TC Summit 2015

It was on my vacation to San Francisco this past October that I really decided to quit my job.  So I guess it's kind of fitting that I dust off the blog with a post about that.

The entire trip wasn't actually a vacation, but I got in a good amount of tourist-y stuff and actually took more pictures than I did my last couple of trips.  Some of you may know that I'm a Top Contributor on Google's Help Forums, and every 2 years they host a global Summit in California where we all fly in and get together.  2013 was in San Jose, this one was right in San Francisco.

I flew in Monday the 19th and my room was at the Hilton Union Square on the 32nd floor and I had a view of downtown and in the distance the Golden Gate Bridge (not visible in this pic):

There was a welcome gala the first night at the Hotel Nikko (where some of the other TCs were staying), then Tuesday was at Fort Mason, which was a great presentation space inside but also really cool outside during breaks with a better view of the bridge as well as Alcatraz:

Lunch came from a fleet of food trucks - check out the official vid!  If you have a sharp eye you can spot me at 0:48 and 1:40:

Tuesday night's dinner was at Ruby Skye, with live music and dancers, then come Wednesday most of the TC's headed to the Googleplex, but YouTube still has separate offices and that's where my group headed.

Then later afternoon we went to Garfield Park for closing celebration:

Thursday a lot of people flew out but I planned ahead and gave myself a few extra days, so I was able to explore the city with a couple of  friends.  We headed up to Haight Ashbury, and saw a ton of cool stuff on the way, including a lot of graffiti art:

It wasn't until we were up there - way, WAY up there, seriously the hills in SF are crazy - that I asked Dan WHY we were up there.  Which was to see the Grateful Dead House:

Back down all the hills we'd just climbed, with a stop at Buena Vista Park which was really cool but another place of steep hills ... so high I realized when we got back I could see it from my hotel room!

Friday we set out for another hike, down (after first going UP again) to Fisherman's Warf.  On the way we detoured past the California Masonic Temple as well as a really cool church before we actually got down to the Warf for lunch.  

We were going to do Alcatraz but it was sold out until Sunday - so right there we started planning for the next Summit!  I also would love to see Muir Woods, and the Golden Gate Bridge close up since I only got to see it from a distance.

Saturday morning we all trekked down to the BART, then flew home again ... at least there wasn't any snow waiting for me in MN ... of course Mother Nature has since made up for that.

I definitely will be posting more here going forward.  It's one of the things I'm most looking forward to having more time for.

Thanks for reading =)

~Colette

MN State Fair 2011 (Part 2)

Round 1 was on a Monday Round 2 was the following Saturday & it was just me & Mom =)  We wandered around & it was even more crowded, but a really nice day - not to hot but sunny & lovely.  We tried a few foods we missed the first time around, and we wandered around inside of places like the grandstand & the creative arts building.

 

We still managed to try a lot of foods, even with only 2 mouths instead of 4 =)  ziplock baggies came SO in handy this round as well.  I don't think I took pics of everything, like stuff we had the first time around, but I got a lot more pics of other stuff.

 

Mom's Corn dog:

 

 

Sample of sweet potato fries:

 

 

More deep fried mashed potatoes for me - one to eat & one to take home LOL:

 

 

Lemonade - we decided this stand (near the horse barn) was not one of the best because of all the ice & the huge piece of lemon, meant you actually didn't get that much lemonade:

 

 

Corn on the cob ... best corn on the cob ever if I didn't mention last post, so sweet & literally dipped in butter:

 

 

More lemonade (since the first didn't last long!)

 

Mom fell in love with this adorable little house:

 

 

Cheese curds - from a different stand, orange curds instead of white & served with marinara instead of ketchup:

 

 

Chicken fried bacon with cinnamon maple sauce:

 

 

Some cool crafts from the creative arts building - lots of cross stitch which many of you know I love even though I rarely get time to do it myself anymore:

 

Little fairy-house display in the horticulture building:

 

Bonsai!:

 

Orchids:

 

Peaches & whipped cream crepe:

 

 

Another teriyaki chicken & egg roll:

 

 

& another deep fried cookie dough - this pic with a bit out so you can see the deliciously gooey center:

 

 

And there you have it =)  Going to edit & post my first Halloween look now - thanks for reading.

 

~Colette