Category: Personal

I started the day late and went downtown to do some shopping for my travel agent and friend who deserves some gifts for the attention she gave me and the price she got me for the tickets. Later on I went to the excellent Mexican restaurant, Mercedes.

Then I did the Alcatraz night tour (more like an evening tour), which I would recommend to anyone coming here (pre-order your tickets! I was lucky.) The prison, originally a military fort, has some interesting history, famous characters and many myths related to it.

Today was again too wintery to go jogging, but hopefully tomorrow will be a nicer day. I really need more activity, even though I walk probably 10 to 15 km every day (I haven’t used any transport other than ferries so far.) I’ve started preparing for Hong Kong – trying to find information on what to do, how to get from one place to another (no more GPS :( ) and preparing mentally. After 4 weeks in the US it’s like starting a new trip.

Today started with light rain that later turned into non-stop-can’t-do-anything-outside kind of rain. I really don’t like rain and refuse to use an umbrella. So I just spent the entire morning and afternoon relaxing and catching up on my online reading (600 Digg stories, as an example :) It’s not like I had big plans, anyway. I’m just a little upset that I couldn’t go jogging. I guess I could have gone to the closest gym and get a one day pass but it takes me time to get used to a new gym and I don’t feel comfortable walking in and starting to work out in a new place – too self conscious.

In the evening I went outside for a while just to walk, breathe fresh air and eat (had very good Shepherds Pie at O’Reilly’s, an Irish pub and restaurant.) Then it started raining again (my coat protects me very well) so I went back in my room. Hopefully tomorrow it won’t rain as much. I have no special plans for the day, but at 4pm I have the trip to Alcatraz.

Today I woke up early so I could go jogging before it became too hot. When I got out (around 7:30am) it was pretty cold. The skies were cloudy but the sun was already visible in the horizon. I started running too fast – without the treadmill I couldn’t know what my pace was. I realized after a few minutes that I won’t be able to maintain that pace and eventually ended up running about 8 km from Pier 39 to the Giants stadium and back, stopping only once to tie my shoelaces. Intentionally I didn’t measure time or heart rate because when resuming workouts after a break it’s important not to overdo it. Here’s the route:

View Larger Map

After a shower and breakfast I decided to do the bicycle ride on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a perfect day for a bicycle ride – not too hot and not too cold. Crossing the bridge you basically have two options: the shorter one is to cross and not long after take a ferry back and the longer option is to ride some more and then take the ferry (going back is not really a good option, although it’s possible.) I decided to take the longer route (a total of about 26 km), having time and all, because it includes more things to see. Naturally I lost my way while going to see one of the attractions but the GPS helped and then I joined an Australian woman for the rest of the time and she found the right way easily. I recommend the shorter trip to anyone coming here, but I’m not sure going the long trip is worth it. Also, if you’re not used to bike riding, your butt may hurt. Mine sure did and I hope Future Schreibers are OK. But it was fun and I feel that after this morning’s workout and the bicycle ride I can exempt myself from tomorrow’s morning workout and go jogging again the day after. Here’s a rough estimate of the bicycle route:

View Larger Map

Tomorrow it’s probably going to rain, so I don’t really know what I’m going to do (I don’t like rain.) I considered going to Six Flags (an amusement park) or Disneyland but I don’t feel like driving 5 to 6 hours each direction. I like San Francisco and I think there are many things to do here even if they are not as thrilling as riding the biggest roller coasters or meeting Mickey Mouse.

It’s only 8pm and I’m already very tired. I guess more exhausted than tired. I think I’m going to spend the rest of the evening in my hotel room. If I’ll decide otherwise I’ll post it on tomorrow’s update.

I can’t believe it… The sun was shining. And it was hot. When I got to San Francisco the sun was actually heating stuff here, not just melting snow. For the first time since I left Israel I was walking around in a short sleeve T-shirt. And I was sweating. It was wonderful. So I can’t be completely objective when I say that San Francisco is beautiful. It may be the joy of this weather that affects my judgment.

I entered San Francisco around noon through the Oakland Bay Bridge, which is a shame because I was hoping to drive through the Golden Gate bridge. I might rent a bicycle and do that though. I got to the Columbus Motor Inn, a hotel so positively reviewed on TripAdvisor I just had to take it. The hotel is located in the Fisherman’s Wharf area, surrounded by many places to eat and hang out in, close to the San Francisco piers. And it’s great – the room is clean, big and nice, I have a big flat screen TV (not that I plan to use it much, but going to sleep it’s nice to have a quality TV screen to watch) and my own wireless router in the room (so I can go wired or wireless.) There’s also an air conditioner that lets you set the temperature (unlike those where it’s either too hot or too cold) and a safe so I can put stuff there that I would normally carry around with me. Just need to remember to take them out when I leave :)

After settling in I got out to the street to wander aimlessly. I headed directly to the piers. A lot of people walk up and down the piers and a lot of joggers exercise there as well. I really need to resume some kind of workouts. I’m going to be here over a week so I’m considering starting tomorrow with a 10 km jog (the piers route is almost 5 km one way, so it’s perfect for me.) I never really tried running outside so this will be an interesting experience. That is, if I manage to get out of this lazy mode that I’m in. I’ve been moderately active the past two weeks, walking around in cities and parks, but it’s not the same as an actual workout.

While walking the piers I noticed the boat trips to Alcatraz and got myself an evening tour on Monday. It’s supposed to be good. I walked the entire piers route and going back to the hotel I returned through what turned out to be the San Francisco Chinatown. I “made plans” for Sushi and after napping for a while (I didn’t sleep well last night) executed them successfully. It appears that the nightlife here is also very vibrant, but today I’m going to just relax.

I need to find things to do here. I checked the weather for the next few days and while it’s going to be relatively warm it may rain on Sunday and Monday. I’m thinking about going to some big attractions like Six Flags (open only Saturday and Sunday), Disneyland (open all week but in LA) and Sea World (open all week but in San Diego.) i don’t know if I’ll feel like driving again. Right now I’m happy just walking around San Francisco.

Another driving day. I underestimated the drive to Yosemite National Park – it seems close, but the actual route needs to bypass some lakes and mountains and so it was a pretty long drive (around 600 km.) The drive itself was OK, except that I was pulled over for speeding by a sheriff police car (or whatever they are called.) The officer was very courteous and only asked me to stay under the speed limit. So from that point on I had to drive a little slower, which was a little depressing, especially on nearly empty freeways.

When I finally got to Yosemite I ran into signs saying that I have to have chains for my wheels in order to continue into the park. I called the information line only to find out that there is only one road going into the park that doesn’t require chains, but chains may be needed inside the park anyway. Not in the mood for bravery, I decided against visiting Yosemite. I also didn’t feel like dragging myself through snowy mountains again, no matter how beautiful. Maybe I’ve had enough nature for this part of the trip. Additionally, a “maintenance required” light turned on in the car sometime during the day. National (the car rental company) said I shouldn’t worry but get it into a service center when I can. So I didn’t want to get stuck with the car in the park either.

So now I had to get off this mountain that I climbed with my car. Why are all the national parks on mountains anyway? I call to create a new park called Entirely Flat, On Sea Level And True To Its Name National Park. That’ll be nice. It was really dark already. You know it’s really dark when you can see the glare of the center (high mounted) stop light of your car in the rear view mirror. And the road down the mountain was curvy but I decided to go all the way down because I didn’t want to get stuck in a snow storm or something tomorrow.

And so I ended up in Merced, California, in a motel. Tomorrow – San Francisco. I still need to decide on a hotel or motel. I already have a few options I got from friends. I’ll do my “research” now and go to sleep.

I don’t gamble, I don’t do shopping and I got tired of hotel-hopping. It’s safe to say I’ve had enough of Las Vegas. Today I did the roller coaster on top of the New York New York hotel. It looks like a small roller coaster but has all the elements of a good ride. For the first time I ate at The Cheesecake Factory. I usually don’t eat in chains but they have a really big menu with many good options. I took the Salmon today, which was very good. Then I kind of hung around, saw the Bellagio Fountains again and people lose a lot of money on tables with 100$ minimum.

For tonight’s show I went to see Mystere by Cirque du Soleil, a breathtaking acrobatics show. A must see if you get to Las Vegas (it’s only shown here.) I wanted to go to a comedy club but I’m tired and I have to prepare for tomorrow. I decided to make a day-and-a-half stop on the way to San Francisco in Yosemite National Park. I’ll get there tomorrow, spend the night close by and hike it the next day.

Today it rained most of the day in Las Vegas. Not heavy rain, but still. I started the day by going to Gameworks, for which I had a one hour play-as-much-as-you-can pass (that I got for half price at 10$), and satisfied all my arcade needs for the next 20 years. I shot all the enemies I could and still had 25 minutes to play pinball.

After lunch I had a few hours until the night’s show so I went to the hotel’s casino to watch people play. At first I watched a really busy roulette table. Roulette is nice to watch because on a busy table the gamblers fill it with chips every round and then when the roulette stops most of those chips go to the casino – the dealer just pushes the chips into a hole in the table, where a machine sorts them out. It’s just nice to watch. At one of the table this girl cashed out and lost a 100$ chip under the table. I found it and gave it to her and in return she gave me a 5$ chip. I’ll keep it as a souvenir.

The most interesting game, though, is craps (dice) because it’s the most complicated, has the biggest table and requires 3 dealers and a “manager” (I don’t know the official name of the position) to handle the table. I noticed a sign inviting people to get craps lessons and I thought it would be a nice thing to do tomorrow morning. At the Rio, where tonight’s show was, I watched the craps table when a guy standing by told me I can’t learn the game by watching it. It turns out he was a dealer for forty some years and is now teaching people to play craps. He said the lessons offered by hotels teach you to play in a way that works against you. He has a website, AggressiveCraps.com, where you can buy his book and learn how to play. So he taught me how to play the game and explained the rules and chances to me. Then security came and escorted him out, which was very weird.

Then I saw Penn And Teller‘s show (again got a good seat at row 8) – a magic show where they show you the basics of magic and then use them to astonish you just when you think you understand what’s going on. I had a lot of fun watching their show. On the way back this guy started walking alongside me and offered me cocaine with a try-before-you-buy option. Now that’s America for you… I’ve been offered cocaine in almost every country I’ve been to, but I’ve never had the option to try before I buy. I politely refused.

I didn’t want to take all the Las Vegas pictures everyone else takes because there are many of those. That’s why there are a few pictures: