I was invited to the Portland Juggling Festival. Cool, eh? You may expect loads of photos of other jugglers, and photos from the gym, and loads of photos from the main shows. But no, I was super busy hanging out, teaching workshops, getting stuff sorted for the gala show, and generally being a special guest at the convention. Also I forgot to put the battery in my camera on the Friday of the convention.
So instead of photos from the convention, I’ve only holiday snaps to share on my blog. I made the trip into a two week vacation (it’s in America, so vacation not holiday), and generally carried my camera with me to capture images and memories. I’ll share these photos in two blog posts, this one my time in Portland and San Francisco, and the following blog post will have all the photos from my Yosemite trip.
Sunrise in Berlin as I reached the airport.
San Francisco skyline from a distant hill.
I walked up the hill with Christine, a friend I’ve not seen since 2004!
In Portland, I took a long bike trip. I didn’t take so many photos as I do when walking, as my camera is never right in my hand, but if I see something worth stopping for, I will. I actually went out of my way to visit Burrage Avenue. Did I spot it on a map? Nope! Google knew I was going to Portland, I guess, and flagged up a mention of this road via a Google Alert a few days before I left on the trip. Like Eric Schmidt says “We know Google is working when it gives you information you need before you ask for it.” In this case, that’s exactly what happened.
The view from the bridge to Washington.
One aisle of the science fiction and fantasy section of Powell’s Books, the worlds largest independent bookshop in the world. It’s an impressive place!
My only photo from the Portland Juggling Festival. It shows part of the charity tshirt auction.
Rob at the Multnomah Falls.
Thom, Curt, Rob and me in front of a waterfall.
The second highest all-season waterfall in the United States. Sounds impressive? It would have been the most amazing waterfall on the entire trip, except for every single waterfall in Yosemite Valley.
A romantic place.
Smile for the camera!
Thom looking out on the end of the Oregon Trail.
Don’t jump, Robert!
Downtown San Francisco.
Pier 39.
Sea lions at Pier 39.
Sea lions and Alcatraz.
I took a trip out into the bay on a catamaran.
Alcatraz and a tourist boat. There were so many people on the sight seeing boat that when they all went to one side to look at Alcatraz, the boat tipped to starboard quite visibly. How many people on the catamaran? Five.
The Rock.
We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. At the same time a helicopter flew under the bridge too, but I didn’t get a photo.
I have a GPS tracker for geotagging my photos. Here’s the route we took.
Checking for dolphins. They were all over the place, and followed the catamaran for a while. I only got very bad and blurry photos.
The cat and the rock.
Test shot for an “international juggler video” clip.
Windingest road in SF.
Cable cars!
I had to give this a go. A jumped on without paying.
Inside a dome. I think this was a shopping center. I don’t remember now.
Brian, my host at the Vulcan, where I stayed for three nights in total. The Vulcan is a massive collection of artist and circus studio apartments, and is always full of interesting people doing interesting things.
Bri, my other host at the Vulcan.
A courtyard at the Vulcan.
I took a bike ride on Saturday and, as planned (though I’d forgotten why I’d planned to take the bike ride on Saturday), I bumped into the San Francisco air show.
The service plane for the Blue Angels.
These guys are nutters.
Whoosh!
To the bridge!
Test shot for an “international juggler video” clip.
The other side of the bridge.
Borderlands, a science fiction and fantasy bookshop in the Mission District. Great for nerding out!
So that’s all for what I got up to in the cities. I had a lot of fun, though these photos only sum up a small part of it.