Santa Monica - The Whole City - Is A Free Wifi Zone

We went to Wise and Healthy Aging, a Santa Monica non-profit that acts as a reference for older folks who want to stay in their own homes as independently as possible.  We wanted to see all the options available to my mom.  There are lots of options and we're still going through all the materials to see if we can make things work for her.

But afterward I asked if they had wi-fi - so we could see if there was a movie nearby we wanted to see - and she said, "Yes.  All of Santa Monica is free municipal wi-fi zone." 

I'd heard about that idea, but I've never experienced it before.  Anyone with a lap top or an i-pod touch or similar device that can connect to the internet with wifi is connected, without having to have a smart phone. 

As we walked over to the Santa Monica Promenade - 3rd Avenue is blocked off from cars for four or five blocks -  we passed this bike center which was part of a large parking garage.  They don't just have a few bike racks, they have a whole space for bikes.

The LA Times had a piece not too long ago about all that Santa Monica is doing to encourage people to get out of their cars and onto their bikes.  Given so much flat land and good weather, Santa Monica is a perfect place to bike.




We stopped in the REI and found these electric bikes.  (Is this the first step from car to bike?  Or is this to entice people with bikes to start moving toward a motor?)

The batteries are on the bike racks over the rear tires.  I'd like to think these are just batteries on the bikes that get charged by your biking and you can use for small appliances like your computer at home.  But I think that's probably just wishful thinking.

That morning I'd seen this guy who was using his bike as many Asians have in the past.  I remember people carrying everything - even beds - on their bikes in China.  

This is Venice, not as upscale as Santa Monica.  When I asked if I could take a picture he dug into the 'trunk' and got out his pet pigeon to be in the picture.  It's sitting on the red object.

Before we got to the movie, we passed the Apple store.  It used to be on the other side of the street.  Now it looks like an airplane hanger with dozens and dozens of small tables with iPads and iPad minis. 

I standing across the pedestrian only street so I could get the whole thing in the picture.  I like the idea of the street being car free, but on the downside, it's nothing more than an outdoor shopping mall.  Big name stores you could now find in any city around the world. 

We saw Zero Dark Thirty.  As a movie, it worked for me.  I know there's some controversy over the idea that it promotes the idea that torture gets people talking.  I know movies like this one can have a big impact on how people understand current events.  But I doubt this movie will change people's minds either way on this topic.  Even if one bought the premise that torture worked, it was clear that it is also inhumane.  It shows how it damages not only the person tortured but the person doing the torture.   I thought it was just a good movie. 

80s to Teens - LA to Anchorage

Sunday was in the 80s, even at Venice beach.  In this picture it was almost 5pm and was still warm with a lot of people on the beach - some even going into the chilly (55˚F -14˚C) ocean.

People were paying $9 to park their cars at 5pm to see the sunset.  The traffic was backed up for blocks.  The sort of situation when those of us on bikes feel a little smug.  The picture is from the Venice Beach parking lot at the end of Rose right at the Venice Boardwalk.  You can see the shadows are getting long as the sun is getting low.

In addition to the traffic, the gas prices were high.  (We saw $4.09 as we drove home from the airport in Anchorage.) I took this picture from the bus stop Monday (still warm but with clouds) as we waited for the afternoon bus to the airport.  (Yes, you can take the bus, but apparently you can't walk into the LA airport.)

And while there is free wifi in the Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco airports, I couldn't find it in LAX.

Lincoln and Rose

When we got to the airport, the good news was that we had been bumped up into first class.  I mentioned when we went down to LA that we had flown so much last year that we got MVP cards.  This MVP card has more benefits than I realized.  I didn't do anything, they just changed our seats. It also gets us on the plane earlier and gets us into a shorter security line. I'm not a hierarchical person - I don't like it when people are given status that suggests some people are better than others - because most such divisions tend to be superficial or even bogus.  And I don't see why people who have more money or fly more should get to cut in the security line.  Security is required by the US government and money shouldn't give you privilege for required government functions.  But that's a post of its own one day, maybe. 

On the connecting flight to Anchorage they put us in the exit row so we had lots of leg room.  And we checked in some baggage which we don't normally do.   But our 10:20 pm flight left about 40 minutes late and when you're due in at 1am, that gets to be a long day.  Then when we arrived we had to wait for a plane to be de-iced before we could get to the terminal.  Here we are sitting, waiting for 10 minutes, with a bit of snow still coming down. 

One reason we've checked in baggage - other than we were gone 5 weeks and had 2 bags each free check in with the MVP (and as others mentioned last time with the Alaska Club that any Alaskan can join free), is Alaska's 20 minute baggage guarantee. In the past we've waited for an hour for our luggage. Well, it was clearly more than 20 minutes this morning - and it was now 2:30am Anchorage time, 3:30am Pacific time - so I asked the baggage folks and they gave me the coupon for $20 off our next flight (or 2000 miles) that they offer if your baggage is over 20 minutes in coming.  While they apologized over the loudspeakers about the slow luggage, they didn't tell people to come get their coupons.  It does pay to read. 

Then there were no taxis outside.  Another 10 minutes until enough showed up to handle everyone.  And we were home at 3am or so. 

I've got a lunch meeting today, the garage door wasn't working when we got home, and the internet wasn't either. (The Internet I've obviously solved.)  So we have lots of catch up to do after our long absence.  Now I've got to shovel the driveway.  But yes, it's good to be home.

SFO Free Wifi, Air Museum, Coffee Cups

We got to the airport early yesterday and had time to get some walking in and explore.  There's an air museum with bits of air history like these models.

They caught my attention because friends I met live on Treasure Island - linked by the Bay Bridge - and they said the old PanAm clippers flew from the bay on Treasure Island.

Elsewhere there were displays of all sorts of things, but these old airline serving sets brought home how bad airline service has gotten. 

Only the top photo cups were used in coach class, but still, that's better than a paper cup and maybe some crunchy synfood.

double click to enlarge

And I was pleasantly surprised that I could get free wifi - well, the cost was 30 seconds filling out a survey (there were other choices like looking at ads) - and they had these nice computer desks right at the gate and lots of easy to find outlets. 

And while on the subject of airport changes I noticed in Portland and then again at American in LA a new seating configuration which I liked.  Seats were jumbled up a bit instead of straight rows.

Delta to Pathways - Juneau to Anchorage

The last two days I've been at the DELTA meeting. I could never remember what DELTA stood for because the acronym didn't really match the words. Apparently everyone else had the same trouble and now it is called Pathways. That's good. This group has developed a statewide plan for Intimate Partner Violence Prevention. I've blogged about it before.


I'll just put a couple pictures up now since I'm in the airport getting ready to return from Juneau to Anchorage. I'm really, really ready to be home and see my wife again. It's been a little over three weeks. Anyway, here are some shots and I'll talk more about what we did later.

 These photos are from yesterday.

We went around the room and people talked about things they had accomplished that related to the goals of Pathways.  They were then stuck up on the wall in random order.

Then we tried to figure out where they fit with the goals (On the white papers).  A number fit several goals.

And here things are all sorted out, or at least a lot better than at first.

My brief comment at this moment is to say that I was pleased to see that a lot of progress has been made.  Though there is still a lot to do.


I better post this quick before I have to board.  As you can tell, there is still free wifi in the Juneau airport.

Seatac Free Wifi

The sky was blue, the sun was warm, I biked back down to the beach to say good bye.  And now I'm in Seatac (Seattle Tacoma airport) waiting to go on to Anchorage. Last time I tried to get wifi in Seatac you had to pay for it.  But I'd heard that there was now free wifi in Seatac, and there is. 

I try to post about the availability in different airports (now that I think about it, I didn't even try in LA), but remember that things change and check the date. 

They also don't have very many television sets in here so you can sit and relax without the news blasting out at you.  Anchorage Airport - are you listening?  Turn down those tv's.   Better yet, get rid of them. 

LA - SLC - Anchorage

We biked down to Venice Beach to get in a bit of beach time before leaving.  The fog had cleared up about 11am but was coming back at 1pm already.  But it was nice being there and the sun was visible, barely.

There were flu shots available at our gate at the airport.

There was an entry for Free Public Wifi at LAX on my computer, and it checked it off, but I wasn't getting anything.  I think they want you to pay T-mobile instead.   I forgot to mention that Vancouver's Airport had free Wifi. 

The fog was pretty low at LAX.

 But we were above it in ten or fifteen seconds.  (Two people and google have told me that black spot is on my sensor and I have to open the camera and clean it.  Now I'm back home I'll take it in.  Someone else said it was easy to fix in Photoshop.  Sometimes I've cropped it out.  A couple of times I've rubberstamped it out.  Mostly I try to get it on a background where it won't show.  And it isn't always there with other light source exposures.)

This picture, according to the map in the plane, was almost at Victorville.

We landed in Salt Lake City about 8:45pm and were back in the air at 9:35pm.  Enough time to find our gate, pee, and buy a sandwich.  And take this picture. 

Flying Delta through SLC added two hours and saved $100 each compared to the LA-Anchorage nonstop on Alaska. 

Too dark and too bumpy to get a sharp shot, but here's Anchorage as we pass by to turn around and come in from the north.

People coming off the plane in Terminal B.

And for the record, there's now a Humpy's in Terminal B. 


It's good to be back and the low 30's (about 1˚C) didn't feel too bad.  But it did feel like we've been gone forever, not three weeks.

Omaha Airport Has Free Wifi

That may seem like a minor issue, I have been trying to identify the airports I've been in that have free wifi.  DC didn't.  Berlin didn't.  The Eurostar train station in Ebbsfleet didn't, nor did any of the trains we were on.  All had wifi available if you paid. 

So I like to give credit to airports that still give free wifi. 

The panel went well this morning.  Another panelist had a paper which used the beheading of John the Baptist to make a model of scapegoating which he then applied to Abu Ghraib.  And there are some interesting possible applications to Juneau too.  You can read it here.  I changed my paper too much to post it. 

Leaving's Looking Good

Long delay for a 45 minute flight in DC.  Things not well organized,  but we made it into JFK in New York just before a storm hit.  It began raining on the tarmac.  We were in a CRJ 900 which didn't connect to the terminal.  Then they said they had closed the airport terminals until the thunderstorm ended, so we sat longer. 

We walked along this makeshift terminal until we finally got to a back door of the real terminal. 

We wandered around until we found our gate passing the various shops, including this duty free shop.

Planes are leaving for all over from here.

And I'm posting this courtesy of Healthy Gourmet which has free wifi in the Delta terminal near gate 14.  

Orchard's Bistro and Angel Street

Last night we were having dinner at the Orchards Bistro in McMinnville, Oregon. We'd stopped at the Gallery Theater a few blocks away before dinner to try to buy tickets for the play "Angel Street" but it was closed. Our terrific waitress asked if we wanted dessert. We had an hour to curtain time. So I said, "Well, if you could call the Gallery Theater and ask them if they can hold two tickets for us, we'd love to have a little dessert." She brought me her cell phone with the number punched in. I hit the green button, but nobody answered. "Hi, this is Steve, we're at the Orchard Bistro and would like to have dessert, can you hold two tickets for us for tonight?" Five minutes later the phone rang. "Hi Steve, this is Paula. I've got two tickets for you, enjoy your dessert."
And Paula was in the ticket booth when we came and had our tickets. She's also the director and showed us around. The play was written in 1938 and was the basis for the movie Gaslight in which a husband is trying to drive his wife crazy.
The set was really well done. The husband and wife were both excellent actors and it was done with English accents, including the two servants, one of whom sounded like she had studied old Upstairs Downstairs episodes and one who had a believable Cockney accent I believe. The actor who played the inspector was, if I read the program right, in his first major role and he showed us why the other two were so good. He accent, elocution, mastery of the script were all of a much lower level. But it didn't ruin the experience. For $13 a person, this is live theater for just a little more than a movie.

I took this about 15 minutes before curtain time so this isn't the whole audience. We had a delightful evening.

We're at Portland International airport right now which still has free wifi and, if all goes well, will sleep in our own bed tonight.

SFO to SLC

Des arrived after our walk on the beach and we all went for breakfast nearby. Des was a student of mine in Hong Kong 20 years ago and helped me with research in China. He has since gotten his PhD at the University of Michigan and is a new professor in the San Francisco Bay area.

We dropped J back off at home, picked up our luggage, were able to check it in curbside at the airport and have dim sum at a nearby Chinese restaurant. We were lucky, the rain didn't start until after we got back from our walk on the beach.


We flew over Lake Tahoe.

And the Nevada Desert

And the mountains we flew over had snow still. But I'm sure we'll see a lot more if we get home.

There are plenty of shopping opportunities in the airport while we wait. Fortunately window shopping is good enough for us. We already have way too much luggage.

Besides, they have great little desks with plugins for the computer next to a beautiful view. Unfortunately, the wifi is not free in the Salt Lake City Airport.

The Way Home - Intl. Flights Still Serve Food

We got picked up about 11:30am, including the bikes which were going to be dropped off at the office. The student interns came out to say good bye. Bon is with them too. It seems it was pink day for the women.

Here's another picture of the compound. One visitor suggested that the grounds looked more like being out in a village, and yes, that is the feel, even though we are in Chiang Mai.


Then to the airport, where despite the overnight in San Francisco, and then the journey to Salt Lake on the way to Anchorage, we were able to check our baggage in through Anchorage. We will get to briefly find stuff we might need going through customs in SF.



We picked Hindu Vegetarian from China Air's long long list of choices way back in December. It was a good choice and when you get special meals, they bring them first. That seems just to be a logistic decision, so they can find the people who ordered special and get them the right meals. The food was good, though extremely mild after eating Thai food.


The salad was very fresh. And I was surprised to see the jello. As this discussion group suggests, Jello itself is not vegetarian, but there are other ways to make a jello like dish that are vegetarian. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but we didn't eat it. Jello isn't high on my list of favorite foods anyway.


I watched the beginning of "Bedtime Stories." The sound was the best I've ever had through airline earphones, but there really wasn't anything worth listening to.




And here we are approaching Taipei, before dipping into the clouds.









And here's my floor view of the Taipei Terminal D plugged into the socket. There's free wifi in the Taipei airport. They even have free computers to use. Well, I probably should check on that. They used to. I'm on the free wifi though.