Travel, Travel, Travel

When I was a kid, my dad traveled all around the world for Pratt & Whitney. Many times a friend would stop me in school and ask, "Where's your dad today?" and I frankly would not know. "Somewhere in Africa, I think," would be my response. He's been to Moscow (one trip I took with him), South Africa, Zimbabwe, Japan, China, and all throughout Europe.

Often, people would marvel at his opportunity. They would express envy at the fact he got to go to all these cool places and see very neat sights. "You don't understand," would be his reply. "All I see is a hotel room."

I have been traveling quite a bit this year, and I can relate to my dad. Yesterday, I got back from a two-day trip to San Francisco for work. San Francisco is a great city; one of my favorites. But I didn't get to see it. When you travel for work, you really don't sight see. Walking to my company's west coast office early Friday morning, I forced myself to stop in Union Square for a minute or two just to look around.

Here's what I saw for the majority of my trip:

July 31, 2008
Jetblue Flight 475 (Boston to Oakland)

August 1, 2008
San Francisco office desk (595 Market Street)

The two images above pretty much summarize my trip. (I probably should also include a picture of the inside of a taxicab.) I will say that this time, one of my west coast co-workers invited me to his house ahead of my redeye flight back to Boston and we had some BBQ outside, which was nice. But there is no touring or visiting of wine country on my trips west.

By the way, Jetblue told the passengers on the way back from Oakland that they are about to charge for pillows and blankets on its flights. Thankfully, the airline has not started charging for the first bagged checked (though I am sure that will change eventually).