Posted in Ausflüge on 12/08/2009 01:08 am by script
Last weekend was really amazing. We got to meet a guy who works at Apple at a party and he let us drive his 2008 M3 around the block … oh boy. This beast has amazing 420 PS under the hood, cranks up to 8300 RPM and is just a very scaaaaary machine on wheels with a rollercoaster-like acceleration
And as this is not yet enough car for one weekend, I was allowed to take the office’s BMW 750Li home till Monday. This is such an amazing car that it’s really hard to put into words. Here’s just some of the things this >100.000$ car features:
408 PS, 8 cylinder engine
Jumps from 0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds, pretty impressive for 2 tons weight and a length of more than 5 meters
Nightvision (senses the heat radiation of people)
Adaptive Cruise Control (the car brakes and accelerates for you)
DVD Player with screens for the backseats
Massage seats
Variable suspension ranging from “Comfort” to “Sport +”
Because such a car should not stand still, we took it all the way to Redwood National Park where the famous Redwood trees grow. The northern Californian landscape is really amazing and so different from the central coast or southern California. It was quite chilly way up there and it was even snowing eventually but it’s one of the prettiest places in California for sure.
Posted in Ausflüge on 12/01/2009 01:32 am by script
Last week was Thanksgiving and we had two days off so that we (four interns) could do a very nice roadtrip to the Grand Canyon.
We left early Thursday morning and arrived in the afternoon after approx. 800 miles at the Grand Canyon Village where we stayed two days in total.
On the morning of the second day we hiked a bit of the canyon which was very impressive. Unfortunately we couldn’t walk very far because Michael (not me) injured his foot.
The second morning we left early for Page, Arizona where we visited the Horseshoe Band and Antelope Canyon. The tour was guided by a native American and we could take a lot of impressive photos.
On Sunday morning we drove from Page to Las Vegas where we visited the famous Hoover Dam and had our first encounter with the cops (but luckily not for speeding but because of rather loud and bad music ..). Fortunately they were quite nice and did not cause us any trouble
Posted in Palo Alto on 11/22/2009 06:08 pm by script
Wikipedia has the following to say on Tailgate Parties which describes it very well:
In the United States, a tailgate party is a social event held on and around the open tailgate of a vehicle. Tailgating often involves consuming beverages and grilling food. Tailgate parties usually occur in the parking lots at stadiums and arenas before, and occasionally after or during, sporting events and rock concerts.
We were tailgating at the Stanford stadium when they were playing football against Cal (UC Berkeley). It was a really awesome experience, but you should not do it if you really want to watch the game
Posted in Ausflüge on 11/08/2009 07:36 pm by script
Today I spent a wonderful day at Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco in Marin County. I hiked some of the longer trails and saw the giant Redwood trees. Some of them are hollow inside because of fires but still alive (see one of the pictures from inside). The last picture shows San Francisco as seen from the Dipsea Trail. And if you are wondering what’s on the cracker – that’s Mount Tamalpais
Posted in San Francisco on 11/08/2009 12:39 pm by script
Yesterday, I had breakfast, lunch and dinner at a Pre-Thanksgiving Party at Fort Mason, San Francisco. Pamela, the wife of a co-worker at the office was so kind to take me there, Thank you!
Because most people leave to see their families on Thanksgiving, they sometimes do a party in advance. There was a lot of food there – 10 turkeys, a lot of stuffing, dessert and also “Turducken” (a turkey stuffed with a duck which is stuffed with a chicken …).
Posted in Ausflüge on 11/01/2009 08:59 pm by script
I spent Halloween weekend in Las Vegas with some friends. The flight was quite cheap ($83.20), but thanks to Southwest Airlines a lot of fun (the whole crew seems to like Halloween a lot ..).
Regarding Vegas itself, it is the most ugly city I have visited so far during my stay in the US. Just everything seems to be about gambling (starting with the slot machines at the arriving gate at the airport) and blowing out money, energy or water. Definitely not a place I want to stay more than a couple of hours. Anyways, you can find some pictures below (photos with people only upon request, because “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” ) – btw. the last photo shows Seth’s pumpkin with the Mini-stencil I brought him from the office. Well done!
Heute musster ich leider meinen silbernen BMW zurueckgeben, da ich damit schon ueber 7000 Meilen durch Kalifornien geschrubbt bin. Die Grenze fuer die Leasingautos liegt bei 8000 Meilen, so dass ich heute einen neuen bekommen habe Ist quasi das gleiche Modell, allerdings in “Space Gray Metallic” mit schwarzem Leder innen. Ein paar Komfort-Extras sind leider weggefallen, aber dafuer habe ich innen sehr schicke Aluminiumleisten statt dem komischen Holzdekor
Posted in Ausflüge on 10/20/2009 08:17 pm by script
Den vierten Morgen wollten wir eigentlich mit einem Sonnenaufgang ueber dem Meer beginnnen … leider haben wir den Kampf gegen den Schlaf und anschliessend die Uhr verloren Aus diesem Grund gibt es nur ein Bild vom Sonnenaufgang ueber den Bergen zu sehen.
Dannach ging es dafuer umso spanndender weiter, denn wir hatten gelesen, dass es ein Stueck Regenwald auf Oahu gibt und haben uns mit unserem Offroad-tauglichen Untersatz auf die Suche gemacht. Die Strasse war dann zwar leider geteert und schliesslich abgesperrt, aber auch zu Fuss konnten wir den Regenwald gut erkunden.
Die Geruchs- und Gerauschkullisse war beeindruckend, fast wie von der Vogelstimmen-CD Ihr glaubt uebrigens garnicht wie dunkel es unter den riesigen Baeumen war … man konnte teilweise kaum noch schoene Bilder machen – die besten, und die mit der meisten Action (ja, die Liane war echt!) wollen wir euch jedoch nicht vorbehalten!
Aus diesem Grund gibt es nur ein Bild vom Sonnenaufgang ueber den Bergen zu sehen.
