Here I am in the middle of the desert, but it’s not that there’s no water. Lake Las Vegas literally laps at the faux-Italian foundation of my hotel.
But it’s off-season, so the water activities are all closed. But that’s OK, I don’t need a crowd to go in for a morning dip. But I do need some minimum amount of body heat in order to not drown, and that water ain’t warm enough. So, lovely as it looks, the lake is off limits.
But that’s ok because I’m at a massive resort where people will want a place to cool off… of course there’s a big beautiful pool.
After failing in Sydney and Houston, last Friday I was in the right place (the San Francisco Swatch store) at the right time (an hour before opening on a stormy weekday).
I was #2 in line, and according to Mr #1, who is semi-professional speculator / dealer, I was pretty lucky to get in so far to the front. By the time the store opened there were about 10 in line.
When the doors opened, I was pretty excited. But sadly the staff killed that feeling quickly. I hoped for “Welcome to Swatch, we’re so glad to help you achieve your collection goals” or “Wow isn’t it cool that we get to share this pop culture moment together?” What I got was “One at a time!” and “Step back, DO NOT block the door” When I approached the island with the samples, the guy just stood there, waiting for me to name a planet. You don’t get to look at or touch or interact with the merchandise in any way. They don’t ask you if you’d also like to buy the special San Francisco souvenir watch.
My friend Paul had a specific set of choices, and luckily the limited stock on hand included a Mission to Mercury, one of his top picks. So yay! My mission accomplished. There were no Mars watches in stock, so I didn’t have to make a Sophie’s Choice between his pick and mine. Maybe I’ll get up early one day this week and try the shop on the Las Vegas strip…
It seems unlikely that the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of everything would give you special attention if you built them a shrine on the corner of your house in San Bruno.
Seldom is art so heroically understandable. Planting the seeds of knowledge!
But it’s a changing world. And so more or less across the street it looks like this…
I was intrigued by the idea of a plaque in the sidewalk in front of a vacant car dealership. More San Bruno history (with transcription helpfully provided by text recognition on my phone, first time I’ve used this feature)!
OLD TIN SCHOOL HOUSE
FIRST CITY HALL
IN 1904 FATHERS OF CHILDREN BUILT SAN BRUNO’S FIRST SCHOOL IT WAS CONSTRUCTED Of WOOD AND COVERED WITH TIN.
A LARGER SCHOOL WAS BUILT AND THE BUILDING BECAME CITY HALL IN 1915.
REMODELED AND ENLARGED IN 1931. IT SERVED UNTL 1953 WHEN THE PRESENT CIVIC CENTER WAS BUILT.
Just on the other side of the freeway from the national cemetery sits the Hangry Planet mini mart. It’s just a convenience store at a gas station, but it’s vegan and is very proudly making that point on its social media and, obviously, with its signage. Good on ya, I say, although you are perhaps reinforcing the stereotypes about vegans talking about being vegan.
In their parking lot over by the self-service car vacuum is this statue of Alfredina the T-Rex. A sign reads “Any visual interpretations here of Putin as a nefarious monster worthy of being consumed by Alfredina amounts to coincidental community art not necessarily reflective of the perspectives of The Hangry Planet or Tanforan Shell.” Whatever you say.
I’d never been to San Bruno, CA until landing at SFO last Friday and transferring to the convenient and surprisingly nice Marriott Courtyard there.
Overall, I’d say San Bruno is left off the tourist itineraries with good reason… it’s mostly nondescript housing, under the flight path, and criss-crossed by freeways and railroad tracks.
And yet… getting off the BART train I was deposited into The Shops at Tanforan, a half-empty mall. And it turns out that the mall sits on the former site of Tanforan racetrack, which in turn was the main site used to stage the detention of San Francisco’s Japanese-descended people during WWII. From there, they were transported to the Topaz internment camp. In addition to this memorial, there’s a nice interpretive display in the BART station describing the internment and its legacy.
At some point before starting this blog, while trawling through the used books at a Salt Lake City thrift store I found a moderately rare book about the Topaz experience. I was able to donate it to the group that was raising funds for a Topaz museum, which has since opened.
And so, while San Bruno won’t be competing with Fisherman’s Wharf for tourist dollars anytime soon, there are more reasons to visit than I would have thought at first glance. I was glad to add another serendipitous link in my chain of places and stories.
International rules for carry-on baggage are tougher than they are on 🇺🇸 flights, and the trips are longer, so now I’m a person who checks a big roller suitcase. It feels a little weak compared to being a true road warrior, but it’s nice to have plenty of room and space to mule back a few things from Walgreens etc.
For my jet lag recovery day I’m in San Francisco, and I figured — correctly — that all they had to do was put the bag on and off one plane. Very little risk of it getting lost.
But the gremlins got me anyway! After clearing customs, about half the plane’s baggage made it out before the conveyor jammed leaving the rest of us standing around for most of an hour. It was pointed out to me that Bruce Willis would have just slid down the chute to get his own damn bag.
Tomorrow morning it’s on to the outskirts of Las Vegas for a week of standards-setting with my HL7 whānau. In this case, what happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas simply because all our friends and families are reeeaaaalllly tired of hearing about the committee meetings and keynote speeches and 3-year roadmap updates.
This ginormous tiger lily, fresh off the set of Fantasia or possibly Avatar, came from our very own backyard. Lee had to cut it before it took over the whole property.
Since New Years Auckland has enjoyed some pretty crap weather. It’s been windy and rainy. And even on the clearer days it’s been tough to swim because the rain washes a bunch of yuck into the bay.
But we found a brief window on Sunday morning and took full advantage. Out past that island, then swing to the right just past the edge of the picture, and then back in. It was mostly calm, with a few waves breaking out on the reef to make it interesting.
I felt like I earned my blueberry cream cheese muffin…
Obviously I have a bit of work to do to stain the fence, but soon enough that stick you can barely make out in the middle of this bed will be supplying an abundance of delicious babaco fruit.
We got this cutting from Heather, a pétanque friend, who has a gorgeous backyard garden.
And then, just by chance because now we know what they look like, we saw an older one on a path we walk often. I hope ours grows a few more leaves, however.
This giant ficus tree is the dominant feature of a house just up the road from us. It sold last year, and at the time thought to ourselves that the new owners would have plenty of work ahead of them.
We haven’t met them yet, but they seem like the kind of people we want on the street… always decorating for the holidays, painting and fixing, that sort of thing.
And now they’ve totally won us over with this fairy house door… perfectly placed!
One of the advantages of moving a lot is still feeling a little like we’re on vacation even doing normal things. So when the Christmas break found us with no plans to fly away, nor really the motivation, no big deal.
We dined with friends, did a few projects around the house, went to the beach a couple of times, did some shopping, saw the new Avatar in IMAX… and of course went out for a boozy brunch. Best of all, we didn’t feel the least bit deprived for the lack of an airport experience.
We saw this sci-fi movie style corridor behind one of those normally closed doors on the outside of the supermarket. It was even more tall and narrow in person.
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 