Wow, what a trip I just had! 12 days away from Philly with my roommate. I am exhausted but it was so much fun! Until January I didn't know what my big trip for this year was going to be. But once it was announced that Botcon, a major Transformers convention, would be returning to Pasadena for what seems like the 32nd time, the choice became very clear. To get out there, my roommate and I took Virgin America airlines to San Francisco via a connection in Los Angeles. And for the return flight, we took Virgin America straight from LA to Philly. Do you know what that means? We got to watch this nifty safety video three times!

Getting from SFO to our hotel room in Oakland turned out to be an exercise in patience. We got on a Super Shuttle with several other passengers and we had to endure rush hour traffic in downtown San Fran and several deviations to drop off all the other guests. The most amazing moment was crossing the venerable San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridge. By looking back we were treated to a stunning view of the SF skyline. I was also surprised by how far along demolition of the original eastern span is. Brand new twin side by side bridges have replaced the original cantilever double decker. By the time we finally made it out to the Nimitz Freeway, we were the last two remaining passengers. At that point we called it a night. To be continued...