@tommoors

Things I can't say in 140 characters

Day 7: San Simeon – San Francisco

On the last day of my roadtrip I planned to travel the scenic Highway 1 from San Simeon to Carmel and then change to the shorter Highway 101 to arrive in San Francisco in the afternoon. It was great to drive this highway between San Simeon and Carmel – the best recommendation I could get! At every turn of the road you see a new kind of beauty, places that would be great on postcards. On a next visit, I will definitely take a whole day for this stage, that would allow me to visit Big Sur and Carmel.  In the afternoon I met a colleague and his girlfriend to spent some time together in SF – no better way to end this roadtrip 🙂

Read More »

Day 6: Los Angeles – San Simeon

This day must be one of the warmest days, I read 38 degrees Celsius on multiple signs! Days are flying so fast – time to take a trip to Venice beach, Santa Monica Pier and get going to San Simeon where my next hotel is waiting for me!

Read More »

Day 5: Vegas to LA

I had spent a respectable of time in the casino, so the alarm clock was set for 10am. Just enough time to enjoy a nice shower in my 4 star room and morning view on the strip (meh). I got a voucher for breakfast but the line was so long I decided to skip it and go immediately to the premium shopping area! Nothing exciting to tell about however: I went looking for some running gear and found some useful things.. And things I probably didn’t need. I do love the American shopping experience: they measured my body to find the shirt that really fitted me. They even fetched other sizes and colors while I stayed in the fitting rooms, awesome service! In the evening,

Read More »

Day 4: Viva Las Vegas!

This day I drove for hours to reach the greatest destination of the whole desert: Las Vegas! I arrived at dawn, in a city that was already full of lights, action and energy. I’m staying in Paris Las Vegas, very easy to recognize my hotel 🙂 Also a large one, I got a room on the 29th floor, with a view on the Bellagio fountains! That night I ate my burger and had a great chat with a local, walked across so many bombastic hotels and wagered a bet in the Paris Casino – and lost of course 🙂

Read More »

Day 3: Yosemite

Sleeping without waking up in the middle of the night is not yet possible (thank you jetlag!), so the initial plan of waking at 7 and departing at 8 changed a bit 🙂 At 8 I was enjoying the continental breakfast so I hit the road a bit later. Since I followed the advice from the receptionist, I was taking the longer route to have the scenic tunnel view and to see the sequoias in Mariposa Grove – a truly great tip! I started the 4 mile trail in the afternoon instead of the morning. At the trailhead, people warned me of heavy wind above and of the clouds that where approaching. I started the trail anyway, making very good progress as well. I enjoyed

Read More »

Day 2: Silicon Valley – Mariposa

What a great day to have a jet lag! I woke up around 4am, my body determined not to sleep at all.. ideal for checking some mails and fixing some stuff! At around 6.30am I went to the fitness to continue my preparation for the Corrida run the end of December. Thanks biorythm, just after I had began my workout other guests were arriving as well and the small gym was completely full. After a checkout I decided to go for a Starbucks for real breakfast – but I found Noah next to it.Unfortunately there was a long queue (food must be that good, right?) and afterwards a problem with my order registration. The owner wanted to apologise so he was basically giving me a free

Read More »

Day 1: BRU > LHR > SFO

Thanks to my employer, ACA IT-Solutions, I will be attending Atlassian Summit in San Francisco from October 1st till October 3rd. I decided to leave a week early and to do a small roadtrip to discover California, the Golden State. Today I took the British Airways plane from Brussels to London and from London to San Francisco. After more than 12 hours flying, 4 hours queuing, checking and being checked I was finally able to see the sun setting on San Francisco Airport! Some pictures to show the wicked life on a plane: Rental car When I arrived at the airport I had to pick up my rental car at Avis. After taking the blue monorail until the end, the Avis desk was easy to

Read More »

Atlassian User Group 6 Brussels

Thursday the 12th of September, we held another Atlassian User Group Belgium meetup in Brussels – thanks BRIC (http://www.bric.irisnet.be) for hosting the 30-something of us! This time we had the honor to welcome the Git Evangelist from Atlassian, Nicola Paolucci (@durdn) who gave us a great presentation on how to use Git in a real life environment. If you want to relive the whole experience, check out the recording of a webinar he held a few weeks before the ABUG. I gave a small introduction and an update on the product changes of Atlassian since June, my slides are available on Slideshare – or after the break.

Read More »