Not Built in a Day

Last month, J and I decided to "test drive" living in San Francisco.  It's something I've been thinking about for a long time, since my urban-dweller tendencies have not exactly meshed well with living in suburban Mountain View.  But since both of us work in the Peninsula / Silicon Valley, we would both have to commute south (by car, bus, or train) every weekday.  So it's not a move to be taken lightly.  We're looking at somewhere around 15 to 20 hours/week of commuting time for each of us.  But we both find that our leisure activities pull us northward on a regular basis, so it seemed reasonable to figure out if we'd actually enjoy living in the city. We're calling this test period "The Experiment." We first tried renting a furnished apartment for a month in the Mission, but nothing looked that good, and after checking out the bike route to the train station -- involving biking up hills, under highways, and through lots and lots of stop...

I've been to DC several times -- I think at least four times before -- but most of these trips have been relatively short, and there are still many sites I haven't been able to visit.  So when I had the opportunity to travel to DC for a friend's wedding last month, and the chance to visit with old friends too, I packed my bag and headed east. The DC Metro, winner of the AIA's 25-Year Award (Speaking of bags - I recently purchased a Timbuk2 "Wingman" duffel , which converts between a duffel, messenger bag, and backpack, and have really enjoyed the hands-free travel experience.  If, like me, you don't enjoy dragging a wheeled carry-on behind you between airport gates, onto the metro, and through train cars, then I recommend checking out their line of convertible bags.  The backpack straps zip away into their own compartment if you want to check the bag or just get them out of the way, but the straps are reasonably comfortable on your back even wh...