First few days have been amazing!

Our flight went from Melbourne to Sydney, with an hour stop there, then onto LA where we had a 2 and a half hour stop. From LA we went to San Fran.

In the LA airport, The Hoff greeted us:

Took some photos in LA at the Airport – Note my Panic.com tshirt

On plane to San Fran:

Rachael and I took the BART train from the Airport into the city, got off a stop a few blocks away from the hotel and walked there. Was rather dreamy seeing things that I’ve grown up seeing on TV. The type of shops and architecture, cars and that steam that comes out of grills on the road.

Macworld / iPod posters have taken over Market street

We where buggered (tired) when we got to our hotel but too excited to be sleepy, so we hung around there relaxing for a bit, then went for a brief walk.

Later that night, I was speaking to Niall Kennedy on Skype and he suggested we meet him down at the Ferry Building which has a great food market there. So the next morning, we walked from our hotel to ferry building which was the first time during the day we had seen the city. San Francisco is very nice, so it was a lovely walk and the weather was not too bad for winter, though it sprinkled a little later.

Niall and I ordered a coffee at a busy little place called Blue Bottle Coffee outside the main building. Their Mocha was lovely and we proceeded to drink as we walked around the market while Niall told us about the city and other stories. We then sat down outside at Taylor’s Automatic Refresher

I had their Western Bacon Blue Ring. Their description: A burger topped with an onion ring, crumbled blue cheese, bacon, pickles, red onion & BBQ sauce on a toasted egg bun.

Was very nice

Niall then surprised us by offering to give a tour around the city and drive us out to the Golden Gate Bridge and other sights. YES please!

Off we went to the train station. On the way was the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, one of the distributed money print facilities in the US.

As we where paying for tickets, we noticed an error on the BART ticket machine. Opps

Here comes our train:

We got off and headed to Union Square, The Town hall and the old and new libraries.

From there, we headed to Niall’s house to get the car.

That isn’t his, was just a Van we saw on the way

Took some shots from the top of the building he lives in:

Then off we went driving around the different suburbs of San Fran!

Up to a lookout point to see San Fran from the air. Could see the Golden Gate Bridge and the old Alcatraz prison island in the distance

Off again then through some rich areas ([S]Nob Hill) and into the Haight Ashly district, a arty/musical/bohemian area with hippy roots and home of the grateful dead.

Off to the Golden Gate Bridge

Then to Lucas Arts new campus with a Yoda Statue, lovely gardens and a little water stream with a Emergency shut off button!

Not far from there was the building that was erected for a trade fair in the early(ish) 1900’s. Can’t remember exactly.

That’s it for Saturday. Niall dropped us off outside our hotel. Wow, what a great tour guide! Thanks mayt!

Sunday was a lazy day. Breakfast from Denny’s then back to the hotel to catch up on emails.

Sunday night Rachael and I met up with a Family friend and had an awesome dinner with them. Lovely people and will meet them again after the Expo. {Group photo pending}

Today, Monday, we head into Moscone Center to set up our booth and look around.

Robert Grant lands this afternoon also and will be the first time we meet in ‘Real Life™’, after 3 years of working together on RAX and Comic Life, communicating via IM, email and a bit of Skype voice.

Side note: biggest difference in the USA: more people everywhere, and they drive on the wrong side of the road

Just before I left Melbourne, I submitted a 1 second music piece to Create Digital Music’s Leap Sounds Project. My Piece is 17 seconds in. You can read more about the concept and listen to the whole piece here: http://createdigitalmusic.com/leapsounds

I better get ready to go out now, there are more photos on Flickr if you have not had enough, here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atariboy/82559033/in/set-1793374/