It’s 9:07pm where I am, but I’m not in Pacific Daylight Time.

The remote control pictured at the lower left of this photograph controls one of two televisions that are currently available to me.

This is where I will be sleeping tonight. This depresses me. It’s barely a full size bed.

Thankfully, there are two of them in case I decide I don’t like this one.

And really, with such glorious artwork above my head, how could I not?

And, while I’m watching MythBusters, I will be sitting on this absolutely stunning sofa.

Polyester covered foam never felt so good.

If only the lamp on the other side of the sofa worked.

I just got here and I already want to go home.

Anyone want to call and chat?

Rachelle and I arrived safely in Washington, DC for the 2007 Out and Equal Workplace Equality Conference…

It was a long trip, getting up at about 5am to finish packing before Rachelle arrived to get me at 6am. Flight departed at 8am - thankfully a direct flight to Washington Dulles, then a cab ride over to the wrong hotel, then another cab right to the correct hotel.

The highlight of the flight was the VAST amount of space I had to use my laptop. As you can see I was able to full open the display, and it couldn’t have been more ergonomic. That … person … in front of me apparently didn’t feel he had nearly enough room in Economy Plus, and so he needed to recline his seat back into the economy section.

We got two movies on the flight - Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer (which I watched with no audio but still completely understood the entire movie), and Blades of Glory, which I watched with audio and laughed through the entire thing.

After we finally arrived at the correct hotel, we found ourselves on a smoking floor. We went right back to the check-in desk and found a new and fresher smelling room. This room has a semi-lovely view of the Washington Monument…set against the um…boring skyline of DC.

We went down to the hotel restaurant and had some drinks and delicious baked brie, then did a bit of work before heading to bed.

Tomorrow we have some free time in the morning, then have a special leadership seminar for our company, provided by the GLBT Leadership Institute of UCLA.

Wrapping up our Santa Cruz Trip (Day 1, Day 2), we left the Chaminade and drove up Highway 1 North toward Half Moon Bay, and eventually the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

I’m all about mountains and water. I’m not particularly fond of the beach and sand, but the California Coast is somewhat unlike the coast on the eastern side of the country where I’m originally from. It’s much more severe, with sharp cliffs and rocky shores where the waves come crashing in. Oh, and the sharks.

Otherwise, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and I’ve never seen anything like it.

We started up north, not wanting to immediately head back to the Sacramento area, since we were on vacation and such…Rachelle, however, has a very different concept of sight-seeing than I do. Her version entails us going between 80 and 90 mph as we fly past miniature forests, rolling green hills, scenic overlooks, and oh yeah, the entire California Coast <– more pictures.

At one point we were forced to slow down because of a man who actually was as old as a triceretops, who could not make his car go faster than 35mph. We were amazed.

Suddenly there was scenery all around us that we hadn’t noticed before because it was just whizzing by so fast. Trees, mountains, pumpkin patches, all sorts of picturesque things to take pictures of!

We found a few scenic overlooks, which were actually just dirt roads leading off toward the water, and wandered around in the strong breeze taking pictures of the crashing waves and some campers who found a nice sandy spot for an overnight stay.

We stopped at a little diner for some lunch, then continued on our journey. Next stop on the list was the Pigeon Point Lighthouse (and youth hostel).

Unfortunately, the lighthouse is closed due to damage to the structure. They are hoping to raise funds to restore it to original condition, but for now there is wire strapping holding the top together, and the lighting system has been replaced.

The view was gorgeous, and we both decided we wanted to build a house right next to the lighthouse and live there forever - assuming we won the lottery several times.

Eventually, the coast grew monotonous and we took an easterly highway back to civilization, passing through Walnut Creek, Concord, and back onto highway 80 to Sacramento.

All in all, a wonderful mini-vacation on the coast. Good times. Good times.

Day 2 of the Santa Cruz trip had two main components.

First, the Mystery Spot <– more pictures.

This is a mysterious and mystical 150 foot circular area of the forest where strange things happen.

Level surfaces aren’t necessarily level, and the laws of gravity seem to have taken a vacation. People lose and gain height depending upon where they are standing, and generally things are just odd.

I am quite a skeptic, but there were two things that did seem more than just odd to me at this place. First, there was a pendulum hanging in the house that swung more in one direction than another, and was difficult to push in one direction. Second, was that at one point I was taller than 3 people standing to my right, but when they moved to my left, we were all the same height even though we were all standing on a level surface. Spooky. If you haven’t been - it’s 45 minutes of entertainment for $5. Doesn’t get much better than that. (Even if it is a hoax)

After the Mystery Spot, we made our way to the second main stop of the day, the Beach Boardwalk <–more pictures.

Unfortunately, the boardwalk rides are not open during the week, after Labour Day. That wasn’t a huge deal - we enjoyed walking around and seeing (and hearing and smelling) the sea lions and the folks playing volleyball on the beach.

There were roller coasters, haunted houses, ski lifts, and all sorts of fun little shoppes that would have been interesting to see had they been open.

It’s definitely a place to go on weekends or during the summer time when it’s hoppin’ with high school and college kids on break.

We also drove around the city a bit and saw this.

There really aren’t any words to describe this.

Moving on.

Day 3 is up next, with a trip up the California coast on Highway 1, through Half Moon Bay and to Pigeon Point Lighthouse.

Rachelle is currently on sabbatical from work, and so I thought it would be fun for the two of us to have some R&H time away from Sacramento…and what better spot within driving distance than Santa Cruz?

Well, I’m sure there are other great spots, but I had never been to Santa Cruz before, and she hadn’t been there since she was a wee little girl (decades ago :-)), so off we went.

Our first exceptional experience was driving behind a Ferrari. But not just any Ferrari, a numbered Ferrari. 171 of 198. How incredibly pretentious. Wahoo for midlife crisis purchases.

We decided to stop for lunch at the Elephant Bar, but first we had to pass by this guy…the harbinger of holidays - Hellaween that is.

Spooky. Scary. Frightening. But um, creative I guess.

Anyway…

We made our way down to the Santa Cruz area, up through the redwoods and eucalyptus trees and to our hotel/conf center destination - Chaminade.

Pretty place overlooking the forests and the city. The bellboys were very friendly - overly so perhaps…we thought maybe not a lot of patrons talk to them, but since we did, they were very talkative with us. And they were cute as well.

Here are a few shots from our room, the view, and a nature walk we took around the facility…stay tuned for Day 2 when we visited Santa Cruz and the Beach Boardwalk, and Day 3 when we drove up the California Coast.

(More pictures from Day 1 are here)

I just got back from a 3 day trip to Santa Cruz, and unfortunately did not have internet access while there (nor any time to get online anyway).

But I’m home now, and am putting together all my pictures from the mini-vacation. Look for something mildly interesting tomorrow :-).

Early in the morning of 11 September 2001, I was making my way to the Sacramento airport for a flight to Austin, TX. I used to be the Diversity group contact for my company, and we did quite a bit of recruiting there at one point. I was heading down to Texas for a recruiting event, and to meet with some of the Diversity Club leaders - trying to build an ongoing relationship with the school.The plane was in the air for a couple hours when the pilot announced that the FAA was grounding all aircraft. No other reason than that, but that we were being diverted to the nearest airport which was in Salt Lake City. Within an hour, we were on the ground.

As I stepped out of the plane and into the airport, I noticed that all of the televisions had been turned off, and there were very few people waiting around. I was on the phone at this point talking with the company travel agency, who informed me that they were able to reserve the last available Hertz car (some huge tub of a vehicle) at the airport, and they had found a hotel room for me just south of the city.

I was not really all that concerned - I hadn’t heard the full details of what had happened on the east coast, and since we have a facility in the vicinity of SLC, I figured that I could get some work done while I waited to hear what was happening.

At the time - the only details that were available came from people around me who were on their mobile phones and relaying information from friends and family members who were apparently watching the news on their end. All I heard was that a plane had flown into one of the towers - at that point I don’t think anyone knew to use the word terrorism.

I found the hotel, then made my way to the remote office building, logged in, and opened the news. I seem to recall that most of the online news sites were having performance problems (understandably), but after a moment I was able to see the problem. There were a few voicemails on my mobile line, so I made contact with friends and family members to let them know that I was ok - just in a different part of the country than I had expected to be.

We cancelled the recruiting event, and for the next 4 days I worked from Salt Lake City, waiting for the flights to re-open so I could get home.

This sounds rather petty, but my first priority after getting there was finding a sushi restaurant. Don’t ask why. I don’t know. That’s just what I needed to do in order to feel comfortable.

Unfortunately, several days passed and I was not able to be rebooked on any flights - which were only just beginning to open up. So I did what I had done back in 1996 - got in the car and drove across the country. Except this time I was only driving from SLC to Sacramento instead of Raleigh, NC to Sacramento.

On my way out of town, there was a massive train crash in the area - I saw one of the pieces of train up on top of another piece of train, black and on fire. Since all the cops were busy with that, I drove to Sacramento as fast as I could, and made it in about 8 hours. That was the second time I have driven that exact stretch of road, and I hope that I do not have to do that again.

So that’s where I was on 9/11/01 - where were you?