Palo Alto->South Bend

I had an uneventfully full day of travel today.  Morning run; bus to airport; flight to Minneapolis; flight to South Bend; taxi home; house hot.

Palo Alto: Day 2

I got up around six and had a nice four mile run around the campus.  It's a beautiful place.  I had breakfast at the motel and then took the free bus back to the Durand Building, which houses the Aeronautics group.  I had some nice conversations with my host Kathrik, who I met for the first time.  And I also spoke to members of his group.  I had lunch with Kathrik and long-time friend Juan Alonso at the Faculty Club.  After lunch I had some more discussions including an extended tour of Ron Hanson's very impressive shock tube laboratory.  He has the education of graduate students refined to an art.  After more discussions, I gave my talk at the Center for Turbulence Research at 4:00 PM.  There was a very good crowd, including some distinguished faculty present, and I hope I provided them some food for thought.  After the talk Kathrik, Juan, and I retreated to a fine Indian restaurant in downtown Palo Alto for a feast.  Later I walked back to the motel and polished off a day's worth of emails.  To bed.

SF->Palo Alto

I got up around 8 this morning and did some more preparation for my talk.  Then I checked out of the hotel, and walked down to the Embarcadero Center, through the SF marathon, to enjoy a plate of huevos ranchero, below.

Desayuno

 Oddly the restaruante did not have jugo de naranja o cafe--solomente agua fria, so I went next door for bebidas.

I then took the Muni tram to the Caltrain station, pictured below and boarded the commuter train for Palo Alto.

Caltrain boarding platform

Caltrain station

I arrived in Palo Alto around 1:00 PM, and took a cab to the Stanford Terrace Inn.  The Inn is a little rusty these days relative to its heydays of the 1960s as an upscale motel.

I worked some more on my talk in my hotel room, and then at 3:15, I was met in the lobby by my good friend Gerry Huang.  She and her husband, NC, lived in South Bend for many years, and NC had an office next to mine.  We went to their nearby condo in Mountain View, where Gerry had prepared some treats.  I got the chance to speak with NC, who has been in poor health for many months.  Gerry drove me back to my hotel around 5:00 PM.

Around 6:00 PM, I took a long walk around the beautiful Stanford campus.  Some photos follow.

On Stanford's campus

Colonnade on Stanford's campus

Chapel on Stanford's campus

Tower housing Hoover Institution on Stanford's campus 

View from Stanford's chapel

Another collonade

 On the walk back, I found a nice snack in the graduate student housing complex.  Featured below is my Thai noodle bowl...Mmm mmm good.

Late Thai dinner

 I then returned to my hotel, featured below.

The Stanford Terrace Inn

Saturday in SF

I slept until around eight this morning, then took a walk outside my hotel, pictured below.

Harbor Court Hotel

 Here is the Bay Bridge and a rocketish sculpture near my hotel.

Bay Bridge and Rocket Replica

 I walked through the Farmers' Market near the Embarcadero Center.

Famers' Market

Embarcadero Center interior

 I then secured some fine breakfast grub inside the center:  fancy omelet pictured below.

My fancy omlete

I then caught the bus for the five mile ride to Golden Gate Park.  This was my second bus ride, and for the second time I found that the bus drivers are really excellent drivers and great with people of a wide variety of needs.  Bravo for them!  GG Park for me held the California Academy of Science's museum.  Its entrance is pictured below.

Entrance to California Academy of Science

I believe the museum opened in 2008, and I certainly have not seen it until today.  It was designed by Renzo Piano, who also did the new modern wing of the Chicago Art Institute.  The visual impact of the museum is spectacular, as one might gather from the many photos I took below.  Overall I was disappointed though.  It seems at its heart to be an "advocacy" museum, and it has a few themes that it put front and center, most focused on biodiversity and global warming.  I have some sympathy for the point of view, but believe in making the museum a big editorial for public action, the actual wonders of the science are downplayed. The museum seems to be seeking to be a major world player, but relative to New York's Museum of Natural History, Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, London's Science Museum, or Washington's Smithsonian, I think this one comes up short.  It simply excludes wide swaths of science which don't fit in well with the editorial it is presenting.  Basic physics seems to be represented only by a fine Foucault pendulum with a good docent, and a stunning planetarium with an incredible 20 minute presentation of what we know about our universe today.  Many photos of this picturesque place are below.

Rain forest

Mechanical snake

New Mexico pottery

Museum interior

"Green" roof

Aquarium

I took the MUNI tram/subway back to the Embarcadero Center, pictured below in the afternoon light.

Embarcadero Center

Here's the Bay Bridge in the afternoon.

Bay Bridge

Here's the alternate entrance to my hotel, highlighting its past as a YMCA.

Entrance to the Harbor Court Hotel

Plaque outside Harbor Court Hotel

Lobby of Harbor Court Hotel

I worked on Monday's talk for a couple hours, then walked 1.2 miles into a warehouse district to the edgy and spiffy restaurant, Orson's, at 4th and Bryant.  The walk was safe enough, but there were a variety of extra-legal business transactions likely in progress.  I met cousin Colleen (Killian) Mariotti and her husband Ryan at 6:30 PM at the restaurant. We had a fine meal--mine was Atlantic salmon over a bed of vegetables.  Corn was featured in may fashions this evening, including in the pizza and in the ice cream. C&R are pictured below along with the corn ice cream.

Colleen and Ryan and dessert

 I joined R&C in the walk to their BART train station at the Civic Center on Market Street.  Here are Colleen and I in the fringy neighborhood.

Colleen & your correspondent

I then walked back to my hotel and to bed.

Newport Beach->San Francisco

I caught the Super Shuttle this morning from my hotel to LAX.  While whistling, the driver strongly encouraged me and others to sing along with the "Journey" tune he was amplifying.  I declined.  I took a mid-morning flight to San Francisco Airport, and took the BART subway system to the Embarcadero Center stop downtown.  I then checked into my nearby hotel, the Harbor Court.  It used to be the YMCA, serving military folks. Now it is likely spiffier, with small rooms and nice decor.  I grabbed a nearby burrito for lunch.  The Iranian owner was an SIU-Carbondale Saluki, who had also attended U Illinois at Chicago.  He talked to me quite a bit about his fond memories of the Land of Lincoln.  I then went back to the hotel for about three hours and worked on my talk for Monday.

Around 6:00 PM, I set off on a long walk for an evening show I had booked.   Destination:  Fort Mason.  Distance :  3 miles.  I walked through the financial district and turned onto Columbus, pictured below.

Columbus Ave. street scene

I walked past the "City Lights" bookstore, through the randy distict, into the North Beach area, and then to Fisherman's Wharf.  From there it was a short walk to Fort Mason.  Here is a shot of the Golden Gate along with some of the old military buildings.

Golden Gate and Fort Mason

It turned out there was a festival of exotic roach coaches in the Fort Mason parking lot.  There was music and food from all over the world.  Here is a shot of the roach coach roundup, formally called the "Off the grid" festival.

Roach coach roundup

I was going to sample some Malaysian food, but the line was too long.

Malaysian Food

So I went next door and had a tasty treat from the Yucatan, picture below.  It was a chicken enchilada with some mango involved.

My Yucatan feast

The fort had a solid institutional charm.  Some of its concrete solidity is on display below.

Interior shot of Fort Mason

Nearby was a nice view of another federal institution now doing a new duty:

Alcatraz from Fort Mason

At 7:30, I entered Building D for the performance of Emmanuel Chabrier's L'Etoile.  The performers were up and coming opera students of national stature, and were very talented.  The sets were minimal, and a good pianist did the job of the orchestra.  The libretto was very late nineteenth century French operetta fare--which means totally silly.  It was charming.  Here is a shot of the stage.

Stage on which Chabrier's L'Etoile was performed in Fort Mason

After the opera was over at 10:00 PM, I hunted down a nearby city bus, which I found right away.  Unfortunately the transfer to the next line took some time.  There were lots of talkative people at the bus stop--a big Italian group and some Canadians.  And when it came, the bus was really packed full.  I got off early and took a short walk through Chinatown to my hotel--a little dicey at that time of night, but not really that bad.  To bed.

ICDERS: Day 4

Today was my last day at the conference.  Yesterday, we had a party at the beach which was nice.  Today, after my morning run, I returned to the conference for the day's talks.  I led a session in the afternoon, and was a little surprised to be given some hardware and a certificate, shown below.

Handsome certificate of merit.

Fancy medal

It turns out the medal and graphics design was done by my friend Prof. Michael McCarthy, a very good roboticist who has a side business.  We had a nice chat at the banquet.  I also was surprised to see an old friend, Prof. Atsushi Ishihara, pictured below.

Your correspondent with Prof. Atsushi Ishihara

ICDERS: Day 2

I went to the gym this morning, then to the conference.  Here is a shot of a morning lecture.

Morning lecture at ICDERS

There really is a good group of people here from all over the world, and I have known many of them for some years now.  My colleague Tariq Aslam was here today, and we had a nice lunch of fish tacos.  I went to more talks in the afternoon, and then went to dinner with a group of Canadian friends.