{"id":36004,"date":"2023-06-06T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T16:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/?p=36004"},"modified":"2024-03-10T17:32:47","modified_gmt":"2024-03-10T17:32:47","slug":"shopping-meeting-departing-in-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/2023\/06\/shopping-meeting-departing-in-ca\/","title":{"rendered":"Shopping, Meeting, & Departing in CA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[Photos taken 06-09 June 2023, posted online 10 March 2024. Still no eruption.<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While planning my California trip, I allocated one day to shopping, a walk, and a downtown-dinner. The day after I managed to invite myself to visit a person I’d been regularly remote-meeting with for work that whole spring, and then it was time to fly back home!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 06 June 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n
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A signature tree of the area during a cloudy morning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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I went back to the good coffee house for brunch. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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It was a little cold outside, and then it began raining so I headed inside. The clientele was wonderfully Californian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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If there’s one thing California is fond of, it’s signage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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That gate on the left was the entrance to the public path…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The path in question. I decided not to pursue it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Lovely flowers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The signature sign downtown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Then I was off shopping. I attempted to find clothing at REI, but women in my size are not supposed to be mobile. I had more luck at Nike.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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After a bit of retail therapy I found my way to the Google campus to go take an afternoon walk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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More signage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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A bit of whimsy is still to be found on campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Chairs, and then some chairs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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We walked past some art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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This parking garage is apparently a tourist destination. The outside is made of free tiles that shimmer in the wind. So lovely.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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We found a bit of nature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Hello 101.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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We walked past some Googlers playing beach volleyball.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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We found the new monster-sized Google building! It was still not open, but it looked very fancy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The tops of the Shoreline <\/a>amphitheater<\/a> visible in the distance. I kick myself a bit for not attending more shows there, but the ones we did see were memorable. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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More aaaart…! Please don’t climb on it though!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Signage for the new monster building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Androids!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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After my lovely walk I had a bit of time to kill before dinner. I drove and found the last house we’d lived in in California. Nothing had changed much in the area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I drove around the corner and checked out the old daycare center. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The entrance to the day care center. The news broke a few months ago that Google would stop being a daycare provider, since it was such a big perk that was localized to one area.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Some projects on display.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I drove past a playground we often frequented. It had also stayed mostly the same, although the trees may have grown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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A few streets over I parked my car and walked to my old advisor’s house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Tux was there to greet me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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We drove to downtown Mountain View and had a lovely dinner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Excellent fish!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Apparently Castro street is now a pedestrian area only.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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There weren’t a whole lot of people there aside from outside the restaurants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Pretty things.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Gifts for the kiddos in Iceland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wednesday 07 June 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Saying goodbye to my lovely hosts!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I drove north to the Genentech<\/a> campus.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Visitor! That’s me!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Anybody want a covid test?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The campus turned out to be huuuuuge! But I was told that they were having a lot of trouble getting people to come to the office, so a lot of the office-buildings were mostly empty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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More campus!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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After a very interesting tour, I drove back south towards San Jose airport.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Time to fill up the tank of the rental tank.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The airport terminal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Perfect packing, as the bag was 50.0 lbs. even!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Meh airport food.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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My plane.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The famous non-window window-seat was mine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Goodbye Bay Area!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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The artwork at Seattle airport revisited.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Seattle airport restaurant.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Salmon burger!! It was quite good!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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My Icelandair plane!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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I had three seats to myself!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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My elaborate pillow setup, to ensure nothing fell on the walkway. I slept most of the way to Iceland.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Thursday 08 June 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Soooo cloooose!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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It was wet!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Oh look, a familiar face in the duty free store!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Airport artwork.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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As I unpacked it struck me that the rental place in Silicon Valley had handed me a dot-matrix-printed contract!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Emma with her present!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Green book for a green shirt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Bjarki got something too!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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After napping for a bit, I went to recharge and refuel at a nearby cafe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Friday 09 June 2023<\/h2>\n\n\n
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The wet backyard at 8:30 in the morning. We were still putting the plants out to acclimatize them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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While I was away, my team had moved down to a large room on the first floor. It was weird visiting our old team room, it’s felt much bigger than when there were 10 desks in there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Photos taken 06-09 June 2023, posted online 10 March 2024. Still no eruption.<\/em>]<\/p>\n

While planning my California trip, I allocated one day to shopping, a walk, and a downtown-dinner. The day after I managed to invite myself to visit a person I’d been regularly remote-meeting with for work that whole spring, and then it was time to fly back home!<\/p>\n

Tuesday 06 June 2023<\/h2>\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
A signature tree of the area during a cloudy morning.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usa","post-container col-md-12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36073,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36004\/revisions\/36073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}