www.BrettDaniel.com

Then and now: me proudly holding a Lego model in 1991 and 2009.

Previously

• Early Days of a Programmer

Related

• Me Then, Me Now Flickr pool

When I told people I was going to New Zealand to present my ReAssert paper, nearly everyone asked if I was planning to travel around the country. Absolutely. One does not visit New Zealand for a three-day conference, then immediately turn around and go home. I stayed for 10 days. During that time, I attended the conference, toured Auckland, drove all over the south island with Yun Young and Danny, and saw more interesting things than I could possibly fit into one weblog post.

I considered writing a travel report like my Yellowstone or California posts, but the length of this trip made me feel that a different approach was necessary. The map below shows the path I/we took through New Zealand. Clicking it will take you to an annotated, interactive map with descriptions and pictures of the interesting places.

I posted more pictures in the gallery (see also Yun Young's Facebook albums). Here are a few of my favorites:

Even though most of my time is taken up by graduate school and medical appointments, I recently managed to find time to travel. I spent each of the past four weekends visiting friends all over the Midwest. First I helped Charlie celebrate his birthday in Louisville, Kentucky. Then, Michael had a bachelor campout—like a bachelor party with less debauchery and more trees—at Stuart's family's farm in Ohio. The following weekend, several UIUC friends and I visited Josh at his new graduate school home in Nashville, Tennessee. Finally, last weekend Michael and Alice got married in northwestern Indiana.

Each trip could fill its own post, but for now I will just describe one particularly noteworthy event from each.

Charlie and the Belly Dancers

Last year I helped Charlie celebrate his birthday in Montana. This year he came to Louisville, Kentucky, where he had spent several years at the University of Louisville. He visited several UofL and high school friends who were in the area. I drove south from Indianapolis to meet them there.

Charlie had his birthday dinner at a restaurant in the blocks-long entertainment district of downtown Louisville. The restaurant was decorated with faux-Greek wall hangings and pottery. The entertainment as well as the food also had a Mediterranean flavor. About halfway through the meal, three belly dancers in sequined dresses began dancing through the aisles, playing castanets and hand drums. It wasn't salacious dancing—it was a family restaurant, after all—just surprising and pleasant entertainment.

Charlie, knowing, it seems, everyone in town, recognized one of the dancers. I mentioned this and the fact that it was Charlie's birthday to the server. She in turn told the dancers, who came to the table and danced around Charlie. Afterward, the head dancer got all the other restaurant patrons to wish Charlie a happy birthday. It is difficult to embarrass Charlie, but I think that experience came close.

Michael's Bachelor Camping Trip

Two weeks prior to his wedding (which I write about below), Michael had his bachelor party. Unlike most bachelor parties, we went camping. Stuart offered his family's farm as the destination. It had a beautiful man-made lake surrounded by woods and cornfields.

We did normal campout activities like sit around the campfire roasting hot dogs, but I also got to do something I had never done before: shoot a gun. Before leaving for the farm, Michael's father gave us a small 22-caliber target rifle and an old mailbox. He urged us to destroy the mailbox. We placed it by an earthen berm next to one bank of the lake and did just that.

It was deeply satisfying to hear the loud "ping!" when one hit the mailbox. We noticed that some of the bullets left trails along the edge of the mailbox or failed to make it all the way through both walls.

There are more pictures in the gallery.

Visit Josh in Nashville

This picture illustrates the best part about visiting Josh in Nashville: getting to spend time with good friends.

It is a good thing we visited because Josh has been so busy that he has not gotten a chance to enjoy Nashville's famous music district. It was a new experience for all of us. We found several venues with live music, but the best came when we found a jam band playing mid-90s alternative rock. One member of the band soloed on electric violin, which gave them an especially interesting and unique sound. The lead guitarist would also trade his guitar with friends in the audience. That informality and the style of music reminded me strongly of the shows I saw my friends play in high school.

There are more pictures in the gallery and Karin's Facebook album.

Michael's Wedding

Michael finally married Alice, the fellow Purdue alum that he has been dating since right around the time he and I graduated.

Like the trip to Louisville, the wedding gave me a chance to catch up with longtime friends. Of course that includes Michael and Alice, but Stuart, Todd, Matt, Joe, Josh H., Brittany, and Megan also attended. Even though I have been keeping this weblog for over eight years, it is amazing (and discouraging) how much I have forgotten about my time at Purdue. Similarly, despite electronic social networks, I knew less than I would have liked about the lives and activities of the other attendees that I knew from that point in my life. The wedding underscored the importance personal contact with friends.

I am sure this pales in comparison to Michael's experience at his own wedding, so I won't try to overstate anything. Instead, I can simply say that I am deeply honored to have helped him celebrate his marriage, and I wish him and his wife the absolute best in their new life together.

Seen north of Knox, Indiana next to an old railroad bed and train station. The building is bigger than it looks in the picture; about 10 feet off the ground and big enough to hold maybe two people. Any guesses on what it was used for?

Most Midwestern geohashing points fall in corn or soybean fields. Yesterday's point for the Danville, Illinois graticule was different. It fell near an interesting wooded area, and the return trip passed an amazing quarry. See the trip report for the full story.

I have been around computers for my entire life. I remember playing DOOM across the home network; dialing into a bulletin board system on a 14.4 Kbit/s modem; helping my father install one of the first 1 gigabyte hard disks; and writing games in Excel's macro language. I recently came across two photos showing even earlier examples of the technology I had around me.

Here is a picture of my sister, father, and I using a cutting-edge (in 1987) Compaq 286. Obviously, my sister and I were already pair programming, 13 years before the advent of eXtreme Programming.

And here we are in 1988 playing a video game on our Commodore 64. Note the Atari joysticks.

What is your earliest memory involving computers?

Previously

• Personal recollections inspired by the book Grown Up Digital

The following photomosaic is made up of almost 15,000 images contributed and assembled by several of my CS friends (click to enlarge):

The full-size PNG takes up 86.1 MB and measures 6,000 pixels wide by 9,009 pixels high. The small portion below shows the constituent images at full resolution.

The source image and many of the constituent images come from when when Josh, Alejandro, Zack, Lucas, and I traveled to New York last Christmas. Josh, I am told, contributed many additional pictures, and Alejandro created the mosaic using AndreaMosaic. Then, they printed, framed, and gave it to me two weekends ago when I finally got a chance to visit Champaign after being away for almost two months. It is almost life-size! What a great gift!

While browsing Flickr, I came across some fascinating photos of Champaign and Urbana in 1975. Several images have then-and-now comparisons in the comments.

The following are my favorites:

• Downtown Champaign – The streets look so open without warning signs, stop lights, or excessive striping.
• Urbana Cinema – Now an art gallery, though I like that the owners have retained the classic sign.
• Kirby's Firestone – Very little change in 33 years.
• The immortal caution sawhorse – The restaurant is gone, but the caution sawhorse remains.
• Walnut Street Tea Company – I buy most of my caffeinated beverages from this store. On one visit, I mentioned that I had found this image from 1975. The proprietor told me she had bought the suite in the early 1980s.

One week ago I finished the first chemotherapy treatment for my most recent cancer diagnosis. But this post is not about that. Knowing that I would be going into the hospital, I took the preceding week off, spent a day in Chicago, flew to Salt Lake City, then went on a long car trip through four western states, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and several national forests. I saw some beautiful countryside and got to reconnect with my old friend Charlie.

I got the idea for the trip soon after the initial diagnosis. I was eating dinner with my family, and my father asked, "what would you like to do before you start treatments?" My thoughts returned to my cross-country trips to and from California. I greatly enjoyed these trips because they allowed me to be alone with my thoughts and pass through part of the country that I had never seen before. The trips also showed me how much I had left to see. Who knows when or if I would get another chance.

For this trip, I wanted to go on walkabout again and spend time in some of the national parks that I had been forced to bypass. I decided to fly into Salt Lake City and drive from there to Yellowstone. I left the rest of the week largely undefined. This open plan proved beneficial; it left time to take scenic back roads and do several things that I could have never expected.

I booked tickets just three days in advance. Three events coincided to make the trip much easier. First, a group of friends and I had already made plans to visit Chicago the day before my flight, so I was able to fly direct from O'Hare Airport. Second, Charlie and his family live in Big Sky, Montana, just north of Yellowstone. Despite such short notice, they eagerly agreed to let me stay with them for a few nights, removing the need to find a hotel. Finally, I arrived at the end of the summer tourist season, so I found superb weather, early fall colors, and minimal crowds everywhere I went.

And so, on Saturday, September 20, I began my week-long western vacation.

• Prelude: Chicago
• Day One and Two: Drive from Salt Lake City to Big Sky, Montana
• Day Three: Yellowstone
• Day Four: Grand Teton and Jackson, Wyoming
• Day Five and Six: Charlie's Birthday, a Horse Ride, and Return to Salt Lake City
• Conclusion

Prelude: Chicago

St. Louis is traditionally seen as the gateway to the west, but my trip began in Chicago. Alejandro's girlfriend Alejandra was visiting, so the two of them, Josh, Lucas, and I traveled to several of Chicago's traditional tourist sites. I am ashamed that this was only the second time I have been to downtown Chicago since becoming a UIUC student. Fortunately, I got to see a lot of what I missed last time. We had a full day, including a Segway tour of the waterfront, deep-dish pizza for lunch, the Art Institute of Chicago, Navy Pier, and a trendy Thai restaurant for dinner.

I could say more about Chicago, but this post is about my trip west. I posted pictures in the gallery. Alejandra posted her pictures on Facebook. At the end of the day, the group dropped me off at a hotel near O'Hare Airport, and I flew to Salt Lake City the next afternoon.

Day One and Two: Drive from Salt Lake City to Big Sky, Montana

My flight arrived in Salt Lake City shortly before dark, so I picked up my rental car and found a hotel north of the city. The next day, I took the scenic route north to Big Sky, Montana.

I woke at dawn so I could use every minute of sunlight for the drive. To my surprise, I found not sunlight, but deep gray rain clouds. The attendant at the visitor center in Logan said it was the first rain in a long time.

Near Brigham City, I entered Cache National Forest, the first of several national forests that I would pass through over the course of the week. Almost immediately, the road was surrounded by vibrant foliage contrasting with the gray cliffs and clouds. The rain only made the colors more vivid. Periodically, the cliffs would open up, revealing a sprawling basin lined with stands of pine and bright yellow birch.

The clouds began to part when I reached Bear Lake on the Utah-Idaho border. I stopped at a vista point overlooking the valley and was amazed at the surreal aqua color of the water. According to one of the information placards, it is caused by limestone leaching from the surrounding mountains.

Like my previous cross-country road trips, I was amazed at how quickly the landscape changed. I crossed several cultivated valleys in Wyoming and Idaho in which one side of the road looked up to a rocky hillside sprinkled with shrubs and pine trees and the other over a sweeping panorama of golden wheat fields. Several times I stopped, walked away from the car, and stood listening to the quiet hissing of the wind over the rolling hills. It made a different sound than the wind through Illinois' corn and soybean fields.

I never saw much vehicle traffic, but I was forced onto gravel farm roads near Ashton, Idaho ("Worlds Largest Seed-Producing Area") due to what appeared to be an alfalfa spill.

Soon after, I avoided bovine traffic plodding slowly down the road.

The wheat fields returned to pine forests as I rose into the Greater Yellowstone region. The road crossed into Montana, then jogged in and out of Yellowstone and Wyoming. This stretch, lined with rock outcropping that reminded me of aged faces, was Charlie's daily commute.

I almost missed Big Sky. My GPS did not know it was a city because, I would later learn, there were ongoing incorporation disputes related to liquor licenses. Fortunately, as Charlie told me on the phone, "there's not much to Big Sky", and I was able to find the appropriate street by zooming in as close as possible. After about 11 hours of driving, I pulled into Charlie's driveway at sunset.

Day Three: Yellowstone

I woke up early enough the next morning to watch the sun rise over the mountains east of Big Sky. Charlie and I spent the day traveling counterclockwise around the Grand Loop in Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone is spectacular. Since returning home, I have been telling my friends to do whatever they can to visit. After my father saw the pictures, he said succinctly, "that looks a lot like my happy place."

The park is famous for its geological features, and the loop took Charlie and me past many otherworldly thermal basins.

My favorites were the paint pots. The bubbles in the thick liquid were fascinating to watch and made entertaining burbling noises.

The bacterial mats and mineral deposits surrounding the geysers and hot springs exhibited deep fractal complexity and were just as interesting to examine at as the thermal features themselves.

Charlie and I stopped for lunch at a restaurant near Old Faithful. Unknown to us, we were eating during an eruption. When we passed the next day, we would have had to wait another hour. We finally saw Old Faithful's famous plume on day five while returning from Jackson, Wyoming.

Old Faithful, like the other thermal features we saw, was surrounded by a raised boardwalk. These boardwalks and the amount of driving made Yellowstone much different from most other nature parks that I have been to in which the best attractions are visible only to hikers on backcountry trails. In Yellowstone, I was amazed how easy it was to simply drive, park, and walk a hundred paces to a natural wonder of the world. Is this good or bad? On one hand I was dismayed to see a miniature freeway overpass leading to Old Faithful. On the other, I am thankful that so many people—including the old, young, and handicapped— are able to experience Yellowstone. I, for one, feel fortunate that I could see so much so quickly, even though it only accounts for a small sliver of the park's total area.

The wildlife, at least, lacked boardwalks. We saw mostly Bison and Elk, often standing in a far-off meadow. The closest we came to Yellowstone's fauna was when we rounded a turn and saw several Bison slowly walking down the road.

The highlight of the day's trip came near the end of the loop when we stopped at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. It was then that the inspiration for the park's name became apparent.

There are more pictures of the canyon and the rest of the park in the gallery.

Day Four: Grand Teton and Jackson, Wyoming

On day four, I had originally expected to drive alone through Grand Teton National Park and spend the night in Jackson, Wyoming. From there, I would circle back to Salt Lake City via Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and Dinosaur National Monument. However, Charlie also wanted to see Grand Teton and Jackson, so we devised an alternate plan in which both of us would go to Jackson and return to Big Sky the following day. This plan worked especially well since I would then be in town for Charlie's birthday party. I didn't know it at the time, but it would also prove fortunate that I had someone with which to enjoy Jackson's night life.

Thus, we retraced part of our route through Yellowstone, crossed Grand Teton National Park, and ended the day in Jackson, Wyoming.

One of the guide books—I can't find it now, so I'm paraphrasing—accurately described Grand Teton National Park as "providing many angles and vistas from which to view the mountains of the Teton Range". And what angles and vistas they are! The park doesn't have the thermal features of Yellowstone, but that hardly seems to matter. The views of the Tetons are noteworthy in that the mountains lack foothills and instead shoot up from relatively flat surrounding land.

As for the vistas, Signal Mountain, overlooking the Snake River from 7,593 feet, was one of the most impressive of the entire trip. I had my binoculars with me and must have spent 30 minutes surveying the miles of breathtaking landscape.

Charlie and I got a closer look at some of the park when we took several short hikes at various points along the banks of Jackson Lake. At one, Charlie decided to chase a flock of geese.

At another, I left a small cairn at the trailhead.

It seemed like no time at all before we reached the park's southern entrance and Jackson. You can find more pictures of the park in the gallery.

Jackson, Wyoming

Jackson, Wyoming is an unapologetically goofy western-themed tourist town. Western outfitters, taxidermists, and souvenir stores line the main square. The park inside the square has four arches made of discarded elk antlers. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the town since I left my camera at the hotel.

Inspired by the wildlife in Yellowstone, Charlie and I wanted bison burgers for dinner. We expected they would be easy to find in a town like Jackson. We were wrong. The receptionist at our hotel suggested a restaurant that was split down the middle: one side was a sit-down steakhouse and the other was a short order diner. Neither side had bison burgers. The next place we found was much fancier, but while it had elk steaks ($35), it lacked bison burgers. Finally, we found a family-style grill with bison on the menu. I told Charlie, "food tastes better when you hunt for it."

After dinner, Charlie and I went to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. Like the town itself, the bar flaunted its western theme with a wonderful lack of subtlety. The wood-paneled walls supported display cases containing Winchester rifles and Native American artifacts. Charlie and I got a table next to stuffed mountain lion. A lanky singer who sounded like Weird Al with a southern accent led a country-western band on the main stage. It was entertaining, but Charlie and I eventually decided it wasn't our scene. Fortunately, I had picked up a local paper at the front door and read that a nearby coffeehouse was having an open mic night.

The laidback open mic night could not have been more different than the over-the-top Cowboy Bar. When we arrived, there were maybe eight people in the dimly-lit coffeehouse. One was singing and strumming a guitar in the corner of the room, while another in the audience provided rhythm with a small djembe drum. None had cowboy hats or boots. The singer completed several songs, then asked if anyone else wanted to play. When no one replied, Charlie stood up.

Charlie regularly plays shows around Big Sky, so he essentially had a set list prepared. The small audience was surprised, I think, to see how well Charlie played, having just walked in from the street. At one point, he had everyone laughing at an improvised song about the cowboy bar.

I, too, got a chance to play. The crowd was very receptive, but my guitar-only songs did not captivate them like Charlie's singing had.

After we left, Charlie and I reflected on how fortunate it was that I had noticed the event in the paper. Who knows how different the evening would have been otherwise?

Day Five and Six: Charlie's Birthday, a Horse Ride, and Return to Salt Lake City

Charlie bartends at a tourist ranch near Yellowstone. On the evening of the fifth day, after returning from Jackson, I helped the colorful staff of the ranch celebrate Charlie's birthday. During the party, a discussion with the stable master—who I managed to beat at pool—led to Charlie and me join a group of other visitors on a horseback ride the next morning. Unfortunately, I did not get pictures of that trip, either, but Charlie's friend Claire sent one of her pictures of the three of us in a mountain meadow. I was left amazed not only at the scenery but at how well the horses navigated the rocky trails. Neither a person nor an ATV could have made it up the steep and rugged ravines that we followed. I am convinced that horses provide the best way to see the backcountry and hope I get a chance to ride again (with a camera, of course).

On two occasions my fake leg surprised the guide. The first occurred when I mounted the horse at the stable. The guide adjusted the position of my leg in the stirrup and noticed that it didn't move normally. Later, when we were an hour into the ride, I noticed the toe of my left leg was pointed 90° to the right. The stirrup had pressed the release button without my knowledge. I called out, "I need to stop. My leg fell off." After reattaching the leg, I removed the release button, and the rest of the ride passed without incident.

The horseback ride occurred early enough in the morning that I was able to return to Salt Lake City by sunset. I said goodbye to Charlie and his family, thanked them profusely for their hospitality, and set off down the interstate.

The drive was less scenic than the back roads I had taken driving north, but I did get to see some volcanic flows and and the back side of the Teton Range.

Conclusion

Cancer motivated me to take this trip, but it wasn't the reason for the trip. I have wanted travel west again for months; Cancer just gave me a deadline after which a week-long vacation would become much more difficult. Did it make me more ready for cancer treatments? I don't think so, but it did give me time during which I didn't have to think about the disease and could instead enjoy the beauty of nature and reconnect with an old friend. Those qualities would make any vacation a success regardless of the motivation.

UIUC is building a bell tower in the south quad.

The tower was funded by H. Richard McFarland, a 1952 UIUC graduate and owner of McFarland Foods Corporation [1], in memory of his wife Sally [2]. Right now it is an ugly and imposing mass of gray concrete, but it will eventually reach 185 feet, be painted to match the surrounding buildings, and contain 49 bells controllable by computer or keyboard [3]. Opinion is mixed, though I agree with others that it looks like the Tower of Barad-dûr from Lord of the Rings.

Since July 13, I have taken weekly pictures of the construction progress.

Not much has happened since the scaffolding came off, but I will add to the gallery (and the animation) as soon as construction continues.

Last weekend, Vilas and I went climbing at Upper Limits Rock Gym. The gym, located in Bloomington, Illinois, is held in a converted grain elevator. What a great way to reuse an old building!

The warehouse-sized main room is covered in climbing surfaces.

But most impressive are several silos containing routes along their inside walls.

Unfortunately, Vilas and I could not go all the way to the top since we were not trained to belay back down. Nevertheless, we both enjoyed the routes available to us and left the gym thoroughly exhausted.

There are more pictures in the gallery.

I watched Champaign and Urbana's Independence Day fireworks from on top of a tall parking garage. It could see several shows at once, but they lost a lot of their impact since I could not feel the explosions.

Afterward, I took some long-exposure pictures of the Carle Hospital campus and the progressing state of the 309 Green and 310 Burnham highrises.

And since I am posting night shots, I'll (re)post my favorite photo. It is a panorama of Purdue's Loeb Fountain, taken from the roof of Matthews Hall.

Indianapolis Executive Airport is a small, single-runway airfield that serves Hamilton County northeast of Indianapolis. On June 14, while driving to my parents' house to celebrate Father's Day and my sister's birthday, I happened to pass the airport during an open house benefiting the Indiana Down Syndrome Foundation. The event gave me a close look at three interesting helicopters: a Vietnam-era Huey, an Indiana State Police "eye-in-the-sky", and an air medical transport.

The Huey, serial number 70-16369, was an Army air ambulance deployed to Vietnam in 1971. It returned in 1972 and continued to perform air evacuations in South Carolina, Texas, Illinois, and Ohio until the Army retired it in 2001. At that point, the army transferred ownership to the not-for-profit Down East Emergency Medicine Institute in Maine, which used it for emergency search and rescue. In 2005, brothers John and Allen Walker purchased the helicopter, trailered it 1,300 miles to Peru, Indiana, and formed the not-for-profit American Huey 369 Organization to preserve the aircraft.

The Huey still flies, and one can purchase "memberships" that allow one to go on rides. When I arrived at the airport, the pilot was preparing to take a load of new members into the air.

I desperately wanted a turn. I spoke to an attendant and filled out one of the membership forms, only to be turned away when I pulled out my credit card. They only accepted cash or check.

An Indiana State Police helicopter, a Bell L3, number N54SP, was parked near the Huey. It is one of three helicopters in the state police's fleet of 14 aircraft. The pilot said he and the helicopter had come directly from helping helping flood victims south of Indianapolis.

A 1985 Eurocopter BK117, number N112LL, came last in the line of helicopters. It is one of four Lifeline helicopters operated by Clarian Health. Since 1979, it and the other Lifeline helicopters have transported more than 29,000 patients. The pilot said he averages about one flight per day and can range up to 150 nautical miles.

The back of the helicopter opens completely to allow access to the gurney. As one might expect, the cabin is filled with all sorts of medical supplies.

It was fortunate that I stumbled upon the open house. I found it fascinating to see these purpose-built machines up close and to talk to the pilots and crew.

Allerton Park is a 1,500-acre wooded nature preserve about 40 minutes southwest of Champaign. The University of Illinois administers the park and uses it for conferences, academic retreats, and teaching. Yesterday, Yun-young, Manish, and I went hiking on two of its nature trails. Afterward, we stopped at the day's geohashing coordinates, which were only about two miles away.

We first passed through the meticulously-groomed formal gardens.

Then we entered the peaceful and shadowy nature trail. I periodically pointed out the trees I recognized and the animal tracks that crossed the path.

Eventually, the trail curved to follow the Sangamon River.

It was obvious from the muddy trail and lack of groundcover that the river had recently flooded the area.

We had to detour around standing water or ford small streams several times. The moisture also meant that we had to constantly fight off swarms of mosquitoes. Unfortunately, I had forgotten the insect repellent. When we passed through sunbeams I could see dozens of the insects buzzing around our backs and unprotected arms. At one point, Manish killed five mosquitoes with one slap. Today my shoulders and elbows are covered with red welts.

Despite that, we all enjoyed the hike. The forest was lush and beautiful, and I found it fascinating to see the effects of the flood.

We made it to the opposite end of the park and returned along the higher and dryer access road. We passed a family attempting to break into their car, having locked their keys inside. I called AAA for a nearby service station, but the father decided to break a back window instead. That idea excited his young daughter who enthusiastically ran into the woods to find a big rock. We left before she found one.

After returning to my car, we circled the park to the day's geohashing coordinates. In a drastic departure from previous coordinates, which fell in cornfields, Saturday's coordinates fell in a soybean field. I placed a marker flag while Manish and Yun-young took some pictures. Unfortunately, we arrived late and did not meet any other geohashers.

It was a fun day trip, and all three of us look forward to exploring the rest of Allerton south of the river.

Yun-young posted her pictures in this Facebook album.

Last week, between April 20 and May 7, I took a long vacation in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a full week: I caught up with Eric and my housemates from last summer; hiked through Big Basin Redwoods State Park; tasted wines in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley; went to Maker Faire 2008; and biked around San Francisco.

• Day One: Big Basin Redwoods State Park
• Day Two: Wine Tasting in Sonoma County
• Days Three and Four: Maker Faire
• Day Five: San Francisco and Golden Gate Park
• Day Six: San Francisco Waterfront

I have wanted to revisit the Bay Area since interning in Mountain View last summer. I fell in love with Silicon Valley's pervasive geek culture, perfect climate, beautiful mountain parks, and vibrant urban areas. This summer I accepted a great opportunity with a company in UIUC's research park. That meant I would not have to move across the country, but I would need to find another excuse to go to California. The excuse came when I learned that this year's Maker Faire fell much earlier than last year, perfectly positioned between a paper deadline and the start of my summer job.

I booked plane tickets a month in advance and asked several friends if they wanted to join me for part of the trip. That week worked perfectly for me but was terrible for almost everyone else thanks to final exams and term projects. Fortunately, Eric was very interested in the Maker Faire, so he and his girlfriend Shannon decided to meet me in San Francisco.

I also emailed my housemates from last summer, asking if I could stay in the house during my visit.

They said I could and went out of their way to make me feel welcome. Joseph picked me up from the airport on the day I arrived, Sarah set up a couch in the garage with an incredibly comfortable sleeping bag and let me use her bike for the entire trip, Laura gave me a ride to the second day of the Maker Faire and let me use her laptop when my wireless connection didn't work, and they even had a barbecue and took me to see Iron Man. It was much nicer to come "home" to a welcoming house than an expensive hotel. I can't thank Joseph, Sarah, Laura, and Feddy enough for agreeing to let me stay and for helping to make the trip so enjoyable.

Day One: Big Basin Redwoods State Park

I spend the first morning of my vacation biking around Mountain View, Los Altos, and Palo Alto. The entire area is crisscrossed with bike paths.

That afternoon, Eric and Shannon picked me up in their rental car, and we drove to Big Basin Redwoods State Park southwest of Mountain View.

We hiked one of the shorter trails through the towering redwoods. We did not see the largest trees in the park, but the ones we passed were still very impressive.

On the way back, I showed them Skyline Boulevard and some of the spectacular panoramas bordering the Open Space Preserves.

Day Two: Wine Tasting in Sonoma County

On the second day of the trip, the three of us sampled wines from several wineries in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley. For me, the day began with a train ride into San Francisco where I met Eric and Shannon at their hotel overlooking Telegraph Hill.

From there, we drove about an hour north to wine country.

We visited four wineries: Kendall Jackson, Martinelli, Hook & Ladder, and a fourth whose name I forget because they charged a ridiculous amount for wine tasting.

The four wineries could not have been more different. Kendall Jackson looked like a French mansion complete with manicured garden. Martinelli appeared more rustic, offering wine samples at a rough-hewn wooden counter in the back of a dimly-lit barn. Hook & Ladder was much more industrial with stainless steel tanks behind a prefabricated building. The fourth looked like an Italian villa with olive trees lining the building and a mural behind the wine rack.

Eric was the most well-informed judge of the wine since he took a wine-tasting class during his senior year. Shannon and I just enjoyed trying the different varieties.

We returned to San Francisco for dinner in Chinatown. I have never seen a more frenzied staff than at the restaurant where we ate. The hostess ran full-tilt down the main aisle several times, and I cringed when she brushed inches away from fully-loaded waiters speedwalking in the opposite direction.

Days Three and Four: Maker Faire

Maker Faire provided the initial motivation for my trip, and the two-day celebration of technological creativity did not disappoint. The theme of the weekend remained unchanged from last year: to show off a huge variety of interesting gadgets, artwork, robots, and tools. However, I was impressed at how different it was from last year's event and that the two days had different exhibits and talks.

There were too many amazing creations to describe individually, but I particularly liked seeing several items in person that I had only seen online. For example, I got to try on Johnny Lee's 3D Wii glasses:

...admire Abney Park's steampunk instruments:

...confront an instrument of terror:

...and watch the motion of ferrofluid in a magnetic field:

I also took many more pictures.

Eric and Shannon joined me for part of the afternoon. They had an epic journey to the event center. First they had to return the rental car through San Francisco's rush hour traffic. Then, they had to take two trains: one to get out of the city and another to get to the event center. For some reason, the Maker Faire organizers did not advertise the train stop from which people could walk to the gate. Instead, they shuttled people from a more distant stop. So Eric and Shannon had to wait on the shuttle, then wait in a blocks-long line to get tickets. By the time they got in, they could only spend about two hours browsing the exhibits. Because of that, I don't think they enjoyed the event as much as they could have. Fortunately, they both live in Austin, Texas, so they can attend the Austin Maker Faire in October.

I spent most of the second day listening to talks. Robert Bruce Thompson discussed home chemistry experiments and asked the question, "What happened to children's chemistry sets?" The Paper Airplane Guy demonstrated, as you may expect, many paper airplanes and explained their history and aerodynamic characteristics. An engineer-turned-magician put on a magic show using homemade tricks that he learned from his father.

The headliner was definitely Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame. He talked about the many things he has made both professionally and personally. For example, he is currently building a replica ZF-1 gun from The Fifth Element. He has no plans, just screenshots captured from the DVD. He found the decal on the yellow rocket in a model rocket kit. That gave him a size reference which he could use to fabricate the rest of the gun entirely from scratch. Pretty amazing.

His talk culminated in a description of the process he followed to create a replica Maltese Falcon cast in bronze. He is definitely a perfectionist. His current casting is 10% too small, so he, in his words, "hates it!" and has to start over from scratch.

All of the talks—and Maker Faire in general—have inspired me to build something.

Day Five: San Francisco and Golden Gate Park

I regretted going to San Francisco only once last summer, so I spent the last two days of my vacation biking around the city. On day five I biked all the way across the city from San Francisco Bay to Ocean Beach and back via Golden Gate Park.

I started from the train station, then traveled roughly west on 4th, Market, and Haight streets. I passed the capitol building (with homeless people sleeping on its lawn) and the famous intersection of Haight and Ashbury.

Haight dropped me into the eastern entrance of Golden Gate Park. I passed more sleeping homeless people and was offered drugs three times. I walked the paths, passing the Conservatory of Flowers, then headed into the neighborhoods north of the park.

I resumed my westward journey, ending when I met the cliffs at the edge of the ocean. There, I got an amazing view of the Golden Gate Bridge and Ocean Beach.

I reentered Golden Gate Park from the west.

I biked about halfway through the park, then decided to get lunch in a neighborhood to the south. I returned to the park after eating and walked through the San Francisco Botanical Garden.

After leaving the garden, I biked the rest of the way through the park and along a winding path through the panhandle. I zigzagged back to San Francisco's eastern shore at the Ferry Building where I turned south to follow the Embarcadero back to the train station. I had traveled almost 20 miles by the time I collapsed into the train seat.

When I got back to Mountain View, I went to see Iron Man with Feddy and Laura. Finally, a good superhero movie! I thought it appropriate that I watched a movie about a robotic suit of armor a day after going to the Maker Faire.

Day Six: San Francisco Waterfront

On my sixth day, I met my former coworker and collaborator Marat for lunch in the city. He took me to a hidden French bistro where we talked about programming and research.

I biked around San Francisco's waterfront for the rest of the day. I did not bike as far as the day before, but I saw more of San Francisco's traditional "touristy" attractions: The Cartoon Art Museum, Piers 39 and 45, Fishermans Wharf, the Musee Mechanique [Warning! Annoying sounds!], and the USS Pampanito.

The Cartoon Art Museum had some interesting original artworks—including an original Calvin and Hobbes—and a good collection of cell animation. A TV on one wall played old Popeye cartoons in a loop. The museum was smaller than I had expected, only filling a normal-sized retail space.

I circled the dock around Pier 39. Like when I saw Alcatraz, I could not shake images of the Pier 39 course in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game. I saw Pier 39's famous sea lions lounging in the sun.

Fishermans Wharf was teeming with people.

I passed quickly through the crowd to get to the Musee Mechanique hidden behind the main shops. The Musee Mechanique contained dozens of ingenious coin-operated machines. I particularly liked the player pianos with their punched scores and pneumatic tubes. Unfortunately I was unable to get any pictures since the light was terrible.

The WWII-era USS Pampanito submarine was tied to the dock behind the Musee Mechanique.

I took a walking tour through the ship. I found it amazing that submariners lived in its cramped hull for weeks at a time. I took many pictures, but cannot explain much of what they show.

After that, I returned to the train station and Mountain View to prepare for my flight back to Illinois the following day.

Conclusion

I visited California to capture some of what I missed last summer. I feel I got everything I needed and wanted out of the trip and did enough in just six days to fill a summer. Thanks again to Eric and Shannon for meeting me in San Francisco and to my Mountain View housemates for their hospitality.

Now I need to find another excuse to visit.

You can find all of my pictures in my California Vacation Gallery.