Search Engine Strategies Trip

Hi All,

I apologize for the late posting yet again. Mariah and I will have a new blog going live pretty soon that we think you'll like.

This week I went to San Francisco to attend the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. During the weekend I got to spend some time with my father and visit lots of new areas that I had never seen before. I finally got to see the Golden Gate bridge although it was so foggy and cold that I was not able to see the entire bridge all weekend. I spent lots of time at the ocean at Half Moon Bay and Pointe Reyes. Here are some great pictures taken during my trip.

Michael

Michael's Weekend in San Francisco

Fisherman's Wharf

Hi All,

Compared to yesterday, Monday was very laid back. We decided to walk up through Chinatown to go to Fisherman's Wharf which is located at the north end of the city. Its only a 30 minute walk from where we are staying.

Fisherman's Wharf is a bit of a tourist trap but it has the famous Buena Vista bar which serves world famous Irish coffees, Ghiradelli's chocolate store, views of Alcatraz and the sea lions.

When we got there we toured around a bit, checked out the various shops and walked along the piers. I was looking forward to seeing the wild sea lions on Pier 39. When we got to Pier 39 we shocked to find 100+ sea lions just lounging around on some floating docks. They were nice and quiet until another sea lion moved or jumped onto the platform then they would bark at each other, then calm down and fall back asleep. This pattern kept going for the entire time that we were there. The entire scene reminded me Mariah and her two sisters.

After spending an hour with the sea lions we walked along the boardwalk and saw the funniest thing. We saw a homeless man hiding behind a few tree branches to make himself look like bush. When any girl were to walk by the "bush" he would drop the branches and scare the person. We saw quite a few people scream from this trick.

We also went to the famous Buena Vista bar for a $7 Irish coffee. Despite the high price it was well worth it. I even picked up a couple of tricks on how to make a great Irish coffee.

Finally we rode the cable car back to the hotel. It was a pretty good day.

Monday in San Francisco

San Francisco runs a 12k, well sort of

Hi All,

Sunday was our second day in San Francisco. On Thursday before we left we found out that there was going to be a 12k run in San Francisco that was supposed to be a big event and a San Fran tradition. The run is called Bay to Breakers because it starts at one side of the city and ends in the Golden Gate Park on the other side of the city. I knew this race was going to be different because there were a lot of warnings and disclosures on the website that said no nudity and alcohol was permitted in the race.

Mariah and I woke up early on Sunday morning to go find a nice spot on the route to watch the runners. It turns out that most of the city was there as well. Approximately 60K people were running in the event. I believe that number was based on registered runners although many people chose to join the run.

The first runners to start were the elite women and 10 minutes later the elite men started. In total there was maybe 15-20 people that were taking this race seriously. Then the rest came....

Almost everybody was dressed up from Elvis, ballerina's, vikings, star troopers, cows, Borat in a yellow thong and the list goes on. There were also quite a few nude men and far too few nude women.

One of the most impressive parts of the races was the number of "floats" that people made. Some people created a flintstone's car, DJ booth, toga party, racing pit crew etc. Some people even decided to tow their boat and raft in the race. Mariah and I would soon learn that these floats served a dual purpose. They also housed kegs for people to drink from. There was a lot of alcohol, many women drunk champagne straight out of the bottle, some floats offered "runners" the chance to funnel a beer. There were probably more kegs than serious runners.

We watched the race for about an hour and I must say it was the funnest races I've ever seen.

Check out the photo album by clicking on the image below.

San Francisco Bay to Breakers 2008 12K run

(a couple of guys jumped out from the crowd to sprint with the elite men runners)

(one of the many creative keg stands/floats)

San Francisco here we come

Hi All,

Mariah and I are officially in San Francisco. We left today from Dayton, Ohio at 12:40pm and connected in Dallas. By the time that we got to my father's apartment which is in the heart of downtown San Francisco it was 8pm PST (11am PST). Here are some photos that we took of the San Francisco airport and the views from the apartment.