Blogs from United States, North America - page 4774

Here in San Francisco Hotel is nice but the location is a bit doggie at night during the day it’s not to bad. Pretty central location, only a 15 minute walk to fisherman’s wharf this is where the action takes place for tourists like us. Today we took a tour to Alcatraz Island one of the Golden Gate National Parks. Take the Ferry across to the island and then it’s a self audio tour which was very interesting. Walking through the tour you have headphones on and you are listening to the commentary about different parts of the prison. There are quite a lot of people doing the self audio tour but if you take your headphones off and listen you don’t hear anyone speaking, it’s a little ere. Alcatraz served the army as fortress and ... read more

We were an odd bunch. 10 or 15 Jews standing next to a beautiful little creek below the Warren Wilson campus. Some of us were carrying little sambas, some PVC shofars, others with more serious items: real shofars, guitars, and challah! With song and dance, we looked into the ceremony we were about to complete: Tashlikh. Contemplation of our sins, or possibly looking at our regrets and finally casting them away in the river. It may of just been the quaint setting, by a babbling brook surrounded by Appalachian hills, sun streaming in, and the odd assortment of bamboo and other plants growing on campus, but there was a most surreal and spiritual effect to the ritual. After throwing bread crumbs or leaves into the river, we gathered in another circle for song and passing around ... read more

Rockport, IL to Alton, IL 80.6 total miles. We woke up to a very thick fog, so we got a late start. We ran the entire day at 2200 rpm, which was around 9 mph. We used less fuel from 1.31 miles per gallon, the day before, compared to 1.79 miles per gallon, today. Better, but not a huge savings. Thus far, the water current has been about the same, anywhere from 2 - 3 miles per hour. The tall tower like structure was called a "Sky Ride". It was constructed back in the 1960's, in Clarksville, Missouri. At that point and time it was the highest point and view on the Mississippi river. It was similar to a ski lift that would take passengers to the top to view from the observation deck.... read more

Tour of Microsoft Campus, Redmond For a billion dollar company our visit to Microsoft was surprising. There were several occasions during the morning that we nearly walked out. Anyway, not to dwell on the negatives we did eventually get into the technology centre that is set up with examples of how Microsoft think we will be working in the next 5-7 years. The confidentiality paper we had to sign to be allowed in means I better not describe in detail what we saw on this blog. There were some software items and ideas that would be incredibly cool if they pull them off. Of course adoption in UK Universities may take much longer. The physical layout of the "office of the future" display was surprising for the lack of technology. There were funky surfaces in group ... read more

Another morning by the pool watching the helicopters buzz past every minute or so on their standard tour of the strip. There must be thousands of these trips per week!! Decided to spend the day shopping at one of the Outlet Malls and hopefully find a sporting shop somewhere. Found one thanks to the directions given by hotel staff and had a great day out. I don't know how much cheaper some of the stuff was, but we managed to bag a few bargains and now have enough shoes for two caterpillars... Ate a home cooked dinner in our apartment for a change - nice to have real food for a change before tidying up ready for our departure to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. ... read more