Apple HQ, Vienna Teng, & TWiT 

In May, 2010, I traveled to northern California to see Vienna Teng in concert.  I also took the opportunity to briefly visit Apple Headquarters in Cupertino (a.k.a. the "Mothership) and to drop in on Leo Laporte at the TWiT Cottage in Petaluma.

The airplane had GPS, so when I was over Wyoming (my future home), I snapped some photos. First, here's the GPS screen: 

And here's the view out of the airplane's window at my retirement neighborhood: 

So after I arrived in California, I visited Apple Headquarters in Cupertino.  It was fun to be at the place "where it all happens." 

I was also able to catch a performance of Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the Santa Clara Chorale at Mission Santa Clara.  Great job, Josephine!  

The trip also involved five Vienna Teng/Alex Wong concerts. If you've never seen Ms. Teng in concert, it's something you really have to do.  It's become more difficult to see a show right now, because she is currently a student at the University of Michigan, seeking a jointMS/MBA degree.  

During this trip I was able to meet up with many of the west coast fans, including Josephine, Scot, Julianne, Shana, Michele, Erik H., Eric C., Bob, Calvin, Noreen, Chris, and many more.  It was really great to meet all these wonderful people.  Here are some photos from the shows (I didn't take many pictures, and none of the performances... boo). More photos from the trip can be found here.  A little video I made, involving cake, can be found here. 

Julianne had done a painting, and presented it to Vienna.  A story in comic-book form about the painting was created by Josephine's sister and can be found here.  It's really neat. 

Michele had a photo taken of the whole group, and someone said it looked like a school picture, so I played around with it: 

A bigger version of it is here. 

On my last day in California, I visited the TWiT Cottage in Petaluma, where Leo Laporte was hosting "MacBreak Weekly" (Episode 195), a netcast all about Apple products.  It was very interesting to see how he puts the show together, and I sat immediately to his right during the broadcast.  In fact, Leo mentioned my name during the show (at 52:45 in case you're interested) - that was a nice geek-out moment for me.  Leo had an all-star cast, including internationally-beloved tech pundit Andy Ihnatko, Macworld senior editor Chris Breen, and Merlin Mann, the guru of 43 Folders.  Alex Lindsay, who is usually in the studio, was in Africa.  It was a really good show, too - they mostly discussed the iPad, which I was holding in my hands (and which had made the cross-country trip with me).  After the show, Leo posed for a picture with me: 

All in all, it was a very nice trip.  I came down with flu-like symptoms on my second day in San Francisco, and that put a damper on things.  I tried to do as much as I could, but I was sick as a dog and had no voice!  I can't wait to go back out to California.