Year: 2006

Today was Saturday, so we did not have any meetings at all, in fact we had a free day. The only constraint for our planning was that we had to pick up our colleagues at about 3pm at the San Francisco airport. So, we decided to meet at 9am to have breakfast and plan for the remaining day. But, finally, I already had some fruits, and my colleagues said that they already have eaten something and that they not really need a full-grown breakfast. So, we started immediately and made a nice tour to the coast. We again drove over some “black forrest” like, really narrow (especially for American measures) streets, and finally made it to the pacific ocean. Although the weather became very warm in the last few days, the wind at the coast was quite cold. At least we could see some sea lions which were lying on a rock taking a bath in the sun. Our next station was Half Moon Bay where we had some sandwiches for lunch. Then, it was time to head towards the airport. We met our colleagues who arrived almost in time. The interesting question now was, of course: will all baggage be there? United made this question even more exciting, directing us from baggage claim number four to baggage claim number five, when a voice finally sent us from baggage claim number five back to baggage claim number three. Short answer to the whole story: only four out of six baggages made it to their owners. So, same story for two of my colleagues as for myself last Wednesday: go to the “missing baggage” counter and learn that the baggage will be sent to the hotel at about 7pm (it came with a later flight this time). Of course, at 9pm, no baggage is here, so they also made a phone call to the baggage service. At the evening, we made a shopping tour to a Mall nearby (at least six of us). We spent some time in a book store where I bought “Hibernate Quickly”, a book about the hibernate persistence framework. Finally we went to a restaurant for Dinner. We ended the day with a short visit at “Albertsons” to buy some fruits and beverages.

• Nothing special this day. Jetlag seems so have almost gone, so I could at least sleep quite well last night.

• After another long meetingday, we were invited into a karaoke like bar. Fortunately we did not have to sing, so we could enjoy the beer :-), chatting about this, that and the world in general.
• Now I am back at the hotel, thinking of our fellow colleagues who are probably on their way to Frankfurt Airport currently, and who will join us tomorrow afternoon.

• My baggage finally arrived. It has been delivered last night as promised, so I got it this morning.

• At the early morning, we had a slight earthquake. I was shaken awake, and at first did not know if it was a dream or not, but later others said that it was a real earthquake, approx. of strength 4,7.
• After a long meetingday, we decided to visit a Sequoia Park nearby. It was quite amazing to see these large and old trees; some of them are as old as 2000 years. On the drive back to our hotel, we drove through forrests over serpentines which made us almost feel like being in the black forrest 😉
• Since it was already quite late, we decided to only have a fast dinner at “Jack In The Box” which is across from our hotel.

Some random thoughts on my business trip to San Jose, California, which started today:

• The flights were quite nice, some turbulences here and there, but nothing serious.
• Catching the connecting flight in Portland was kind of a challenge, because we had only one hour between arrival and departure. We arrived at the gate exactly when boarding started 🙂
• Unfortunately this might also be the root cause why I am still sitting here with no baggage. They told me that it will come with the next flight and will be delivered to the hotel at about 6.30 pm, but no baggage arrived until now (10 pm). So I called the baggage service again, and they now told me that the baggage is at the airport and will be delivered at about 2.30 am. Lets see if I am still up then due to jetlag 🙂 (No, I don’t think so…)
• At least the hotel has WLAN access, so that I have email and blog access.