Another conference day for Melody, and a day on the road for my mom and me.
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Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in travel, style, and food. Hope you have a nice stay!
Another conference day for Melody, and a day on the road for my mom and me.
Friday was Melody's second conference day, and my mom arrived in the afternoon, so I went down to pick her up.
Melody's conference started today, and I took the opportunity to head out on my own. She did have some free time in the afternoon, so we took a guided walk on Nob Hill, then went to the conference dinner (which was really dinner on your own in one of a series of restaurants).
The day started with going to the Palace of Fine Arts and ended with a play near where we're staying.
We went west today to the Legion of Honor, walked around Lands End, and ended up at the Cliff House. We also dropped by Nihonmachi (Japantown) on the way back.
Halloween was excursion day for us, as we went across the bay to U.C. Berkeley. We had been there before several years ago, but it was only a brief visit. This year we had time to do a walking tour.
We were ready for a day which was less packed, so we headed out in the morning a few blocks west to the Civic Center area.
Saturday was an excursion day with the destination being Angel Island. We could see it pretty well from the Golden Gate Bridge, and it was time to take a closer look. Neither of us had been there before.
Our first full day in San Francisco started near Fisherman's Wharf and ended at the Golden Gate Bridge, with plenty of walking throughout.
Melody is going to an early November conference in San Francisco, so we decided to take some time beforehand to travel around the City by the Bay. We've been here several times before (and I lived in the Bay Area in the 80's) but the last time we didn't spend much time in SF but went up to Mendocino; the time before we went south to San Simeon (and Hearst Castle). This time we're going to all places that we can get to by train, ferry, bus, cable car, or foot.
Melody came upon some free arts tickets, so we took advantage of them. Last Tuesday we heard Till Fellner perform at Meany Hall, and last night we saw Double Indemnity at ACT Theatre. It sounded like a great deal, and we enjoyed ourselves on both nights.
Looking at the lenses I have right now, there's what seems to be a plethora around 50mm. In fact, all the lenses I'm using right now either are 50mm or are close to it. While it would be nice to say there's a master plan behind that, it's really part by design, part coincidence.
A few months ago I rented a Panasonic 7-14mm ultra-wide zoom, and had a great time using it. Since I'm using a micro 4/3 camera, it's the equivalent of 14-28mm on a full-frame camera. Unfortunately, it's very pricey and holds its value well, so the number of times I would use it doesn't justify the expense. However, I noticed that there are some very inexpensive ultra-wide adapters, and thought it would be worth the $10 to experiment with one.
I took the opportunity to rent the Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 ultra-wide zoom the other day. I thought it would be interesting to experiment with such a lens, but didn't anticipate having as much fun as I did.
The past couple weeks have been ones of travel for me, with an emphasis on driving. A couple weeks ago I went through Downey, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, and last Sunday night we got back from a weekend in Spokane. Got to see lots of family, which is always the best part.
One of the reasons I ended up with my Panasonic G2 is the ability to buy adapters for almost any other lens available. Because the camera has no mirror, there's plenty of room for the adapter to place the adapted lens at the correct distance from the sensor (the Nikon F adapter is a hair over an inch long). I don't have a lot of legacy glass, but have had a good time trying them out. It's also a relatively inexpensive way to play with different kinds of lenses, narrowing down where to invest in the future.
This post covers our return to Seattle, as well as some final thoughts.
This narrative covers the second half of our time in London, England.
The last stop on our trip is London, England. Since we'll be there for almost a week, I'll split the narrative of our stay there into two parts.
We traveled back into England to go to York.
