We arrived in San Francisco at the expected delayed time. Two dirty, homeless-looking Brazilians took a cab in from of a fancy hotel were going-to-opera dressed people awaited on the line. Whe arrived at Annette's apartment and chatted for a while. Next day we began our San Francisco exploration at Market Street. We bought maps and cute tourist advice in the form of a card deck with "52 adventures in San Francisco". We first walked to the "wrong" direction, and found ourselves in the "xxx video" neigborhood. :) We walked and shopped for a bit, and then had coffee in a nice cafe. The owner was friendly and talked about a trip he made to Rio some time ago. Nexts day we woke up to a beautiful sunny day. We went to Golden Gate Park and visited the Botanical Garden and the Science Academy Museum. There were two Special Exhibits there. One about earthquakes, where we could experience a very dull "fake"earthquake in a special auditorium. I was expecting something more "shaky" but it was interesting anyway. You could build lego buildings there and press the "earthquake" button to see how well they'll behave. Afterwards, we went to the unbearably sponsored exhibit about microbes. After we passed by hundreds of posters explained why a pharmaceutical company I won't name (so they won't get publicity from me :) is sooooooo good to you, and makes sooooo many things to improve your life, and is sooooooo concerned about your health, we found the "gaming" part of the exhibit. The racing bacteria game was pretty dull, but the "catch-a-germ" was a must! I tried to catch bad germs for hours but all I got was a handfull of good germs :( . You had to put your arms inside a dome and the "germs" - little pieces of paper - would be blown in the air for you to catch them. The bad germs were yellow and there were only three left when I played. (We would later catch a big germ in Portland - from German :) - that was Ed's joke of course. I laughed my guts out when he told it :)

Whe then visited Construct where Annette tried to show us their new project, but it was i n"broken" status at that time :( We were supposed to go to a Macromedia party, but when we arrived there we discovered it was too mainstream, sponsored by a big radio station and such, so we went to a bar instead and had some drinks. You can see the pictures at Annette's report page. After that we went dancing at the Cats club. The music was great and Annette's friends began to arrive slowly. We were supposed to return home earlier, but we couldn't help but staying late. The music was reeeally good. I would try go to the bathroom and then I would hear the first tunes of a music and think: - Oh, no I can't miss this one! :)

Next day we had lunch with Annette and Issac at South Park. (Somebody made the joke: - it's a geek place, but the geeks here look good because they're into design.) The sun was shining and we sat on the grass eating our sandwiches. I'm always happy in beatiful days like that, and we had great company too! After lunch, Issac drove us to the airport, where we had to wait a little bit for the plane - it was coming from LA.

At the airplane, there were phones with fax/modem jacks in each row. I guess we _must_ send some e-mail from the plane when we fly back, just for coolness sake :)

Pictures

The Botanical Garden

At the Natural History Museum

Oh, no! We're on TV again

The good germ

Dancing at the Cats club

At Construct

Lunch at South Park