Travel

Christine and I both enjoy foreign travel. These are some of the places we have visited in recent years.

Los Angeles

I have had two trips to Los Angeles, although I was actually staying in Costa Mesa, near to the Orange County airport. On the first visit in October 1997 I went up to the observatory at Mount Wilson. There are some quite nice views of LA from there, as you are a few of thousand feet above the city, but due to the atmospheric pollution its all looks a bit hazy. It was so hazy that the autofocus on the camera couldn't focus on LA to take a picture of the view. From Mount Wilson I went inland along the Angeles Crest Highway which at its highest point is nearly 8000 feet and even in October there was still snow on the ground from the previous winter.

The second trip was in February 1998 and this time I was there for the Presidents Day public holiday. I went all the way to the Joshua Tree National Park, which in the summer is incredibly hot with temperatures well over 100, but in February the temperature was somewhat cooler.

San Francisco

In May of 1998 I visited the Company head offices in Alameda and Berkeley, and as I was there over a weekend there was time for some sightseeing in San Francisco where I visited Alcatraz and rode the cable cars.

This is the San Francisco skyline taken on the ferry from Jack London Square to Fishermans Wharf.

This is the Bay Bridge bridge, not the Golden Gate Bridge If you look carefully you can just see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

Matsumoto
In June of 1998 I was asked, on very short notice (11:30 on a Friday), if I would go to Japan on the Monday to help support another project that I wasn't working on and knew very little about. Of course I said "Yes" and spent a week in Matsumoto with another engineer (Brian) fixing problems.
The problem I was sent to look at was fixed before I got there so I spent a week watching Brian fixing his problems whilst trying to make helpful comments and pretending to understand what was going on! On our last night we were taken to a traditional Japanese resaurant where we sat on the floor and drank saki whilst girls in kimonos served the meal. We had a number of courses and our hosts explained what each one was, then we got to the raw fish course. There were 2 pieces of raw fish and one piece of raw meat, they translated one of the fish as Tuna and they couldn't translate the other one as it was a Japanese fish. The meat was a local delicacy, horse.
We spent the only day we had free on a coach trip to Kamikochi in the Japan Alps. We were the only english speaking people on the coach, including the courier, so we didn't understand a word of the commentary. We did manage to understand what time we had to be back on the coach for the trip back.

Amsterdam
	In October of 1998 Christine and I visited Amsterdam on a schools inspection visit. Whilst wandering around the streets we found this charmingly named Chinese restaurant. Whilst we were there we visited the Anne Frank museum.

Paris

Christine and I spent four days in Paris in February 1999 and stayed in a very nice hotel near the Madeline. The holiday was a special treat for both of us as although we have both visited Paris on several occassions it was the first time we had been there without anyone else. Christine usually has 40 school kids in tow as she takes a school trip to France each year.

Geneva

I had to go to Geneva in early October 1999 for an exhibition called Telecom 99. We were exhibiting some equipment and I was there as technical support. Because the exhibition was so big the hotel I stayed in was in Morzine in the French Alps.

Belgium & Germany

Christine and I spent four days on a coach trip through Belgium and part of the Rhine in October 1999.

Tokyo

The day after we got back from Germany I was sent to Tokyo as we had some equipment on display at an exhibition.

Los Angeles & San Francisco

In December 1999 I attended a conference in Los Angeles and stayed at the Westin Bonaventure hotel. This is where part of "True Lies" with Arnold Scwaz... and Jamie Lee Curtis was filmed. I also flew up to San Francisco to visit the company offices for about 4 hours before I came back.

The DAY Family