I've missed a couple of days due to being very tired from my activities.
The day before yesterday the three of us went dog sledding. We were picked up from the hotel by a very cheerful young woman - and I do mean cheerful (that cheerful where if I was with her every day I think it could become a tiny bit irksome) - with a van, who took us out north towards the abode of Jen and Dallas, the dog mushers. As we drove a long we learnt that Dallas had finished fourth in the Iditarod dog mushing competition only two weeks previously, and for Alaskans, this is a really big deal. Dog sledding died out maybe fifty years ago, but it has been revived as a country sport, and people take it very seriously indeed, The Iditarod race is a thousand mile killer mushing competition where one musher and a team of sixteen dogs race against one another.
The scenery was breathtaking on the two hour trip, and we eventually arrived at the Yurt the family lived in. Dallas was out, still recovering from the race, and we didn't get to meet him, although he was meant to be returning later in the day. We did met Jen, his wife, who was a lovely down to earth lady, who told us all about the life of mushers and how they lived (six months in Anchorage doing dog show work to pay for their six months out where we were in the Yurt doing dog mushing). The Yurt was fabulous. A raised circular structure, with wooden bones that a canvas walled hood went over, with a band of metal tensioning the structure. There was a basement with a toilet, and a loft with their sleeping quarters. They had a baby, a cat and a spoilt indoor dog along with their sixty lean mean husky beasts.
I must say that the actual mushing we went on was pretty disappointing. Very tame and touristy. It was only forty minutes or so, and although the environment was lovely, it was pretty uninspiring. I just stood on the sled and ducked a little as we went around. It was interesting, and I'm glad I've done it, but it was not what I had been hoping it would be.
Next day, yesterday ...
Ah, now if dog sledding was something of a let down ... the snow mobiling was anything but.
I was picked up by "Andy" (I've forgotten his surname) and his little van and driven out south to Girtwood where he has his snow mobiling business. He was a young friendly guy, who was only willing to come and collect me in Anchorage because he has a girlfriend there, and kind of sums him up for me. Friendly, sweet, a tiny bit crazy, very Alaskan and a bit feckless all at the same time. Really nice guy, whatever.
When we got to the the little hut where we were to kit up, I met the other four people who were going out with me (along with Andy and the other guide Gus). They were an airforce couple, recently posted to the base at Anchorage, and were awesome, and an older lesbian couple (well, I'm pretty sure they were a "couple", although everyone was too polite or whatever to actually find out).
We drove up into the hills, which were absolutely breathtaking, to where the snow machines were. We got puled over by the cops on the way, which was pretty cool. Not for speeding, but because the guys didn't have a number plate on the front of their van. This is apparently a little tricky in Alaska, at least if my complaining guides were the truth of it. You aren't legally required to have one on the front, since you are legally allowed to have a snow plough attachment, which covers the plate. But the laws seem to be changing, and at the moment conflicting one another.
Anyway, we did eventually arrive, and the snow mobiles are great big beasts of machines. Six hundred cc two strokes with automatic gears. When asked how much experience we had had, everyone else had at least two hundred hours on the machines, and basically they'd all grown up on them ... except me. Never been. Never mind. Brake, accelerator, don't lean too much this way, and if you slip don't grab the handles in case you just feed more power. Okay. How hard can it be, right? Right?
And gosh the mountains looked good. I mean good in a way I can't really describe because I come from Australia and we have only one word for snow, and it mostly means wet and unpleasant. Suddenly we were told to go, so I breathed deeply, mumbled a prayer, and squeezed the throttle. With a savage screech from the engine, and a jerk as Newton's theories grabbed at me, I was away.
These snow machines are really powerful. Beastly powerful. I was behind the leader, and ducked low over the windshield and bucked and jerked and did my best to follow in his path. The track was narrow, and we had a number of sheer drops and river crossings. I managed them, and we climbed into the snow covered mountains. It was so damned lovely.
We stopped at a snow clearing, where there was a little hut, that turned out to be for gold miners who had put in a recent claim and were hoping to get rich. Their door had broken and was hanging open, so Andy took a while to fix it. It was that kind of place. These are the places that can be romantic because it kicks you in the teeth so hard if you slack off or do someone a bad turn who won't help you in return that everyone is kind of forced to "be good". It makes it look like humans are cool, by not allowing our nasty bits to be revealed too much. Pretty nice.
We drove many kilometres, and saw amazing sights (I have some pics, which I'll attach when I can, although not as many as I'd have liked due to it being basically impossible to take them on the trip.
I am proud to say I did not in any way hang back or slow anyone down, and in fact was one of the more accomplished drivers. One of the guys actually got stuck on one of the tight climbs, wedging his bike in a ditch with a tree stump.
Eventually, and I'd say after about three hours, we made it to this massive open plain of snow, with a deep sloping ditch in the middle. I do mean massive, too. It was around a kilometre by two kilometres. Andy and Gus said we could be let off the leash, and so long as we didn't hit one another could go crazy.
It was brilliant. I drove around the edges a little, getting the feel of the bike at some speed, then I started doing jumps driving down into the deep hollow and revving out the top. I got quite a bit of air, and managed at one point to get about a metre off the ground. I rattled my teeth and hurt my back and arms. The speed is hard to describe, but just pulling away I made my head dizzy many times, and got so fast my head started buzzing.
We had a little competition, and I got the highest speed (being small and light I think), topping out at 69 miles an hour. It's exhilarating, and makes me want my bike more and more. I nearly tipped at one point, but managed to right the machine, and man, it was just brilliant.
We packed up the machines after driving back to the truck, and Andy drove me back to Anchorage. Now THAT was three hundred dollars well spent for seven hours of awesome thrills. Jeez the place is beautiful. I talked to Andy, and he said there's plenty of somewhat extreme stuff I can do around Girtwood, and that mountain climbing and mountain biking are all things I can do next time with a longer stay.
Now that was yesterday, and today (Monday in Alaska) is my last day.
We intended to go ice skating, and walked to the skate hire place, but my body and mind froze on the way. It's a bit colder today, and we don't have good enough clothes, and I went into emergency shutdown mode, and just couldn't cope.
I also managed to take a great spill on the icy walkways, despite generally being able to walk around better than Adam and Amanda. It's always the way with me. Pretty good coordination, but kind of retarded so I rush in and don't really pay any attention to anything around me. Serves me right.
So we huddled inside a coffee shop for a while, and eventually walked back into downtown and did some gift store shopping instead. That's pretty much it, as I pack and prepare for departure. It's been ace. I hope I've made some people want to come to Alaska, because I'll be back, and company is welcome!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Snow
It snowed on me last night. The flakes were small, and floated down through the dark sky like motes of dust. I was reminded of scenes from movies like Volcano, where cinders float through the air, surprisingly ... but snow it was. I have never been snowed on before, and have only seen the snow twice before in my life, and both times it was seeing this thick heavy dirt ice that was unpleasant and unrewarding.
Right. So fairly obviously I've arrived in Anchorage. The snow scene I just painted was our tired arrival, at midnight (and four am our time, if you count Atantan time ours by now). We trooped out the airport doors after having called the Ramada Hotel who had informed us they would collect us in half an hour, and were instantly struck by the cold. Real cold. Breath freezing cold. Then the snow. In the gutters, on the road, swirling in the air, and hanging from the trees, causing the branches to droop and appear to be painted as part of a Christmas picture. It was superb. Absolutely beautiful.
The Ramada bus arrived to pick us up, and this strange girl came along too. We think there was probably something wrong with her, but we weren't / aren't sure. She was dressed nicely enough, and had a bag as though she might have traveled from the airport, but she spoke somewhat disjointedly, and came to the hotel although she had no booking. Her sentences appeared to be grammatically correct, but didn't really connect properly with what we were talking about. It was rather strange, and Adam and Amanda were especially happy to escape her into our room. Thankfully that was the last we saw of her ... she was disappearing as she walked up the stairs past us heading towards other rooms that weren't her .. well ... at least she could only annoy people that weren't us, and while I felt sorry for those people (whoever they turned out to be), in the state of tiredness I was in I preferred passing the buck to someone else.
The Ramada Hotel is astonishingly good value, at least when you come as a crazy off-peak tourist in the middle of winter, or just leaving winter or whatever is happening time-wise here. Considering how my body clock has entered a state of complete delusion, I wouldn't believe anything I think or say regarding time zones or weather. But I can be absolute on the value of this excellent hotel. It is much better than the where we stayed in Atlanta, with nice service at the desk, and two queen beds in a large room that has a separate toilet and shower area that is also of a good size. There's a fridge (which we didn't get last time which was frustrating), and an effective heater. If it weren't, I guess we'd die, so they have to make sure the heating unit works, but it does, and it works well. Everything is clean and pleasant and it's all just ... good. It's costing us four hundred dollars for six days for the three of us, which is ... simply excellent. I find it hard to believe how good.
In the morning, after I at least managed to sleep from two am to seven thirty am effectively, we went down to the free breakfast, which also turned out to be lovely. There is a roaring (if fake) fireplace in the main dining area, which gives out plenty of heat, and several couches and a set of shiny and nice tables and chairs set around the kitchen. On nice tables are cute little breakfast trays, some with boiled eggs, some with cereal, others with waffle mixture (and a waffle machine next to it, of course), a coffee dispenser and so on. Not masses and masses, but certainly enough to feel like a good layout of food, and considering it's part of that four hundred dollars it seems just excellent value.
After breakfast we collected a dozen of the pamphlets in the hotel foyer and went through their tourist offerings, trying to work out what we could fit in over the three or four days we have (I have only three full days after today, Adam and Amanda four). I decided I absolutely wanted to go dog sledding and snow mobiling, and anything on top of that I would consider a bonus. We have no phone, and didn't know anything about the layout of Anchorage, so we found the tourist information centre on the town map (another leaflet we picked up downstairs - oh yes, downstairs, we're on the second floor of the hotel, and I think there are three levels, although I haven't gone up or even checked to see if there are), put on our warmest clothes, and stepped outside.
Yes, it was cold. Our breath was instantly frosting in front of us, and I was very glad for my silly beanie that threatens to fall down and cover my entire face. My goodness Alaska is beautiful. The clean horizons, the mountains in the distance, the white brilliance of snow all around us ... wow, and wow again. It's breathtaking (physically too. It's so cold you can feel the cold air aching deep inside your lungs) and just so beautiful. I already yearned to reach the mountains I could see in the distance, but regretfully I just don't have the time this trip, and it's not the weather for it. This trip already has informed me that I will be returning, though. Oh I sure will! So far everything about this place is so clear and sweet and beautiful, and I'm going to see so little of it.
We found the tourist centre easily, because the streets are named as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on, crossing a, b, c, d, etc. It makes navigating really simple for people like us who haven't been here before. The lady who served us, I've forgotten her name, was really friendly, and went out of her way to help us. Unless she had some fiendish deal with many guides, she really went out of her way, calling lots of different people to find out what we could do, how much it would cost, and where we could go.
The upshot of it all is that tomorrow we are all spending the day dog sledding, which I am so looking forward to, with a young couple who live in a yurt and who have a mass of dog puppies and of course many many husky dogs that will be dragging us around. Then on Sunday (our Sunday - it's Friday for us right now, the evening of) I will be going snow mobiling on my own on Sunday. This was difficult to organise, because the main "hardcore" zone that I can travel to has been closed off at the moment, and the lady was suggesting I go on a three hour trip where you go out to a gold mine and then eat reindeer over lunch and then head back. It was not very tasteful to me, and she could tell, so after a lot of ringing around there is a much better and tougher ride for me, without any killing and eating of the local fauna. Nice.
We wandered around town after that, taking in the sights, and taking photos. I bought a five dollar long sleeve top that I have to find room for in my little tiny pack when I come back. We found an outside ice skating rink, but unfortunately couldn't find anywhere to hire skates. Amanda is going to look into that for when I'm free on Monday, and I'm looking forward to that, too :).
We went to the supermarket and bought some bread and a few other essentials so we don't have to eat out too much.
On the walk back, we stopped at a pub / restaurant called "The Brew House". A rough / cool place with in your face homestead style decor, that is way cooler and yuppie than it looks on first appearance. I actually really liked it, and Amanda and I had a Canadian club, because I insisted it was important here in Alaska, which is as close to the Canadian Club ads as I may ever get. It was really good.
We've wandered back out to a cafe called Kaladi, which is a laid back and pleasant place, with decent coffee (I haven't found more than decent in America so far, and suspect I won't).
So, our first day in Anchorage. A nice one. Hellos out to everyone, and I'll report back on how dog sledding is tomorrow evening. Until then, good evening all!
Pics from Anchorage
Right. So fairly obviously I've arrived in Anchorage. The snow scene I just painted was our tired arrival, at midnight (and four am our time, if you count Atantan time ours by now). We trooped out the airport doors after having called the Ramada Hotel who had informed us they would collect us in half an hour, and were instantly struck by the cold. Real cold. Breath freezing cold. Then the snow. In the gutters, on the road, swirling in the air, and hanging from the trees, causing the branches to droop and appear to be painted as part of a Christmas picture. It was superb. Absolutely beautiful.
The Ramada bus arrived to pick us up, and this strange girl came along too. We think there was probably something wrong with her, but we weren't / aren't sure. She was dressed nicely enough, and had a bag as though she might have traveled from the airport, but she spoke somewhat disjointedly, and came to the hotel although she had no booking. Her sentences appeared to be grammatically correct, but didn't really connect properly with what we were talking about. It was rather strange, and Adam and Amanda were especially happy to escape her into our room. Thankfully that was the last we saw of her ... she was disappearing as she walked up the stairs past us heading towards other rooms that weren't her .. well ... at least she could only annoy people that weren't us, and while I felt sorry for those people (whoever they turned out to be), in the state of tiredness I was in I preferred passing the buck to someone else.
The Ramada Hotel is astonishingly good value, at least when you come as a crazy off-peak tourist in the middle of winter, or just leaving winter or whatever is happening time-wise here. Considering how my body clock has entered a state of complete delusion, I wouldn't believe anything I think or say regarding time zones or weather. But I can be absolute on the value of this excellent hotel. It is much better than the where we stayed in Atlanta, with nice service at the desk, and two queen beds in a large room that has a separate toilet and shower area that is also of a good size. There's a fridge (which we didn't get last time which was frustrating), and an effective heater. If it weren't, I guess we'd die, so they have to make sure the heating unit works, but it does, and it works well. Everything is clean and pleasant and it's all just ... good. It's costing us four hundred dollars for six days for the three of us, which is ... simply excellent. I find it hard to believe how good.
In the morning, after I at least managed to sleep from two am to seven thirty am effectively, we went down to the free breakfast, which also turned out to be lovely. There is a roaring (if fake) fireplace in the main dining area, which gives out plenty of heat, and several couches and a set of shiny and nice tables and chairs set around the kitchen. On nice tables are cute little breakfast trays, some with boiled eggs, some with cereal, others with waffle mixture (and a waffle machine next to it, of course), a coffee dispenser and so on. Not masses and masses, but certainly enough to feel like a good layout of food, and considering it's part of that four hundred dollars it seems just excellent value.
After breakfast we collected a dozen of the pamphlets in the hotel foyer and went through their tourist offerings, trying to work out what we could fit in over the three or four days we have (I have only three full days after today, Adam and Amanda four). I decided I absolutely wanted to go dog sledding and snow mobiling, and anything on top of that I would consider a bonus. We have no phone, and didn't know anything about the layout of Anchorage, so we found the tourist information centre on the town map (another leaflet we picked up downstairs - oh yes, downstairs, we're on the second floor of the hotel, and I think there are three levels, although I haven't gone up or even checked to see if there are), put on our warmest clothes, and stepped outside.
Yes, it was cold. Our breath was instantly frosting in front of us, and I was very glad for my silly beanie that threatens to fall down and cover my entire face. My goodness Alaska is beautiful. The clean horizons, the mountains in the distance, the white brilliance of snow all around us ... wow, and wow again. It's breathtaking (physically too. It's so cold you can feel the cold air aching deep inside your lungs) and just so beautiful. I already yearned to reach the mountains I could see in the distance, but regretfully I just don't have the time this trip, and it's not the weather for it. This trip already has informed me that I will be returning, though. Oh I sure will! So far everything about this place is so clear and sweet and beautiful, and I'm going to see so little of it.
We found the tourist centre easily, because the streets are named as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on, crossing a, b, c, d, etc. It makes navigating really simple for people like us who haven't been here before. The lady who served us, I've forgotten her name, was really friendly, and went out of her way to help us. Unless she had some fiendish deal with many guides, she really went out of her way, calling lots of different people to find out what we could do, how much it would cost, and where we could go.
The upshot of it all is that tomorrow we are all spending the day dog sledding, which I am so looking forward to, with a young couple who live in a yurt and who have a mass of dog puppies and of course many many husky dogs that will be dragging us around. Then on Sunday (our Sunday - it's Friday for us right now, the evening of) I will be going snow mobiling on my own on Sunday. This was difficult to organise, because the main "hardcore" zone that I can travel to has been closed off at the moment, and the lady was suggesting I go on a three hour trip where you go out to a gold mine and then eat reindeer over lunch and then head back. It was not very tasteful to me, and she could tell, so after a lot of ringing around there is a much better and tougher ride for me, without any killing and eating of the local fauna. Nice.
We wandered around town after that, taking in the sights, and taking photos. I bought a five dollar long sleeve top that I have to find room for in my little tiny pack when I come back. We found an outside ice skating rink, but unfortunately couldn't find anywhere to hire skates. Amanda is going to look into that for when I'm free on Monday, and I'm looking forward to that, too :).
We went to the supermarket and bought some bread and a few other essentials so we don't have to eat out too much.
On the walk back, we stopped at a pub / restaurant called "The Brew House". A rough / cool place with in your face homestead style decor, that is way cooler and yuppie than it looks on first appearance. I actually really liked it, and Amanda and I had a Canadian club, because I insisted it was important here in Alaska, which is as close to the Canadian Club ads as I may ever get. It was really good.
We've wandered back out to a cafe called Kaladi, which is a laid back and pleasant place, with decent coffee (I haven't found more than decent in America so far, and suspect I won't).
So, our first day in Anchorage. A nice one. Hellos out to everyone, and I'll report back on how dog sledding is tomorrow evening. Until then, good evening all!
Pics from Anchorage
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Last day
Today our is our last full day in Atlanta. We celebrated by not doing a whole lot. I was a little sick overnight and again did not sleep well. By the time I arose in the morning I was feeling somewhat seedy, sleepy and altogether not great.
When I pulled myself together we decided to walk through the city in the Mid City area along a path we hadn't been before, and I'd found a chain called Staple that theoretically stocked the Kindle DX, so we set off to walk for the fun of it - in the direction of Staple to have some kind of purpose (purpose is important to IT guys so we know exactly what it is we're avoiding).
We walked through what seemed like a fairly dodgy area, with a whole bunch of African Americans talking very loudly and saying things like "yo baby" ... and other things I can't remember. None of them ever said anything bad to us, nor threatened us ... and in fact, no one has the entire time. The closest thing to the sound of a gun has been the very loud back fire from a bus. So in regards to being shot, or raped, or attacked in some kind of gang based violence ... yeah, no.
Once through "the bad lands" we found that Staple was in a shopping centre with Borders (American style) and a whole foods supplier with a yuppie organic bent (I'm not judging harshly, I have terrible yuppie leanings). The whole foods place was amazing. Adam went in first and came out with a banana, reporting it's awesomeness to me. I went in and it was indeed worthy. It was huge, and much like a health food shop in Australia (only literally ten times larger), plus with a huge wine and beer section where I bought a bottle of two dollar fifty wine (come on, I have to try it). They had a huge range, really huge. There was an area where you could fill a tray from maybe twenty five sections of hot food, and you then paid by the plate weight. Cool!
Borders was ... Borders. I had a cup of coffee and got trapped into doing some "work" work because they had wi-fi, and I connected, and our client-programmers from Silverlake were online and I automatically connect to chat when I check my mail and ... yeah, whatever, anyway. The coffee was a chain called "Seattle's Best", which seems either defeatist (to hell with battling with those awesome Atlantan coffee shops, they'll eat us for breakfast) or cunning (they know the competition is crap in Seattle?). The range of books was depressingly similar to Border's Australia, as were the prices.
Anyway, Staples did indeed have the Kindle DX, and after a little consideration I bought it. Hopefully I don't regret it, because it was very expensive.
Since buying it I've put a comic on it (an X-Men, if you must know), which was once of my intended uses (comics, not just x-men), and the display looks great, really clear and nice. I can't really comment much yet, though.
We had a late lunch at Max Lager's, an American (very American) pub right next to our hotel. It's really nice, with great service, nice food (apparently), and a decent range of wine, and an okay one of spirits. It has its own brewery, and has eight beers that range from strong to really strong. Adam enjoyed them, and I enjoyed a Spanish wine (it's what you drink in America, right?).
I tried to have some of my cheap as water wine. Actually, looking in the supermarkets, I'd have to say cheaper than water wine. I failed. We have no cork screw, and neither did the front desk at the hotel. We'll take it with us to Alaska - I'm not wasting the opportunity to have what might be the worst wine in the world.
We've wilted a bit since then, and are now packed and sleepy and getting ready to leave in the morning.
Good night all, next time I write I'll be in Alaska.
When I pulled myself together we decided to walk through the city in the Mid City area along a path we hadn't been before, and I'd found a chain called Staple that theoretically stocked the Kindle DX, so we set off to walk for the fun of it - in the direction of Staple to have some kind of purpose (purpose is important to IT guys so we know exactly what it is we're avoiding).
We walked through what seemed like a fairly dodgy area, with a whole bunch of African Americans talking very loudly and saying things like "yo baby" ... and other things I can't remember. None of them ever said anything bad to us, nor threatened us ... and in fact, no one has the entire time. The closest thing to the sound of a gun has been the very loud back fire from a bus. So in regards to being shot, or raped, or attacked in some kind of gang based violence ... yeah, no.
Once through "the bad lands" we found that Staple was in a shopping centre with Borders (American style) and a whole foods supplier with a yuppie organic bent (I'm not judging harshly, I have terrible yuppie leanings). The whole foods place was amazing. Adam went in first and came out with a banana, reporting it's awesomeness to me. I went in and it was indeed worthy. It was huge, and much like a health food shop in Australia (only literally ten times larger), plus with a huge wine and beer section where I bought a bottle of two dollar fifty wine (come on, I have to try it). They had a huge range, really huge. There was an area where you could fill a tray from maybe twenty five sections of hot food, and you then paid by the plate weight. Cool!
Borders was ... Borders. I had a cup of coffee and got trapped into doing some "work" work because they had wi-fi, and I connected, and our client-programmers from Silverlake were online and I automatically connect to chat when I check my mail and ... yeah, whatever, anyway. The coffee was a chain called "Seattle's Best", which seems either defeatist (to hell with battling with those awesome Atlantan coffee shops, they'll eat us for breakfast) or cunning (they know the competition is crap in Seattle?). The range of books was depressingly similar to Border's Australia, as were the prices.
Anyway, Staples did indeed have the Kindle DX, and after a little consideration I bought it. Hopefully I don't regret it, because it was very expensive.
Since buying it I've put a comic on it (an X-Men, if you must know), which was once of my intended uses (comics, not just x-men), and the display looks great, really clear and nice. I can't really comment much yet, though.
We had a late lunch at Max Lager's, an American (very American) pub right next to our hotel. It's really nice, with great service, nice food (apparently), and a decent range of wine, and an okay one of spirits. It has its own brewery, and has eight beers that range from strong to really strong. Adam enjoyed them, and I enjoyed a Spanish wine (it's what you drink in America, right?).
I tried to have some of my cheap as water wine. Actually, looking in the supermarkets, I'd have to say cheaper than water wine. I failed. We have no cork screw, and neither did the front desk at the hotel. We'll take it with us to Alaska - I'm not wasting the opportunity to have what might be the worst wine in the world.
We've wilted a bit since then, and are now packed and sleepy and getting ready to leave in the morning.
Good night all, next time I write I'll be in Alaska.
So it was our second last day in Atlanta, and our last "full" day where we wouldn't be considering flying in the morning, and getting up early, and making sure everything is packed, and so on ...
We walked down to mid town, where the city looked much more like Melbourne CBD, and was fun and vibrant and "big" and loud. There were giant coca-cola screens, big waterfalls that ran down step like structures next to tiny forests that made my think of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" because the sign post set in the centre of the gorgeous looking trees seemed so incongruous.
We went into the city library which was a lovely place. It spanned four levels, and there was a basement we forgot to go down, so we don't know what was there. Perhaps they kept a slave gang working at bellows? Anway, there was an excellent arts / photography display on the ground level, and a second hand book display where you could select the books you want and put coins in a machine to the value of whatever you had bought. The books ranged from fifty cents to three dollars, and it was a nice "trust" based purchase system. Cool.
The weather was ... cold. It's going to be so much colder in Alaska, and my body started shutting down a little as we walked around the city. I was shivering and not feeling great by the time we got back to our part of town. It also rained for the first time. A solid spitting that reminded me of weather in south gippsland. There was lots of fog around, and some of the tall buildings were lost in drifting clouds that turned them into spirit-touched mysterious entities.
We walked into a McDonalds, and it was very similar to an Australian (to be fair, I should reverse the who is similar to whom ... but you know what I mean), down to them offering Angus burgers. I didn't notice anything different on the menu, other than they didn't have a McCafe, which suggest they either haven't had the health backlash we have, or it simply wasn't a big enough McDonalds to have been "converted".
In the evening we set off to the Georgia Tech University area, where our game was being hosted at the Russ Chandler Stadium. It was almost unreal. The opulence of the university buildings and the area was astonishing. It was like we'd entered some kingship, where the lord had his residence, and the ground was incredibly well organised and wealthy. We had bought our tickets online, and it was simple to simply line up and give our names and then walk in.
The Yellow Jackets (Geordia Tech) and the Eagles were playing. This is the top college league, just before the national competition.
So ... baseball is an excellent sport for watching. The series of nine innings are automatically separated with tiny breaks in between each, where for a minute the pitcher's have a quick practise and then the game goes on. Each innings goes for five to twenty minutes, and it's tremendously exciting. You can follow the plays easily, and some of the tactics and plans are clear to see. We could observe some of the hand signals the teams made, and we were behind the batter with a big net up, which was there for a good reason, because my goodness they pitch and hit hard. It's impossible to tell just how amazingly fast and powerful these people are unless you are there. An edged ball thundered into the net in front of us, and many many balls went out of the stadium fouled.
It was also absolutely freezing, and we only stayed until the bottom of the fourth. At that time, after a slow start, the home team were leading four to two. I have to say, baseball is a really entertaining sport I could quite easily follow.
We waked home, and to celebrate our last full evening without thought for the following day I bought a half bottle of some strange cheap American bourbon. It actually tasted fine, quite nice even.
Some pics from our day.
We walked down to mid town, where the city looked much more like Melbourne CBD, and was fun and vibrant and "big" and loud. There were giant coca-cola screens, big waterfalls that ran down step like structures next to tiny forests that made my think of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" because the sign post set in the centre of the gorgeous looking trees seemed so incongruous.
We went into the city library which was a lovely place. It spanned four levels, and there was a basement we forgot to go down, so we don't know what was there. Perhaps they kept a slave gang working at bellows? Anway, there was an excellent arts / photography display on the ground level, and a second hand book display where you could select the books you want and put coins in a machine to the value of whatever you had bought. The books ranged from fifty cents to three dollars, and it was a nice "trust" based purchase system. Cool.
The weather was ... cold. It's going to be so much colder in Alaska, and my body started shutting down a little as we walked around the city. I was shivering and not feeling great by the time we got back to our part of town. It also rained for the first time. A solid spitting that reminded me of weather in south gippsland. There was lots of fog around, and some of the tall buildings were lost in drifting clouds that turned them into spirit-touched mysterious entities.
We walked into a McDonalds, and it was very similar to an Australian (to be fair, I should reverse the who is similar to whom ... but you know what I mean), down to them offering Angus burgers. I didn't notice anything different on the menu, other than they didn't have a McCafe, which suggest they either haven't had the health backlash we have, or it simply wasn't a big enough McDonalds to have been "converted".
In the evening we set off to the Georgia Tech University area, where our game was being hosted at the Russ Chandler Stadium. It was almost unreal. The opulence of the university buildings and the area was astonishing. It was like we'd entered some kingship, where the lord had his residence, and the ground was incredibly well organised and wealthy. We had bought our tickets online, and it was simple to simply line up and give our names and then walk in.
The Yellow Jackets (Geordia Tech) and the Eagles were playing. This is the top college league, just before the national competition.
So ... baseball is an excellent sport for watching. The series of nine innings are automatically separated with tiny breaks in between each, where for a minute the pitcher's have a quick practise and then the game goes on. Each innings goes for five to twenty minutes, and it's tremendously exciting. You can follow the plays easily, and some of the tactics and plans are clear to see. We could observe some of the hand signals the teams made, and we were behind the batter with a big net up, which was there for a good reason, because my goodness they pitch and hit hard. It's impossible to tell just how amazingly fast and powerful these people are unless you are there. An edged ball thundered into the net in front of us, and many many balls went out of the stadium fouled.
It was also absolutely freezing, and we only stayed until the bottom of the fourth. At that time, after a slow start, the home team were leading four to two. I have to say, baseball is a really entertaining sport I could quite easily follow.
We waked home, and to celebrate our last full evening without thought for the following day I bought a half bottle of some strange cheap American bourbon. It actually tasted fine, quite nice even.
Some pics from our day.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Laundromats, target, walking and gardens
Sleep, and the various aspects of it. All my posts seem to start this way, discussing it, that is. Sleep seduced me and spent the night with me last night. It rocked! Better than finding out that cute chick at uni I can't remember the name of had the hots for me. What was her name? I dunno ... and she didn't ... but it would have been cool if she had! All off the point though, the point is that I slept! Properly too. I held out sleeping until about ten pm, and managed to rest properly until one thirty in the morning, when I was damned worried I'd not get back to sleep, and in the middle of worrying I discovered it was nine in the morning and the birds were singing and ... well, yeah, it was great.
Today has been either an excellent day, or a total failure, depending on one perceives it. Glass half full or half empty person? Take your pick. No, don't. This is my story. Glass half full. It was a nice day.
We walked down the street to find a laundromat. It was a fair way down Peachtree St, maybe three ks. It was fairly similar to ours, which is to say run down and shabby. Adam proceeded to break all the machinery in the place doing absolutely nothing wrong. He tried to get washing powder from a dispenser, and the coin insertion mechanism stuck when he tried to push through the quarters. We asked at the desk, and the Asian lady (of whom there aren't many in Atlanta, lady or otherwise) with a really debilitating lisp (I'm not joking, I felt really sorry for her) gave us little boxes of washing powder, which the machine must have been meant to give out.
Then when Adam tried to put notes through the change machine it ate his money and didn't give anything out, so we had to exchange money directly with the lady, who changed it with us from a bucket of quarters.
I'd forgotten what it's like to be a poor uni student, hanging around with strange people who might try to kill you if they could only stop the shaking ...
We went off to an expensive "southern" restaurant instead, because we're soft rich IT guys. Mary Mac's Tea House. Adam quite liked it, but it was too southern and kind of "nice" for me. They did offer grits, which I'll have to taste before we leave (see My Cousin Vinny if you don't know or care about what grits are), but it was all a bit uncomfortable "fake" nice for me.
We went back, had to wait a bit longer, read a magazine on things to do in Atlanta (like going to see Henry Rollins ... or Kylie Minogue, which I really don't want to do while I'm in the states. Really. Come to think of it, you'd have to pay me a lot to see Kylie Minogue anywhere), and then packed our clothes into our packs and set off. For where, you ask? For Target, of course! I had a Kindle to hunt down. It was a long walk, but there was lots of Atlanta to see, and we really enjoyed it. Adam started getting a bit worn out from the hike. We made it, and disappointingly Target only stocked the small Kindle. Oh well.
Yet another fable trashed though (well, this is something I was told and believed) ... at Target they had jeans that were size 28". True, not in all ranges, but they only have 30" and above in Melbourne, and I can't buy any of them there. I found a nice pair of bootleg jeans, size 28, and bought them, I thought they were $30, and paid $32, because I can't get used to tax being added at check out. Oh well, they're still nice, and I won't say how much I spent on French Connection jeans three years ago.
We decided to go to the Botanical Gardens on the way back. Okay, it wasn't really on the return, but it was in the same general area as Target. So we walked off there, with Adam fading, and enjoyed Piedmont Park, which was a sort of entrance to the Gardens. It was a massive open park area with baseball diamonds, a funny building in the middle of the park with a roof that was more decoration than roof, and beach volley ball arenas. It was somewhat awesome (in the traditional sense of awesome, and not the modern American form of awesome meaning somewhat good).
Sadly, the Botanical Gardens were shut, so we peered over the car parking fence and I discovered I didn't have a clue what the hell was garden and what was just bits of Atlanta. I thought it was an important distinction, because if we had been able to enter the gardens, it would have cost twenty dollars, so I'd want the place we were going to to be damn good. Filled with half naked women ... or, even better, maybe a series of parallel connected computers I could program a* search algorithms on. But enough of my perverse brain, pretend I wanted nubile women more.
Oh, and that makes me think of the cars here. Aside from being disappointingly not revolting, they don't have number plates on the front, only the back. You can tell the vehicles that were either made in, or for, America, by the fact there's no empty place on the nose for the front plate. I didn't even notice until Adam pointed it out today.
Then back home and I went to the gym (Adam stayed to sleep. He let himself nod off during the day yesterday, and his body clock is suffering worse than mine right now) and discovered I can do just about as much as I could five years ago before my body went insane on me and turned into a series of inverted razer blades eating me. It's not anymore, and it was cool. I felt invigorated and strong and important. I'm none of those things, but it's good for us to feel we are occasionally. The girl that gave us our passes ... Joyce or something, offered to take us to a recommended bar (name forgotten). She didn't finish until something like eleven thirty, and I don't think I'll survive past ten again, so I declined, but will ask her for other places to go tomorrow).
Tomorrow we see baseball. That's all that's set for now.
Evening all.
Some pics I took today.
Here is a link to Adam's America photos so far:
Adam's photos
Today has been either an excellent day, or a total failure, depending on one perceives it. Glass half full or half empty person? Take your pick. No, don't. This is my story. Glass half full. It was a nice day.
We walked down the street to find a laundromat. It was a fair way down Peachtree St, maybe three ks. It was fairly similar to ours, which is to say run down and shabby. Adam proceeded to break all the machinery in the place doing absolutely nothing wrong. He tried to get washing powder from a dispenser, and the coin insertion mechanism stuck when he tried to push through the quarters. We asked at the desk, and the Asian lady (of whom there aren't many in Atlanta, lady or otherwise) with a really debilitating lisp (I'm not joking, I felt really sorry for her) gave us little boxes of washing powder, which the machine must have been meant to give out.
Then when Adam tried to put notes through the change machine it ate his money and didn't give anything out, so we had to exchange money directly with the lady, who changed it with us from a bucket of quarters.
I'd forgotten what it's like to be a poor uni student, hanging around with strange people who might try to kill you if they could only stop the shaking ...
We went off to an expensive "southern" restaurant instead, because we're soft rich IT guys. Mary Mac's Tea House. Adam quite liked it, but it was too southern and kind of "nice" for me. They did offer grits, which I'll have to taste before we leave (see My Cousin Vinny if you don't know or care about what grits are), but it was all a bit uncomfortable "fake" nice for me.
We went back, had to wait a bit longer, read a magazine on things to do in Atlanta (like going to see Henry Rollins ... or Kylie Minogue, which I really don't want to do while I'm in the states. Really. Come to think of it, you'd have to pay me a lot to see Kylie Minogue anywhere), and then packed our clothes into our packs and set off. For where, you ask? For Target, of course! I had a Kindle to hunt down. It was a long walk, but there was lots of Atlanta to see, and we really enjoyed it. Adam started getting a bit worn out from the hike. We made it, and disappointingly Target only stocked the small Kindle. Oh well.
Yet another fable trashed though (well, this is something I was told and believed) ... at Target they had jeans that were size 28". True, not in all ranges, but they only have 30" and above in Melbourne, and I can't buy any of them there. I found a nice pair of bootleg jeans, size 28, and bought them, I thought they were $30, and paid $32, because I can't get used to tax being added at check out. Oh well, they're still nice, and I won't say how much I spent on French Connection jeans three years ago.
We decided to go to the Botanical Gardens on the way back. Okay, it wasn't really on the return, but it was in the same general area as Target. So we walked off there, with Adam fading, and enjoyed Piedmont Park, which was a sort of entrance to the Gardens. It was a massive open park area with baseball diamonds, a funny building in the middle of the park with a roof that was more decoration than roof, and beach volley ball arenas. It was somewhat awesome (in the traditional sense of awesome, and not the modern American form of awesome meaning somewhat good).
Sadly, the Botanical Gardens were shut, so we peered over the car parking fence and I discovered I didn't have a clue what the hell was garden and what was just bits of Atlanta. I thought it was an important distinction, because if we had been able to enter the gardens, it would have cost twenty dollars, so I'd want the place we were going to to be damn good. Filled with half naked women ... or, even better, maybe a series of parallel connected computers I could program a* search algorithms on. But enough of my perverse brain, pretend I wanted nubile women more.
Oh, and that makes me think of the cars here. Aside from being disappointingly not revolting, they don't have number plates on the front, only the back. You can tell the vehicles that were either made in, or for, America, by the fact there's no empty place on the nose for the front plate. I didn't even notice until Adam pointed it out today.
Then back home and I went to the gym (Adam stayed to sleep. He let himself nod off during the day yesterday, and his body clock is suffering worse than mine right now) and discovered I can do just about as much as I could five years ago before my body went insane on me and turned into a series of inverted razer blades eating me. It's not anymore, and it was cool. I felt invigorated and strong and important. I'm none of those things, but it's good for us to feel we are occasionally. The girl that gave us our passes ... Joyce or something, offered to take us to a recommended bar (name forgotten). She didn't finish until something like eleven thirty, and I don't think I'll survive past ten again, so I declined, but will ask her for other places to go tomorrow).
Tomorrow we see baseball. That's all that's set for now.
Evening all.
Some pics I took today.
Here is a link to Adam's America photos so far:
Adam's photos
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The agony of sleep(less-ness)
Bother. It was too good to be true. I am still a slave to my Australian body clock. I managed a measly two hours of sleep last night, and then listened to the birds again until we left to attend our last day of the conference.
The weather today was gorgeous. I mean sen-sat-ion-al! Twenty two or twenty three degrees with bright sunshine and a crisp warm tang in the air that permeated everything we saw. Except in the conference rooms in the Hyatt for Pycon, though. I got cold pretty - fast.
The talks were really good today in the main. A nice way to finish. A developer at Threadless talked about their company, and they are (mostly) nice, dedicated, hard working and not full of themselves. Nice.
The same goes for Disqus, whom I'd never heard of, but were so down to earth and nice for a bunch of people who have made it really big.
I became so tired towards the end of the day I wasn't sure I'd make it without being asleep or dead or both. I did, and finished with a talk on Iron Python (python running on windows in a .NET library aware environment) and had several Microsoft people attend. It was good.
I went off to the gym then, and found it very difficult considering I wanted to snore rather than strain.
We could go and see a band tonight, but honestly, I'm pretty well spent right now, and am considering cuddling up to a pillow for about the time it took us to evolve from gills to lungs (a long time (tm)). The silly reference is kind of relevant because we're talking about genetic algorithms, and evolving solutions for various problems. Most of which don't actually need solving :).
Lots to do tomorrow. We're booked into see a college baseball game, and want to go to the botanical gardens, and need to find a laundromat. We'll see what else we can fit in, but those are definites. Oh, I want to go to an American Target, too.
Anyway, resting time calls, eyes are heavy.
The weather today was gorgeous. I mean sen-sat-ion-al! Twenty two or twenty three degrees with bright sunshine and a crisp warm tang in the air that permeated everything we saw. Except in the conference rooms in the Hyatt for Pycon, though. I got cold pretty - fast.
The talks were really good today in the main. A nice way to finish. A developer at Threadless talked about their company, and they are (mostly) nice, dedicated, hard working and not full of themselves. Nice.
The same goes for Disqus, whom I'd never heard of, but were so down to earth and nice for a bunch of people who have made it really big.
I became so tired towards the end of the day I wasn't sure I'd make it without being asleep or dead or both. I did, and finished with a talk on Iron Python (python running on windows in a .NET library aware environment) and had several Microsoft people attend. It was good.
I went off to the gym then, and found it very difficult considering I wanted to snore rather than strain.
We could go and see a band tonight, but honestly, I'm pretty well spent right now, and am considering cuddling up to a pillow for about the time it took us to evolve from gills to lungs (a long time (tm)). The silly reference is kind of relevant because we're talking about genetic algorithms, and evolving solutions for various problems. Most of which don't actually need solving :).
Lots to do tomorrow. We're booked into see a college baseball game, and want to go to the botanical gardens, and need to find a laundromat. We'll see what else we can fit in, but those are definites. Oh, I want to go to an American Target, too.
Anyway, resting time calls, eyes are heavy.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The joy of sleep
Yes, I slept last night. A long and wonderful sleep. I kept myself awake with great difficulty until ten thirty, and then I slept until seven this morning. I woke up and felt a bit funny and awake for half an hour at about three in the morning, and worried that that was it, and my re-found ability to snore had been taken away from me, but I fell back into slumber and didn't wake until the light and Adam's dulcet tones drew me forth. That and a need to visit the "wash room" to powder my nose. Then my alarm went off at ten past seven, which was odd, because it was set for seven, not ten past. It really really was! I swear I didn't mangle the settings the night before with tiredness.
Anyway, there isn't much to report from this day, it would be pretty dull to anyone if I were to write down all the presentations we attended at the pycon conference. We sat in Starbucks again before it began, and I had a humongous coffee that kept me full until this evening, and then headed in for our day long series of geek lectures.
There was a chat on stage with the creator of Python, who impressed me enough to make me like the language more. He was laid back, not full of himself, with an almost gentle demeanor and a seeming wish to help the world and give everything he's done for free because he likes to. I liked.
Unfortunately, I had a bad taste in my mouth from the guy before, who essentially spent half an hour boasting to us about how clever and hard working and clever again he and a bunch of his friends were to make a web based application that many many people are now using (dropbox). It's pretty good, and they are making heaps of money, but he's no genius, and is very very lucky. He was too young to realise that working somewhat hard and fluking it do not the genius make. Oh well.
Many other presentations, a few good, some dull.
I tried to go to the gym in the evening, but it shuts at six on Saturday, and didn't get there until seven. Tomorrow. Although I'll have to be careful with my time, it's only open from one to five.
Not much else going on. We're having a grand time, and tomorrow is the last day of pycon. I failed to find batteries at the supermarket today, and will have to ask someone where on earth (well, midtown Atlanta that is) I can purchase them.
I'll write again soon,
Rob
Anyway, there isn't much to report from this day, it would be pretty dull to anyone if I were to write down all the presentations we attended at the pycon conference. We sat in Starbucks again before it began, and I had a humongous coffee that kept me full until this evening, and then headed in for our day long series of geek lectures.
There was a chat on stage with the creator of Python, who impressed me enough to make me like the language more. He was laid back, not full of himself, with an almost gentle demeanor and a seeming wish to help the world and give everything he's done for free because he likes to. I liked.
Unfortunately, I had a bad taste in my mouth from the guy before, who essentially spent half an hour boasting to us about how clever and hard working and clever again he and a bunch of his friends were to make a web based application that many many people are now using (dropbox). It's pretty good, and they are making heaps of money, but he's no genius, and is very very lucky. He was too young to realise that working somewhat hard and fluking it do not the genius make. Oh well.
Many other presentations, a few good, some dull.
I tried to go to the gym in the evening, but it shuts at six on Saturday, and didn't get there until seven. Tomorrow. Although I'll have to be careful with my time, it's only open from one to five.
Not much else going on. We're having a grand time, and tomorrow is the last day of pycon. I failed to find batteries at the supermarket today, and will have to ask someone where on earth (well, midtown Atlanta that is) I can purchase them.
I'll write again soon,
Rob
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