Business by the Bay

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Not much time to sightsee on this trip, except as noted below (visit with Jiliece). Happily, just being in San Francisco is its own sightseeing. (Disclaimer: this is only the second time I've ever been here!)

Trip Basics, Day 1

Flight: Alaska Airlines 324 SEA-SJC (737, 7B middle/front, wifi). After we loaded up and closed all the overhead bins, we were allowed to use our electronic devices for a suspiciously long time. Then a maintenance manager came on the PA with the news that our aircraft wouldn't be going to San Jose after all, and apologies to "those of you who have already built your nest". We all packed back off the plane and caught the SeaTac subway from Concourse C to our new gate at North Satellite. Almost no one ever gets on the subway from Concourse C (it's like those ghost U-Bahn stations in East Berlin), so it amused me to see the confused looks on the faces of those already on the train when the herd of us appeared at the doors. It also amused me that everyone around me ended up with exactly the same spaces in the overhead bins, like the honor system. Flight delayed an hour, otherwise uneventful.

Car: Toyota Corolla. Teehee. (I drive a 1998 Corolla at home.) Surprisingly zippy for an automatic (mine's a stick). I am outraged--outraged!--that it doesn't have automatic headlights (mine does). It is 2012: all cars should have automatic headlights dammit. On the bright side, they finally gave it a remote trunk button! Gotta love a Corolla.

H Motel: County Inn, a charming little indie no-frills motel tucked in a modest residential neighborhood in Mountain View. Quiet, comfy, super bargain, would stay again.

Dinner: Met up with Jiliece (my brother and his lovely new wife!) at their home in San Jose. Jim drove us to Aqui Cal-Mex in the Willow Glen district, which made it easy for me to choose an Industrial Strength Margarita with dinner. Can't say I know what Cal-Mex is exactly yet, but the Tequila BBQ Pork special was tasty.

Dessert: Crepevine, across the street. Ill-advised: a whole banana/Nutella crepe was way too much food after Cal-Mex and a margarita, and I immediately regretted that it was so damned delicious that I ate it all anyway. I hope to go back when I'm any less stupid, if that ever happens, so that I can enjoy their fine cuisine properly.

Trip Basics, Day 2

Breakfast: No frills motel serves no frills breakfast: bagels, toast, yogurt, juice, bad coffee. I like that those cute waffle makers are everywhere now, but I didn't feel like fussing with it, so Frosted Flakes for me.

Why I'm actually here, part 1: I presented 2.5 hours of Visual Studio 2012 Launch content for an all-day event at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus (SVC) in Mountain View. I've previously presented the entire day, so being able to focus on just a couple of topics was a nice change, as was the private-sector audience (which means Microsoft can serve us food!). The demos went smoothly (except as noted below), and I got lots of stumper questions from developers in the audience, so I was grateful to have the keynote speaker from DevDiv step in and help me field a few. He even emailed his team in real time to get a few obscure answers for things he didn't know.

I didn't like how laggy my Windows 8 demo virtual machine ran throughout today's sessions--it normally lives on an external HDD and runs over USB 3.0, which is impressive that it does at all. I can stall some while waiting for it to do things, but today the delays were noticeable and irritating. Since this is the only VM I am using for demos this week, I was able to move a different demo VM off of my SSD and swap this one on (there's only enough space for one) using Hyper-V export/import, in about 20 minutes. Quick test indicates that it works and should fly now.

Dinner: Having been properly trained up by my in-the-know brother, I stopped just off 101 in Mountain View for my first-ever visit to In-N-Out Burger. Very glad I learned the protocol before trying to visit on my own, or I'd never've understood what the fuss was all about.

The Drive: Just over an hour to downtown San Francisco, absolutely perfectly timed for me to listen to the Presidential Debate live on NPR the whole way.

Hotel: The historic Pickwick Hotel in Union Square. It's absolutely European and for me that's a good thing. Tiny room, beautifully furnished and decorated, in a 1926 building that feels lucky to have an elevator or AC (it has both), overlooking a busy city street, very walkable to city sights.

The Neighborhood: Lots of shops, a convenient Walgreen's, and the posh Westfield San Francisco Centre mall, wherein I scored a free sample of "24k gold" daily face moisturizer.

Trip Basics, Day 3

The Commute: About five minutes' walk through the aforementioned neighborhood. Carfree living, except I have to pay to leave the car at the hotel. I was super-glad to have the car right up until 7:30 PM yesterday; now it's just dumb (as NWC predicted it would be).

Breakfast: Boring Starbucks with broken or no wifi. I hung out for about 30 minutes with the laptop tethered, waiting for the Microsoft building to be open at 8:00.

Why I'm actually here, part 2: I presented the same content today as yesterday, to a slightly smaller crowd, and got great engagement, tough questions, positive feedback, and a few customer contacts. The new VM worked much better. In between sessions, I put together a slide deck for a new webinar I'm delivering this week.

Flight: Alaska Airlines 224 SFO-SEA (737, 24D aisle/back, wifi). Raced to the airport early; failed in my attempt to get standby for an earlier flight, but succeeded in knocking a nice chunk off the cost of the rental car; failed in my attempt to have a relaxing dinner at the airport because OMG, SFO Terminal 1 food is just awful. Eschewed $50 first class upgrade; it's just too short a flight to spend extra money on. But, was able to put one of my free Alaska Airlines Boardroom passes to use. Is this what those Boardroom things are all about? Normally $45?! Spock, McKayla, and I are not impressed.

What's Next

Next week, Portland. Different content. Time to study up.

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Photos

View from my hotel room
San Francisco Chronicle building.