As Mind Yells™

I don't think I can describe this as precisely as he does, here's what my boss Stephen wrote about our trip home. 

"wake at 4am, go to airport, board 6am flight from Rapid City to Minneapolis

endure over 1 hour of deicing, return to gate because plane is too heavy to take off on the snowy runway, wait while agents determine what to do, really hope they bring out a scale and weigh everyone to see who gets to go and who gets to stay

wait further while agents seek 20 volunteers to deplane and try again tomorrow

learn no flights are going out of Rapid City for rest of the day (really, an airport in South Dakota that isn't prepared for a couple of inches of snow?), deplane, get rebooked on first flight out tomorrow

decided not to settle for that, use Google directions to determine distances to nearby airports, while doing this learn that the airport code for Sioux City is SUX, determine no airports I know of are close enough to drive to

rent car to head back to hotel and wait until tomorrow

before leaving try one more time to find a nearby airport, pull up Rapid City on Google Maps and search map for "Airport Delta"

learn Delta flies into Gillette Wyoming and it's only 2.5 hours away, at the same time learn there is such a place as Gillette Wyoming and that it actually has an airport

drive 2.5 hours in a snowstorm to Gillette, see 4 cars spun out on the side of the road and - a bonus - a wolf in the median eating some dead animal, learn that in addition to hotel chains with 6, 7, and 8 in their names there is also a hotel - "National 9" - with 9 in it's name, wonders why no hotel chains aimed just a little higher and put 1 in their name

eat at an Arbys with only 30 minutes to make the flight, learn from workers at Arbys that the airport is "a long way away", get scared because one can only imagine what "a long way away" is to people that live in the middle of nowhere, determine that "a long way away" in the middle of nowhere is approximately 9 miles

arrive at GCC airport (where the counter agent is the ticket taker and the luggage handler and the plane guider and the deicer and probably air traffic control in their spare time)

board a prop plane with a handful of other folks (I forget how loud those things are - even the flight attendents wear ear plugs), depart for Salt Lake City

land in Salt Lake City

try to switch seats with Amy so I don't have the bulkhead row on the SLC to ATL flight, apparently she's not appreciative of the work I've done so far today, she declines

board a plane from Salt Lake City to Atlanta in 1A, listen to idiots in 2A and B discuss what that big body of water next to "Salt Lake City" might be, am worried when said idiots determine that the body of water it isn't actually lake, but the salt flats where land speed records are set, desire to see said idiots test out their theory

and, finally arrive in Atlanta 18 hours after waking up but 14 hours earlier than I would have if I didn't learn about a little town called Gillette Wyoming."

Loved it, love it, LOVED IT!

Since my project is at San Jose right now, I decided to stay over in Cali for a weekend and invited mom to come with me to explore San Francisco. It was an awesome weekend and I just wish I had longer than a weekend to spend and the hotel and parking was cheaper so we'd be able to stay a little longer and feel less rushed. Nonetheless, it was a great experience and both of us enjoyed it very much.

Friday Night, we drove to San Francisco from San Jose and settled in San Francisco Marriott near Union Square. Although it's a little dark, we decided to go and see Chinatown since it's so close to where we stayed. Man there are a lot of Asians in San Francisco, I mean A LOT. I don't think I've seen so many Asian people since I came to the U.S. Chinatown is crowded. I mean San Francisco is crowded I guess Chinatown is just part of crowdedness. Mom and I went thru some of the shops. They don’t carry high quality stuff, not really but it was fun to go thru them. After all, that’s a big part if not the Chinatown culture. We had dinner at Chinatown that night. The restaurant was randomly chosen: there are simply too many of them and we have no idea how to tell which ones are better. The food was cheap and very good.

We got up sorta early to go to the Fisherman’s Wharf. We took the Powell & Mason route Cable cart. Oh the Cable cart is sooo cute. I wanted to stay on it forever. Anyways, so we went to Fisherman's Wharf and explored the nearby piers. We saw a lot of sea lions at Pier 39. Street performers were everywhere. We went to this warehouse and it had tons of playing machines from old times. Mom like the automatic pianos. You'd put coins in and the piano plays by itself. Later that day we went on a cruise to see Alcatraz prison and Golden Gate bridge in the dark. The camera wasn't able to capture much of the sences but it was an amazing feeling to see the city, the prison and the bridges on the water at night. I just wish I had more clothes on. It was freeeeezing.

We got on a cruise to get on Alcatraz island and visit the prison. I'd never heard of Alcatraz prison and its stories. I'd never visisted any prison for that matter so it's all new to me. The audio tour they provided was amazing. It's like watching a movie and being in it at the same time. The inside is like a haunted house because of all the criminals lived there and things happened there. But the outside is so pretty. I don't think I'd mind living there if the only thing is being taken away is freedom. Now it's probably just some crazy talking from me. After all, I really don't know how it feels to have freedom taken away. We got a prison cup and a postcard in the prison giftshop. It was a great tour. Money well spent.

We went to see the crookedest street in the world after visiting Alcatraz, then we went to Ghirardelli square. Had world famous ice cream. It's good but I can't really tell the difference between this ice cream shop and others I've tried. I guess I'm not a professional ice cream taster. 

I wanted to see day time Golden Gate Bridge but by the time we got there, it was getting dark already. We didn't spend much time there because it was darn cold. I don't get why the weather forcast was around 70s and it actually felt like 40s. Leather jacket was needed, no kidding.

And that concludes the weekend tour of San Francisco. I really like San Francisco. It's very alive. People are divise and they are not afraid of express themselves in their unique ways. I like that. But I don't think I'll ever be able to live in San Francisco. The roads are too steep and narrow and the buildings are too close to each other. San Francisco has this intense feeling (not as intense as NYC as I heard) that I don't know if I can take it everyday. It's fun once in a while.