin' Door

14 November 2007
Back in 2002, Terrill & I did a whirlwind tour of the Cargo facilities in our system, visiting 12 cities in 9 weeks. One of those stops was San Francisco/San Jose where we spent a week. During one of our nights out we located a fantastic pub called The Prince of Wales in nearby San Mateo. Sadly, I wasn't keeping a journal nor carrying a ubiquitous photo-taker with me, so have no record of it as it was. In January of this year, it ceased being as it was and has become The Swingin Door, having been sold. The Prince of Wales had at one time been The Swingin Door as that's the name the bar had opened with back in 1955. Apparently it was a swingin' joint in its heyday and was frequented by many a famous personality. It would seem the new owner would like to recapture some of that original mojo.

Personally, I preferred The Prince of Wales the way it was, but certainly if I lived in the area I'd happily return to The Swingin' Door for a pint or two and an award-winning hamburger. I did not, during this visit, venture upstairs which apparently is quite the place to be having been voted San Mateo's Hottest Spot for Entertainment. I was plenty entertained by the clientele.
Cheers.

~KR (14 November 2007)

Listening to:
Fjarskanistan by Amina
on Animamina

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 80
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire, auto mode

Tags: SAN+MATEO, CALIFORNIA, THE+SWINGIN+DOOR, PUB, BAR, RESTAURANT, BEER, AMINA, CANON, PHOTOBLOG

The Hungery Hunter

13 November 2007
After a very long day in which I trained a bunch of people, took a break, trained a bunch of people, ate lunch, trained a bunch of people, took a break and trained a bunch of people, I was tired and hungry. The In-And-Out burger just didn't hold me over and I really wanted a beer. The previous night while out, I had spied a promising looking restaurant just down from my hotel, so off I went, not even bothering to stop and change clothes. The restaurant was called The Hungry Hunter and apparently has been serving the city of South San Francisco (The Industrial City) for some forty years.

I walked into an immense (45 minutes or more) waiting list, so went on into the bar to wait. Luckily, they serve food in the bar, too. I got myself a simple lager called, appropriately enough, The Hunter, and tucked into the menu. The Hungry Hunter? Since when does one hunt cow? That's pretty much the menu. Cow of various types, shapes & sizes. But, that's ok. I like cow. I ordered a blued strip, ceaser salad, mashed potatoes and rice pilaf. Decent, but by no means write-home-about (but apparently good enough to write-in-a-blog-about). Then it was back to the hotel for, hopefully, a better night's sleep the previous one.
Cheers.

~KR (13 November 2007)

Listening to:
She by Kiss
on Dressed To Kill

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.077 sec (1/13)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: SOUTH+SAN+FRANCISCO, HUNGRY+HUNTER, RESTAURANT, BAR, DINNER, NIGHTTIME, CANON, PHOTOBLOG

Up Pompey!

12 November 2007
I spent the day travelling from mid-US to west-US, and despite gaining two hours in the transit, it still wiped me out. I had a quick bite to eat at a lovely little Italian restaurant called Cecilia's, then settled in for a quick night-time read. Even though my bookclub is currently reading Love in the Time of Cholera I just couldn't bring myself to take the book on the trip. It's actually a surpassingly well-written book. However, at nearly 100 pages in, I'd still to discern a plot, so I've set it aside. I'll finish it someday, I suppose. But having grown up in a time when fiction meant a plot that moves the reader along, I was struggling to enjoy it. So, I brought with me a non-fiction book: Up Pompey!

Up Pompey is a fantastic book where "a clueless American sportswriter bumbles through English football," although I believe that Chuck Culpepper is not quite so clueless as he might lead some to believe. I can't quite figure out, and I'm not through reading it yet, whether he's writing to an English audience and trying to prove the validity of "their sport" vs the inanity of "our" sport; or is he writing to an American audience and struggling to point out the superiority of football to American-football. Either way, and I believe however you feel about Associated Football vs American Football, the book is very well written and immensely enjoyable. I shall loan it to Terrill when he's done and look forward to the "Delusional Rant" that will be forthcoming. :-)
Cheers.

~KR (12 November 2007)

Listening to: Kirstie's by Millish
on Millish

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850
IS Exposure: 0.8 sec (4/5)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 1 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: UP+POMPEY, BOOK, ENGLISH+PREMIER+LEAGUE, SOCCER, CHUCK+CULPEPPER, CANON, PHOTOBLOG

Wine in the Winerack

11 November 2007
Ah, a week away and I'm behind again. This post, written on 19 November, belongs to 11 November. A photo of a fine wine rack. The rack was found and purchased on eBay for pennies some years back. It's recently been, once again, filled to capacity by some Gewurtzaminer by Fredricksburg Winery.

On the wall behind the rack you can make out the Cry of the Clan MacRalph and the slogan for East Wind Games: Ludo Ergo Sum (I play, therefore I am).
Cheers.

~KR (11 November 2007)

Listening to:
Victor, Fly Me to Stafford by My Little Aiport
on the ok thing to do on sunday afternoon is to toddle in the zoo

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: WINE, FREDRICKSBURG+WINERY, Gewurtzaminer, EAST+WIND+GAMES, LUDO+ERGO+SUM, CANON, PHOTOBLOG, MACRALPH