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Published: October 11th 2012
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Commuting from home to my office is just a 13,000 miles away, or something like 26 hours on a plane. The good news, during our year in Buenos Aires, I will not have to do it too often.
Buenos Aires to Hong Kong....could be done going through South Africa, Sydney/Auckland, Europe...or the States...and lately, even through Dubai or Doha! It's simply just the other side of earth! The cheapest option is via the States, so here I am in San Francisco for a 15 hours lay-over.
I love San Francisco...and I know I'm not the only one. I know, this is alreay my third blog on the city over the last 5 years! Over the last ten years, it's actually closer to my tenth visit...and each and every single time, I try to find something new to do. Postcard row....that's the name of the place, and of the first picture of this blog....don't have any idea why I never walked here before, the place is simply stunning!
The inner sanctum of Travelblog has also moved recently from Kuala Lumpur to San Francisco. I was at the 10th birthday party back in April
in KL where we had an amazing day. So this time, I was going to spend the day with Ali....if you don't know Ali, he is the great guy running Travelblog, without him, this great community would not exist...and yes, I mention first the people and the community, second the tons of infos you can gather on this site....third, the chance to leave behind us great journals of our little lives...
Sadly for me, MJ and Dave are currently in Nepal, so no chance to share some time together...for this time...Ali is actually living out of SF, so he joined me for a great lunch and an afternoon of chasing big birds!
I'm a hardcore follower of the Swan Oyster Depot on Polk Street. This is a kind of a serious institution in San Francsico. Not a fish shop, not really fully a restaurant either. The place is basically a counter on which you eat. They can seat something like 20 people and are open only for lunch. This is seafood galore...nothing fancy, and it's run by the same guys for years....10 years I've been coming back, even changing planes just to make sure
I could stop here for lunch...addict...oh yes!
Ali and I arrived 5 minutes appart at 12.20....and we were seated by 1.20pm. No reservations here, you just queue, because this is the way it is. When we left an hour later, the queue outside was even more massive than when we got there first...90 minutes queue....easy! And yes, it was a seafood feast!
This was actually the week-end in SF, with more than a million visitors. I obviously had no idea about it. The week-end was hosting on of the qualifying of the America Cup, a baseball game with the Giants, two huge cruiseships, the Navy, and yes, a huge afternoon of flying galore with a crazy flying show! Oh, and I forgot to mention, the weather was simply stunning...sunny....warm...better than summer time for sure!
So after lunch, we made our way to the Bay for some planes spotting. The Blue Angels were in town. These guys are the elite acrobatics of the Navy, they are the United States Navy's flight demonstration flight Squadron. They are impressive, and slightly noisy....and walking in SF street with these guys right above the building was
something...and yes, when it comes to these,I'm still a big kids!
Sadly, neither Ali nor I had the proper camera equipment for those way too fast planes...but, still get few half decent pics. It was soon time for Ali to commute back home. I spent my last few hours walking through more great architecure...walking...walking, taking few more tram...and a last italian dinner before heading back to SFO for my middle of the night flight to Hong Kong, and later on to Shanghai. Didn't see a bed from Friday morning...to Monday evening...and have had to chase for my Chinese visa in HK. Go figure, got my visa at 5.24pm in Central, and my flight was at 7pm....that was slightly a rush!
On my side, I'm back through the States in just a few days...more commuting, this time, back to home....but for now, it's all over Asia for the next few days.
Ali, it was great to see you again...hope to see you again soon, somewhere...and thanks again for the great job you are doing with Travelblog!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Hello dear travel friend,
Sorry we missed your visit to the great city of San Francisco. Glad you were able to hang out with Ali. Nice photos...and as you say there is always something new to find in the home of the Golden Gate.