One fine opportunity, out West

For the final quarter of Fiscal Year 2002, the USPTO managed to acquire enough budget to send 10 members of the patent examining corps on an "Examiner's Field Trip" to a relevant industrial location.  Since we work a lot in computer science and microprocessing in class 345, subclasses 700 - 867, a trip to San Jose and other destinations in Silicon Valley, CA seemed reasonable to our leader and my supervisor, JC.  The last such trip I'd been on was in November 1994, to Phoenix, AZ, to visit such companies as Honeywell, only this time it sounded a lot more action-packed, with 4 corporate visits on the schedule.  In booking our government-requisitioned airline tickets, we were all asked if any of us were interested in extending the trip for a later departure, on our own time.  I indicated almost at once a desire to stay 3 nights in San Francisco, alone, and I even got a booking at the San Francisco Hilton, the hotel used for the 1973 Barbra Streisand classic, What's Up, Doc? In due time, however, one of my co-workers in the group, HB, said he was interested in a trip into the mountains afterward, to Reno, NV and Lake Tahoe.  After thinking things through, I decided to go along on this, and I shortened the San Francisco stay to one night, after the tour we were taking there with Sony Electronics.  This, it seems, would be my vacation to the west for 2002, with the typical yearly trip to Las Vegas put on hold.  I worked some on my ticket, actually enough, because it was one of those flexible unrestricted ones on United Airlines.  I used 10,000 Mileage Plus miles in an attempt to upgrade my 4 segments, connecting through Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to San Jose (SJC), to United First class.  Unfortunately, the one segment that would have been most luxurious, ORD - SJC outbound, was sold out in first class.  Oh well, I was still going to the Bay Area, for my first real visit ever.  It seemed that this would be a journey to remember, since I had nearly as many preconceptions about this part of CA as I had about the Los Angeles area before my 1996 trip to Orange County.

18 August 2002 -- Pressed into action

An evening flight to San Jose, CA

Since the departure from Washington National (DCA) was not until later-day, I had the bulk of this Sunday to hang around at home.  I did a little shopping and worked on packing my bag, after which time I even had a chance to take a brief nap.  My workplace associate TN, who wasn't going with us on the trip, agreed to take care of my cat Thomas, since he's now practically next door to me in the Middleridge development, Fairfax.  He has also been in the habit of using my truck and saving me parking by dropping me off at the airport and getting me later.  I made it in good time for my initial leg to ORD, only the plane got held in a "parking area" on the airfield because of a 30-minute weather delay prompted by storms in the Ohio Valley.  Seat 1A was a pretty decent seat, up there in first class, though it was hardly the fantasy existence you see on sitcoms such as Seinfeld.  The meal service was rather like the extravagance of cruise ship meals, which means above my level for taste.  I didn't eat much of my dinner, once it arrived.  Upon arrival at concourse B, ORD, I was met by the other person who hadn't left earlier in the day with supervisor JC--a younger worker named BD.  We had to hustle our way over to gate C17 for the plane to SJC, and I felt noticeably weak in carrying just my one bag, though it was admittedly stuffed quite full.  The full force of age does not relent in its pursuit of me, now that I'm 40.  I got into my aisle seat 6D in the Economy Plus section for the big piece to SJC, and after some time, my musculoskeletal faculties let me loosen up in this seat.  I have to find out how to book Economy Plus for my el cheapo tickets, for the 4 extra inches of leg room were appreciated.  This matter of "adjusting" to an airline seat was a bigger problem than usual on this flight; it was hard to come up with a posture I could sustain, one that didn't infringe on my unrelated neighbor in the seat to my right.  By 9:35 PM PDT, however, when I finally settled in to do my daily journal entries, there came a point where I was at peace with my surroundings.  I noted on ual.com and upon boarding that there were only 8 first class seats on the longer-distance A319, as opposed to 12 on the A320, so that may explain why my waitlisting attempt fell through.  It was a 3 hour, 55 minute flight, scheduled to arrive at 10:30 PM PDT.  When we pulled in at the decidedly "smaller" San Jose airport, I met back up with BD and walked with him to the baggage claim.  JC was waiting there for us while BD got his checked bag.  We drove across town in the rented minivan, along with the 4 or 5 others from the group who were there, and I signed in at the Best Western Suites, Sunnyvale, for what ended up being my own 1-bedroom suite, since they had run out of the 2-bedroom suites being used to enforce double occupancy as per the budget.  I was originally scheduled to share with HB, my travel mate for Reno.

19 August 2002 -- Keeping schedule

First day touring Silicon Valley

I was grateful that I ended up getting enough of a night's sleep to be up in time to get ready for the morning's first meeting.  Though the office lets us wear casual duds, such as denims and even the occasional tasteful T-shirt, we were made to "dress up" for our tours in CA, which seemed mighty strange for a land so laid back.  JC wanted a departure at 9:15 AM, so I had asked at the desk for a 7:00 AM wake-up call, which I never received.  It turns out that some joker had unplugged my phone, in the bedroom of my 2-room kitchenette suite.  I ended up waking at 8:15 AM, shortly after which time HB came knocking at my door to see if I was up.  I prepared without hesitation for the day, then got what I could for a breakfast down at the front desk/lobby dining area.  This was a cut above the traditional "continental" breakfast in that they had some not-bad link sausages and eggs in a chafing dish next to the cold cereal.  We headed out on El Camino Real to visit the Silicon Valley branch of Philips Electronics, only we got there too early (it was so close!) and had to spend time watching an 80" flat panel HDTV receiver they had set up in one of the building lobbies.  We ended up in a conference room (alas, no visits to the actual inventors' labs and offices), first to hear a presentation on the projection screen, then to look at some product demos in another room.  They served us a cold cut platter (I care not for such victuals), so I had to pass on lunch.

The nine of us bargaining unit members, being photographed by JC, as we stand outside
the Philips Silicon Valley office complex.  HB is in the back row on the left, by the ladies.

The "work day" continued, after we finished the Philips tour at 12:30 PM.  Since Sun Microsystems didn't want to see us until 2:45 PM, we went back to the hotel, on the broad commercial way of El Camino Real.  It reminded me a lot of Highway 192, Kissimmee, FL, as during my 1999 Orlando Trip.  A bunch of us went to the Golfland Arcade, across the street from the Best Western, where they had a goodly array of the more modern pinball machines.  Besides playing a fair number of credits, I was able to grab a 1/4 lb hot dog from the snack bar to stave off whatever hunger I had.  When we finally got to the Sun Laboratories facility, we were met by their in-house legal staff, who took us to view 4 presentations in a row, in the style of disclosure I was now getting to know well--engineers with formatted descriptions on notebook computers, all hooking in to the big screen.  Heading back from Sun, we began to work on getting dinner.  It seems that with the other 2 meals accounted for, our entire per diem food allotment could go into that one meal.  We stopped at the P.F. Chang bistro, down the street from the hotel, where I had a serious problem with their version of "Kung Pao Chicken"--the chicken seemed dried out, and they used what almost seemed like a breading on it.  In November 1997, I had eaten a properly prepared dish by this description at the Las Vegas location, and when the manager came out in response to someone breaking a mai tai glass into certain undisclosed dishes of food, I told him he should call his associate in Las Vegas and find out how to make it right.  I wound up getting this entrée on the house, but I continue to claim that my cause was just.

That evening, after returning to the hotel for a spell, we left at 8:30 PM to check out the "casino" that JC had heard about in San Jose.  Already eager for some play, I wanted to see this, too.  We headed out along US 101 and worked our way to the Bay 101 Club, which looked large and well-appointed from the outside.  When we got in, however, we found an irregular bunch of folks playing games I'd never heard of, like "no-bust 21".  I went to get $100.00 in playing cash from a travelers' cheque at the cage, only I soon discovered there were no open seats at any of the few tables that were in operation.  A lot of folks were just standing around, watching.  I then wandered over with HB to the poker area, which also looked imposing to someone used to Las Vegas hospitality.  Numbers of well-entrenched players, who must have been mostly locals, were eating from platters of chow next to their seats.  I felt like I had entered someone's living room by mistake.  I guess this was one of those infamous CA "card rooms", since there were no slot machines.  We joined up with JC and fellow worker TH for an orderly retreat to the hotel.

20 August 2002 -- The heart of the movement

Second day touring Silicon Valley

My Braun quartz alarm travel clock woke me all right at 7:00 AM, so that I could make ready for the tour of Apple Computer in Cupertino at 9:00 AM.  I hustled along to meet the 8:30 AM departure time, once again downing the complimentary breakfast a little faster than I should have.  This hotel had a walk-up PC connection to the internet in the lobby that was useful to keep track of the basics back home.  We didn't have too far to go for this trip; JC ended up concluding that the hotel location in Sunnyvale was quite "central" for our needs.  Unlike Philips and Sun, we were headed directly to the corporate headquarters, right there at the campus on Infinite Loop.  I was somewhat fatigued during the morning we spent in the presentation room at Apple.  We had two rather long lectures, of course with the emphasis on the supremacy of the Mac platform and Apple's approach of "vertical integration".  We didn't have any heavy-duty training time after the lectures let out at 12:45 PM.  We were led to a dining hall having more of those cold sandwiches, then we stopped by the "company store," where about the most interesting item there was the iPod mass storage system for musical tracks.  I nearly bought one, just for the novelty, only it would have been $400.00.

JC is in the picture this time, as taken by co-worker CT, at the Infinite Loop campus of
Apple Computer.  I'm in the back row this time, trying to do an imitation of Kilroy.

With the day's work complete, we drove both vehicles back to the hotel, where the bulk of the folks were fixing to drive to Monterey.  I stayed at the room, #230, and ordered a medium Domino's pizza while I waited out the afternoon watching shows on TBS that usually come on in the evening back east.  That evening, I was of some help to HB, in our trip to SJC and the Dollar car rental facility, where we needed to be the next day to rent a car of our own for Reno.  As we travelled along the broad avenues of the region, I found myself turned around 180 degrees in my sense of direction, and I later concluded it was because the mountains were on the "wrong side"--in the east, on account of being on the west coast.  At the airport, HB found out that he was supposed to call the 800 number, and not the local one, which was busy all the time.  We got back to the hotel and he did this, followed by our both walking across the way to Golfland for more pinball.  I was pretty tired during the walk back, though I knew I should be packing up my growing collection of stuff for the checkout the next day.

21 August 2002 -- Moving on up

We advance to San Francisco

I was fortunate to have woke on my own at 6:00 AM, which gave me time to wake fully under the influence of caffeine while I lounged in bed.  This was once my practice when I could get up early on demand, back in VA.  I did my part in getting packed up and off for our meeting with Sony in San Francisco.  After I had what breakfast I could from the offerings in the lobby, I rode with HB over to the Dollar facility, and I drove the third, Reno-bound car back to the hotel to join the others.  I was feeling a certain sinus affliction at this point, as if I had caught someone's cold.  I played Game Boy Tetris as we rode north from San Jose, and when I finally did start watching where we were going, the pastoral setting of the countryside made it hard to believe we were so close to what I knew to be highly-developed areas.  The city actually came upon us as a surprise on I-280, since there are so many hills.  I was also surprised at the size of the Bay Bridge, as it dwarfed the buildings we approached for the purpose of our visit.  The demos at Sony went by without a great effort--the duty was certainly lighter than examining.  I was getting a little antsy towards the end, but I made it.  Returning to the 3 vehicles; the Caravan and the 2 Intrepids, I was interested in getting over to the Hilton to get checked in, rather than running around the city with the others.  HB agreed to drive over with me to find out about our room, with an indication that he'd try to join up with the rest of the group later, as in Chinatown.  They were flying back to Washington on the red-eye that evening.

Downtown San Francisco, as seen from room 3378 at the Hilton.  The Transamerica pyramid is
not visible at this altitude, though it can be plainly seen from the lounge on the 45th floor.

After my dealings with the front desk at the immense San Francisco Hilton, I was fortunate to have ended up in a room with a nominally high "city view".  I had thought, at the time of my reservation, that "city view" was equivalent to "executive level", which also meant on the 36th - 44th floors of the 46-floor main tower.  No, he said, I had merely reserved a room with two queen beds, requesting a city view if possible, and stating that such was the case with their 15th floor rooms in the other tower.  I had to keep on talking.  I wanted one of those executive level rooms, if that was what I should have said in the first place, and I even agreed to pay an extra $50.00 for the privilege.  They convinced me at last that I should take a 33rd floor room--#3378--because it faced in the direction of the Bay.  Suddenly, the executive levels appeared to have gained floors 30 - 35.  It still wasn't high enough to see the Transamerica pyramid the way it can clearly be seen from the 45th floor concierge lounge, where I helped myself to the free cans of soda for our room.  After I got rested up, sometime around 2:00 PM, I went back downstairs, to begin exploring the property.  It turns out that the corridors and elevator lobbies in our tall tower looked a whole lot like the one featured in What's Up, Doc?, and the window even opened up, as when Barbra Streisand steps out onto the 17th floor ledge to avoid Madeline Kahn.  I went to the gift store, as when Ryan O'Neal goes in search of buffered aspirin, but I got a northern CA map and a roll of film instead.  I had lunch at the Sports Bar, where they had plate-sized pizzas like California Pizza Kitchen, only possessing their own unique merits.  I then returned to the room, where I finally got the correct orientation with the map when I looked out the window at all the other hotels below us.

Evening began to arrive at 5:00 PM, and with it some of that famous, low-hung San Francisco fog.  Sour grapes might state that, were I successful in securing a 42nd floor room, I would simply be in the middle of the cloud at such times.  I waited out HB's return, having found some decent Fox TV sitcoms.  When he finally showed up, I decided I was ready to take a walk on the streets with him, to see close up what I could only imagine from 350 feet up.  Knowing that it would be cold and that I had no jacket with me, I stopped again at the gift shop on the way to the door and bought a hooded sweatshirt that had "San Francisco" embroidered on it, along with the Golden Gate Bridge, which I never did see.  We walked over to Union Square and then back to Market Street, where I saw a good many of the hotel buildings, including our own, from the street level, rather than the 33rd or 45th floor.  They look a lot bigger from below.  There was also a chance to see the cable cars close up, on Mason Street, I do believe, but I'm still surprised that they only serve the immediate downtown area.We finished up at 9:30 PM by having dinner at a Chinese restaurant I had recalled passing at an earlier point in the evening.

22 August 2002  -- A familiar routine

On to Reno, NV, on our own

I was awake in plenty of time, so as to get ready for another check-out, after having continental breakfast at the 45th floor lounge.  I got my last fill of that spectacular, altitude-assisted view, then went with HB for another walk, this time in the light of day, on those San Francisco streets.  He was in search of more Advil Sinus tablets, and managed to find a resupply of tea as well at a grocery store where they spoke his native Vietnamese.  At the front desk with all our gear collected, I complained again about the misleading reservation information I had somehow received from the website and on the phone, then we made our way back to the garage, on the 6th floor of tower #3, the one with the 16th-19th floor swimming pool terrace.  We paid our $30.00 for downtown, on-site parking, then hit the streets, looking for the way to the Bay Bridge.  It took awhile to find a proper entrance to I-280.  After we crossed over into Oakland, I fell asleep in the fully-reclined car seat, not to wake until we reached the northern side of Sacramento.  We stopped to get some chow at Carl's Jr., my first time eating at this celebrated western dining venue.  We then rode off into the Sierras, which were quite spectacular and extensive.  I watched my altimeter-watch for all the way to 7160 feet, then recalibrated it by the Donner Summit sign at the rest area on I-80.  After that came the long descent into Reno, where the watch read 4600 feet.  We obtained a decently-high room for a change, at least in terms of Reno standards, at Harrah's--West Tower room 2202, in a 24-story building.  The town seems a little like a scaled-back example of the true grandeur of Las Vegas, only with such quaint features as a railroad with grade crossings, passing right through the casino district.

Though I didn't do well my first time to the table games at Harrah's, they still provided me a lot of entertainment value.  I played some Let It Ride with HB when we first came in, then I went to the blackjack area, believing I'd do better there.  The gaming tables at Harrah's Reno have these slots for the players, which hold the particular Total Rewards card of the player at each position.  It was distracting to use this method, but even more difficult to remember the card when I left the table.  I went back to the room after a time, and when HB finally showed up, I decided to play some more Let It Ride with him, only at minimal stakes.  That evening, as I settled in to 2202, I made note of the neon light displays of Virginia Street and beyond, and these were certainly enough to tell the visitor that he was in the kind of place he was.

The view from room 2202, Harrah's Reno.  There was ample neon in this casino district.

23 August 2002  -- Things move on

A full day at Harrah's Reno

I woke sometime around 12:30 AM, after I first went to bed, and seeing that HB was not there, I went in search of him.  He was still at the Let It Ride table, which stayed at its daytime minimum wager, even during such "premium" hours of play.  I ended up joining him, out of a sense of an obligation towards social good will.  This helped soften the let-down of having lost.  I did play some blackjack that night as well, while I waited for a seat to open at Let It Ride.  I finally did get some sleep that night, not being totally taken by the experience of this vibrant gaming town, and as I was playing in the later morning after getting some sleep, I decided to check on my comps balance, for lunch with HB.  They wrote me a $25.00 ticket to the Lucky Noodle diner, only I didn't see there what I wanted, so we ordered from the Chinese menu at Cafe Napa instead.  It was about 1:30 PM by the time I was actually hungry enough to eat anything, and I ordered my usual 2 items; the Kung Pao chicken and the pork fried rice, only this Kung Pao was made with some sort of non-characteristic sweet & sour sauce, and I couldn't finish more than half of what I ordered.  I may have spoke too soon at P.F. Chang's.  HB had noodle soup, and the comps ticket just covered the bill.

I went upstairs at 2:30 PM, so as to take something of a siesta.  This, in PDT terms, is when my favorite TV sitcoms show up on TBS, so I was well occupied as I drifted off to sleep.  After I got back under way at 5:00 PM, I found HB at his usual place at the Let It Ride table.  I bought in and played with him, playing for stakes above table minimum.  I kept wanting to hit one of those big hands, which made the game seem a little like scratch-off lottery tickets, but I believe the most I ever saw was a 5-card straight.  I worry, of course, with such intensity of play, so I picked up a copy of the "20 Questions" posed by the brochure near the cashier's desk.  I only answered 4 in the affirmative, where the typical compulsive gambler will answer 7 or more that way.  In the greater scheme of all things, I realized I could absorb this trip without too much trouble, because of keeping up at the job I left on the 21st in San Francisco.  I heard the sound of an incredible band playing through our cracked-open 22nd floor window, and I then decided to engage further in the entertainment amenities at Harrah's.  At 8:15 PM, I went to the plaza off the Virginia Street entrance to hear a group called, appropriately enough, "That '80's Band".  It was a carnival atmosphere out there in front of the stage, just like the street-front bandstand at Harrah's Las Vegas, where I had seen the swing dancing in 1998.  I found, to my partial surprise, that I have the ability to dance to such music.  I then retired to 2202, where HB eventually joined me after searching for me with some concern after I had left.  Towards the end of CBS's "48 Hours", I went with HB to play still more at the casino, having a winning night for a change that didn't end until 3:00 AM.

A view looking down onto Virginia Street, in the location of the railroad crossing.  The entertainment
plaza at Harrah's is just below the bottom border of this picture, on the left side.

24 August 2002  -- Any time, anywhere

Returning via Tahoe to SJC

I completed a full morning of activity at the hotel, right up to the 12:00 Noon checkout time.  I managed to sleep until 8:00 AM, at which point I went downstairs to play more blackjack.  I finished up my play at 10:00 AM and got a $30.00 comp ticket from the floor supervisor for breakfast at Cafe Napa for HB and myself.  I went up to get showered, crammed my many articles back into the carry-on bag, and went to have what turned out to be a truly good steak-and-eggs breakfast for only $15.00.  HB declined my invitation, in favor of a bit more play at Let It Ride--he cooked pre-packaged noodle bowls from a San Francisco grocery outlet, along with his ubiquitous tea.  After I bought a Harrah's Reno polo shirt at the gift shop, I joined him for a few hands of the mechanized poker-gaming experience, losing my last for that particular casino.  We left for the room at 11:50 AM and checked out.  It turns out that HB had earned $58.00 in comps himself, only he couldn't use them because it was not a cash account and he was not listed on our reservation.  He didn't seem to mind that much, though, as we proceeded to the 5th level of free self-parking and began to head back towards San Jose for our own red-eye experience that night.

We had the time, it turns out, to do a delightful tour of Lake Tahoe, on what ended up as being on an alternate way back to SJC.  Taking Route 431 into the mountain range to the west of Reno and Carson City, we went through a pass at 8900 feet, before riding down to the Lake itself, where the altimeter indicated 6300 feet.  I saw lots of powerboats on this prodigiously high water (though nothing compared to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia, as I had to remind HB), as we passed to the south on the NV shore.  We didn't see any of the fabled Tahoe casino resorts until we reached the border, at Stateline.  Reno this certainly was not, but we went to play at Harrah's anyway, in hopes of liberating HB's comp balance for lunch.  Well, after losing some more at a Let It Ride table with a higher minimum (Tahoe's daytime minimums appeard to be uniformly more), they still would not honor his play at the Reno casino.  We ended up eating at the McDonald's, over on the CA side, which had even more kids running around it than we had seen at Harrah's.

Heading back, I figured our travels would be simpler than if we had to return through San Francisco.  We turned south and took Route 50 to Sacramento, working our way over Tahoe's tall basin walls, which involved a third high pass.  After we had cleared the foot-hills, we began the leg south, on I-5, into the amazing agricultural feature of the Central Valley.  I have never seen such vineyards as these--some must have been multiple square miles in size.  South of Stockton, we turned onto I-580, headed for the Bay Area.  We passed through an incredible collection of power-generating windmills as we rose into the largely treeless hills prior to reaching Livermore, most of them turning at quite a clip.  After a seemingly-short piece to the south on I-680, we returned to good old US 101, upon which we proceeded towards San Jose.  HB found an immense Oriental grocery store called "Lion" there, in which to locate some edible gifts for his wife.  We next got to the Dollar rental lot at SJC, where HB paid the balance on the car.  It turns out that the hotel in Reno cost nearly the same amount, so we were even.  The barter system worked out well.

In the diminished late-night crowds at SJC, I had trouble clearing security, where something didn't look right to the X-ray crew--so I was detained.  Maybe it was the Mini Mag-Lite flashlight they had given me at Philips, with the imposing barrel-like profile that it has.  I had to pull everything from my bag, and they ended up dropping my house keys, which I had to order shipped (at my cost) from the SJC lost and found after I'd returned.  I finally came out to gate C-4 with HB, for the 10:30 PM boarding of flight 434 to ORD, which came soon enough.  I hustled my way on to seat 1D, where I composed the day's journal entries.  Being fairly tired, I was able to sleep in the ample seat by the time I finished writing.  That was my shortest return ever from the west coast.

25 August 2002 -- Back in plenty of time

A morning's arrival at DCA

The shortened night coming west to east ended up passing successfully, in symbolic terms, because I had advanced my watch to CDT while we were at SJC, and by the time we were making another of those foot-crossings at ORD, from C to B concourse, I felt as if it were truly morning.  The ORD-DCA flight at 6:00 AM was sparsely occupied, giving me the entire 4-seat row 1 to myself.  I slept for a goodly portion of this flight as well, passing on the amenities that were in greater supply for the daytime than during our passage on the other flight at night.  We got in to DCA at 8:30 AM as scheduled, and I rode the Metro to Crystal City with HB after he claimed his checked bag.  It was a long way to haul my entirely overstuffed carry-on, in getting to the truck where TN had parked it in the Crystal Park office garage, but at least the traffic was light for driving HB home.  It was good that I had placed a spare house key in the truck after my last lock-out, on account of my mishap at SJC security.  TN had done a decent job of watching over the place and taking care of my feline critter while I was gone.  I had received a number of mail-order parcels from online purchases, which he piled on the kitchen table.  Also among my gratitudes, of course, was having almost a whole Sunday left to rest up, after what was arguably a lot of action.

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