When Geeks Go on Vacation

About a month ago I was in Oakland on business, but instead of coming directly home after the job was done, I stayed on through the weekend to see the sights. But what sights do you see if you're a geek like me? Alcatraz? The Golden Gate Bridge? Napa Valley? Nope. You hop in your paid-for rental and hit Silicon Valley for a tour of the biggest tech companies in the world. Check it!

Green with Envy

I have spent three out of the last seven weeks working out of Oakland, CA, on a project that involved the U.S. Coast Guard. Unlike my colleagues on the project, who all have significant prior military experience in very nasty situations but refer to downtown Oakland as the "Green Zone", I preferred to stay in downtown Oakland, smack in the middle of Chinatown. And when they would stroll in each morning talking about the steak they ate at Outback Steakhouse the previous night, I would tell them about the delicious hole-in-the-wall a 2-minute walk from my room, serving up tasty Cambodian food (unidentifiable fish in a banana leaf, just like Phnom Penh), or the Japanese place a stone's throw away that served a giant spicy tuna salad less than $5. And I could see it written on their faces: they had food envy. But they refused to venture into Oakland after dark, and they missed out. Their loss, not mine, because I'm still fondly remembering the 8-beer sampler from the brewpub (the Columbus IPA is good, but the Blue Whale Ale is tastier) less than a quarter-mile from my hotel's front door.

Don't worry, it's still me, so I also took pictures of the Coast Guard ships that I spent a couple of weeks working with :)