This diary is now complete, except for pictures (of which I have taken several thousand, so sifting through them all will take a long time ...). You can find a small selection of images here. The route I have driven is illustrated on this interactive map, which I also hope to eventually augment a bit further...)

2009/11/17, tue: (Day 59)		Talk #21 and visit to Simon Fraser University. After two days of getting acclimatised again to rainy November weather at home in Vancouver, I departed around 9:30 in the morning for my final stop. Most of Simon Fraser University is not located in Vancouver, but in neighbouring Burnaby, scenicly perched on Burnaby Mountain. To my great surprise, when walking the short distance from the visitor parking lot to the rather new computer science building, I saw a complete display of flags from all of Canada's provinces and territories flapping merrily in the breeze. This seemed a strangely fitting sight for the last stop of my trip, during which I had visited all of the provinces (but, sadly, none of the territories). I had very interesting meetings and conversations with David Mitchell, Evgenia Ternovska, Anne Lavergne (an old friend from UBC), Jim Delgrande, Oliver Schulte and Lou Hafer, and a very nice lunch with David, Evgenia, Andrei Bulatov and Cenk Sahinalp. Walking back from the restaurant, and later again from David's office, I enjoyed a phantastic view south over the Fraser River Delta and into northern Washington state. Savouring the final kilometres of my trip I drove back to my home to downtown Vancouver, where I arrived around 16:15 to relax over a pot of freshly brewed tea, listening to Borodin's String Quartet No.2 and reading Robert Pirsig's Lila (which I had bought rather fittingly on that snowy day in Bozeman, MT).
2009/11/14, sat: (Day 56)		Concrete and Sauerkraut. Soon after leaving Spokane, we were back in subzero temperatures, with quite a bit of snow on the ground. Thankfully, even US-2, which we had decided to take to reach our next destination, was pretty clear. After breakfast at a B&B operating as a restaurant in the morning in Davenport, WA, we continued our way to Grand Coulee Dam, a gigantic hydro project on the upper Columbia River, built during the depression and completed in 1942. Apparently, the amount of concrete used for building the dam would be sufficient for constructing a standard size side-walk twice around the equator, and at peak capacity, the generators could power all of Seattle and Portland combined. Unfortunately, when the project was completed, it not only forced large-scale relocations of settlements, but also put an end to the wild runs of the Columbia River salmon. Nonetheless, the dam and its surrounding are a very impressive sight, and the visitor centre quite nicely informs the curious about all aspects of this enormous construction, including the ecological ones. Unfortunately, tours of the third power house, where one could have seen the enormous turbines and generators in action, are only offered in the summer months, but to make up for this missed opportunity, the former pipe layer now staffing the desk at the visitor centre, an entertainingly curmudgeonly character, shared a fair bit of insider technical and not-so-technical information with us. From Grand Coulee, drove along the shore of amazingly scenic Banks Lake, further through impressive landscapes that evoked (at least for me) much more the well-known images from classical Western movies than anything else seen on this trip. Here, I also encountered what I believe to be the longest stretch of perfectly straight road (around 15km around Farmer, WA). After following the Columia River for a while, we left it to run its course towards Vancouver, WA (just across the river from Portland, OR), while John and I continued towards Vancouver, BC. Earlier that day, we had had some difficulties making up our mind whether to loop back to I-90, to cross the Cascades via Snowqualmie Pass, or to rather try our luck at the slightly higher Stevens Pass on the more scenic US-2. In the end, we chose the latter route, which brought us through
2009/11/13, fri: (Day 55)		Through the cold and over the mountains. Although there had been little new snow overnight, the temperature that morning was a bone-chilling -15 degrees (Celsius, of course). Still, I had no problems starting up the car, and to my great surprise, except for the streets in Bozeman and a short section of the I-90 that followed, where it was icy and foggy, we had ideal driving conditions in the form of sunny weather and bare, dry road. Sadly, John was not feeling to well that morning and therefore didn't quite seem to be able to enjoy the beautiful, frozen landscape surrounding us. We crossed the Continental Divide at Homestake Pass near Butte, MT rather unceremoniously around 11:45 MST - despite the steep grade and an elevation of 1949m no problem at all. Later, in the area of Missoula, MT, the thermometer finally climbed just above freezing. We briefly stopped in Missoula, which appeared to be another surprisingly funky place, for coffee at a unique store (called Liquid Planet) that sold coffee, tea and wine. The Chai latte I had there (one of five types they offered) was probably the best I have tasted anywhere. Further along the road, I couldn't resist stopping at Haugan, MT to briefly visit the "50,000 Silver Dollar Bar", where the walls were covered with slightly over 50,000 silver dollar coins, carefully mounted on nicely finished wooden boards. (This used to be the 10,000 Silver Dollar Bar, but inflation - or rather the sustained willingness of people to donate silver dollars - seems to have necessitated at least one name change in recent history.) Shortly after, we crossed Lookout Pass, where just off the highway, the ski area appeared to be fully operational. Thoroughly tempted though we were, we felt that there wasn't enough time to take advantage of this oppertunity of starting the wintersports season early, since the weather report had warned of snow and ice on the road in the late afternoon. And indeed, about 30minutes into the short drive through the "panhandle" of Idaho, a light snow shower started. Still, with temperatures just above freezing, the driving was not too bad. Around Spokane, WA, which we reached about 15:30 PST, we encountered dense, but rather benign traffic. Along with the deteriorating weather conditions, this convinced me quickly to not push any further that day. Compared to the places we'd stayed or stopped at over the last few days, Spokane didn't strike us as all too interesting. Nevertheless, based on a small amount of internet research, we found the Viking Tavern, which offered rather nice life jazz and an amazing selection of beers from around the world. The fact that the place had no windows further helped to quickly forget the cold and rainy weather outside.
2009/11/12, thu: (Day 54)		Snowed in in Bozeman. That morning I woke up to find that overnight, about 50cm of snow had accumulated, covering roofs, picknick tables, fences, the parking lot and all cars on it with thick white blanket - and it was still snowing! Checking the road conditions on-line confirmed that a significant stretch of the I-90 had snow and ice on it, with temperatures well below freezing. Unlike from Vancouver, Bozemanand the surrounding communities would certainly be reasonably well prepared to clear the roads sooner rather than later, and much more used to driving in these conditions, but somehow the thought of braving the mountain passes in my Z3 (even with the new all-weather tyres installed at the beginning of the trip) wasn't too appealing, so John and I decided to stay in Bozeman for the day to wait for better conditions. So we headed out into the winter wonderland that downtown Bozeman had become overnight, in search for a hot breakfast - which we found, trecking partly through knee-deep snow, partly over freshly cleared walkways, with friendly Bozemanites leaning on their shovels chatting merrily about the unseasonal snow storm. Truth be told, I did try to move the car just after breakfast, but even with John pushing, didn't get further than about a metre. So we extended our booking at the motel for another night and spent most of the day catching up on work that, especially in my case, had been piling up for days if not weeks. Later in the day, the parking lot was cleared and I ended up moving the car. Before dinner time, we walked back into the centre to buy some books and ended the day with a very nice dinner at Plonk Wine Bar. Overall, Bozeman turned out to be one of the better places to be snowed in at, and certainly seems well worth another visit!
2009/11/11, wed: (Day 53)		Devils Tower. John and I left Rapid City just as folks were getting ready for the Veteran's Day parade, but not before noticing three details that had previously escaped our attention: Life-size statues of US presidents that appeared to adorn every downtown intersection (driving by, we spotted JFK and Teddy Roosevelt in prominent locations, and couldn't help wondering whether and where George W. Bush had been placed), a dinosaur on a hill in the distance, and real(!) dino bones in a showcase just outside of our hotel. After a drive of about 2 hours, we reached Devils Tower, perhaps one of the most iconic landmarks in all of the US. Walking around this amazing formation, which plays an important role in American Indian religion and mythology, we were also treated to nice views over the impressive landscape surrounding the tower with its amazing contrasts of red and white strata of soft rock. A pair of climbers halfway up the tower put its size into perspective for us. Later, we drove on scenic and deserted country roads (roadster heaven!) with the top down back to the interstate. Looking at weather and road conditions and, perhaps more importantly, the forecast for the next few days, we had already abandoned the idea of spending a day in Yellowstone Park, which was basically closed for the season and had already received quite a bit of snow, with more to come. Instead, the plan was to reach Bozeman, MT before a serious weather system would make it difficult to get even that far. Following a recommendation we had obtained the night before, We took a dinner break at Buffalo, WY, where we enjoyed an excellent "buffalo pizza" at the Occidental Hotel, which was stylistically purely late 1800s as one could imagine (old-fashioned as I am, I'd really like to stay there one day!). Later, a smooth relaxed drive in mostly excellent conditions (except for the last 40 min, when it started raining), we passed by Billings, MT, marked by large, brightly lit, interesting looking industrial installations to finally reach around 23:00.
2009/11/10, tue: (Day 52)		More badlands, buffalos and monumental sculptures. John and I got up at 6(am) and drove out to the Badlands to see the sunrise over this otherworldly landscape. With no one else there, this was nothing short of amazing. We then did the badlands loop one more time, including several walks between 30min and close to 2 hours (time permitting, I could have easily walked all day there), during which we ventured out into an unreal landscape that the geeky part of my brain couldn't help but see as an ideal illustration for a particularly challenging case for minimisation by local search, but the less geeky part of me simply found stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, overall constraints on timing and the reduced off-season visitor schedule didn't allow for a relaxed visit to Wind Cave (which will hence have to wait for the next trip into these parts); so we decided to drive through the praries and the less accessible southern parts of Badlands National Park. After breakfast in Wall, we headed out again to start our drive towards the Black Hills. Shortly after venturing onto the gravel road leading towards the southern part of the badlands, we saw the first buffalos - first three by the road side (the closest perhaps 10m from the car, and seemingly rather unimpressed by our presence), then large groups further in the distance. The gravel road was in surprisingly good condition and blended nicely into the prarie landscape. Closer to the Black Hills, we passed through the little town of Scenic, SD, whose Wikipedia entry, at the time of this writing, doesn't do it justice - this was as close to a ghost town, abandoned in the late 1800s, as you could imagine an inhabited place to be - somewhat spooky! We then drove on to Mount Rushmore via a very scenic, narrow and windy route - ideal roadster territory and tremendous fun to drive on! We arrived at Mount Rushmore just around sunset. Once again, there were very few people there, although clearly, the site was set up to handle huge masses. Walking the short presidential trail at the base of the monumental carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln (a "strenuous" route according to the warning signs posted in various places, which seem to be aimed at folks with a shockingly low level of fitness), we enjoyed several interesting views of the iconic work of Gutzon Borglum, which I found suprisingly impressive and quite nice from an artistic point of view. Except for the (huge) gift shop, all facilities were closed (including the museum, sculptor's studio and restaurant - the latter advertised, rather uniquely, dinner hours of 17:30-17:30 every day). After darkness fell, just when we were about to drive off, the floodlights were turned on, prompting us to turn around and spend some more time. The mountain looks impressive when illuminated, but the details of the sculptures come out better in daylight (or twilight, as it were). On the way back, on a slight detour, we stumbled upon the "profile lookout", which offers an amazing view of Washington's head in profile through a narrow gap in the rocks - very cool! About an hour later, around 18:45 MST, after checking into our hotel in Rapid City, we found evidence of what appears to be a surprising selection of very nice restaurants. Amongst those, we finally selected the Wine Cellar for dinner, where we enjoyed excellent food and wine as well as a nice chat with our waitress, Amy, a foodie and soon-to-be interior designer, who ended up sharing with us not just one of her favourite wines, but also some concerns about the state of the nation. Later, we were also briefly introduced to the owner and chef, before ending up closing down the place. (A couple of days later we found out that the mountain carving at mount Rushmore is set to be surpassed by the Crazy Horse Memorial, an even larger-scale project currently underway in a nearby part of the Black Hills (along with Wind Cave and the surprisingly hospitable Rapid City one more reason to come back to this amazing place!).
2009/11/09, mon: (Day 51)		Badlands and stars. On the way to breakfast at Kaladi's, a surprisingly funky coffee shop in downtown Sioux City (where an artsy and eclectic collection of nice photographs covered the walls), we noticed some neat sculptures on the sidewalk of the suprisingly extensive downtown area - Sioux Falls continues to surprise! Before moving on, we visited Falls Park, where we admired the amazing waterfalls that had given the city its name, and the rose-coloured quartzite rocks surrounding the falls. We also met a flock of other visitors from Canada (namely, Canada geese) and saw a along train carrying quartzite rocks slowly rolling by. During a nice chat with the lady staffing the visitor centre, we learned why so many corn fields we had seen had not been harvested (rainy weather in October had rendered the fields so muddy that the tractors couldn't get in). We then drove (with the roof down, in sunny weather) on minor roads through beautiful prarie landscape to Alexandria, SD. We briefly stopped in Bridgewater, another little town where time appears to have stopped several decades ago; in the local store, where we bought a few things, we had a nice chat with an old cowboy (at least he was dressed the part) who seemed to be intrigued to see visitors from far away and even turned out to speak some German. Next, we visited the world-famous Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, which John remembered from a childhood visit. We admired the murals made from differently coloured ears of corn (all natural colours) and happened to arrive at the very moment when the last mural of the 2010 decoration was finished. We crossed the Missouri River around 14:30 to find an amazingly different, much wilder landscape on the other side. During a brief stop at Al's Oasis in Oacoma we treated ourselves to coffee (5ct a cup!) and some very tasty apple pie with cinnemon icecream. We reached the South Dakota Badlands at sunset, around 16:20 MST. The formations of soft rock and mud looked unreal, and the sense of otherwordly beauty was immensely heightened by the fact that we were basically the only people there. We then drove (with the roof down, of course) through the badlands while the daylight faded and beautiful evening colours slowly gave way to an amazingly clear and expansive night sky. The experience of the wide open space around us was incredible, We reached the little town of Wall, SD around 18:00 and checked into the quaint and very nice Sunshine Inn, we were greeted by the very friendly owner, and then had dinner at the Cactus Cafe, which is set up for serving 600 guests a night (in the high season), but while we were there only served 6 (us included). The buffalo burger I enjoyed that night was rather delicious, and the waitress just as friendly as all the other South Dakotans we had met previously. I have to confess: I am developing a soft spot for this part of the US and the many friendly americans that seem to live here. We ended the day with a night drive out to the badlands, where, far away from any significant light pollution, we watched the stars in an endless and crystalline sky - amazing!
2009/11/08, sun: (Day 50)		Minnesota do South Dakota. We started the day with an excellent breakfast at "The Craftsman", joined by Dave Diehl, an old high-school friend of mine, and his partner Rebecca. This was followed by a walk around the picturesque Minnehaha Falls and a very interesting conversation; after Dave and Rebecca had to leave, John and I continued on a bit further, across one of bridges across the Mississippi to what appeared to be a large, but not-so-busy Ford plant, and then along the bluffs overlooking the river. Later, we drove leasurely to Sioux Falls, SD, in nice weather and for quite a bit of the way with the roof down (which made for interesting olfactory impressions when passing through the farmlands of southern Minnesota. On the way, we stopped in Windom, MN, where time appears to have stopped in the 1950s - from the local movie theatre to pretty much every store front, there was very little to betray the fact that more than 50 years have passed since the time when this kind of scene was common. In Sioux Falls, where we had decided to spend the night, all restaurants downtown were closed on Sunday, so we ended to drive quite a distance to Spezia, a surprisingly nice Italian restaurant in the periphery. Later, John and I checked out Wiley's Tavern, a downtown local pub, where we saw (but decided not to test) a somewhat evil looking Jägermeister machine, which (as the friendly bar tender explained) allowed for the rapid dispensation of large quantities of Jägermeister at the correct temperature, and amused ourselves with watching some American football - alltogether an interesting sample of local culture!
2009/11/07, sat: (Day 49)		The Day of Three Bloomingtons. The spell of warm, sunny weather continued: 18C in the morning, 23 in the early afternoon - ideal weather for driving open (at least as long as the sun was up), which I thoroughly enjoyed. Before leaving Bloomington, IN, I stopped by the UI Bookstore one more time, to buy a special pullover that I hadn't had the time to select the day before. On the northern end of campus, a big alumni / parents event was gearing up, with thousands of folks in IU outfits flocking to barbeque stations and various other locations. Needless to say, traffic was a bit slow, but this was fun to get at least a glimps of. This was going to be a long day of driving, with the largest distance covered in any single day of this trip, since I was planning to reach Minneapolis, MN late that night to meet up with my friend John Lloyd, who would keep my company for the remaining part of the journey. After entering Illinois around 11:30 CST, I got treated with a few hours of driving through the rather flat, but fertile farmlands of that state. In the early afternoon, I stopped for coffee in Bloomington, IL. Located near the center of the state and just slightly more populous than the first Bloomington, this one was much quainter and perhaps a tad less attractive to the casual visitor. After enjoying my early afternoon tea at The Coffee Hound, a funky and very enjoyable coffee house, I took a quick walk around the town centre. I was surprised to find the characteristic, yet interestingly different (beard-less) face of the younger Abraham Lincoln in murals and various pictures displayed in store windows; it turns out that Lincoln lived and worked as a lawyer in nearby Springfield and visited Bloomington frequently. When leaving this second Bloomington, I drove by a football stadium with a big game (or post-game party) in full swing - as in Bloomington, IN, this felt like a late-summer day. Driving through North-Western Illinois, I saw several big wind farms, with hundreds of generators spinning busily in a brisk breeze. Just after entering Wisconsin around 16:00 CST, I watched another beautiful sunset over the endless fields. In mostly light traffic (except for the area around St Paul (MN), which was denser but quite benign) and ideal conditions, I reached the Minneapolis area just after 22:00 CST, where I couldn't resist driving quickly through the third Bloomington (MN), which had the appearance of a a somewhat non-descript suburb of Minneapolis. When arriving at the hotel, I learned that John had checked in and then left again about half an hour earlier. Searching quite a few bars and pubs for him convinced me that Minneapolis has good nightlife, but didn't produce John. I finally met him around midnight in the hotel lobby, after which we went to the most interesting place I had found - a stylish and happening Irish pub called "The Local", where we had a couple of drinks, a quick bite and a discussion of the state of the union.
2009/11/06, fri: (Day 48)		Talk #20 and visit at Indiana University in Bloomington. Interesting meetings with Don Byrd, David Wise and Kris Hauser. Unfortunately, Doug Hofstadter, whom I was originally planning to meet, was travelling, but he had sent me a nice message a few weeks earlier, when it became clear that he wouldn't be in town today. Over lunch with Chris Raphael, Don Byrd and Eric Nichols (one of Doug's students) we discussed many interesting topics, including the structure underlying interesting pieces of music and the prospect of fully automatic passenger air planes and cars. Later, I had interesting meetings with some students of Paul Purdom, with Paul himself and with Peter Todd. Finally, I had a very nice dinner with Torsten Hoefler at the Runcible Spoon (home to one of the ten world's best bathrooms).
2009/11/05, thu: (Day 47)		After getting some work done in the morning and quick breakfast at a local coffee shop, I departed about 10:30 CST for Bloomington, IN. In sunny and rather warm weather with light traffic, the drive was very relaxed. The landscape in Eastern Ohio was unexpectedly interesting, with rather steep hills and valleys that then increasingly flattened out, finally giving way to the flat farmlands of Indiana. Following a sign I had spotted on the highway, I took a brief detour to the Wilbur Wright birth house and museum, near Millville, IN. There, I learned much about the Wright Brothers, including the fact that they had experimented much more scientifically than I had previously thought, utilizing even a home-built wind tunnel to test various wing designs. On display was also a replica of their famous flyer (next to which a plaque notified the curious visitor about various technical characteristics, including the lack of armament of this early flying machine) and various original bicycle parts fabricated by them. Approaching Indianapolis, I got treated to a beautiful sunset that painted the clear skies with amazing colours. I arrived in Bloomington, IN, around 19:15. Shortly later, I picked up my colleague Don Byrd from his house, which happened to mark the southern-most point of the entire tour, and we ended the day with a nice dinner accompanied by a very interesting conversation.
2009/11/04, wed: (Day 46)		To give my aching back some rest from driving, I decided to stay in Pittsburgh for the day and to drive all the way to Bloomington, IN the next day (originally, I had planned to break this into two parts). After a quick walk through Pittsburgh University's amazing Cathedral of Learning, I had one more meeting at CMU (with Michael Benisch). Following that, I spent some time walking through an interesting neighbourhood of Pittsburgh/Oakland and then visited the Cathedral of Learning once again. This time I took the opportunity to see some of the national rooms (in others, classed were being held, so I couldn't enter). Fascinating! I then walked a bit more, this time across CMU campus, which is quite nice. For the remainder of the day, I managed to catch up on some work and to give my back the rest it demanded.
2009/11/03, tue: (Day 45)		Talk #19 and visit at Carnegie Mellon University. In order to each Pittsburgh on time for my first meeting, I had to leave Rochester very early - at 6:00! Although road conditions were very good, due to some lower back pain (caused by too much time spent in the car?) that have been bothering me for a while, the drive was somewhat tedious. Passing by the signs to Niagara Falls, I regretted not having enough time for what otherwise would have been a relatively short and certainly worthwhile detour. I arrived in Pittsburgh in good time. Major parts of the School of Computer Science had moved into the new Gates-Hillman Centre this summer. The building is very interesting from a architectural design perspective and has lots of common spaces as well as a fair amount of art throughout (including many video-art installations). Not only did I see a lot of writing on the walls (thanks to a special kind of paint), but also - for the first time outside of a movie - on the windows of one of the offices. I had very interesting meetings with Carlos Guestrin, Willem-Jan van Hoeve (form the Tepper School of Business), Tuomas Sandholm and several students. (John Hooker, also from the Tepper School of Business) was unfortunately out of town, but had sent me e-mail earlier.) After my talk I went for dinner with Tuomas, which was not only very pleasant and interesting, but also excellent from the culinary point of view (sushi).
2009/11/02, mon: (Day 44)		Talk #18 and visit the the University of Rochester. After breakfast with Craig Harman, who works with Henry Kautz on assistive technology in the home, I had very interesting meetings with Henry, Lane Hemaspaandra, Dave Mathews (from the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics with whom I have worked on RNA structure), Len Schubert, Daniel Stefankovic and Dan Gildea. Lunch with Sandhya Dwarkadas and Michael Scott at the faculty club was very nice. Later, I met with several graduate students before finishing my visit with a nice dinner with Henry Kautz.
2009/11/01, sun: (Day 43)		I started my day with a walk to the end of the solar system (and back), something that can be done quite conveniently within about 45min downtown Cornell, where a 1:50000000000 scale model of our solar system is found. What an intriguing idea, and very nicely executed as well! I never realised so clearly how much empty space there is between the planets... Later, I went for a long and very enjoyable walk around Cornell campus, in warm and sunny weather. On the way back, I accidentally discovered the asteroid belt, which I had somehow missed on my earlier tour of the solar system, and even got to touch a (real) meteorite. Leaving Ithaca in the early afternoon, I drove a relatively short distance to Watkins Glen, where I enjoyed the look over Seneca Lake (which looks small on the map, but quite large in reality) before visiting Watkins Glen State Park, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire trip. The sheer walls of dark shale, with trees in full autumn colours lining the rim of the gorge and dotting the bottom, where a series of waterfalls forms an amazing natural staircase, and even the walkways and stairs that are made to perfectly blend into the scene make for one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Later, I drove on, passing by the small town of Dresden to Geneva at the top of the lake, where I couldn't help notice that the houses were nicer and more stately than elsewhere, giving a certain Swiss flair to the place. The autumn vinyards along the way looked particularly pretty. It's hard to imagine I could have picked a better season for this trip. After arriving in Rochester around 17:30, I met for dinner with two graduate students from the CS department there, Ben Vandurme and Matt Post, with whom I had a very interesting conversation about natural language processing and machine translation, a topic that I appear to encounter surprisingly often on this trip.
2009/10/31, sat: (Day 42)		Given the timing of my visit to Rochester University on Monday, I decided to stay in Ithaca for another day. I walked again up to Cornell campus (too bad the trail up Cascadilla Gorge was closed) and had breakfast at Collegetown Bagels, an Ithaca institution. Then, I explored campus a bit - what a beautiful place, especially in this warm autumn weather! Later, I met with Bistra and Carlos at for lunch at "Brötchen", a very nice Austrian café downtown, and then, as the weather turned rainy, spent a significant amount of time catching up on e-mail and updating this travel diary.
2009/10/30, fri: (Day 41)		Talk #17 and visit to Cornell University. Walking from downtown to campus in nice, sunny weather was very enjoyable, and the view down Cascadilla Gorge, with golden leaves blowing down the narrow chasm nothing short of spectacular. I've been told that Cornell is most beautiful in the autumn, and from that perspective I seem to have timed my visit very well. My meetings with Carla Gomes, Bart Selman, Ashish Sabharwal, John Hopcroft and Christine Shoemaker (from Engineering) were all extremely interesting. I also very much enjoyed lunch with Carla, Bistra and Ashish, as well as a very nice sushi dinner with Bart, Carla and Ashish.
2009/10/29, thu: (Day 40)		Before heading off to Ithaca, NY, I briefly visited the Providence Athenaeum, one of the oldest public libraries in the US. Too bad I didn't have more time - this is the kind of place where I wouldn't mind hiding out for a while with a good book or two. Later, a took a brief break from driving and walked through Purgatory Chasm, a unique geological feature, whose origin is somewhat debated. After a leasurely drive, part of which took my through beautiful hills and valleys in upstate New York, I arrived in Ithaca in the early evening - just in time for a nice dinner and very interesting conversation with Bistra Dilkina and her fiancee Carlos.
2009/10/28, wed: (Day 39)		Talk #16 and visit at Brown University. After saying good-bye to Pauline, who had run out of her holiday time and needed to fly back to Vancouver that morning, I left Cambridge at 8:30. Through rain and heavy traffic near Boston (still harmless compared to what I've seen near Toronto, though) I drove towards Providence, RI, where I arrived at 10:00, just in time for what turned out to be a very interesting meeting with Pascal van Hentenryck. Later, I met with Meinolf Selman (with whom I also had a very nice lunch), Amy Greenberg and several graduate students. At one of the meetings with Meinolf and students, our discussion drifted from technical issues all the way to the merits of constitutional monarchy as a form of government and US politics ... which goes to show that academic discourse need not be narrowly limited to the narrow confines of ones own research area.
2009/10/27, tue: (Day 38)		Talk #15 and visit to MIT. Right after breakfast and before heading over to MIT, Pauline and I went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, to see the amazing Blaschka glass flower collection. This collection alone would be worth a visit to this part of the world! At MIT, I admired the architecturally unique and rather new Gates building, but also realised quickly that navigating the maze inside is not for the faint-of-heart. I had a number of very interesting meetings with Brian Williams and his students, with Una-May O'Reilly, Vijai Ganesh and Randall Davis. Lunch with Brian and Andreas Hofmann was also very nice. The room where I gave my talk was probably the nicest and most unique room I ever spoke in - excellent design and acoustics. That night, Pauline and I had a very nice dinner at "Garden at the Cellar", a funky little restaurant that serves great food, but no dessert or coffee ... needless to say, the local coffee shops (including Starbucks!) appeared to be closed when needed them most - what a strange (absence of) student life ...
2009/10/26, mon: (Day 37)		Although we didn't have too much time, we couldn't resist walking at least quickly through St. Andrews in the morning. The weather was amazingly sunny, but somewhat chillier than the day before and very windy. What left this picturesque place for Boston/Cambridge around 11:00 ADT and entered the US at 11:45 ADT = 10:45 EDT, at the minute crossing in Calais, Maine, undergoing a pleasant, rather informal interview with a relaxed and friendly boarder officer. The drive through New England was beautiful - sunny weather, autumn colours, very light traffic and occasional glimpses of the sea. During a brief stop at Fort Knox (not the famous one in Kentucky, but still very impressive) I learned that for several decades after the Americans gained their independence, the British had undertaken quite a few incursions (successful at leat for a short time) into that part of the US. Later, we had an unexpectly tasty lunch at a pub in Belfast (Maine), which, in the middle of the afternoon, was surprisingly busy with the kind of crowd one would normally expected later at night ... After arriving in Cambridge, MA around 20:00 and walking through parts of Harvard University's beautiful campus, we had a very pleasant dinner at the Grafton, one of the few decent-looking places in the area that still serves food after 21:00. What kind of student scene is that, one wonders ...
2009/10/25, sun: (Day 36)		After a rainy night, we woke up to find that the weather (thanks to the remnants of a tropical storm) was very windy and amazingly warm (20 degrees Celsius at 7 in the morning!). Just after breakfast, we met with Danny, who gave us a very interesting and enjoyable tour of the area, in increasingly sunny weather. On the campus of Acadia University, Danny showed us the amazing Irving Building, which - amongst other things - illustrates that even nowadays, it is still possible to build not only in the same style, but also with the same attention to materials and details as 100 years ago. After a very nice brunch with Danny and his family at the Old Orchard Inn, Pauline and I drove on to Digby (of Digby scallops fame), with the top down, through wonderfully summerly weather. From there, we took the ferry to St. John, NB. The ferry ride was wonderful - calm seas, brilliant weather, and lots of comforts on the ship, including wireless internet and a vert tasty Digby scallop burger. At least from the distance, the Digby pensinsula looks very inviting, with many waterfalls cascading from high up into the ocean. After a brief meeting with Pauline's sister in St. John, we drove on to St. Andrews, where we stayed at the Harris Hatch Inn B&B, which turned out to be one of the nicest B&B's we had stayed in on this trip, especially considering the modest (off-season) price.
2009/10/24, sat: (Day 35)		Early that day I gave the APICS CS keynote talk (which should probably count as talk #14 and differed, of course, from the one I had given the week before at Dalhousie). Considering the early hour, this was amazingly well attended and elicited very nice response from the audience. Later, I had a nice chat with Patricia Evans from UNB about RNA structure. Pauline and I then drove on to Wolfville, where we stayed the night at the delightful Blomidon Inn. Afternoon tea was followed by a wonderful dinner at the inn, after which we met Danny Silver from Acadia University and his wife Geri at Paddy's Pub, where we spent the rest of a very enjoyable evening, during which time a learned a lot about Acadian culture and this part of Nova Scotia, which I visited for the first time on this trip.
2009/10/23, fri: (Day 34)		As on the way to Newfoundland, Pauline and I were woken up by an announcement that the ferry was to dock within an hours time. Only that this time, it didn't happen. Due to strong winds and (at least according to some of the rumours we heard later) a broken thruster, the ferry could not dock. It turned out to be a good thing that my schedule for this day wasn't too tight, because we ended up waiting for about 7 hours in plain sight of the ferry terminal, until finally, conditions had improved to the point where we could dock safely. Yet, it was a pleasant wait, with food to be readily obtained from the cafeteria, a cabin to rest in and quite a bit of work that I needed to do in any case. Once that wait was overs, we had relaxed drive along southern shore of Bras d'Or Lake along narrow, windy roads (in places badly damaged or under repair, in other places newly finished) with beautiful views. Before Truro, there were some snowflakes in the air, but that appeared to be a very localized flurry. We arrived in Halifax just in time for me to catch most of the Carl Bender's APICS mathematics keynote talk, from which I learned about the intriguing concept of complex quantum mechanics; this was followed with a very nice chat with Carl and his wife.
2009/10/22, thu: (Day 33)		Over breakfast, we learned the reason for the unexpected difficulty in finding accommodations in Deer Lake: they have a thriving airport that is used by many Newfoundlanders who work in the Alberta oil patch and spend their nights before departing or after arriving in the area - who would have thought, particularly since absolutely nowhere else on this trip was there even the slightest problem booking hotels or B&B. Since our ferry was to depart only late that night, we had some time to spend in Gros Morne National Park. Driving in there, we noticed substantially more snow than during our first brief visit, four days ago, but again, the roads were clear. This time we headed to the northern part of the park and spend a couple of hours at Western Brook Pond, which once was a fjord that later got cut off from the ocean. This is one of the most amazingly beautiful places I have ever seen, and the fact that there was no one else there made it even more impressive. I cannot imagine what this would be like at the hight of the season, with many more visitors there and without the autumn colours, but I consider myself very fortunate to having it seen the way we found it that day. Later, we drove back to Port-aux-Basque, where we had just enough time for an unexpectedly good Chinese dinner before boarding the ferry. This time, we had a cabin with a port hole - very nice! Overall, like many other places visited on this trip, Newfoundland definitely deserves a longer stay, and I hope to be back there sooner rather than later.
2009/10/21, wed: (Day 32)		After a final brief stroll by quite a few of the merrily coloured houses of St. John's (probably part of their strategy of cheering up the long dark winter) and taking some more pictures from Signal Hill, we drove to Mile 1 of the Trans-Canada Highway (marked by the "Mile 1 Stadium" in downtow St. John's. The quest for the actual beginning of the highway turned out to be difficult; the actual place where it starts is obscure - quite differently from the beginning in Victoria, BC, there is no marker, no sign. We finally decided that a highway can't go past a T-intersection with a stop sign, unless there are clear signs beyond that point. Using that criterion we found (or perhaps rather: defined) the beginning of the Trans-Canada Highway, just by the shore of a lake north of St. John's harbour. We finally found a cairn - but it turned out to commemorate the visit of the late pope John Paul II in 1984! After leaving St. John's around 11:00, we had a nice, relaxed drive to Deer Lake, with brief breaks at various places, including Joye's lookout (which offers an amazing view over Gambo River, Gambo Town and the surrounding country). When we arrived in Deer Lakr, to our great surprise, we found that all accommodations appeared to be booked up. So far on this trip, we never encountered this situation, and at first we didn't really know what to do. Well, in a town with one hotel, one motel and a handful of B&B's, there is really not that much one can do ... But we lucked out: the last B&B on our list had a room, which probably saved us from a night in the car (rumour had it that nearby Corner Brook was also completely booked up). We ended the evening with a nice dinner at Jungle Jim's, which apparently is a newfoundland institution now spreading over the rest of Canada ("wherever Newfoundlanders are").
2009/10/20, tue: (Day 31)		Talk #13 and visit to Memorial University. Before heading out to campus, Pauline and I did an amazing walk along the narrows to Signal Hill (thanks to Antonina Solokolova for pointing out the route!). In the narrow channel connecting St John's harbour with the open Atlantic, deep ocean swell caused clouds of bubbles to rise from the deep - the water looked very inviting for diving. The weather was much better today, and we could see Cape Spear in the distance. As we stood on top of the hill, fog started rolling in from the sea. There were some very informative signs on the hill, informing the curious visitor about the history of the place. On the way back, we strolled by the Queen's battery, where I learned about the rather complex procedure for loading and firing a gun. Antonina and I walked to campus together and had a long meeting after my talk. Later, I was shown around campus and learned about the many bridges and tunnels that connect the buildings there, to provide passages not exposed to a particularly nasty type of frozen rain they have during their long winters. Antonina lives in a house with an interesting history, where we had tea in the afternoon. Later, Pauline and I had a very nice dinner and a very interesting conversation with Joerg Evermann and Jeffrey Parsons. That night I ate moose steak for the first time - very tasty, and particularly satisfying since despite the myriads of warning signs we've seen all the way since eastern Manitoba the moose remained elusive.
2009/10/19, mon: (Day 30)		Cloudy skies. After a relaxed breakfast at our B&B, we departed for St John's, about a 3-hour drive from Gander. On the way, we took a quick detour up Blue Hill in Terra Nova National Park, from where we had gorgeous views over the islands and inlets, all the way to the open North Atlantic. Near the top of the hill, there was quite a bit of snow on the road, which made for interesting driving. From there, it was rainy all the way to St John's, with some fog. On the Avalon Peninsula, the landscape became quite rocky and barren again, with many "ponds" (which around here appears to be the generic name for any sort of lake). Around 15:00 we arrived in St John's, where the rain was accompanied by strong winds - not the most comfortable combination, so we sought refuge for an hour or so at the cozy Hava-Java coffee house downtown. Later, after checking in at the rather unique B&B (more on that later) that had been recommended by a colleague at Memorial University, we we headed out to Cape Spear, the eastern-most point in all of North America (not counting Greenland). On the 25min drive from downtown St John's, we didn't see much of the landscape due to patches of fog and an incessant drizzle. On the cape, we were greated by an empty parking lot and strong winds blowing in from the ocean. Beneath the sheer cliff to the south east, the waves were churning and sending sprays of white surf high against the dark rock wall. This wasn't the place for our dip into the ocean that would mark the completion of our Coast-to-Coast trip through Canada. Pauline finally found a sheltered basin of ocean water, only occasionally flooded by a particularly large wave, and just past the sign marking the Eastern-most point of the continent. And thus, in ca. 4 degree, heavily overcast weather with strong easterly winds and a fine drizzle saturating the air, we went in. Strangely, it felt like less of a challenge than the dip into the Pacific on Botanical Beach four weeks and a day ago. Later that evening, we had an excellent dinner with Antonina Solokolova and Todd Wareham at Aqua.
2009/10/18, sun: (Day 29)		After a very comfortable night on the ferry, we were woken up by an announcement that we would arrive in Port-aux-Basques within an hour. Around 7:30 Newfoundland time we rolled off the ferry and were immediately impressed by the rocky, barren landscape. At least around here, it's easy to see why they call this island "The Rock"! After a short detour through the sleepy town, and looking out over the sea, now calm once again, towards far-away Cape Breton island, we headed off towards St John's, about 890km down what is essentially the only highway. The impressive landscape continued - Table Mountain, Twin Hills and trees much smaller than those in the Maritimes. Around 13:00, after quite a few hours of leasurely driving on clear, almost empty roads in sunny weather, the temperature finally climbed above zero (degrees Celsius, of course). It was then that we found that Corner Brook, one of the biggest towns on this coast, had no coffee shops or restaurants other than a few fast food places and ... Tim Horten's, which we had to settle for. Shortly after, since we had a few hours of time to spare, we headed into Gros Morne National Park. We decided to visit at least some of the Southern part of the park that day, and to make an excursion into the Northern part on our way back from St John's. The tourist season had clearly ended, and there was basically no on there. The landscapes we saw were ... well, awesome seems like an understatement. The combination of amazing topography, vibrant autumn colours, snow on the top of the mountains and calm, blue ocean was unbelievably beautiful. We drove through the table lands, an high, barren area where the mantle of the earth is exposed, then did a short hike on the shore of Trout Pond, a big lake that turns into a very impressive fjord. At that point, the temperature had climbed enough that it felt like late summer. On the way back, we drove with the top down for about 45 minutes. Later, on the way to Gander, although the road was clear, we started seeing an increasing amount of snow around us. As we heard later, the storm that had caused the ferry delays earlier had brought about an unseasonal bout of winter to this area, so that in Gander, where we arrived around 19:15, there were about 25cm of snow on the ground, and basically over night, a huge population of snowmen had appeared on the front lawns.
2009/10/17, sat: (Day 28)		The day began with worries about the Newfoundland ferry. South-central Newfoundland had been hit by a serious storm, and ferries were delayed up to 8 hours. Although we weren't supposed to leave until late this night, this raised concerns about our schedule, but of course we could do nothing other than monitoring the situation. After coffee with Pauline's niece Bobby and her family, we headed out for the Cabot Trail. This was the first day of non-essential driving (and quite possibly will remain the only one on this trip), but both of us had done this beautiful loop around the northern tip of Cape Breton Island before and were very keen on refreshing our memories. The trail is simply awesome, particularly with the autumn colours near their peak. We stopped briefly at the Keltic Lodge in Ingonish, were we discovered the joys of lobster poutine (even though lobster is considered a basic staple in the maritimes, this was a bit special and very tasty). Another phone call to the Newfoundland ferry company indicated that things were getting back on track there and our ferry would have a good chance of leaving North Sydney on time. Later, we crossed French Mountain, a high plateau where there were a few centimetres of snow on the ground (but, thankfully, not on the road). Later, the weather was nice enough that on one of the most spectacular stretches of Shortly after, we came to what is perhaps the most spectacular stretch of road, near the Acadian village of Cheticamp. Since the weather was quite nice at this point, we drove with the top down for about 45 minutes, just before sunset. Back in North Sydney, we couldn't resist visiting the Black Spoon one more time, and after another excellent dinner, we checked into the Newfoundland ferry lineup around 22:00. Less than an hour later, we were in our cabin, ready to be taken across to the last province we hadn't visited yet.
2009/10/16, fri: (Day 27)		Left Halifax just before noon, after a very interesting meeting with Vlado Keselj and one of his students and a stroll to the excellent Public Gardens. On the way to Cape Breton Island, Pauline and I stopped briefly in Pictou, where we had a very nice lunch at Mrs MacGregor's Tea Room. So far, the weather had been fair, but from there on, our drive to North Sydney was rainy. Still, the beauty of Cape Breton Island was more than evident. We arrived around 19:00, just in time for an excellent dinner at the Black Spoon. The ferry to Newfoundland could be seen in the dock only a few hundred meters from the restaurant, but we would have another day to spend before embarking.
2009/10/15, thu: (Day 26)		Talk #12 and visit to Dalhousie University. Another early start, under frosty, clear skies. Perhaps because it was early, or maybe because PEI around dawn was just so beautiful, or possibly because the signage was simply not that good - we ended up seeing a bit more of the island than we had planned. In the end, we found our way back to the Confederation Bridge. The drive ended up being very relaxed, in sunny weather. Nova Scotia installed an impressive welcome centre at the border, with a nice array of Nova Scotian flags and the replica of a lighthouse - quite unlike in the case of Saskatchewan or New Brunswick, you can't miss the fact that you've entered this province. The excellent signage continued from here - no way, it seems, to miss in exit here. Beautiful autumn colours all the way to Halifax, where we arrived around 11:00 in the morning, in good time for my visit and talk. Lunch with Art Sedgwick, Alex Brodsky (another UBC alumnus) and Dirk Arnold. Very interesting meetings with Dirk Arnold and Thomas Trappenberg. For dinner, Pauline and I went to the Old Triangle, an Irish alehouse where a two-man band from Newfoundland played celtic music.
2009/10/14, wed: (Day 25)		Talk #11 and visit at the University of Prince Edward Island. After leaving Fredericton slightly later than planned, but with plenty of time to spare, I almost learned the hard way how thinly populated New Brunswick is - one simply can't count on finding a gas station within 40km of the point where one is urgently needed. In the end, I lost my nerve and left the highway. We found a gas station, in the end, but it was a close call. Back on the highway, things took longer than expected, especially when at the entrance to the 12.9-kilometre-long Confederation Bridge, which connects PEI to the main land, we were stopped because a house was being transported across. Once that was done, we were stuck after a similar transport. Still, crossing the bridge was amazing, and so were the reddish cliffs and freshly plowed fields we saw on the way to Charlottetown. I ended up making it barely in time for my talk at the University of Prince Edward Island. The discussion with David LeBlanc and his colleagues that followed (mostly on undergraduate education and CS curriculum issues) was very interesting, as was the tour of the UPEI campus to which David treated Pauline and me. Around sunset, Pauline and I went for a long walk through Charlottetown, followed by a wonderful dinner at the excellent "Lot 30" restaurant.
2009/10/13, tue: (Day 24)		Talk #10 and visit at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. Interesting meetings with Michael Fleming, Mihaela Ulieru (who turned out to be an alumna from my alma mater, TU Darmstadt) and my former PhD student Dan Tulpan, who drove all the way from Moncton, where he works for the NRC. Nice lunch (at Carribean Flavas - who would have thought, an authentic Carribean restaurant in New Brunswick!) with Michael, Dan and Bradford Nickerson, and excellent dinner at Palate with Joe Horton, David Bremner and Patricia Evans. Later, we were joined by Hugh Thomas, a UNB mathematician, writer and translator of poetry, with whom I had an interesting conversation about the difficulty of translation in general, and in particular, of the translation of poetry.
2009/10/12, mon: (Day 23)		In the morning, first snowflakes - of course, these didn't last, but they made me think of later parts of my trip ... Although I would have very much liked to stay longer, after breakfast, we had to leave Québec for our long drive to Fredericton, New Brunswick, but not before a brief photo stop at the beautiful and elegant parliament building which, amazingly, features large statues of both, Louis-Joseph Montcalm and James Wolf (both of whom died in the Battle of the Plains of the Plains of Abraham, a decisive moment in Canadian history and the fate of New France). In nice weather and very light traffic, we drove along the St. Laurenz down to Rivière-de-Loup, on to Saint-Louis-de-Ha!Ha! (no joke!) and into New Brunswick. At the Québec/New Brunswick border, there was a road block (apparently a routine control by the RMCP), through which we had to go twice, since we had not managed to take the picture I wanted of the "Welcome to New Brunswick" sign (which was, well, not very obvious and hence easily missed). Our story (and the BC licence plates) seemed to impress the RMCP officer ... I guess ours was the only car from BC going through that day. The drive down the River Valley towards Fredericton was very nice, as Joe Culberson from U of A had promised it would be. In Fredericton, we met Pauline's parents, with whom we had the obligatory Thanksgiving turkey dinner - tasty!
2009/10/11, sun: (Day 22)		Finally, a day without a schedule! After an early morning walk and breakfast, Pauline and I headed out to the Plains of Abraham, where we walked on the battlefields of old, which are now a large and beautiful park. This is also where I saw the first truly tasteful halloween decorations ever. Later in the afternoon, we had coffee and a bite to eat at "Le Petit Coin Latin" (an excellent little place where other than us there didn't seem to be a tourist in sight), and finally finished this wonderful day with a superb diner at the Chateau Frontnac's "Le Champlain" restaurant, which exceeded our already sky-high expectations. Overall, Québec is amazing! I have been told before that it compares well with the prettiest cities in Europe, but I had trouble believing that until I finally saw it myself - no question, it is!
2009/10/10, sat: (Day 21)		After a leasurely drive from Montréal with awesome views of the St. Lorenz and a very pleasent stop in Trois-Rivières, where we briefly visited the beautiful Sanctuary of Notre Dame du Cap, we arrived in Québec. The weather was wonderful, and we drove all the way with the top down. Wonderful autumn colours along the way. The St. Laurenz is amazing - coming from Europe, I've never seen a river like this before. And I thought the Rhine was a mighty river ... not even the Fraser River compares to it. I guess it takes a great river to drain the Great Lakes. In Québec, we had booked ourselves into the small but very nice Hôtel des Coutellier, just outside of the old town, which we had found on the internet. This place turned out to be very nice indeed, and very conveniently located. Unfortunately, we couldn't get into several of the places we had targeted for dinner - everything was super-busy. I wonder whether the three cruise ships in the harbour might have anything to do with it...? In any case, we settled for a mussle feast at the Môss Belgian Bistro.
2009/10/09, fri: (Day 20)		Talk #8 and visit at McGill University in the morning, followed directly by talk #9 and visit at Université de Montréal in the afternoon. The only time during the trip that I visited two places in one day. I would have liked to take more time for both universities (and they would have certainly deserved much more of my time), but there was simply no other way of scheduling those visits, given all the constraints on driving and the upcoming holiday on Monday. Still, I had a very interesting meeting with Greg Dudek at McGill just before my talk, and an excellent lunch with him, Luc Devroye and Patrick Hayden. To make the timing work, I had to take a taxi right from the restaurant to Université de Montréal. There, I was surprised to find that my talk was video-taped (good thing I didn't know beforehand, or I would have been more nervous about it). Nice meetings with Bernard Gendron, Philippe Langlais and Patrice Marcotte. Later, Pauline and I had excellent dinner at Chez L'Épicier, followed by a nice stroll through Vieux Montréal.
2009/10/08, thu: (Day 19)		Talk #7 and visit at University of Ottawa. This was the first morning that we had to scrape the windshield ... I keep wondering about Newfoundland and the way back. We arrived in Ottawa around noon after a rather relaxed drive in sunny weather and very light traffic. Lunch with Nathalie Japkovicz, Diana Inkpen and Stan Matwin at a funky, student-run restaurant on campus. The SITE Building is amazing - definitely one of the nicest university buildings I have seen. After a beautiful evening in Ottawa and a bite to eat with some old friends of Pauline in the Market, we drove to Montréal. Light traffic and perfect road conditions made this an easy leg of the trip, though in the end, getting to the hotel proved somewhat more difficult than anticipated.
2009/10/07, wed: (Day 18)		Talk #6 and visit at University of Waterloo. Again, a full schedule with lots of interesting meetings. The computer science building is architecturally very interesting. Very nice lunch at the faculty club with Ian Munro and Peter van Beek and excellent dinner at Chabrie's with Pascal Poupart and his wife Teresa. To avoid bad Toronto-area traffic in the morning, we had decided to get a few hours of driving in after dinner. Traffic on the 401 around Toronto was still pretty dense, but we got through smoothely. Much better weather and driving conditions than last night. We finally decided to spend the night in Cobourg, almost halfway to Ottawa.
2009/10/06, tue: (Day 17)		Talk #5 and visit at the University of Toronto. A packed schedule full of interesting meetings. Excellent lunch at the Gallery Grill at Hart House with Hector Levesque and Steve Easterbrook and a very nice dinner with Craig Boutilier at Bodega. Unfortunately, we had to drive to Kitchener that same night - in pouring rain and dense traffic - not exactly fun. Anyway, we made it and were only too happy to finally check into the delightfully oldfashioned Walper Terrace hotel in the centre of Kitchener.
2009/10/05, mon: (Day 16)		Upon leaving Sault Ste. Marie, we briefly visited the Terry Fox memorial, which marks the place where Terry had to give up his trip across Canada. The site is beautifully located and very nicely designed. Except for the last leg of today's trip, from Barrie to Toronto, we had another pleasent day of driving in close to perfect conditions. The weather was quite nice, and we enjoyed several brief stops on the way to Toronto (Blind River for a quick breakfast, Sudbury for coffee with Pauline's cousin Sean, and Parry Sound for an afternoon snack and a nice walk on the shores of Georgian Bay). Traffic south of Barrie was crazy. Actually, it was as bad as in some of the craziest places in Europe I've been driving in (Brussels comes close, while Naples was hugely easier to handle). Anyway, we made it without any major delays and in reasonable time, and the traffic-induced adrenaline level was soon back to normal over a nice dinner at the Richtree Market.
2009/10/04, sun: (Day 15)		Arrived in Sault Ste. Marie after about 8 hours of driving (with small breaks). Phantastic landscape along several stretches of the highway, rose-coloured granite and, east of Marathon, beautiful autumn colours in the woods. Briefly stopped at a really nice sandy beach at Katherine Cove (south of Wawa). Weather cloudy with showers and sunny breaks - drove with the top down for about 40km in the late afternoon. To anyone ever planning to spend a night in Sault Ste. Marie, we highly recommend Algoma's Water Tower Inn, where we had a most pleasant stay.
2009/10/03, sat: (Day 14)		Hit the road after breakfast with the UBC women's soccer team (what's the chance of meeting them on this trip, and in Winnipeg of all places!), and a quick drive through downtown Winnipeg, to see at least the legislature. The first day of driving through Northern Ontario (and Eastern Manitoba) turned out to be far less boring than expected. Really nice landscape (exposed bedrock in various colours, forest and lakes), especially around Kenora, which also is a pretty nice town. Beautiful views over the Lake of the Woods. Later, some road works (annoying) and mostly single lane highway (relaxing). Brief stops in Kenora (at HoJoe's - very nice!) and Upsala (for coffee and cake, good!). Arrived in Thunder Bay just after dusk - good timing, considering the Moose warnings posted all over the place.
2009/10/02, fri: (Day 13)		Talk #4 and visit at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. Very interesting meetings with Stephane Durocher, Andrea Bunt, Parimala Thulasiraman, Mike Domaratzki, Ruppa Thulasiram and Ellen Liu. Very nice dinner at Resto Gare in St. Boniface, the French quarter of Winnipeg, followed by a nice walk through The Forks and a small part of downtown. Originally, the plan had been to leave that night to shave off some of the long drive over the Canadian shield to Toronto, planned for the next three days, but following advice from the folks in Edmonton and Saskatoon, who warned of nightly Moose encounters, we decided against that.
2009/10/01, thu: (Day 12)		Leasurely drive from Saskatoon to Regina, where we had a very nice lunch at "The Willow" restaurant by the lake (recommended by Gord McCalla, and a place that certainly needs to be visited again). Downtown Regina looks a bit more urban than Saskatoon. The area around the lake and the legislature is very, very nice. Too bad it's raining quite hard and we have to move on. However, since I decided to postpone my visit to the university here (because Howard Hamilton and Sandra Zilles are currently away at a conference), I know that I'll be back. Later, on the drive towards Winnipeg, we stopped for coffee stop at the Redbarn / Dano's Lounge in Moosomin, a quaint little town near the Manitoba border. Very light drizzle and an amazing smell of fresh hay in the air. We finally arrived in Winnipeg around 22:00, after a pleasant, though mostly rainy drive through the praries.
2009/09/30, wed: (Day 11)		Talk #3 and visit at the University of Saskatchewan. Left Edmonton at 5:55 in the morning for Saskatoon. The drive was nothing short of amazing. Whoever said the prairies are boring must have meant a different place (or time?). I arrived in Saskatoon around noon and had a most enjoyable visit at University of Saskatchewan, where I met with Ian McQuillan, Mike Horsch and students, Tony Kuzak and Gord McCalla. My talk almost didn't happen, due to a strange and unique combinations of failures in the AV system I was supposed to use. Still, in the end - with a rather significant delay (amazingly well tolerated by the rather large audience) and help from quite a few people - a backup system was set up and all worked very well. Very nice dinner at the aptly named Calories Restaurant (the dessert were truly something else, in terms of both, quality and quantity). Saskatoon is a very nice place that I definitely have to visit again with more time on my hands.
2009/09/29, tue: (Day 10)		Talk #2 and visit at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Interesting meetings with Nelson Amaral, Joe Culberson and Rob Holte; excellent dinner at Jack's Grill.
2009/09/28, mon: (Day 9)		Arrived in Edmonton after a nice drive from Jasper to Hinton, AB, interrupted by a visit to the amazing Maligne Canyon and a couple of wildlife encounters on the middle of the road (perhaps folks should stop feeding the bighorn sheep on the highway). The drive from Hinton to Edmonton was, well, not too interesting, but went very smoothely. Signage around Edmonton (or rather: the lack thereof) made the final approach somewhat more interesting (and less efficient) than expected. Excellent dinner at Normand's (wonderful food and outstanding service at in appeared to be a rather unlikely location).
2009/09/27, sun: (Day 8)		Arrived in Jasper in the early evening after a gorgeous day of driving through the Rockies. Brilliant, sunny weather, cool and crisp autumn air, beautiful colours and light traffic made this part of the trip particularly enjoyable.
2009/09/26, sat: (Day 7)		Left Westbank around 10:45 in the morning and reached Kicking Horse Pass, the border between British Columbia and Alberta, after a relaxing drive around 17:00 PDT = 18:00 MDT. Earlier en-route, a brief visit to the historic site in Craigellachie, BC, where the last spike was driven into the Canadian Pacific Railway, on 7 November 1885, which marked the completion of Canada's first transcontinental railroad. The site is very nicely presented and well worth a visit. Arrived in Banff about 1h15 later, after what was overall a very relaxing day of driving with mostly sunny weather, except for some isolated showers in the Rockies, and light traffic. Alltogether very pleasant!
2009/09/25, fri: (Day 6)		After two days in Vancouver, during which the car got fixed (thanks to the heroes at Victoria BMW and Brian Jessel BMW), I've made it to Westbank, BC. The drive was beautiful and relaxing - perfect weather and road conditions, mostly light traffic. My friend Tobias from Switzerland is accompanying me for this part of the trip (until Edmonton, where Pauline will join me).
2009/09/22, tue: (Day 3)		Talk #1 at University of Victoria; very interesting meeting with Sue Whitesides. A turn for the better in getting the car fixed - thanks to the tireless efforts of Rae-Ann at Victoria BMW. Will be able to drive back to Vancouver tonight as planned, but further work and a a new spare tyre (difficult to get because of unusual size) still needed.
2009/09/21, mon: (Day 2)		Visit at University of Victoria; interesting meeting with George Tzanetakis (computer music, applied machine learning). Getting the tyre problem(s) fixed turns out to be much more difficult than expected. Wonderful dinner at Café Brio.
2009/09/20, sun: (Day 1)		The journey begins. Left home 10:00 PDT, heading for Tsawwassen ferry terminal. 12:00 PDT ferry to Swartz Bay, Vancouver Island. Swartz Bay to Port Renfrew / Botanical Beach in 2h20. Quick swim in the Pacific around 16:40 PDT. On the way back, tyre damage due to pot hole; spare tyre failed after 2km. Changed wheel back and continued on very slowly to Jordan River. 1h wait for tow truck. Beautiful night sky, shooting stars. Towed from Jordan River to Victoria. Arrival just after midnight. Let's hope this was all the car trouble for this trip.

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