JavaOne 2006 - Day 0: Pre Conference

A little late, but better later than never. I’ve had some problems getting a wireless connection. The hotel I’m staying in houses so many Java geeks this week that the maximum amount of wireless connections is easily reached. I guess the same thing goes for the free wireless network available in the Moscone Center. There are so many people with laptops and connected devices that getting a connection is a tough job.

Anyway, here is some of the pre conference experiences that I had during the first two days in San Francisco.

Mainly, I’ve been showing Paul, my coworker, around, as this is his first trip to San Francisco. I’ve been there over half a dozen times now and the city is simply great.

Being in America is something to get used to. Although it felt like home pretty soon. What I’m trying to say here is that waking up on Sunday morning with the local news station reporting about a new ‘disease’ called ‘tanorexia‘ is a funny experience.

Ok, off with the more serious stuff…a large part of the Sunday was claimed by the NL-JUG social events organized in San Francisco. We went to visit the premium baseball game SF Giants vs. LA Dodgers. Unfortunately the Giants lost the game, but it was an exciting game though! Too bad Barry Bonds didn’t hit the historical homerun in this game. Would have loved being there when that happened. Later that day we went to a very nice restaurant called Azie and had a great meal there, together with over 30 fellow Dutch JavaOne visitors. Even Onno Kluyt showed up!

On Monday, Paul and I decided to free our minds and go for a serious biking and hiking trip. Too bad the fog ruined our views from the Golden Gate Bridge, but still great fun! The good old physical workout that made me sleep very well that night. In shape for the conference!

Ah…almost forgot to tell you that we were almost lured into the Scientology Church on our way back to the hotel 😉

And…those Lori’s Diner coupons that Klaasjan got us (25% off) are great !! People at Lori’s will probably wonder why all those people with coupons show up.