California: Bay Area
May 2016
Departed Miami in the wee hours California bound. I was excited to make a trip out to the GainSight Pulse Conference and ingest everything that I could to help boost our customer success efforts.
Arrived in Downtown Oakland and was really loving it. Never really spent time here so I was pleasantly surprised.
This was my first solo trip to California and the first day was to myself, so naturally had to try the California famous...
Shoot me, but it's just meh. I give them that they've been at this longer and that adds to the allure, but I'd take a Five Guys or Shake Shack over them.
Next up I explored the area around the conference and found a pretty awesome bar. They had the Heat - Raptors game on, so I took some time to enjoy my new spot.
The following day was all about the conference. It started off with...
That was a pretty fun intro to the conference, but I got a lot of great information from the rest of the sessions. I met a lot of great people, including making a great group of friends from the startup happy hour. The next night was more networking, but it was Oakland and in the middle of the NBA playoffs, so...
Day 3 of the conference had much more great info, although most of it was revolving around the actual Gainsight product which we aren't using, so I had some great time to chat with other attendees. It did lead me to an awesome cone though
The final day was for Gainsight users only, so I was done. Spent the afternoon finishing up some tasks from work and then it was off to the Bolinas and the Marin Headlands.
Came across some wild turkeys near Mt. Tamalpais
I then swerved on down the mountain road to Stinson Beach.
And finally to my AirBnB in Bolinas
It was a pretty awesome place to relax for 2 nights with that garden right out my window.
After finishing up some emails, I walked around Bolinas at sunset.
I saw some deer as well.
I then headed into town for some dinner, but had to stop to get a pic of this great sign.
Next day I was off for Point Reyes. Hiked up to the light house.
But it was too cloudy to see the humpback migration happening off shore, so I had to settle for some seal pups.
And some of their kin fighting.
I then made my way back to Bolinas and another awesome hiking trail, Alamere Falls
The next day I was off to San Francisco to catch my flight, but first made a stop at Muir Woods
Hey, it's really hard to get a good selfie of you hugging a tree when no one else is around. It was the best I could do.
Also stopped off at the Marin Headlands with some great views of San Francisco
Back in San Francisco, I met up with my friend Nicole, who had recommended the Alamere Falls hike.
Had some great 21st Amendment beer in Dolores Park.
It was a great trip and can't wait to make it back to California soon!