Weekend at last ! Second and last weekend of the business portion of the trip is upon me.

First order of business was the acquisition of a new lens. Canon have a new IS (Image Stabilised) lens which appears to be explicitly for their digital SLRs. A 55-250mm f4-5.6. Having been used to the 70-300mm F4-5.6 which I got with the camera originally, and also had on the previous chemical EOS I had I was a little loath to reduce my range option. But, the new beast is quite a bit cheaper, ~$300 against the ~$550 for the IS version of the 70-300mm. In taking slight reduction I can put the saving toward an IS version of the base lens that came with the camera, an 18-55mm. This would then give me IS across the range. Then the only remaining temptation is going to be a second body so I don’t have to keep exposing the inner face each change. There’s a new 12Mpixel Canon but for some reason they’ve switched it to SD cards rather than CF. I don’t see the point really, since I want as fast as possible a card especially as image size increases and the SD only go to 150x whereas I can get 305x CF.

Anyway, off to SF I head to get a trip around the bay, doing the tourist and taking pics of anything that moves and doesn’t.

Under the Golden Gate bridge, a loop around Alcatraz, and then under the Oakland bridge. Much experimenting with the new lens. It seems to be very effective in keeping a steady spot, but the effects of a boat bouncing around on the swell coming in from the Pacific is enough to make the framing you thought you had obsolete before you realise. Multiple attempts seems to be the order of the day. The only downside appears to be how quickly I can get through the storage. Shooting in raw mode I manage to fill 4GB of storage just on the boat trip.

After off-loading everything to the Air in the car I contacted my work colleague Xixi who works from her home in SF. A few attempts at a rendezvous point later I head out to 18th & Judah, pausing to enjoy the delights of a traffic jam and detour due to an accident, Digital Doris grudgingly recalculating my route. On a windy corner I finally met the person I’ve had dealings with for 3 years, and work directly with for a single year.

We leap into my dubiously parked car (I have not unravelled the nuances of kerb markings) and head to the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park.

A very pleasant few hours spent in Xixi’s company, getting to know some of each other’s history and exchanging the usual comparisons and views on of worlds and experiences.

A further hour chatting in a coffee shop and we go our separate ways. I head back to Mountain View and contemplate what flavour I fancy for dinner.

A very gentle stroll from the motel to Castro St (my feet aren’t used to all this walking) and I decide to try one of the cursed corner restaurants. On the intersection of Castro & California there are two corner plots that seem to be cursed for businesses. One corner is still closed, the only obvious steak-house as was. The other is a ‘world cuisine’ establishment called Castro Point. As is usual I couldn’t tell you the nuances of the food (me no restaurant critic, I just know what’s good), but a calimari starter followed by a nice 10oz rib-eye steak with a fancy porcini & pepper topping. All accompanied with a nice Italian Spanish tempranillo wine. Despite being in the region I still can’t convince myself to try Californian wines. Despite the not entirely cheap prices I get the feeling this one won’t be here next time I visit. A lot of staff, and what would appear to be an approach that favours only one sitting of an evening together with a cuisine doesn’t justify any higher prices I don’t see how they can last. Which is a shame, but I’m sure there’ll be something else to try instead.

Now, what to do tomorrow.