A jet lagged post

The first day back from an international flight, you sleep pretty well, but you wake up with a headache around the backs of your ears that feels like you stayed up far too late, then slept too late into the morning.

The second day back you fall asleep just fine, but you wake up early early in the morning. If you're lucky, you can tell yourself to go back to sleep and you'll be ok.

The third day back is a repeat of the second.

And then by the fourth you are supposed to be totally recovered, but around 8:00 at night you suddenly feel totally worn out and exhausted and for a little while, you don't understand why. And then you remember that you are suffering from jet lag, and it can take up to two or three weeks to be back to normal.

It's a useful excuse, the jet lag, for those signs of early onset Alzheimer's disease.

This time around I couldn't remember the movies I watched on the plane.

But the vacation was lovely. You, my devoted follower, have already seen many photos. Now I shall print some text that goes along with the photos.

Day one: We flew to Sydney in the morning. Our flight from Sydney left at 1:00pm on Saturday, and arrived in San Francisco at 9:30 am on the same day. Not only did we get 3.5 hours extra on the ground on Saturday, but also those 14 hours in the sky didn't even count! That's why I can't remember the movies I watched. And then we met up with some friends of Tim's in Millbrae, and walked around a little, and went to bed early.

Day two: Did anyone guess it from the jellyfish pictures? Monterey Bay Aquarium. My favorite aquarium in the entire world. We took Jonathan there when he was 18 months old, and he loved it. But that was the last time we went. This time around, we all still loved it. Me, Jonathan, Tim, and the octopus.

After the aquarium, we spent some time wandering Cannery Row, and then wading on a beach in Monterey. There were little red crab-things in tide pools that the seagulls loved. Yummy.

Day 3: Classic San Francisco. We rode a cable car. In all the years Tim and I lived near San Francisco, we never rode a cable car. Neither of us. Because you have to wait in line for about an hour just to get on. Why would you do that when you have places to go? We decided we didn't have places to go, except the cable car, and we waited the hour. Here's Tim on the cable car.

Honestly it wasn't that exciting. Now that I've done it, I can say that I've done it and I don't have to do it again.

We took the bus from the end of the line to the Golden Gate Bridge. Surely you guessed that photo. It was the most beautiful, clear, warm day out on the bridge that I have ever seen. We walked halfway across. Jonathan didn't like that. I must say, with the traffic whizzing by on one side, it wasn't really a peaceful experience. But the photos came out lovely.

From the bridge, we caught a bus to Golden Gate Park. There are lots of things to do in Golden Gate Park: museums, Japanese tea garden, botanical garden. We took a bus to the far western side, though. And looked at the windmill.

Then we spent what was left of the evening on Ocean Beach, playing in the sand and eating at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. The restaurant would have been more awesome if we'd been having San Francisco weather. Because the day was so unusually hot, the restaurant was baking in the sun. No air conditioning. Why? It is San Francisco. Most of the year I'm sure the view is just fog. Jonathan loved his berry lemonade. Worth the walk and the heat and the beach, all for that drink.

Day 4: We had tentatively planned on Muir Woods, but after reading about all the tour buses heading there over the Golden Gate Bridge, and the lack of parking, we decided to plan an alternative redwoods adventure. We went to Big Bason Redwoods state park, south of the city in the hills. We very much enjoyed our alternative redwoods experience. We captured some key images: the boys with the slice of tree:

And shots of the large trees:

We went on a couple of nice walks through the forest, finished up at the gift shop, and started driving home. Road construction blocked the fastest way home. Looking at the map, I suggested we drive through Santa Cruz and up the Pacific Highway to Half Moon Bay.

Sunset at Half Moon Bay:

Day 5: More San Francisco. In the morning, we had tickets to see Alcatraz. We were up early so we could stand in line.

Jonathan really liked Alcatraz. He liked all the stories on the audio tour. Most of all he liked the rules for the inmates. He purchased a copy of the Rules and Regulations for inmates at Alcatraz, and read it carefully during the rest of the trip.

They had just opened part of the island to visitors after shutting it off for bird nesting season. It kind of stank, like lots and lots of bird doo doo. But again the pictures were lovely.

Our Alcatraz visit was finished by 2pm. After some debate, we decided to head to the Exploratorium, which has moved since the last time I was in San Francisco, and now was only a short walk from Alcatraz.

The Exploratorium is a giant interactive science museum. We all loved it. There were so many things to explore, and not so many people on a Wednesday afternoon. Here is Jonathan drawing with spinning sand.

I found the psychology exhibits the most fascinating this time around, especially experiments on group and leader dynamics, and how easy it is to get people to do really stupid things if you pretend you have a little authority, or you put them in a group doing likewise. I've been thinking about that exhibit a lot lately. Maybe I'll write another post on psychology sometime soon. In any case, we were there until they threw us out at closing time. And then we walked up the steep hills of San Francisco to meet friends for dinner.

It is a pretty city. If steep.


Day 6: Silicon valley, and travel. We only had a morning, so we opted to see the Computer History Museum, which none of us had seen before. The museum was ok, but the curators need to work on their storytelling. Rather than just show a bunch of stuff, with prettily printed words, they need to organize the stuff and the words to give things a little more context. What *is* this stuff? Why was it invented at that time in that place? Pieces of the story were there, but it was pretty disjointed. For example, the opening to one exhibit said that people needed to be able to give computers better instructions. Ok, sure. Then the first thing you saw in the exhibit were building plans for something whose name is an unexplained acronym, with no explanation of how the building fits into the history or why. Or whether it has anything to do with giving computers instructions. I found it annoying. Plus, by looking at what hardware was included and what wasn't, you could get a feel for which companies donated the most money to the museum. (I was looking for my grandpa's ancient Apple II, and they didn't show it except in a stuff-pile at the very end.)

But we did get to see a Google self-driving car. It was just parked, not driving.

Day 7: Oregon! I have a friend from grad school who is now a professor in Eugene, Oregon. The green photo is a picture of the campus at the University of Oregon.

I gave a talk and had a nice visit. Meanwhile, Tim and Jonathan went to the Raptor Center in Eugene and saw some big birds.

In the afternoon, we drove south to visit family: Emily, Mark, and Jonathan's cousins.

Day 8: Portland. Tim and Mark drove to Corvallis to a football game. Emily and I and the kids drove to Portland. That fountain is in Portland!

While cousins were at a kids' show (Jonathan wasn't that interested), Jonathan and I hit the most important sights of Portland: The famous Voodoo Donut shop.

The donuts were cheap. We didn't need more than one each, but after waiting in line so long, I decided to get two each! No, we couldn't eat them.

Portland water front.

And then the drive back.

Day 9: Crater Lake! Some of you must have recognized Crater Lake. It is an American icon.

And to get there, we did the all-American thing: we drove!

What cute driving companions we had! All three became Junior Rangers before the day was over.


Day 10: More travel. I took a walk in the morning in lovely Roseburg.

From there, we drove 1.5 hours to the airport, then waited 1.5 hours for our flight. Then flew 1.5 hours to San Jose. Then took the train 1.5 hours to San Francisco. Then Tim and Jonathan peeled off to the San Francisco airport, for a three hour wait, and then a flight back to Sydney, arriving two days later.






As for me, I continued on in the BART, under the bay, to end up in lovely Berkeley. I stuck a conference on the other end of it.

This picture is from Day 11: You can see all the way across the bay to the Golden Gate Bridge from the top of the Berkeley hills.

Unless the fog comes in. Same view, day 12:

Unless it really comes in. Same view, day 13:

And then days 15, 16, and 17 were travel days for me. And now I am home. Which brings us all the way back to the beginning -- the jet lag.

This post is long enough. I'm going to bed.