Karol Kaczmarek

Way from San Diego to Las Vegas can be easy or can be fun. We choose the second option and decided to follow the historic Route 66. The most famous road in America going from Los Angeles to Chicago (or opposite direction if you want). Driving this route while listening “Home” by Edward Sharpe and “500 miles” by Proclaimers was one of my dreams and number 72 from my list of 100 things to do in my life . On this day It was fulfilled, what an exciting moment!

Firstly we went to Victorville and instead of taking the highway number 15 to Barstow, we turned left to be on the 66th.

The view changed drastically from 5-lane highway with heavy traffic to narrow road in the middle of nowhere. First time in US we were on the road on our own, just way, scenic views and ourselves.

Look at these classic post boxes we’ve met on our way! They are soo cool!

Road conditions weren’t always ideal, but driving on Route 66th was a lot of fun, especially when you imagine how much memories this beautiful misterious road has.

After whole day of driving we stopped in cafe we’ve encountered near the road.

Unfortunately it was closed, probably for last 40 years or so . At least we could drink some cactus juice .

After visiting Santa Monica Beach in the morning we set out to San Diego. On our way we saw, as usually, really wide freeways and.. signs that Halloween is coming .

It took us less than 3 hours to see first views of beautiful skyline of San Diego.

Firstly we drove to the Coronado island to see the U.S. Navy museum. At least this is what Czarek claimed it to be. We got to the right place, however the view of armed men and control points on the road made us a little bit suspicious. Anyway, we waited in the line and after few minutes one of the guards informed us that it’s not a museum, but the main naval military station and that all people are not stoping there to buy tickets, but to show the permission to enter . Obviously we didn’t have any, tough luck  

Instead of the “museum” we visited the very adorable island.

In the evening we checked in to the hotel which was very close to the Petco Field (baseball stadium).

We had very hard time finding some place to park our car, cause there was a game played on that day and most of parkings were either full or highly overpriced.

San Diego has the most radiculous parking system I have ever seen! You pay like 10-20$ for 9 hours of parking and you can’t pay for a longer time in advance. If you pay at 8pm and want to stay till e.g. 3pm next day they expect you to come in the middle of the night to pay fee for next 9 hours! Ridiculous, but this is how it really works! We thought that it’s reasonable to be able to pay in advance and paid for 18 hours. In the morning we found a nice white slip imitating the official ticket (but it really wasn’t official!). It had also yellow envelope attached to send the check as soon as possible. It was private parking owned by the company Parking of America and after reading reviews in the internet I found out that they cheat people very often giving them tickets e.g. within 3 hours of paying.

As far as nice San Diego is, parking there is really pain in the ass. And it’s not the problem with us who didn’t get it at the beginning, during just one hour I saw three vehicles towed away! Even after parking properly it may occur that there is street cleaning during that night and you will be towed away anyway So lovely! Good luck we just got a ticket

In SD we’ve  been staying right in the middle of the historical Gaslamp Quarter which is also the party district of the city.

I’m not sure how much the number of people there that night was impacted by the game, but the pavements were totally cram packed with people (it was saturday, but on sunday it was still quite full)! So many restaurants, bars and clubs in one place makes the district extremely lively by night and SD seems to be even bigger than it is. San Francisco and Los Angeles seem to have everything spread out a little bit more. Unfortunately I didn’t make photos during a night, but this is how it looks during a day Just imagine people everywhere, change color of sky to black, add few englighted “gas” lamps (electric-powered) and you have it by night! .

Apart from the old buildings, there is also of course a lot of modern constructions in the area near there… mixed with palms growing everywhere . That’s funny that we find beautiful something which for other people (from hotter countries in this case) is totally normal. They would probably see an oak and find it much more appealing that palms – exotic .

as well as place called sea village with tons of small restaurants and gift shops. Pleasant area to stoll around.

After a bit of walking in the city we went to the USS Midway, the aircraft turned into museum. Finally! We were able to go to the museum this time!

After that I met with my friend Magda living in San Diego to talk a bit. She was reallysurprised we didn’t go to any beaches yet. True, San Diego is famous of it’s b eaches, so we couldn’t leave it without going to any. To fix this little issue, the next morning before setting out to Las Vegas, we drove to pretty Pacific Beach (unfortunately not to swim, water was quite cold as usually in Pacific ).

We left Sequoia National Park in the afternoon and started 5-hour drive to Los Angeles. After looking outside the window it was clear we are heading to the south!

We checked in to our hotel in downtown around 7pm and went out for a short walk around and dinner. My first impression – there is police everywhere! Surprisingly, I felt much safer in LA than in SF, where really weird (but really, really weird!) people were on literally every corner . Later on it occurred that just few blocks away from our place is main LA police department, that explained everything It was also quite noisy there, as LA is patrolled with helicopters most of a day.

There was also some shooting on the street for the movie/advertisement of Prime Suspect were people were walking back and forth all the time. We’ve joined them. Does it mean we gonna be famous?

On Thursday we went straight to Hollywood. Maybe the legend of this place brought by movies made me expecting too much, but first time during our trip I was disappointed and so was Czarek. Many buildings are old and derelict, the walk of fame is boring…

and while walking along the Hollywood Boulevard every 30 seconds you are stopped by someone wanting to sell you something, usually some tours. There was nothing to do (unless you are interested in watching celebrities made of wax etc.), so we bought 2 of them, one general to visit nicest and most famous places in Hollywood and another one to see movie stars’ homes.

It made our visit there a bit more entertaining, as professional guides were able to tell interesting stories and present the area in more interesting way it seemed to be at the first sight.

By the way, all lamp posts in main part of Hollywood had posters of Polish Film Festival which will be held there in Octover  

And here is mine second note about LA: it’s covered with smog, yuck!

Next morning (ok, it wasn’t really morning already, nights in LA are so much fun!) we went to the Universal Studios, which is a bit pricey (77$), but a lot, lot of fun! Shows presenting how special effects are created

virtual roller coasters, (you feel like you are riding the rollercoaster when are not really moving anywhere!),

tour through Universal stages where movies are recorded (where everything is faked…),

the biggest 3D cinema in the world (you watch King Kong and T-Rex fighting around you, as screen surrounds you)

and much, much more!

We spent there whole amazing day and we still didn’t manage to see everything, hopefully next time! 

In the evening we went to Santa Monica Beach to see it during night (where we were stopped by the police, cause Czarek likes ignoring some/most of signs;P Luckily policeman just asked whether he can read in english and wished a good stay in California ) and on our last morning in LA we checked it once again, during a day  

It was also first cloudy day while we are in California, but who cares, we were just about to set out to San Diego!

As I wrote in the last post, this morning we set out to see what we’ve missed yesterday… giant sequoias! While going higher and higher the temperature was… increasing and the road signs were asking to turn the air conditioning OFF! I suppose driving on the steep roads with A/C turned on may harm your engine, but it’s just a guess to try to explain those signs, I’m not good in engines . Anyone knows the correct answer?

Soon we’ve entered the park and were watching the great views.

There was some road works and road was open only during short 10-minute spots once every hour. We had to stop for a while together with other people willing to see sequoias.

After starting to drive again, it occurred we took the wrong way and accidentaly ended up on the Moro Rock:

Considering this landscape, it wasn’t really that terrible mistake

After couple of miles more we finally reached the Sequoias grove and the trees were really amazing! Sequoias aren’t the highest trees in the world (even that some people may think so, redwoods are on average 20m higher having as many as 100 meters in height), but their really big trunks make them look incredibly huge and impressing!

Lot’s of sequoias we saw were actually half-burned. As we read later, park administration doesn’t even try to distinguish the fire once it starts, as when they were doing it, sequoias stopped to reproduce themselves. Looks like they need some good burn-out from time to time .

Our final stop in the park was General Sherman, not the highest, nor the widest, but the overall volume of it’s trunk makes it the largest tree in the entire world!

On the way back crazy mountain roads made our breaks burning a bit and then we discovered what “L” in automatic gearbox is for . Ehh in the manual one everything is so much more intuitive .

We really enjoyed the park, as apart from trees which we definitely expected to see, it has surprisingly many places offering breathaking views, which is a nice addition! It’s definitely worth to spend a day there!

After spending weekend in San Francisco our next destination is somewhat closer to nature – Yosemite National Park. The most popular part of it is enclosed by almost vertical mile-high cliffs Yosemite Valley. It’s about 4hours drive from SF, so we reached it in the afternoon and made hikes with really beautiful scenery.

We also wanted to go to the Mariposa Grove where Giant Sequoia trees grow, however the way on the steep roads took us longer than we’ve expected and after coming it was so dark that even with help of car lights we were hardly able to see anything

We really want to see sequoias in a daylight, so we’ve modified our plans and tomorrow will first go to the Sequoia National Park and later set out to Los Angeles. Hopefully we will see some of those giants!

Normal travellers probably wouldn’t even think about leaving San Francisco while staying there just 3 nights, but geeks like we couldn’t resist visiting Silicon Valley which is just about 60km away!

Firstly we went to the Intel Museum presenting the history of this company and computers in general (focusing on Intel Chips, of course ). You could even sent an e-card with greetings mentioning Moore’s law (which we’ve obviously did!). and buy Intel i5 chip earrings for 200$ (which we’ve obviously did not… ).

Our next destination was Facebook where we’ve met Damian, Czarek’s roommate from Warsaw who was doing internship there.  We’ve spent nice time visiting the buildings, eating free lunch and writing on the (real!) facebook wall.

By the way we visited the Stanford University Campus which was just few blocks away. To be honest, it wasn’t bad, but University of Washington’s Campus in Seattle is nicer .

It was already hot…

and our AC didn’t give up, so didn’t we!

We continued our trip and went to the Google headquarters in Mountain View, Microsoft division which was near there and Apple in Cupertino located at loop-shaped street with fancy name “Infinite Loop” . Only IT company could come up with this kind of name;P

After whole day in Silicon Valley we speeded back to SF to see the Golden Gate bridge before the sunset, we left this must-see at the very end…

And we were there on time!

We’ve reached San Francisco International Airport around 6pm, took air train to the rental car agencies and  walked from one to another to find the best deal . After checking the prices online a week or two earlier, we’ve figured out we shouldn’t pay more that 1000 dollars for a car. Unfortunately, this price didn’t include additional costs like insurance (who would need it anyway?) and extra fee for drivers under 25 years. After all “bonuses” the price went to 1700$. No way!

Luckily, after 3 months of bargaining experience in India, I’ve negotiated the price and we got more than 400$ discount! Lessons from Asia are applicable everywhere . The salesman gave us keys and said not to worry too much, insurance will cover everything .  Cool, let’s go!

We took a car and drove to our hostel in the very center of San Francisco. It was already late, so we only took our cameras and went for a walk to see downtown by night… and met new friends on the way

Next morning we headed directly to the Fisherman’s Wharf where ferries to Alcatraz leave from. The walk itself was really pleasant, but tiring, as San Francisco is situated mainly on the hills.

We’ve spent three very interesting hours on the island listening about it’s history, famous prisoners and escape attempts. My favorite one was when someone (I don’t remember the name) used the spoon to dig to ventilation shaft and get to the roof through it. It was the only attempt which perhaps succeeded, but noone is sure if he together with 2 friends managed to swim through the San Francisco bay.

We went also to the famous Pier 39 – third most visited place in the USA – where, apart from hundreds adorable shops with food and turistic stuff, the nice colony of sea lions can be watched!

For the sunset we drove to the twin peaks, two hills south and west of downtown offering spectacular views of the city. Great opportunity to polish my – still – poor photography skills (I’ve finally started experimenting with manual mode this summer ). But still, the view even on my photos looks amazing!

After eating dinner on those hills we came back to our hostel where crazy receptionist was shouting through the megaphone that there is free beer available in the club downstairs! We gave it a try and spent evening playing beerpong with other travellers Nice end of the beautiful day in San Francisco!

Yesterday I was writing about the end of my internship at Microsoft, today I will write about the begining of great next journey, codename: California Road Trip! 

Together with Czarek, who was also interning at MS this summer we want to rent a car and visit some of the best places in California. The plan is quite simple: fly to San Francisco, see the main attractions and Sillicon Valley (of course), then go to Yosemite, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas where we will stay for a few days and set out for a day trips to Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Hoover’s dam. But it’s just a plan… let’s see what will happen

I’m currently sitting at the Airport with Czarek. Seattle farewells  us with rain, although during whole summer the weather was surprisingly good (or perhaps I didn’t expect too much after all the stories about the “rainy city”).

Anyway, I hope the state of sunshine will welcome us with the beautiful, sunny September .

It’s done. Today was my last day of internship. I wanted to say that it was amazing experience to work at Microsoft. For three months I could be member of a great team and took part in the very interesting project which, as opposed to most of university projects, won’t be thrown away after I leave (at least people assured me it won’t). Quite the opposite, this feature will be shipped with the next Windows Server (version 9, Windows Server 8 was presented just a couple of days ago during the //Build conference)!

That’s really exciting!

Another important aspect of the whole thing are people. I met a bunch of other interns and full time employees and had opportunity to network and hang out with them during summer. I hope I will be able to stay in touch with at least some of them later!

Finally, as I presented in the previous posts (NDA blocked me from posting more about my work itself ), it was also a lot of fun! There was really a LOT of entertaining events organized for all of us, which made my stay here even more memorable.

At the end, I would like to thank my manager, mentor and all people from my team for a great support they’ve provided me during internship! I appreciate it a lot and know that without you the project wouldn’t be successful.

Long weekend (today is labor day… no work ) passed really quickly. So did almost the whole internship. Most of my job is already done and during last two weeks I’ll focus on stretch goals and final presentation. Hope gods of DEMOS will be with me

Good number of interns have already gone (American students start school relatively early… usually beginning of September), so August was much less rich in terms of fun activities organized by Microsoft than July. It’s not that bad as it may sound, at least those who stayed (including me:P) could focus more on actually getting the projects done .

As I mentioned in the last post, there was the biggest intern event on the 28th of July – Intern Signature Event. Dozens of buses took us to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to spend there nice evening with BBQ, Dave Matthews (I had no idea who he is, but seriously, he seems to be pretty popular in US) and… FREE XBOXes! Yeah, every intern got one with kinect One the next day the company store with games was literally besieged!

So… once the MS events ended we had to figure out what to do on weekends on our own. Luckily there was still a bunch of interns staying, so we could do some short hikes or trips. Seattle and Redmond is situated amazingly well if you are into natural beauty.
We decided to go to the Olympic National Park…

and Cannon Beach in Oregon with famous Haystack Rock. By the way, the nice thing about Oregon is that it was first time in US they didn’t ask me for ID while buying a beer . Well, in Seattle they wouldn’t ask either… they accept only passports…

Other weekends I’ve been spending in Seattle visiting attractions which were on my must-see list (if anyone would need some recommendations, I’d be glad to help ).

And if everything goes well, two weeks from now I should be in San Francisco or Los Angeles, or somewhere near, as I really don’t want to leave US yet California road trip should be a good way to spend time.