Byteful Travel » Travel

What’s Hidden Underneath the Golden Gate Bridge (Historical Fort Point Review)

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:11:48 +0000

Did you know that something is nestled underneath the Golden Gate Bridge? Something very old; and one a sunny day in September, I had the opportunity to photograph it.

Even though I’d already walked my butt off going up to Coit Tower and then over to Lombard Street, my feet would not relent. They were dead set in reaching the Golden Gate Bridge on the northern end of San Francisco. And little did I know that I was about to stumble upon a huge historical landmark hiding right underneath the bridge itself!

Rare Treats

After walking past a pack of wild segways, I followed a street north up to the bay trail which follows the north shore of the San Francisco peninsula.

But before I reached my destination, I passed by a small food stand. Normally, I wouldn’t stop somewhere spontaneously and buy a sugary treat; but I was on a quest thousands of miles from home, so I gave myself permission to treat myself. I chose something called an “It’s It”, and was instantly glad that I did.

If you’re not familiar with what that is (I wasn’t), it’s basically ice cream between two oatmeal cookies and then covered in chocolate; and I sat down in some shade near the beach for a few minutes and savored it. I wouldn’t have one of them every day, but it was a delicious treat after so much walking.

Other highlights along the path included: a large group of marines marching around in a verdant field, an artist sketching the Golden Gate Bridge from right on the beach, and the most hilarious dog walker I’ve ever met. Just as I was passing the beach, I noticed a guy who was walking at least 10 dogs from one hand. He was very friendly and even let me take a picture of his outrageous dog walking truck, complete with horns. (You can find that in the photo gallery that accompanies this article.)

Through our interaction, I was surprised to learn that professional dog walking can be extremely lucrative if you find the right clients. This may seem obvious in retrospect, but how many dog walkers do you know that make six figures a year?

Follow Your Instincts to Discover

And then I came to a fork in the path. My instincts said I should explore the lower path first, and I’m glad I did. After walking for a few minutes, I came across Fort Point, nestled below the Golden Gate Bridge.

I’d never even heard of it before. Have you?

Turns out, this fort had been built in the 1850s, many decades before the bridge was even conceived. It was now preserved as a historical site, available free to the public. And soon I was inside staring at a spacious inner courtyard, complete with authentic nineteenth century artillery.

I took a curving stone staircase to the second floor and happened to run into a small tour group. I tagged along behind them and got to see some interesting things, including a recreation of what the sleeping quarters looked like. Here’s a hint: Not too comfy.

When you go, don’t miss the lighthouse on the roof. From the top of the fort, you can see the huge superstructure of the Golden Gate Bridge above. In fact, the size of the bridge made this lighthouse, called the Fort Point Light, seem rather small in comparison. And according to a plaque nearby, it hadn’t been lit since the 1930s, when the bridge was completed.

Overall, I’m really glad I stumbled upon Fort Point. It stands as an amazing monument to nineteenth century architecture, and you can check it out completely free of charge! And all photos from this segment are in the photo gallery.

Where’s Marco?

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 26 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. In fact, I’m considering putting up hints that show what he’s near. Would anyone be interested in that?

If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

Can you find him in all 26?
Explore the Fort Point photo gallery —>

Coming up Next:

Even after that day, there was still plenty I would yet see in the City by the Bay. But first, I would explore the giant redwoods in the Tamalpais Valley to the north. More on that amazing experience is coming up in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

If I don’t see you before long, happy holidays!
And until next time, make it a year worth remembering.

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Fort Point photo gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

A Visit to crooked Lombard Street & The Pedestrians Who Wanted to Die

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:11:06 +0000

Even though San Francisco’s Lombard Street is better known for its insane, hairpin turns than for its view, what I saw from the top of it on that beautiful summer afternoon was surprisingly beautiful.

But I’ll come back to that in a moment.

If you’re not familiar Lombard Street, it’s the epitome of how delightfully wild San Francisco roads can be, not to mention that it’s now known as the most crooked street on the planet.

Why, you ask?

San Francisco is a city of hills. A LOT of hills (over 40 of them), and engineers in the 1920s really wanted to continue Lombard Street westward. The only problem was Russian Hill, which was at a 27% grade. (That’s really frackin’ steep.) The solution? Curves! The kind of curves that make your tires beg for mercy.

Engineers realized that to build a street on such a steep grade, it would have to curve back and forth in order for vehicles to use it safely. In the end, they built Lombard Street to consist of 8 sharp turns (or “switchbacks”) resulting in one of the weirdest streets ever built.

Coit Tower is pretty easy to walk to even if you’re on the east side of the city. Despite the fact that the Coit Tower looks relatively small in the 2nd picture below, I only had to walk seven blocks from the tower to reach Lombard Street. Just under a mile. And on such a beautiful day as that one, my feet welcomed the opportunity. When I arrived, however, my faith in humanity was challenged.

Standing in an Intersection

Just before the street were a dozen or so people taking their pictures in front it. This didn’t surprise me. The fact that many of them were standing right in the middle of the road was what concerned me. Now, to be fair, the traffic on the road was pretty light, perhaps one car every minute or two; but these people lingered like flies at a picnic. And no amount of shooing was going to work.

Dear Lingerers, I’m sure your photos are radical and great, but I don’t care if you’re Ansel Adams. It’s just not a good idea to linger in the middle of the road unless someone is bleeding or something. Am I wrong?

The sheer nonchalance of these people was somewhat disturbing.

Anyway, brushing aside the pedestrians who may or may not have had a secret death wish, I made my way up Russian Hill. Although cars are only permitted to go one way on Lombard Street (down the hill), I was happy to see a pedestrian path that led upward. And as I scaled the hill, I took some pictures of the view behind me, resulting in my favorite picture from this photoset: the one of Coit Tower and Lombard Street in the same shot. In a single photo, I managed to capture two stunning San Francisco landmarks, and it turned out beautifully.

I love being in the right place at the right time.
And on that day, it happened more than once.

Where’s Marco?

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 7 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. In fact, I’m considering putting up hints that show what he’s near. Would anyone be interested in that?

If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

Can you find him in all 7?
Explore the Lombard Street photo gallery —>

Coming up Next:

And even after walking to Lombard Street, my feet still carried me onward, leading me past a pack of wild segways (a vehicle that is not exactly known for how dignified the driver looks while riding it), along the bay’s coast, and up to the northern tip of the peninsula where I made an important discovery:

There is an entire Civil War-era fort underneath Golden Gate bridge. And I could tour it for free. My explorations of the fort, and my 4 mile journey to it, is in the next article:

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Lombard Street photo gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

A San Francisco Secret: The Coit Tower View (Review & Photo Essay)

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:22:06 +0000

A sane person would have taken a bus or a car up to Coit Tower, but I didn’t.

Instead, I walked the wild San Francisco streets up to the top of Telegraph Hill. To scale that 83 meter hill, I even walked up stairs at points; and when I finally reached the Coit Tower parking lot, I was rewarded with a view of the bay and Alcatraz Island in the distance.

Little did I know I was about to get my socks knocked off.

At the ground floor, there’s a rather unimpressive gift shop filled with small pieces of memorabilia and knick-knacks that you might find yourself purchasing if you wanted to send a souvenir home. Yet my intuition told me to hold off buying anything for now. First, I’d see the top.

Ascent to the observation deck is mostly uneventful. To get to the top there’s a small fare and an equally small elevator, and after that they’ve even added some more stairs for good measure. But the view… Such a view of San Francisco I’d never seen before, even from an airplane. Here at the observation deck, the entire skyline was wrapped around me like a blanket, and through windows I could see slices of that skyline in small portions.

To the north, I saw Alcatraz Island and Pier 39. To the east, I could see the Bay Bridge. To the south, I could see the Transamerica Pyramid, the tallest skyscraper in the city. And to the west, I could see the rest of San Francisco atop rolling hills. From here, Washington Square looked like an amazing oasis of green among lightly-colored buildings.

A Freshly-Pressed Memory

Once again listening to my intuition had paid off, because up there on the Observation Deck was a penny pressing machine. For 50 cents you could have the symbol of Coit Tower pressed onto a penny, complete with the words “Coit Tower – San Francisco” imprinted on it.

“Perfect!” I thought and put two quarters in the machine. After waiting a few moments, my freshly-pressed penny dropped into a receptacle below, and I snapped a photo. I instantly knew that this souvenir was for my brother.

He’d love it.

On my way back down to earth, I thought about what else was still in store for that day. It was only lunchtime, after all; and the weather was warm and clear. The sky was entirely clear (a true rarity for San Francisco) and the entire city seemed to be begging me to explore. So I began heading west on Lombard Street to see the most curved street in America.

Just before I arrived at the wildly-curving portion of Lombard, I looked behind me and snapped one last picture of the tower. From here, the tower and the hill almost looked out of place, as if from a slice of another reality, completely different from the urban landscape around it.

An oasis.
And so it is.

Photography

The Building of Coit Tower

When Coit died in 1929, she left one-third of her estate to the City of San Francisco, asking that the money be spent, “…in an appropriate manner for the purpose of adding to the beauty of said city which I have always loved.”

In 1931, Supervisor Herbert Fleishhacker proposed using the funds to construct a memorial for the beautification of Telegraph Hill, and the executors agreed. Arthur Brown, Jr., the architect of City Hall and the War Memorial Opera House, won the design competition and, with the assistance of Henry Howard, designed Coit Tower in the Art Deco style with a budget of $125,000. The simple fluted shaft, filled with PWAP murals, is now a San Francisco icon, visited by residents and visitors alike. Congratulations to Coit Tower on its 75th anniversary!

All items, unless noted, courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

~ Plaque at the base of Coit Tower

Where’s Marco?

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 15 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging.

If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>
Can you find him in all 15?

And also remember to:
Explore the Coit Tower photo gallery —>

Coming up Next:
The insanity of the most crooked street in America, a stunning view of two major San Francisco landmarks, and the pedestrians who wanted to die:

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Coit Tower photo gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

Computer History Museum Review: 7 Striking Exhibits from the Digital Age

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:22:09 +0000

Less than a mile away from the mysterious Googleplex is another radiant treasure of Silicon Valley: The Computer History Museum. And since the two Austrians and I still had plenty of time left in the day, we took that opportunity to explore the museum after we had explored Google.

What we didn’t know at the time was that the Computer History Museum (aka. CHM) contains the largest and most significant collection of computing artifacts on the planet! So it may not surprise you to hear that they have an Apple-1, the first Google production servers, a Cray-1 supercomputer, and a lot of other great artifacts of the early computer age and beyond.

With over 90,000 objects, photographs, and films (and hundreds of gigabytes of software), in its field this museum has no equal. So, needless to say, we were in for a real treat, and in this article I’m going to reveal the 7 most memorable artifacts I stumbled across that day, including the “Godfather” of the iPhone and a 150 lb. computer that you just HAVE to get your loved one this holiday season.

But we’ll get to that.

1. The Charles Babbage Difference Engine (#2)

When you first walk into the CHM, the Babbage Difference Engine will probably be the first thing you see. This incredible machine (designed by Charles Babbage, the first computer pioneer) is a highly precise mechanical calculating engine, able to solve mathematical expressions completely without the use of electronic components. (There are a LOT of gears.) As if that weren’t enough, it automatically prints an inked hard copy as a record. And all of this was designed decades before anyone had created an electrical computer.

First designed in 1849, this incredible machine consists of over 8,000 parts. The fact that this 11 foot long behemoth even exists is incredible, and only two were ever built (hence #2 in the name). If you want to see it in action, the museum even offers scheduled demonstrations! And even though Babbage never built this machine and died unacknowledged in his time, his machine now stands as a memorial to his work.

2. The Legendary Apple-1

After passing the front desk, I turned the corner and saw shelves and shelves of early computers. And then, at the far end of the room, I saw this unassuming computer behind glass. Even though this unit bares no label, this is an Apple-1. First conceived in Steve Job’s garage in 1976 and designed by Steve Wozniak, the Apple-1 was the first computer ever sold by Apple Computer. (Jobs and Wozniak went into small-scale production when The Byte Shop ordered 50 assembled boards.) I wondered if this Apple-1 that was now behind glass might have been one of those original 50. Probably not, but it was amazing to think that something that now looks so simple to us was part of a revolution.

3. The First Google Production Server

Nearby, I stumbled across an interesting tower of a computer. A sign below explained that this was Google’s first production server, one of many servers designed to process the many thousands of search requests per second from Google users. Of course! Only a server could have this many ethernet cables pouring out of it.

Apparently the first Google data center had about thirty of these monsters; and even though they were difficult to repair, they provided Google with its first large-scale computing system which allowed the company to grow quickly at minimal cost.

And today, Google utilizes over a million servers! (Though they’re much, much faster than this early example.)

4. The Cray-3 “Brick”

Speaking of fast computers and cabled monsters, this quirky little box was probably the best example of tons of power packed into a tiny package in the entire museum. Designed in 1993, the Cray-3 “Brick” contains multi-layered circuit boards submerged in fluorinert. This little guy is so fast that a computation that took Cray-3 only 1 second would have taken ENIAC (which was completed in 1947) sixty-seven years to perform! Behold the power of 15 gigaflops. (And that’s fast, especially considering a gigaflop is a billion floating-point math operations per second.)

5. The Omnibot 2000 “toy” robot

In my exploration of the museum, I also came across some computers that tried to be more human-like in appearance and in behavior. Although they usually didn’t do either of these things very well, their attempts were often amusing and charming. The Omnibot 2000 is a perfect example of this.

Hailing from 1985, this little guy spoke, moved, and carried objects. You could give it commands by remote control or feed it programs on magnetic tape. There were even plans to sell optional accessories like light & sound sensors and even vacuum cleaner attachments! But in this case, I think the Tomy Kyogo company got ahead of itself there, considering that it never made any of these accessories.

Still, it’s a pretty cute robot, isn’t it? Wonderfully retro and droid-esque.

6. The Apple Newton

Some of you may not have even heard of this relic of Apple history gone by, but in the early 1990s useful handheld computers were just starting to appear in the marketplace. And by 1993, Apple introduced the Newton, the godfather of the iPhone in a way.

Along with other early attempts at handhelds, the Newton sold poorly. In fact, handhelds only achieved some success when they focused on doing a narrower range of tasks better than their PC counterparts.

I find it somewhat ironic now that the situation has reversed. Handhelds (like the iPhone) have now gotten so powerful that, far from being an accessory, some people now use one as their primary computer.

7. The Utter Joke that was The “Kitchen” Computer

Out of everything in the museum, this one is probably the funniest and least realistic vision for the future computing. Witness the Kitchen Computer featured in the 1969 Neiman Marcus catalog as a computer that allowed housewives to store and retrieve recipes. Above is a picture of that feature. Did I mention that the interface only included binary lights and switches? Or that it cost over $10,000?

Just imagine: it’s Christmas morning, and your wife spends five minutes unwrapping this shiny behemoth of a computer.

“It’s red!” she exclaims. “My favorite color!”
And you reply: “Even though its 150 pounds and no one outside of a computer science department could ever hope to figure out how to store recipes on it, that’s okay, honey! It’s a symbol of our love!”

Clockspeed? 0.6 megahertz.
Thankfully, there’s no evidence that any Kitchen Computers were ever sold.

Verdict

Simply put, the CHM is my favorite museum in Silicon Valley. Actually, it’s my favorite museum in all of California because no other place comes close to having so much of computer history literally at your fingertips. In addition to being family-friendly, it’s probably the best place in the world to learn how the human race went from the abacus all the way to supercomputers, and seeing that history firsthand is a blast! Oh, and when you go, ask about the free tours that are given periodically. I happened to stumble into a tour during my visit, and I really enjoyed it. (These people really know their stuff and are happy to answer questions.)

Obviously there was a lot I wasn’t able to include in this article, including the haunting red & black Cray-2 supercomputer, the famous PDP-8, the Behemoth Recumbent Bicycle, and much more. To check those (and all the photos) out in high resolution, be sure to swing by the photo gallery that accompanies this article. And when you see the photos, keep in mind that the museum has been renovated since I visited it in 2009, so it’s even more stylish and futuristic now than it was when I visited.

— Bonus —

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 32 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 32?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And remember to:
Explore the Computer History Museum photo gallery —>

Next: A Breathtaking View of San Francisco

This article concludes our exploration of Silicon Valley, at least for the foreseeable future. Next, I moved onto San Francisco itself, and in the next article we’ll explore Coit Tower, the breathtaking view of San Francisco from the top, and the best souvenir a traveller could as for.

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Computer History Museum gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under Creative Commons. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

How to Plan Intuitively to Travel, Create, & Work Effortlessly & Abundantly

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 07:22:02 +0000

How spontaneous are you in your life? Do you follow your schedule religiously or do you find yourself working right up to the last minute of a deadline? Have you found a happy medium between these two extremes?

In this article I’m going to share with you a concept that allows you to harness the natural cycles of your brain to the greatest effect in both work and when travelling.

You see, when I travel I seldom plan out exactly what I’m going to do on a certain day. Instead, I review my options before I set out and allow time and space for events to flow together organically and spontaneously. Granted, some of your travel commitments may have firm attachments to certain points in time and space, but acting merely on intuition is incredibly worth it whenever possible. In fact, I find that when I wait to plan a given day until the night before, I’m much more sensitive to how the day is going to go; and I’m more in tune with what my needs will be on the upcoming day.

Travelling is a creative act, and your ability to jump into a creative state ebbs and flows throughout the day. In my experience, there is much magic to be found when we are conscious of those changes; and when done consciously, this kind of flexibility allows moments to snap together like magnets.

So how exactly does this apply to work? I’ll ‘splain.

The Intuitive Planning Approach

Lately, I’ve realized that I’ve approached doing work this way for a while now. Instead of stating in big red letters that I’m going to write a rough draft of a given article on Monday or bust, I find that I work better when I have a general idea of what I need to accomplish by a certain day and then allow myself to be drawn to the tasks to complete that goal in its own perfect time.

For the purposes of this article I’m going to call this approach “intuitive planning”, because, while it’s still technically a form of planning, it allows your intuition to have a say in what you should be doing at a given moment. People who use David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system (as I do) may recognize that the GTD “Next Actions” list can be used exactly this way because it’s a list of shorter tasks that can easily fit into the gaps between larger projects.

We can expand on that though. And as in both work and travel, defining the next physical action you need to take to achieve your goal is immensely helpful and can often give you clarity if you feel stuck. But if you already know what you’re going to do (and when it needs to be done) and you have some freedom over the order and speed at which the steps are completed, then you can experiment with the Intuitive Planning model.

For instance, I’m currently writing this sentence at 00.57, which is well past midnight. I didn’t even plan to write an article tonight; but inspiration struck me, and I had the time flexibility to act on it. By listening to my intuition and following it, this article was allowed space to manifest. Simply put, the Intuitive Planning approach has completely changed how I view my working time as well as my travel time. (Although you could say I’m “on the job” whenever I’m travelling, but you know what I mean.)

This model works best for me on a week by week basis. For instance, if I’m working on a big article about McWay Falls, I know that I have a few dozen photos to crop, color-correct, name, export, upload to the Byteful Gallery, and resize for the article. Then I need to outline the article, write it, proofread it, categorize it, and finally set the article to be posted in the wee hours of the morning. This whole process involves over 10 major steps with plenty of tiny steps in between; but because I understand the steps that it involves, I can set small milestones to let me know if I’m on track. (For instance, I like to have the photos done by Sunday night and a rough draft of the article done on Monday). Yet if I really get on a roll, I may have the article rough draft done by the end of Sunday. It all depends on my level of inspiration and energy level. The key here is really listening to myself and my mental state.

Inspiration & Expectation

Let me be clear here. I’m not saying you should wait for inspiration to get you started on your work. A wise man once said that inspiration must find you working; and in my experience, I think that’s putting it lightly.

There’s no Inspiration Faerie that’s going to come down and give you tons of energy. Your will and your will alone must start it. However, if you change your attitude to be open to inspiration sneaking up on you, it’s far more likely to.

Have you ever noticed that it’s those times when you don’t feel pressured and boxed in, that some of your most inspired ideas come through? In my experience, inspired ideas are more likely to come through because expectations cause a constriction in the mind. By “forcing” yourself to do a specific thing at a certain time, you will naturally feel limited and probably stressed out, too.

Don’t get me wrong. This certainly isn’t always a bad thing. Indeed, without that kind of discipline, we would not complete many things that legitimately need to be done. Yet, whenever possible, creating from a place of non-expectation is much more enjoyable experience for me, and I find more original ideas come when I’m not painstakingly looking for them. What about you?

How to Create the Flow for Yourself

The real trick here (which is a skill that can be developed) is the ability to consciously decide what you’re going to focus on and think about. I learned an important lesson about this in my teen years when I would push myself to the limit for school projects, and I continued to refine my approach when I was in college.

While it may come as an incredible shock to you, I really disliked being forced to do a project I didn’t enjoy, and I experienced a lot of stress in having to push myself to complete such a project on time. If I didn’t really care about the end goal of the project, it didn’t spur me to action. At all. In fact, I would have a lot of trouble “getting into the groove” of it. Therefore, I had to create that flow for myself. (I can’t not state the importance of this enough.)

I would often experience false starts and slow progress in the beginning, so I’m not saying this is easy. Sometimes it can be very difficult. Sometimes you may feel as though you don’t even know where to start. Trust me, I’ve been there. But in those situations, I tried to take away as much complexity as I could and simply took the most logical first step. Keeping it simple is a very important tip to remember whenever you get stuck.

Discipline is what allows us to take those first few steps. But I’ve found that once I get going, less and less discipline is required because I’ve created the groove that I was looking for. And by creating it for myself, I make it easier to get back to that place of creativity whenever I want.

Choose your Focus & Make Alpha Waves

Remember, this all hinges on you being able to consciously decide what you’re going to focus on. You must choose where to place your focus. Will you focus on the part of your brain that is worried about failing or the part that simply relishes in the act of creation itself? Have you ever noticed that when you’re really in the flow of creating (whether it be writing, reading, painting, or designing) that you completely lose track of time?

This is because a different part of your brain is engaged. When you feel truly immersed in your work, your brain is actually at a different frequency than when you’re walking around during the day. The brain is in beta frequency during most of its waking hours, but when you’re really in the flow, you enter alpha brain frequency. These alpha waves allow distractions to fall away and allow a much greater depth of focus. For instance, I’m in an alpha state right now as I write this. How do I know? Because the words keep flowing out of me, effortlessly.

Things certainly weren’t always this way. To be completely honest, there was a time when I absolutely dreaded writing; but the more I practiced, the more I learned about what it felt like to be in this state. I gained a better understanding of how my own brain worked, and so can you.

In some ways, it’s like riding a bike. When you first rode a bike, you had no hope of balancing without training wheels, right? But in time, you refined your sense of balance, and soon you didn’t even need the training wheels.

Intuitive Planning: Create Abundantly!

As I said before, your ability to jump into a creative state ebbs and flows throughout the day, and “intuitive planning” is merely intelligently harnessing this quality of the human brain in the most intelligent way possible. To really put all of this in a nutshell, when you give yourself the freedom to create in the order in which your mind wants to create, your creative process can flow much more effortlessly and with much less stress. And if the time never seems right and begins to run short, you can always revert back to a more logical discipline-based approach.

Remember, you are not your brain. You are also not your thoughts. Realize that your mind is a wonderfully complex and dynamic tool; but it is still a tool, and when you use this tool with greater skill, you can create more abundantly and more meaningfully.

And fewer things are more enjoyable or more rewarding than that.

Read related articles

Apple Campus Store Review: Visiting Infinite Loop

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 07:22:19 +0000

As I’ve said before, Silicon Valley is a magical land full of history and plenty of places to explore. And Apple is a key component of that landscape.

Basically, it was incredible. The minute we parked, Steve Jobs walked out of the building, shook my hand, and offered me little gingerbread cookies that were in the shape of apples. Then we rode a hovercar around the campus as Steve gave us a personal tour! And afterwards, all three of us got MacBook Airs as parting gifts.

Yep, that all happened… in my dreams.

While we didn’t actually meet anyone famous, it was still fun to see the campus that is the source of so much innovation (and now the most valuable company in the US).

As with Google, you aren’t going to get a tour unless you personally know someone who works there. However, even if you’re like me and don’t know anyone there, you can still check out the Apple Corporate Store which is right on campus.

Stuff You can’t get Anywhere Else…

What’s great about the Corporate Store is that it offers a lot of stuff that no Apple Store has. And let’s be clear. This NOT and Apple Store. It’s the Corporate Store. There are important differences. Namely, it has A LOT of Apple-branded stuff, including shirts, pens, water bottles, and strange things you’d never even guess. I think I even remember seeing branded crayons and a puzzle.

Seriously, crayons.

And since Apple doesn’t sell any clothing in its normal Apple Stores, it was funny to see Apple branded shirts alongside MacBooks in the Corporate store.

Surprisingly, while the store was a bit smaller than the Apple Stores, they still found the space for a row of strange boxes arranged in shelves like books. What could these be? Ah yes! These were holdovers from the time when people used to etch software onto plastic discs and safely seal them in cardboard boxes so that people could buy them, take them home, and put the plastic disk inside the computer.

I know what you’re thinking. “How barbarian!” And you would be right, but this is how it was done in 2009. Those of us nowadays know better though, don’t we? After all, why would we even waste time with discs when everything is available digitally? Plus, it’s a heck of a lot more environmentally friendly to go completely electronic.

By now, the Austrians were starting to get restless. They appreciated the historical value of where we were, but I don’t think they were Apple geeks like I am. And eventually I decided on getting a small blue pen with an Apple logo on it to commemorate my visit. Who knows, perhaps next time I would be visiting a very different Apple Campus than the one I saw on that day.

After buying the pen, there was one more photo that I had to take: the Infinite Loop sign itself. The street is perfectly named since it encircles Apple Campus, and it’s already gained notoriety (including becoming a nickname for the Apple Campus itself), so I was pleased that I had the chance to photograph it for myself.

Conclusion & Looking Forward

To put it in a nutshell, you’re probably only going to enjoy visiting Apple’s Campus if you’re actually interested in the company or the history behind it. This is definitely not an “attraction” like Intel’s museum; and, like Google, this is a living, breathing public company that does not give tours, nor should you expect it to. However, if you have some time in your Silicon Valley exploration (you’re a fan of the company’s products or history, as I am) I recommend stopping by. It’s the best place to get Apple branded everything, and as with all Apple Stores you’re free to use the Macs to browse the web.

And it’s only poised to get better. By 2015 the disc-shaped Apple Campus 2 should be complete and will no doubt be a billion times more photogenic and marvelous to visit. Seriously, have you seen the concept art for the building? It’s going to be a California landmark.

I just hope they let members of the public visit the park in the center of the disc-shaped structure, because I have a feeling it will be a breathtaking sight.

— Bonus —

Just like with every travel photo I’ve released since December 2010, Marco the Spacefarer followed me that day and therefore appears in all 10 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 10?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And remember to:
Explore the Apple Campus photo gallery —>

Next: We meet the most Incredible (& absurd) Machines Ever.

We conclude our explorations of Silicon Valley with an visit to the world-renowned Computer History Museum. With over 90,000 objects, photographs, and films in its field, this museum has no equal. In our explorations, we discovered a behemoth of a machine (which was the most amazing mechanical device I’ve ever seen), the iPhone’s “Grandfather”, and the most absurd $10,000 Christmas gift you could ever imagine:

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Apple Campus gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

Intel Museum Review: 5 Exhibits that Changed How I Thought of Microprocessors

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 07:22:56 +0000

Have you ever seen the inside of a microprocessor before?

Today I’m excited to share with you my visit to a wonderful free museum in Silicon Valley where I had a chance to meet true artifacts from technology history face to face.

As I said before, I had joined forces with two fellow travellers from Austria to explore the best of Silicon Valley. And, as you can probably imagine, that day we visited many incredible and historical locations, including the Googleplex, Intel’s headquarters, Apple’s campus, and the famous Computer History Museum.

So today I’m going to continue the tale of that incredible day by telling you about our stop at Intel, which turned out to be a bit more welcoming than Google was, for reasons which I’ll get into.

Intel’s Welcoming Vibe

To be frank, I found Intel’s headquarters to be much more inviting than Google’s. Even Intel’s lobby seemed significantly more relaxed and inviting.

Although Intel Museum adjacent to the lobby had a lot to do with that.

A number of things jumped out at me while I explored the Intel Museum, and today I’m going to focus on the top 5 most awesome exhibits, because they changed how I thought about microprocessors forever.

1. The History of how Everyday Objects use Microprocessors

Did you know that, as early as the mid-1970s, Intel’s computers were giving intelligence to traffic lights?

This exhibit is one of the first you’ll see when you enter, and it highlights some practical uses of microprocessor technology that I’d never considered. Some of the displays even seemed to be written in a nostalgic style, possibly because they were written by those who actually worked in the industry during the 1970s when the microchip revolution was occurring.

It’s truly amazing when you stop and think of the unprecedented change that has occurred in the computer industry over the last 40 years, and my amazement only increases when I also consider how that change has rippled out to affect every other industry on the planet. Even the existence of this website is a reflection of that revolution.

Still, it is fun to reminisce about the good old days.

“I think we paid for the R&D in the first five months of shipments. Those were the good old days!”

~ Ed Gelbach, Intel’s first director of marketing
(speaking about the 8080 processor)

2. Illustrations of the Complexity of the early Microprocessors

Have you ever seen the inside of a microprocessor before?

Before visiting the Intel Museum, I hadn’t. And when I saw this huge poster, I just about stopped in my tracks. The photo above shows hundreds of tiny switches (or transistors) inside of a microprocessor. In fact, it’s the “switching” of these tiny chips that allow the microprocessor to work. (I put “switching” in quotes because these switches don’t actually move. They’re electrical and only allow electricity to flow in certain ways.)

The photo above shows only a segment of the entire processor, and if you think that’s cool, consider this: that’s a photo of an early processor. Today’s chips have millions and millions of transistors!

Sometimes I wonder how human beings could ever design these things. Although since computers are used in such a high degree to design modern microprocessor chips, you could almost say that computers have just as much to do with the design of these modern chips as humans do. Truly, computers do design themselves, but they still need some help from us… for now.

3. What a Pentium 4 wafer looks like close up

If you’re not familiar with them, microchip wafers are pretty cool. They’re important because they’re used in a key step in the production of processors. (Not to mention they taste delicious.)

See those colorful squares in the wafer above? Those are dozens of Pentium 4 chips. Think of it as making a batch of cookies. Would you only put one cookie in the oven? Of course not! That would be a complete waste of time if you wanted more than one cookie.

And, believe me, Intel makes a LOT of cookies…
I mean chips…
I mean microprocessors…

Sheesh, what’s the deal with these technology/food crossover words? Wafers, chips… You’d think that computer engineers aren’t fed enough or something. Or is it that they’re fed too much?

Anyway, the batch of cookies analogy applies here because when Intel makes a batch of processors, they etch dozens and dozens of them onto large wafers like this. And since Intel makes millions of processors per year, they find that manufacturing the chips on a grid to be very efficient. That way, the same processes to make a chip can be applied to all the chips on a wafer at once, saving immeasurable amounts of time.

See? It’s just like cookies.

4. The Incredible Multi-Level design of the “Fabs”

All this talk of wafers and cookies is making me hungry. Let’s talk about “fabs”. (And no, I’m not talking about Favored Alcoholic Beverages.)

Far from a source of inebriation, a “fab” is technical slang for a semiconductor fabrication plant. Basically, it’s a magical place were microprocessors are made, including the one that you’re using to browse the web right now.

And while exploring the museum, I came across this detailed model of a fab plant (pictured right) which explains the purpose of each of the four levels of a fabrication plant in detail. Isn’t it incredible how much goes into creating our modern microprocessors?

This fab model was pretty intriguing. For instance, did you know that processors can only be produced at certain temperatures and humidity levels? That’s why, directly above the clean room where processors are produced, there’s a level called the fan deck which carefully maintains temperature, humidity, and air purity. And below the clean room is a “subfab” level where most of the power transformers, pumps, and other support systems are.

As you can see, these multi-level fabrication plants are delicately balanced ecosystems, carefully designed so that microprocessors can be born and live out a long healthy life. Who knows, the next chip Intel makes could end up inside a pacemaker that keeps you alive someday.

5. Excellent Interactive Video exhibits, and much more.

Overall, the amount of thought and care that went into the Intel Museum surprised me. I was impressed at how much effort had been put into retelling the history of the microprocessor, including interactive video exhibits.

One exhibit that sticks out in my mind was an interactive display showing excerpts of Robert Noyce’s journal, one of Intel’s founders. And when I read about the early days at Intel, I was struck at the uncertainty founders of Intel had to endure in those early days. They knew they were on the right path, but it still took time for them to “calibrate” before they began to resemble the Intel we know now. For instance, did you know that Intel’s original name was NM Electronics during their first year?

The founders soon revised the name and decided to call it Integrated Electronics, eventually shortening it to the “Intel” that we know today.

Verdict

Even though I can’t say the Intel Museum is my favorite museum in the valley (that title goes to the Computer History Museum), it’s definitely a fun place to explore. And while the Intel Museum is admittedly rather Intel-centric, it is nonetheless a fun place to visit to experience the history of the microprocessor and the fascinating way that they’re produced.

It can be adequately explored in about an hour and is provided free of charge. In fact, by adding a museum to their headquarters, Intel is helping educate the public, improve public perception (and goodwill) towards Intel, and help put a friendlier face on the company.

— Bonus —

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my visit to the Intel Museum. I really enjoyed taking the time to explore it. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in all 18 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 18?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Explore the Intel Museum photo gallery —>

Next: Visiting the Birthplace of the iPhone & more

In the next article, we continue our explorations of Silicon Valley with a brief visit to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, the birthplace of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. You could almost feel the brainpower in the air. And while there, we visited the only store in the world owned by Apple that doesn’t sell computers: the Apple Corporate store, which sold more strange stuff than we ever guessed:

See what happened next —>

— Bonus Resource —
Or, for more explorations of great little museums like this one, you can also check out: 15 of the Best Small, Quirky, and Unusual Museums in the US from our friends over at BootsnAll.

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

New “Choose a City” feature: Find Free & Cheap Things to Do (& Plan Your Trip!)

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 07:22:51 +0000

Today, I’m very excited to share with you something that I’ve been working on for a while now, It’s a brand new Byteful Travel feature called “Choose a City”.

Basically, Choose A City makes it easy for you find articles about the best free and inexpensive things to do in a given city. Occasionally a city page will highlight a more expensive attraction if it’s something that I strongly suggest you consider seeing (i.e., it’s a once in a lifetime experience type of thing), but it’s all locations I’ve personally visited and vetted myself.

I’ve created this feature because I’ve recently realized that, while I may have been providing an abundance of free information (and photography) about attractions in these cities before, it wasn’t necessarily organized in a convenient or easy to use way. Perhaps worst of all, the information wasn’t consolidated or easily referenced. That all changes today, though.

How to Use “Choose a City”

To use Choose a City, click the “Choose a City” tab in the navigation bar above. On that page is a USA map which highlights the cities which currently have pages written for them. You can either choose a city by clicking on a blue pin in the map or choosing a city from the list below the map.

When you arrive at a city-specific page, you’ll see a map with color-coded pins which represent how much it costs to visit that location or take part in an activity at that location. So, for example, on Chicago’s city page there are pins in four different colors. Green pins mean that the attraction is free; Cyan (or light blue) pins mean the attraction is free on certain days (indicated on the attraction’s website); Yellow pins mean that the attraction’s cost is under $20; and Red pins mean that the attraction’s cost is over $20. I feel that this traffic light color scheme will be especially useful for budget-sensitive travellers. (And although I haven’t been to an attraction that cost over $40 yet, I’ll consider making a new color if the need presents itself.)

Upon clicking on a pin, a bubble will come up with a photo of the attraction and a link to an in-depth article that I’ve written about it. And because I’m fully aware that not all users prefer finding an article with a map and some (such as blind users) can’t even use the embedded Google maps, I’ve created a list of the same locations below the map, as well. And since all of my experience with a particular city is now listed in one place, it’s easy to design a trip that’s custom-fit for your budget.

Never before has it been this easy navigate Byteful Travel’s archives; and since these pages will be updated as new articles are written, they will continue to improve. In fact, I intend that they be living, breathing documents.

Use this to Explore for Yourself

Choose a City is launching with seven city-specific pages today with more to follow. For now, this feature only covers US cities, but I know that will change in the future. (Hint: I’m headed to a country that rhymes with “Banada” on Saturday.)

I’ve spent a lot of time creating these custom-tailored city pages (as well as programming all of the maps associated with each page), and I hope it makes using Byteful Travel much more convenient for you.

In many ways, I see this as the natural evolution of years of hard work that I’ve put into writing about these cities. And now that all of this information is organized both visually and in an index, it will be much easier to use Byteful Travel to plan a trip than it ever was before. And I truly hope that you do. As I’ve written about before, travel is one of the most powerful ways to grow, and if I can be of any service in encouraging you to explore and helping you grow, then I feel I’ve done my job.

If you feel there’s any way I can improve Choose a City or make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for, please let me know. I’m listening.

Read related articles

7 Surprises from my Googleplex visit: A Self-Guided Tour of Google HQ

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:22:28 +0000

Do you know what the most visited website on the planet is? I’ll give you one guess.

If you guessed Google, then you get a virtual Kewpie doll*, complete with really tiny wings!

And if you haven’t realized it yet, today we’re going to explore Google’s corporate headquarters, known simply as: The Googleplex.

As you may remember, during my entire journey to the US West Coast and back, I didn’t take a car (nor at any point rent a car) to use. Instead, I relied on carpooling, craigslist rideshare, and public transportation, sometimes with amazing results. So how did I end up getting to the Googleplex in this case? Well, an obvious answer is that I could have taken a bus, but the universe had a better opportunity in mind.

How Me and 2 Austrians got to Google

The Flow of Travel swept everyone up that week and proceeded to arrange things into win-win-win situations. My Couchsurfing host was fantastic, and as it turned out she was also hosting a young couple from Austria, as well. They too wanted to explore Silicon Valley. And we soon realized that I knew more about what was good to see in the area than they did, and they had rented a car. They were the wheels, and I ended up being the navigator, wielding my iPod touch which contained the directions to our destinations.

That day we explored many incredible and world-changing places, including Intel’s headquarters (complete with an Intel museum); the Computer History Museum; Apple’s Campus; and, of course, the Googleplex.

When we arrived on that gorgeous Thursday afternoon, we weren’t sure what to expect, and we certainly had no idea that we were going to have a small run-in with Google security… But I’m getting ahead of myself. This story starts simply.

It starts with a bike.

1. Google Bikes are Everywhere

Besides the Google sign itself, this was the first “Googley” subject we saw. And we soon realized that there were dozens, perhaps hundreds of these bikes all over the Googleplex. We later found out that anyone in the company can ride these bikes from place to place; and since all of them are shared by the company, you never have to lock them up or worry about losing your bike. And I imagine with so many of them, a bike tends to show up right when you need one.

2. Behold, Googley Architecture!

As I’m sure you can imagine, the Googleplex is big. Really big. Over a dozen acres kind of big. The building pictured above is one of the five core Googleplex buildings, and it’s one of the more interesting bits of architecture you can see here. Just think, at the time I took this picture, they could have been writing the first few lines of code for Google Plus…

Oh, and then I found a T-Rex.

3. Meet Google’s Pet & His Flamingo Friends

As a company, Google has an interesting culture. They have a unique spirit, and many people outside the company forget that Google is still relatively young.

Their motto “Don’t be evil.” has been criticized and questioned over the years, but one thing I will never question is their decision to buy a cast of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and place it in their courtyard. Paleontologists need not fear, though. This is a cast (or copy) of an original skeleton, so if it gets damaged no historical records are lost. And below it there were even plastic pink flamingos stuck in the ground, presumably as food for the beast.

Later, I learned that its name is Stan. Isn’t that nice? I found myself wondering what they’d made it out of. If this skeleton is forged of metal, it would stand up quite well to the elements. Can anyone confirm the material of Google’s T-Rex? (If you have any idea, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!)

4. Google has a garden? What’s next?

Did you know that Google grows food?

One of the surprising things I noticed at Google campus was the Google Garden. It’s a part of their participation in a program called “The Growing Connection” which is a global network of young food producers. Not far from the Google cafe, various plants were being grown using Earthbox, which is basically a special type of planting box that waters the plants from below instead of above. According to a nearby plaque, the Google Culinary Team incorporates (or plans to incorporate) food grown at Google into the Google Cafe menu. Very cool.

5. The Legendary Google Cafe

From the Google Garden, I could see the Google Cafe, a magical place where the food is actually provided to the employees free of charge. It’s even color coded for healthiness: green meaning the most healthy, yellow meaning not so healthy, and red meaning “use in moderation or your kidneys will surely fail”… or something like that. I’m guessing donuts are red, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to see inside the cafe since I didn’t know any Google employees.

6. See Live Searches Coming In

Around this time, I also entered Google’s main lobby. As you might expect, it had an air of charged energy, and I stayed in there just long enough to look up onto the wall to see a projection of the Google searches that were coming in at that very moment. The legend of this wall was what attracted me to the Googleplex in the first place. I had looked forward to this moment for weeks. I would finally get to see some of the inbound searches being typed into Google from all over the world. Quickly, I looked up, reading small words projected onto a white wall. I thought about how these searches had been typed just fractions of a second ago… from all over the world.

Perhaps a half dozen searches were displayed at once onto the wall. Most of them were misspelled, and I remember one of them referencing “hot dogs”.

Hmm.

Alrightythen! So people weren’t searching for the answer to life, the universe, and everything… but that was okay. I had done it. I had seen the live search wall, and that in and of itself was gratifying. (Gosh, I’m a huge geek, aren’t I?)

And of course, not all of the searches could be projected at once. Google processes over one billion search requests every day, so if they were to project all the global incoming searches each second, it would probably fill the side of an entire building. So with that in mind, I’d guess that this was less than 1% of incoming searches.

7. Enter Google’s Sculpture Garden

Another surprise on the Googleplex (and the last key sight you shouldn’t miss at the Googleplex) were a number of stone busts of important figures. One such figure was Sylvia A. Earle (pictured above). If you’re not familiar with her, she’s a well-known oceanographer who has led over 60 expeditions worldwide. Her list of accomplishments is pretty impressive. From 1990 to 1992, she was chief scientist at NOAA; and she was named Time magazine’s first “Hero for the Planet” in 1998. And, perhaps not surprisingly, she was instrumental in adding the ability to display oceans in version 5 of Google Earth.

A Run-in with Security

Before we left, we even got to meet a Google security guy. He was checking on us to see if we were having trouble finding our car, but we knew our car was just ahead. As you can see from the picture, he was riding a pretty snazzy 3-wheeled scooter. I asked him if I could take a picture of him, and he agreed. Thanks, Google guy!

The Verdict

The Googleplex is a cool place to visit, but remember that Google is a publicly traded corporation. So don’t expect free food or a tour unless you have a friend who works there. (I didn’t, but it’s easy enough to walk around and explore for yourself as long as you don’t go into any of the buildings besides the lobby.) However, even without a Google friend there are plenty of things to see and plenty of photo opportunities. The live search in the lobby and the T-Rex stand out the most for me; and I feel lucky to have visited the headquarters of the world’s most visited website on the planet (not to mention my favorite search engine). Definitely recommended if you’re a geek like me.

But, as I said above, that wasn’t all we saw that day. The Intel HQ and the Intel Museum is next in this series, so stay tuned and don’t forget to subscribe.

— Bonus —

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my visit to the Googleplex. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in all 9 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 9?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Explore the Googleplex photo gallery —>

Next: How a museum changed how I thought of Tech History

In the next article, we make a brief visit to Intel, only to discover that they have a free museum right on campus. Inside, we learned firsthand the amazing processes used to create modern chips, saw original artifacts from technology history face to face, and learned about amazing kinds of “wafers” and “chips” that are a bit more crunchy than what your teeth could handle:

See what happened next —>

*The Kewpie doll in question is completely imaginary intended to be enjoyed solely in your mind. Offer void where prohibited. Not valid in the State of Utah. No motorcycles after 3PM.

— — —
All photos from this event are in the The Googleplex (Google’s Headquarters) gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

Exploring Pier 39, Chinatown, & My Own Personal Parade in San Francisco, CA

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 07:22:23 +0000

Before I actually went and wandered the streets myself, I never realized how dynamic and incredible San Francisco can be.

Today we get a first look at San Francisco, where I discovered a store only for Left-handers, stumbled across an awesome free magic show, felt like I had parade thrown in my honor, and more.

Now, to be completely honest, I’d been here before as a kid, but I’d never had the opportunity to explore it independently. Being there as an adult obviously changed everything. And as it turned out, I’d picked just about the perfect day to begin my San Francisco explorations, and not just because it felt like a parade was thrown in my honor… but we’ll get to that.

Can you eat and juggle at once?

My explorations began at Pier 39, a famous pier that had basically turned into its own street over the years. From candy shops to fresh fruit, there were certainly plenty of things to eat here. And if you wanted to empty your stomach rather than fill it, there was a full-sized carousel nearby, as well.

Towards the end of the pier I spotted a little shop whose uniqueness really caught my eye. They call it “Lefty’s”.

Even though it’s a pretty small place, I really enjoyed checking it out, and not just because I’m left-handed. They had fridge magnets with witty leftish sayings, and left-handed… everything. You name it, and they probably had a left-handed version of it, including notebooks and pencils. (The pencil bit is true. “Left-handed pencils” were for sale. Only in San Francisco could something like this be sold.)

And then there was the magic show.

When I left the store, I noticed a man on a nearby stage performing magic and doing various other feats, as well. And not the kind of feats that make you roll your eyes, either. He was doing some rather fancy stuff, like eating and juggling simultaneously. But the bit that really stuck in my mind was an audience participation activity that I’d never seen before: he created an 8-legged human chair.

How to do the 8-Legged Human Chair Trick

To make a human chair, you start with 4 normal chairs arranged in a circle, pointing four different directions. You then get four victims to sit in the chairs, and you then pull out the first chair. After you pull out the chair, you tell that person to lie down on the person’s lap behind them. You do this with all four chairs and… well, you’ll see soon enough.

I watched the magician pull the chairs out, one by one. And when it seemed as though the four guys were on the brink of utter collapse, he finally pulled the last chair out from under them.

But no one fell. In fact, no one scarcely moved at all.
The 8-legged human chair was supporting its own weight!

The tricky part came when they wanted to get up. All of them were too afraid to get up because each knew they would start a chain reaction that would cause all of them to collapse. So, carefully, the magician told them all to grab his arm for support. They still all collapsed; but, thankfully, it was a graceful collapse onto the stage and painless compared to what it might have been without his help.

Seeing Alcatraz Island

Now that the magic show was over, I wandered over to the north end of the pier and looked across the bay. It seems that my timing was perfect because a magnificent white sailboat was passing near the pier at that moment.

Only today did I realize, while post-processing these photos, that I’d actually taken a picture clear enough to make out the name of this sailboat. In the closest photo (which is in the accompanying gallery), you can clearly make out the name “Naniloa” (which means “most beautiful” in Hawaiian) inscribed on the side.

It was quite beautiful.

And behind this beautiful sailboat was something that was quite the opposite: Alcatraz Island, still looming like a mysterious shadow over San Francisco bay even after all of these years.

A Parade in my Honor?

Having explored Pier 39, I wandered over to Chinatown before I had to start heading back. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to explore Chinatown as long as I would have liked due to time constraints, but it did feel as though I’d stepped into a different country. The vibe of the air itself seemed to have changed. And, to my great surprise, just minutes after I’d arrived, a parade began.

Dozens of Chinese drummers marched through Chinatown and a huge float with giant pink lotuses came down the street. See for yourself!

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that some of the yellow shirts they were wearing had the words “Falun Dafa” on them (which, in and of itself, is an interesting story), but just for fun I decided to pretend that this parade had been thrown in my honor. After all, they had started it just moments after I’d arrived, right?

And the celebration didn’t end there.

More Confetti than You Can HANDLE

On my way back to the BART station (which is a good local train system), I noticed another celebration going on as I passed San Francisco’s Union Square. Celebratory music was playing, ribbons were in the air, and people were even breakdancing. It seemed like quite a party, and the confetti-level was pretty intense.

From researching later, I discovered that I’d actually passed by the 17th annual Korean Day Festival; and I gotta say, those Koreans sure know how to mash play on a sweet jambox.

Recap

So that was my first taste of San Francisco in years, and it was just a tiny fraction of what was to come. I would return the following weeks and explore the incredible yet little-known Sutro Baths, Lombard Street, Coit Tower, and innumerable other spectacular sights which I’m very much looking forward to sharing with you in the coming months.

— Bonus —

I hope you enjoyed this overview of my first day exploring San Francisco. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in each of the 27 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article. Can you find him in all 27?

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo or “I Spy”, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Checkout the Wandering San Francisco photo gallery —>

Next: 7 Surprises from my Googleplex visit: A Tour of Google HQ

Our next stop takes us deep into Silicon Valley to explore the headquarters of the most visited website on Earth: Google. When we arrived on that gorgeous Thursday afternoon, we weren’t sure what to expect, and we certainly had no idea that we were going to see a T-Rex, or have a small run-in with Google security…

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Wandering San Francisco & Chinatown gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

Last Glimpse of Big Sur: Sunset Timelapse Video

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:33:22 +0000

When was the last time you saw a sunset? I mean really saw it.

Have you ever seen the last morsel of the sun slowly dip below a watery horizon?

If you never have, I hope that today’s video will help you imagine what it’s like to see in the flesh (since a video can never do a sunset justice).

You see, as we followed the Pacific Coast Highway back up north to the Bay Area of California, the sun began to set over the ocean just to our left, creating a stunning sight. It was so beautiful that we had to stop and use our cameras one last time before we left the Big Sur area. The result is a video I’ve named “Big Sur, Big Sunset.” (And it comes with 3 haiku!)

The funny part is, I didn’t even plan that my sunset photos would become a video, but they were similar enough that I was able to create time lapse using the photos that often looks as though it’s actual video footage of the sunset. And this worked out perfectly because the camera I had couldn’t take HD video at all, so this method was the only way I could get true HD video as a result. (To see the video in HD, head over to “Big Sur, Big Sunset” on YouTube and choose 720p.)

— — —

Painting made of light
Look! Just enough clouds to see
Fires in the Sky

Distant Fireball
Racing below horizon
Last flicker of day

Seeing day’s last breath
The Sun slips quickly away
Farther suns appear

Next: Pier 39, Chinatown, & San Francisco Explorations

Before I actually went and wandered the streets myself, I never realized how dynamic and incredible San Francisco can truly be. And as it turned out, I’d picked just about the perfect day to begin my San Francisco explorations, and not just because it felt like a parade was thrown in my honor… but we’ll get to that…

See what happened next —>

— — —
To know about new videos when they’re released, Subscribe on iTunes or use the RSS feed. To see all videos, see the YouTube page. (And thanks to Laserlong for providing their song “Moon & Sunset” for use via MusicAlley.com)

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles

Andrew Molera State Park Review: Top 5 Sights

Andrew "Adi" C. — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 08:22:09 +0000

There are some days when the very air you breathe seems to embrace you like a comforting hug. September 9th was not one of those days.

It was better.

We had just left Pfeiffer Burns Park, home to my absolute favorite waterfall in the US, the breathtaking McWay Falls; and on our way back north, my aunt and I spotted another captivating park within Big Sur: The Andrew Molera State Park (or AMSP).

As it turned out, this second stop in Big Sur would give me the opportunity to touch the waters of the Pacific for the first time in over four years. And in this article I’m going to recount the time when I charged a huge gaggle of seagulls (and lived), as well as show you the top five most memorable aspects of my visit. Not surprisingly, the first has to be…

1. Big Sur’s stunning coastline

From the road, the AMSP doesn’t look like much, but appearances are deceiving. To get to the good stuff, we followed a trail that led toward the beach. As it turned out, the trek to the beach was at least twice as long as we had thought. Thankfully though, the trail itself was alive with activity. Along the way we saw a deer (which actually had the courtesy to pose for a photo) and crossed a bridge over a fast-flowing river that I later found out was the Big Sur river itself.

After walking for nearly a half hour, the trail opened up onto the beach, and we finally saw the crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean. Blue waves lapped the pebble-covered shore; and instead of being the warm embrace I mentioned above, the sea air was brisk and cool that day, and the smell of the Pacific sharpened my senses.

Something seemed out of place though. What was it?
Oh yes, how could I possibly forget the…

2. Mysterious, Crude Huts on the Beach

Not pictured in the photo above were the strange, crude wooden huts that we found along the beach. Made primarily of driftwood, they were large enough for one or perhaps two people to squeeze inside, but they certainly weren’t going to keep any rain out. I got inside one, sat down, and looked out onto the crashing waves. In the distance, I heard seagulls.

I wondered what it would be like to actually live here on the beach, to let the sound of the waves become my lullaby and the sound of the seagulls become my alarm clock. I wondered what it would be like for even just a few days. Or, if I were marooned here far into the past, how my perspective of this place would change after being here for more than a week.

Of course, I’m sure they’d never allow it today. The beach isn’t one of the 24 designated camping spots in the park. Still, I wondered who made these huts and for what purpose.

After examining the huts, I began walking along the beach, studying it. In my observations, I was shocked by the…

3. Stunning Patterns in the Sand

Now, I’d walked beaches before. (I was born in California, after all.) But I’d never seen anything like this.

Beneath my feet, the water had created an exquisite pattern of curving lines etched in the sand. Like ancient tree roots reaching deep into the Earth, these curving lines which changed in width and depth were reminiscent of an ancient pattern in geometry of which I had no name for. Perhaps I’d never seen this before because this phenomenon only happens when the beach is littered with small pebbles… Whatever the reason, the effect was very elegant and caught me by surprise.

Something about the river behind me caught me by surprise, too. When I looked behind me, I was greeted with a beautiful sight.

Towering high above the river was mountain peak in the distance that, after doing some research, I can only guess is Post Summit (though I can’t confirm that). That wasn’t the surprising bit though. The surprising bit was the…

4. Crystal clear water of the Big Sur River

When I approached the edge of the river, I instantly knew that this river was special. Even as the river dropped off, I could see to the bottom of it easily. The submersion of the two large stones before me almost seemed to be a lie. They seemed way too defined to be underwater… but they were. In fact, if it weren’t for the reflectivity of the water, I could probably have seen the entire riverbed from where I was standing!

I decided to follow the river north, and it soon curved west again and emptied into the ocean as I’d seen before. And where it was emptying into the ocean, I could actually see where the river had eaten into the side of the beach. I can only surmise that, over time as the beach continues to grow, it gets overtaken by the river periodically, only to eventually reform again.

How many times do you think this cycle has occurred? After all, this river had been here, in some form, for thousands of years at the least.

But of course, the most entertaining element in Big Sur region is the…

5. Fascinating Wildlife (Alive or not.)

Near the river, I began to notice some oddly mesmerizing signs of life, the most interesting of which was the dried-up remains of a large pelican. It was spread out, wings slightly open, and its head was resting on its side. The pelican corpse seemed to fit in with the pebble-covered sand perfectly; and, in the strangest way, I found this dead thing aesthetically pleasing to photograph.

Perhaps if anything stays in one place long enough, it starts to look as though it belongs there. I knew I wouldn’t be there for much longer, though. Soon, it would be time to leave, but before I left, I knew I had to make some time to interact with much livelier subjects.

It was then that I began my approach.

I carefully approached a group of perhaps two dozen seagulls standing near the waves. I came closer and closer, seeing how close I could get before they flew off, but they didn’t seem to mind my presence much.

So, in a crazy moment of wild abandon, I charged at the entire flock.

Suddenly, the entire group took off into the air, flew over the ocean, and circled around, most of them landing on an outcropping of rock that was farther out. (The trick to charging a flock of seagulls is to pay close attention to where they flee and have somewhere to take cover. After all, you don’t want poo in your hair… or worse.)

After a few minutes, a few of the seagulls did return to where they’d been standing. Those few were the brave ones; and henceforth they were known as the Bravegulls.

See AMSP & Pfeiffer Burns in 1 Day

I recommend seeing the Andrew Molera State Park (AMSP) if you have time after seeing the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park (which is more photogenic and easier to access). In addition to being considered the most reliable surfing area within Big Sur, overall it’s a wonderful place to relax, observe the local wildlife, and simply enjoy the Pacific. And since the AMSP is only a 20 minute drive north from the Pfeiffer Burns Park, it’s easy to visit both on the same day.

I hope you enjoyed this overview of the AMSP. As always, Marco the Spacefarer followed me and appears in each of the 21 photos in the photo gallery that accompanies this article.

The “Where’s Marco” game is like Where’s Waldo, but more challenging. If you’re new to “Where’s Marco”, learn how to play —>

And don’t forget to:
Checkout the Andrew Molera State Park photo gallery —>

Next: Last Glimpse of Big Sur (Sunset Timelapse video)

When was the last time you saw a sunset? I mean really saw it. Have you ever seen the last morsel of the sun slowly dip below a watery horizon? See just that in the next article which features a video of an authentic Big Sur sunset…

See what happened next —>

— — —
All photos from this event are in the Andrew Molera State Park gallery. All photos in the Byteful Gallery are under a Creative Commons license. With so much free content on Byteful Travel, why not tell a friend?

Jump to a Citypage to explore deeper:

Read related articles