With only two weeks to go in the trip, you'd think events would be winding down a bit. But as soon as we returned from Hawaii, we embarked on the busiest week of the entire tour: 9 events in just 7 days! All in the Bay Area.
With only two weeks to go in the trip, you'd think events would be winding down a bit. But as soon as we returned from Hawaii, we embarked on the busiest week of the entire tour: 9 events in just 7 days! All in the Bay Area.
Saturday: Here's a shot of the beautifully restored Pier where my appearance on West Coast Live was broadcast from, in a neat room, overlooking the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Speaking of which...
Next it was just a bit north to Santa Rosa and our Q and A at the Charles M. Schulz Museum. Here's the gang with none other than Jeannie Schulz who very generously took time to show us around this wonderful museum and colorful nearby offices.
Back to SF and our hotel on Fisherman's Wharf. Neither kid wanted fish, so Ivy and I got permission to sneak out and have dinner on our own (a rarity this year, as you might guess).
Sunday: San Francisco's Asian Art Museum had a marvelous Tezuka exhibit while we were in town, so naturally we couldn't miss that. When we first walked in the front entrance I noticed a familiar piece of comics art hanging up. "Hey, that's Jason Shiga's 'Meanwhile'!," I said. Then I looked down. "Hey, that's Shiga!" Apparently, Mr. S was the artist in residence. Yay for serendipity. We had a nice chat, then off to the exhibit.
After that, we rushed off to our Q and A at Rory Root's mind-bogglingly wonderful Comic Relief in it's new even bigger location!
Among the encounters that day, and joining us for dinner that night, were our old friends Ricky and Alyson (either side of Ivy) and the great Erik Drooker (right) -- Oh, and Rory in the hat, of course. Erik was one of the top artists-I-have-not-met so it was a real treat for me and we had some great, far-ranging discussions that night.
Monday: After my solo morning trip to eBay for a lecture (not pictured, 'cause. yknow...), we stopped by the fascinating Winchester Mystery House.
Our guide was first-rate. I love this picture 'cause everybody but the guide looks lobotomized!
Then, that night, we hit Hijinx Comics, courtesy of owner Dan Shahin (above). Hijinx isn't a huge store like Rory's but it has an excellent selection, and a truckload of people joined us for great evening of fun, food and stimulating conversations (Dan -- much like nearby Google -- is very smart and serves great food).
Tuesday: Here, Sky and I listen to our introduction at Adobe (Sky didn't do her talk at eBay, but did do get to present at both Adobe and Google). Again, not too many pictures cause it didn't seem appropriate and we were having too much fun meeting with various software people there. Suffice it to say, though, that we had a great time -- and scored exactly the software we needed. Thanks, Adobe!
Wednesday: Checking out The Exploratorium!
Ivy and the kids had been there a few times before, but it was my first. Great place!
That night was a panel discussion at The Commonwealth Club with Rory Root, hosted by Andrew Farago. Great panel, but as the evening wore on, I started coming down with something. We managed to finish up the after-event signing, but not without a few trips to the bathroom to throw up. :-(
Fortunately, I seemed to get over it by the next day.
Thursday: We saw Ivy's old friend Gary and his kids at The Precidio -- and I finally got to see Stardust! (Ivy and Sky already had) which I loved to pieces. Again, no pix of Gary and the kids. Sorry! I suck.
Quite probably the best Q and A of the entire tour was our Thursday night at The Cartoon Art Museum. Shaenon Garrity asked smart, pointed questions and the audience rose to the challenge as well.
Here's our after-event trip to get milkshakes at Mel's Diner, where our hosts, Shaenon and Andrew (back row, second and third from right) and we were joined by Mario Hernandez, Rebecka Wright and daughter Eva (around Sky) and their friend (left) whose name escapes me (sorry!); Derek Kirk Kim and Elena (right) and Michael Johnson of Pixar and beyond... (second from left).
Friday: And finally, here's a shot of the audience gathering for our talk at Google. Both Sky and I presented. It was our very last lecture of the tour and we couldn't have asked for a warmer reception -- or better food! -- than we received at the famous Googleplex. A perfect finish for our year of lectures on the road, as well as our Northern California adventure.