Before I left on the trip, Benjamin made me a face
from his dinner. Next thing we knew, there were Jane
and Marsha
waiting for her flight
but first. the guy with the mohawk
had to get off and we had to watch the Japanese tourists
get oriented.
Then, this kind gentleman
put Jane on her flight.
Our flight was longer and I had a chance to admire the signage in the
bathroom
and to get instructions
that you can see that I followed
and other instructions
that I also followed.
When we landed, Marsha made a call
back to the office and I admired the signage.
We were early for our first appointment with Steve Bachman
so we went to this Starbuck's (which was to become a theme of the trip
as you, gentle reader, will notice
and order the first Iced Tazo'Chai from this menu.
The bathroom here had a very instructive sign
Next we went to Portal where this woman
asked that I sign this agreement
before she would give me this badge.
Once signed we went upstairs to see John Little
who had dressed for the occasion.
Dinner that night was a gathering of alums I knew. We had
Paul Haahr
Celeste Fowler (who was excited to be there)
Humper
Marsha
Tom Kessler (who is the ringleader)
Mark Rubin
and David Fuchs
to eat this food.
Cynthia came with Naomi
and I took a family picture. Then Nat Wyatt arrived.
The next day, Thursday, we got into our rental car
and drove off to see Peter Wendell
and his new associate, Ben Yu
who insisted that I take a picture of Peter's money sculpture
and art work.
After recording Mile 0
of Silicon Valley, we headed off to Microsoft
where after a small pit stop
we had lunch with Phil Goldman and Danl Lewin.
After checking out Phil's lamp
and poster (MDAI)
we went to see Dave Hitz
who was sporting fine plumage.
The next stop was Google where the random number generators
were doing fine as were the cereal bins
and the new CEO
who posed with Princeton's newest faculty member.
On the way out, we ran into Rob Shilner
hard at work on the street hockey court.
That night we had dinner at Bravo Fono
where the menu was looking good
as were the bread tray
and my salad
and Marsha's.
The polenta was not worthy of photography but our coffees
were a wonderful addition to the
creme brulee.
The next day began with the search for
for a disposable camera. Then it was on to Pixar where we saw
Larry Auperle
Rob Jensen
Tom Sanocki
and Brian Rosen.
To get back to Palo Alto, I rented a car from this gentleman
in the Hertz booth at Oakland Airport. Hewlett Packard was a
camera free zone, so there is no record until dinner at Bucks.
Bucks was a unique experience with the story of the place
and the menu
accompanied by astronauts in the ceiling
and lovely sculptures.
Heather, our waitress
brought the bread
while we admired our neighbors lamp.
My salad
didn't look as good as Marsha's.
but my veggie burger looked better (at least to me)
than her pork chops.
Heather thought it very important that I show everyone my clean plate
because the food was so good. Next came the dessert menu
and the other waiter posed
with the birthday music maker. My hot fudge sundae
and Marsha's ice cream
completed the meal, so it was time to pay the check
and explore Buck's further. I found an airplane
a flying horse
and the table where Netscape was founded
next to the
musical instrument. The lady
was there and the bar lamps
were boots.
The next day, Saturday, I headed to Hector's house for breakfast with him and
Kai and Haishu. It took Hector a second to get ready
for the group picture
and another minute
to get his camera ready. Breakfast was David and Hector
and Kai and Haishu.
We all had our drinks
and Haishu enjoyed
her fruit milkshake after which David and Hector
posed for family portraits. My breakfast was tofu scramble
and their famous coffee cake. The others had these meals
and sadly I don't remember which dish each had. The signage
in the bathroom
was quite impressive.
Next, I headed off to Big Basin State Park
where I saw the big tree
and borrowed this family
for my picture. I followed the trail marker
to the good bridge
but missed the detour at the missing bridge and so followed the other sign
with Kelly
until we found our way out and I could follow the sign
back to civilization.
Sunday, I fly up to Seattle where Ronald Engstrom
told me about his new internet business
while taking me to my hotel. At the conference, I ran into Dan Wallach
and Dave Hanson
among others.
Monday afternoon, I went with the gang
to a meeting with John,
Jonathan,
Carolyn,
Rich Tong,
Marsha
and Dan
at Ignition.
Next we met Rick Saada
over a Chai Iced Tea
at Starbucks.
We left there for dinner with the gang
Amr Kronfol
Ilan Sender
Jared Kramer
Oren Feirstone
and the rare photos of me
taken by a Princeton valedictorian.
Nadine was our hostess
Marsha paid the bill
and Colleen was happy to get more Princeton students there
while waiting to go to Bill's for dinner. Alex Gounares
arrived a little later as did Neil Shah
and his AB friends.
My dinner
was good but not as good as the tour of the building
Bill built in memory of his mother and the view (somewhat obscured)
of Mount Rainer
The next day, we all waited in the hall
as the MC
introduced Bill
for his talk
making clear
the Microsoft philosophy.
Then it was off to the mall with this wonderful sculpture
that was also functional
and a visit with Adam Barr
on his book signing tour
over lunch at Starbuck's.
The next stop was at Nathan Myhrvold's
office/museum where he has
the works of an old planeterium
a leg bone from an apatosaurus
a collection of typewriters
and the dinosaur head
from Jurrasic Park.
On the way back en route to sign in
to see David Treadwell
we saw this sandwich man
selling mattresses.
Our final dinner was at Cucina Cucina
where my pizza
was very good and my salad
was ok. The waiter
forgot to bring our bread so that we didn't get a chance
to use the beautiful olive oil container
but I did get to drink my beer.
The last stop on the way home was for one more cup of coffee
for the road.