San Francisco streets ...

Beautiful corner building

With such full days at the conference, my brain was exhausted at the end of each day, so it was great to get out into the fresh air and walk around the neighbourhoods of San Francisco.  I loved puffing my way up the steep streets as I explored the huge variety of neighbourhoods.  I found the architecture of the buildings to be simply beautiful.   The bus system was also great to jump on when I got tired and it was from bus drivers and locals on the bus that I often got some 'hot tips' for places to explore, such as the quirky shoe garden at the top of Alamo Square.  Strolling and taking in the sights and atmosphere was the perfect way to end a day of learning.

A typical street

A simple, yet ornate building near Alamo Square

'The Painted Ladies' with downtown San Francisco in the background

Up close and personal with 'The Painted Ladies'

Downtown from Alamo Square

A garden of shoes

Shoe pot plants

An odd assortment of shoes

Lombard Street - one of the world's most steep and crooked streets

Cable car with Alcatraz in the background

Big building in Chinatown

A very Chinese name for a restaurant

My favourite ... the Willie 'Woo Woo' Wong Playground, with Hang Ah Tea Rooms in the background

Big names, big ideas ...

Apologies for the lack of blogging of late ... my brain has been otherwise occupied with learning at the annual ASCD conference in San Francisco.  For four very full days (8-6 each day), I listened as experts  threw around current buzz words in the world of education - digital native, 21st century skills, brain based learning, understanding by design - and discussed issues focused on life in American schools, namely budget cuts, the new Common Core initiative (national wide standards), turnaround schools (poor, under-performing schools come good), and the ever-present issue of standardised testing.  I had a strategy for this conference, after being a little disappointed with some of the presenters at last year's summer conference - I was only going to attend sessions by 'big name' presenters talking about big ideas in education.  I decided to avoid anything that promised to solve all educational problems in a certain number of steps.  I managed to achieve this and had the pleasure of listening to some very well spoken (albeit very fast) presenters who had some wonderful new ideas to contemplate.

Sonoma Valley in the rain ...

Jolan and Arpad at the Buena Vista winery

Yesterday, I left the city of San Francisco behind and headed to the Sonoma Valley with my lovely Hungarian friends, Jolan and Arpad.  I was so lucky that they were able to take time off work and drive so far to see me (they live in San Jose).  Unfortunately, whenever we meet up, it never seems to be very nice weather ... in fact, the first time we met was on the top of Huang Shan (Yellow Mountain) in China on a rainy and foggy day.  But, we didn't let the weather stop us then and we didn't let it stop us yesterday.

Wine cellars ... dug by the Chinese workers in the 1800s

Buena Vista

Our first stop was the Cline winery, where we explored a small museum showing the development of the Spanish missions that were built all the way up the coast from Mexico to just north of San Francisco.  Our first tasting adventure was at the Buena Vista winery, which was actually founded by a Hungarian man, who is credited with being the 'father' of the Sonoma wine region.  I found it fascinating to read his history ... Agoston Haraszthy was, like many Hungarian men, fiery and dramatic and certainly made a name for himself in the area, dabbling in a little bit of everything, before finally settling into wine making.  Here, we tried several chardonnay and pinot noir wines, all of which were lovely.

Ornate 1800s wine barrel

Governor Vallejo's house

After this winery, we drove for a bit, enjoying the scenery from the dry car, as opposed to the incredibly wet outdoors.  As we drove, a familiar and pungent hit my nose ... gum trees!  The area was filled with them, towering gum trees everywhere.  It was lucky that I'd only left Australia last week, otherwise, I would have felt homesick for certain.

The cookhouse

The gardens

We visited the small town of Sonoma, where we enjoyed a long, lazy lunch at a delicious Portuguese restaurant called LaSalette.  I'd never eaten real Portuguese food before, so we had fun sampling all the national speciality dishes and wines.

Lovely, mossy trees

Beautiful bird in the marsh lands

In the afternoon, we headed to Governor Vallejo's house.  He was the founder of the town of Sonoma and his daughter married the son of Haraszthy.  In the early evening, just as we headed back to San Francisco, the rain and clouds began to lift and we finally were able to see some views.  By the time we got back to the city, the sun was shining!  Now, I just need to get my head into work mode, ready for the conference.

Finally, a view of the hills

An old farmhouse

100% tourist in San Francisco ...

Grey skies in San Francisco

Today was my only full day in San Francisco, so I went like the clappers all day, trying to experience as much as possible.  I began the day with an 'early bird' (along with hundreds of other people) tour of Alcatraz.  The recommended time spent on the island is two hours.  I spent close to four ... I seem to have a morbid fascination with prisons and the horrifying stories that accompany them (perhaps being a Tasmanian, I've visited Port Arthur one too many time?)  I took the audio tour (excellent), listened to a 45 minute talk about the attempted escapes (fascinating) and wandered the island, trying to put myself into the shoes of the inmates, the staff and their families.   It must have been torture for the prisoners, being able to hear the sounds of everyday life as Alcatraz is so close to downtown San Francisco.

Alcatraz ferry with 'The Rock' in the background

Birds on Alcatraz ... the most recent residents

Alcatraz

Warning on Alcatraz

Arriving at the dock

Indians welcome ... how nice

Derelict buildings and lush gardens, quite the contrast

The old Officer's Hall

The recreation yard

Mating season for the local birds

My next stop was a stroll along Fisherman's Wharf, a hot bed of overpriced tourist restaurants and souvenir shops.  My reason for visiting such an area (that I would normally avoid) was to see the resident sea lions lounging about on the docks.  They were quite spectacular ... close to 100 sea lions sleeping, swimming, communicating, playing on the docks so close to town.  I did become quite attached to them and spent a good 45 minutes just watching and laughing at them.  I feel another visit coming on before I leave San Francisco (and possibly a blog entry solely dedicated to these wonderful creatures). 

Sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf

'Get out of my way!'

The most vocal of the sea lions

A comforting message on an apartment building

My last major touristy stop for the day was the Golden Gate Bridge.  It is just as spectacular as I had imagined.  It is also a lot longer than I expected ... Wikipedia just told me that it is 2.7 km long.  Lucky I was up for a day of walking in the fresh (read, windy) air ... it was a 30 minute power walk just one way along the bridge.  I was slightly disappointed not to find a bus service at the other end, however, after a handful (or three) of cashews, I was able to head back to the other side.  I did regret not hiring a bike for the trip, but I've now worked up a significant appetite for my adventure into Chinatown this evening.  I navigated the San Francisco bus system back into the city, getting off several blocks earlier so that I could scope out Japantown.  Tonight, I'm aiming for a non-touristy Chinese restaurant with some authentic Chinese food and a Tsingdao or two. 

Golden Gate Bridge

... and again

The unfortunate truth of the Golden Gate Bridge ... America's premier suicide location

From the bridge

San Francisco from the bridge

View from the other side

Note ... the superior photo quality (!) is due to my new camera, a Canon EOS 60D ... thanks to my lovely family for gifting this for my 30th!

Adventures in the USA ...

I've only been back three days and I'm off again!  Tonight, I head down to San Francisco for the annual ASCD (Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development) conference.  My conference experience begins on Friday, with a pre-conference institute, followed by three very full days of interesting sessions.  So, I have two free days before the learning begins ... Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge and other touristy things are on the agenda for tomorrow followed by a day in the Sonoma wine region with some Hungarian friends that I met in China.  After the conference, I head to Las Vegas with C for his work conference.  I'm not so thrilled about Vegas, but can't wait for my day trip out to the Grand Canyon.  Ah, the adventures continue.

First day of spring ...

View from the ranch driveway

It's the first day of spring here in Canada and as you can see, it doesn't exactly look like spring weather!  Where is the green grass and new-born lambs?!  It was -5 in Calgary today and has been snowing lightly all day.  However, all the locals are happily proclaiming how lovely the weather is and how warm it's getting.  Hmmm.

Oh Canada!

Frozen Bow River

That's right, I've left the sunny beaches of Sydney and am now back in cold, snowy Canada.  I arrived back yesterday morning and headed straight to the River Cafe near downtown Calgary for a long, leisurely lunch with C and my good friend from high school, Camilla and her husband, Chris.  It was amazing that they happened to be in town (and on their way back to London) just as I arrived ... funny how far you need to travel to meet up with friends!  We enjoyed a delicious Canadian lunch with several bottles of bubbles to celebrate life before walking it off with a stroll to the top of a nearby hill to admire the view over downtown Calgary.  

The frozen Bow River with downtown in the background

It's good to be back and be with C again, but my goodness, it is mighty cold.  Over the past few weeks, I've been watching the Calgary weather reports with interest.  I was thrilled to watch the temperature steadily climb from -20 to +10, so you can imagine my disappointment when it was announced on  the Air Canada flight that it was -5 and snowing in Calgary.  It's chilly!  But there was a decent snowfall last night, so everything is white and pretty and I'm looking forward to rugging up and heading out to play in it later today.

Looking down onto the Bow River from a nearby hill