My San Fran trip w/ Pictures!

Friday: I arrive at SFO and Omar picks me up. We go to his house and talk for a few hrs. Saturday: I spend the morning with Omar, his wife Lubna, and their kids Alina & Daniel (Danyal, not sure). And we go to....Costco! haha. But it was fun. Afterwards played with the kids at home for awhile. So much fun! They're really nice and really happy kids. A little shy at first but they quickly warmed up to me and we had a lot of fun playing. Later we went to Alina's soccer game. I didn't catch all of it as Omar took me around the city (Foster City a it south of SF is where they live). We went this water area (1st pic) and Shell beach and just around the city a bit. Then returned to the game. Alina scored 4 goals! I should get her autopgraph now hehe. Though she was a bit cross with me for not watching the whole game...sorry kiddo, inshallah next time (like she reads this, hehe but oh well). OH! Guess who I saw at the game! Tim Robbins! Or at least a guy sitting on a lawn chair with shades that looked just like him! And there was a ferrari in the parking lot....soo.....I choose to believe it was him. :) They then dropped me off at the train station and I took the train into SF. The ride didn't take long and I spent the time looking outside. The scenary looked more like what I'd imagine for Nevada than Cali but it was still nice. I met up with Brian from work and we setup the booth and then I walked from Moscone centre randomly looking around. Going through Chinatown and ending up at Fishermans Wharf where I had dinner. Shrimp and scallops good stuff! The rice and pasta were bleh. Went back to the hotel and just crashed...not feeling well, I threw up a bit later that night =( But sunday I felt fine. Sunday: Sunday morning, Sharmin drove up from Mountain View to come pick me up and show me around the city. First we went to Lombard Street, I don't have a good pic showing the whole thing but basically its on the top of a hill and its this curvy road going all the way back down. Its just 1 turn after another so you basically have to drive at like 5-10km/hr to go down. It was pretty neat. Next up was the Golden Gate bridge. It was red, I knew that. But it was huge. Much bigger than I imagined. Reminded me of the Williamsburg bridge Rasheed and I kept crossing but, this was bigger. After the bridge we went to the Palace of Fine Arts. It looked kinda kiddy inside so walked around outside and it was amazing! The place when you just stop and look at it is like out of painting (in fact several artists were just sitting around painting landscapes of the area). It was really really nice. I heard later that the inside is actually really cool, and very nice interactive science centre so maybe I missed out. Next time. We then went to the Ocean. The ocean is massive! I got my shoes and feet wet when a wave went farther up the shore than I expected. Sharmin laughed at me and then was like "oh yeah, I should have warned you about that." It was cool though. To see the ocean right there. You kind of just want to stop, look at it and you get lost in your own thoughts. There were some cool kite flyers on the beach as well. And some of those things were you ride a bike pulled by a kite. I'm going to have to try that someday. After that Sharmin dropped me back at my hotel and I scrambled to get ready for day 1 of the show. Got ready, got to the show. And its massive. Like MASSIVE! Over 10,000 people at least. And really, it was kinda scary at first. Talking to these ppl about the businesss and company and products. Particularly the products I don't deal with often. But I quickly got the hang of it and it became quite fun. That night we went out to dinner with 1 of our competitors who is also a business partner, kinda. It was a lot of trash talking going back and forth and was pretty entertaining. Monday: Long day. Standing on my feet. All day. Sigh, so tiring. Really really tiring. But fun. But after the show. We went to the Expiron party. Like companies have dinner and receptions and parties and stuff afterwards in the evening. And Expiron throws the biggest. Well first we went to the Hoovers reception and that was ok. Then we went to Expiron. Expiron had got this giant tent in the heart of downtown San Fran in Union Square. They had a live band. They had vanilla fountains, chocolate fountains, chefs cutting and serving roast, multiple desert tables (with multiple deserts), a huge sushi area, open bar (blah), and bunch of other stuff. It was crazy! Like easily a million dollar plus party. But it was fun. It was interesting seeing older ppl dance around and stuff but they were having fun and no one was lewd or anything so it was really nice. And its nice listening to kinda older fun music too. I enjoyed it. Tuesday: Another long day at Moscone Centre. Then after it was done we packed it all up and shipped it to NY. Then I rented a car and drove around SF! Woohoo those hills man, I love it. After driving around there for a bit, I drove down to...Redwood to meet up with Sharmin for dinner. She was running late so I went grocery shopping hahha. Cereal man! So cheap there. So then we went to Dennny's. Man the most ghetto Denny ever. Good choice there Sharmin! I barely ate my food. So we just chilled for a bit and then I drove back to SF. Wednesday: Wednesday I was feeling really out of it. See the below post. So I started calling ppl on my phone. Talked to quite a few ppl by the end of the day actually. Rasheed, Omar, Caitlin, Zahra, Saara, and later on Alia, Dania, Farheen, Zaina, Darrin, um...can't remember who else now. Anyways during the day I drove down Lombard Street for myself. Did some more hills. Went to the Pier but just walked around, didn't have time for Alcatraz unfortunately. Checked out the Sony Matrenon which was pretty cool, an interactive place with some free video games. And just walked aroudn the city. I had to return the car by 7 so I just drove to the airport and returned it and then I was there pretty early so i just went online and talked to ppl and thats about it. Overall a great trip and I look forward to visiting again sometime. Ok, this took longer than I thought so back to studying! sigh.... Omar standing on the F of the Foster City sign Shell beach, its all shells everywhere. So strange but neat. My neice Alina all ready for her soccer game. Lil superstar scored 4 goals :) Omar & Alina drop me off at the train station Scenary on the way to San Fran...its more how I'd picture Nevada. Walking the streets of SF, there are some cool buildings here. The hilly roads. Fishermans Wharf SF by the wharf with Coit Tower in the back SF is known for Ghiradelli chocolate and...you know, its pretty good. And they're also known for their sourdough, which comes in many shapes View of a hilly road while sitting in the car Going down Lombard St The Golden Gate Bridge And from the other side And with me in the pic. Even w/o flash my eyes are still closed! But I still blame the picture taker! The Palace of Fine Arts Sharmin, by the water near the Palace. Here swan, come here swan Another swan pic And me by the water. The whole area by the Palace of Fine arts looked So nice! The Ocean! Its Huge!! Lets go fly a kite, up to the highest height, lets all go....fly a kite! Ok, so here's a pic of me at the conference/tradeshow thingy. Here's some football guy...I hear he's kinda famous. Alcatraz! Jaws! well prehistoric jaws. Pier 39, bunch of restaurants and buskers and stuff. And just 1 more of the city's roads. So much fun to drive on...not so much fun to walk.