アメリカ出たときの写真。。。
My flight on Tuesday was at 1pm, but I needed to get there early and return the rental car. So I left Lumberchu's place around 10 and headed for the city via the Bay Bridge (the one I took so many pictures of the two days before). This is actually two bridges combined. The first one goes to an island 1/2 way across the bay, then there is a tunnel through the island connecting to the 2nd bridge. I decided to get off at the island and stop and take a few pictures (because I love to take bridge pictures).
I went to
Treasure Island, which is a manmade island that connects to Yuerba Bueana island. It was made for the 1939 World's Fair, but turned into a Navy base during WWII. Now it is open to the public and there are houses and offices there.
It gives another good view of the Suspension bridge part of the Bay Bridge (its actually two suspension bridges connected together).
You can also see the other half of the bridge (which is not nearly as attractive!). This part is being replaced. You can see the new part on the left side being build next to the original part. Its being replaced because its not safe for big earthquakes.
In 1989 there was a big quake in San Francisco and one part of this half of the bridge broke!
The view of the downtown of San Francisco is great too, unfortunately it was cold and foggy, so you could't see everything.
Out in the bay you can also see Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz is very famous, there used to be a prison there for very dangerous criminals. They said it was impossible to escape from there, since you have to swim to get away even if you can escape from the cell. But in 1964 some guys did escape. They closed it after that.
Now it is a museum and park. Its the most popular tourist destination in San Francisco.
I tried to take a self portrait. Not so good. :-P
The scenery is better without me in it.
So I got back in my rental car and drove across the other half
I managed to get a bad picture of
Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Its another popular tourist destination.
Anyway, I hurried to the airport, filled up the tank, returned the rental car, jumped on my plane and 10 hours later I got to Nagoya airport. On my way to the US I was not impressed w/ the lack of accomodations for laptop users, but this time around i was impressed by this:
They have a skydeck open to the public affording some nice views of the planes and runway.
This Cathay Pacific flight was taking off, unfortunately because of the sun, I couldn't see my LCD screen so well and my aim was a little off. :-P
But it was cool to watch such a big object leave the ground and take flight from relatively close distance.
It didn't seem to be going fast enough and next thing you know the nose lifts up and it takes off.
directly above the Continental flight was the United 777 that I took over from SF.
Last but not least, they had a really nice Formula 1 car on display.
