In Search of the Bridge

So I'm in San Francisco for the American Chemical Society national meeting. I'm presenting a poster there about the research I've been doing. I won't go any further into it. Bottom line, the conference doesn't really get going until later tonight, but we got into town two nights ago. Read: We had all day yesterday and most of the day today to explore the city. Assumption: I took my camera.

A few of us left the hotel and headed for the cable car (trolley) around the block from where we're staying (which is a hotel with a great view of "hobo row," and that's about it). It was only $2 to ride it all the way to Fisherman's Wharf, so we did. It was cutesy and pretty neat, but the best part of the ride was when the driver/toll-taker/whatever responded to someone's question (which I forget) with "Fake it 'til you make it!" I immediately thought of this blog.

Let it be known that until we arrived at the wharf, I had been on a diehard mission to see the Golden Gate Bridge and take a jillion pictures of it. Luckily, this time of year there isn't a lot of fog to contend with. It was still a little hazy, but I got nearly as many pictures as I wanted.

The rest of the day was fun, we essentially walked around entire north side of the city, much to the dismay of my companion's legs. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my dad for dragging us on sightsee-til-you-die vacations every other year of my childhood. I was a tourist machine.

To highlight my zeal for capturing the most epic picture of the Golden Gate Bridge possible, I'll tell you how I got this one:

There were 5 of us that wanted to go out and see the bridge at night. Taxis seat 4. There were no vans (we tried). So the woman behind the desk at the hotel started calling around trying to find us a cab (the buses and subway are apparently not advisable at night). No one had vans that could come and get us, but she did find us a ride...we rode out to the bridge in a limo. While it wasn't a stretch limo or anything super cool like that, we did have a driver in a pretty sweet suit and hat. Right, so we get off the highway and he takes us up this road to a pull-off with a really dark path with a very steep hill on the left side. We scurry across the ridge (the driver comes too, he trips) and arrive with the coolest view ever. The photo doesn't really do justice to just how big the towers are, but it was incredible. Best part: limo cost less than cab fare would've.

So today we're heading to Alcatraz (the ROCK). Every time someone says Alcatraz, I say "The Rock" in my best Sean Connery accent. Needless to say, it should be a good time today. I guess we'll do the nerdy stuff later, but whatever.

If you thought this post was too long, you can suck it.