Flat Lucas Visits San Francisco

San Francisco is about 50 miles north of San Jose. On Saturday, Flat Lucas took a day trip with my friend Scott, his brother and his brother's wife.

Flat Lucas overlooking the San Francisco Bay and the San Francisco city skyline from Oakland.

Flat Lucas rides on the Bay Bridge.

Crossing from Oakland to San Francisco.

Flat Lucas with Alcatraz in the distance. Alcatraz is one of the most famous prisons in American history. Supposedly, no prisoner ever escaped successfully from Alcatraz (it's on an island)

The San Francisco skyline.

Flat Lucas boards a WWII boat on the San Francisco bay.

Flat Lucas in Fisherman's Wharf, one of the most popular tourist attractions in San Francisco. What kind of animal is in this picture? If you said Sea Lion, you're right!

Flat Lucas' new friends and travel companions.

Flat Lucas Flies to San Jose, California

On Friday evening, my friend Scott and I flew with Flat Lucas to San Jose for a conference. This flight was a short one for Flat Lucas now that he is a seasoned traveler--only about 1.5 hours long (699 miles). Now, Flat Lucas and I have flown 6,677 miles together.

San Jose is located in California in what's known as Silicon Valley (the southern part of the Bay Area). You may be familiar with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Intel, Flickr, YouTube, etc. They all have office buildings in Silicon Valley. It's a great place to be if you're interested in computers like me :)

Flat Lucas Plays Golf

Flat Lucas was asked to play golf with my friends Jonathan and Brendan. He told me that he had never played golf before. I told him that was OK because we could show him how to play. :)

Flat Lucas warming up at the driving range.

Flat Lucas and Brendan.

Flat Lucas and Jonathan.

Flat Lucas resting after a hard evening of golf.

Flat Lucas Visits the HCI Lab

I work in a field called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. That's quite amouthful, I know. Essentially, I study how people use computers and how we might improve technology to be more useful in the future (here's my webpage is you want to find out more). Flat Lucas visited my research lab today and I thought I'd share a few pictures.

This is typically where I sit in the HCI lab.

We have 30-inch wide screen monitors.

This is Flat Lucas vacationing in the Bahamas. Oh, wait, just kidding. This is my friend Kate's background on her computer.

This is our patio on the 6th floor of our building which overlooks the east side of campus along with Husky Stadium, Lake Washington, the Cascade Mountain Range and Mount Rainier. Flat Lucas is eating lunch with my friends Charlie and Kate.

Can you see the lake (that's Lake Washington) and football stadium (that's where the Huskies play).

Flat Lucas and the Seattle Space Needle

The Seattle Space Needle is Seattle's most recognizable landmark. It was built in 1962 for the World's Fair and is 602 feet high. The top of the Space Needle hosts an observation deck and a restaurant that spins around 360 degrees.

The Seattle Space Needle is located in the Seattle Center, home to the Experience Music Project, the Seattle Monorail, KeyArena (where the SuperSonics NBA teams plays), the Pacific Science Theatre, the Children's Museum, the Science Fiction Museum, amongst other attractions.

This is a panoramic view from the Seattle Space Needle. Can you spot Mount Rainier?

Flat Lucas Plays Flag Football

One of my favorite parts of being in college is hanging out with my friends and playing sports: I've played flag football, ultimate frisbee, golf, and (my favorite) basketball. Here, my friends and I are playing flag football right outside our building (the Paul Allen Center).

We're playing flag football on the field outside of our building, which is in the backdrop.

Mount Rainier is ever present on the campus horizon.

Flat Lucas and I having a good time. Flat Lucas was very hard to tackle, his Flat Flag was hard to grab.

My friend Jon and Flat Lucas after just scoring a touchdown.

Flat Lucas Fills Up

Although Flat Lucas is too young to drive, he still helped my friend Scott fill up his car with gas.

Flat Lucas Attends the Mariners Home Opener

My friend Jeff sent me an email in the early afternoon asking me if I'd like to sit in the 2nd row on the 1st baseline to the Seattle Mariners' home opener. I did not hesitate to say "yes!" Flat Lucas really enjoyed sitting so close to the action. The Mariners won 4-0 against the Oakland A's.

Flat Lucas and I outside Safeco Field, where the Mariners play.

The view from our seats (2nd row along the 1st baseline).

Flat Lucas enjoying the game in his very own seat.

Flat Lucas was so excited when Sexson hit a homerun in the 6th inning, he spilled a bit of Flat Soda on his shirt. Can you spot the stain?

The Mariner Moose became the official mascot of the Mariners in 1990. In this picture, he's rollerskating along the perimeter of the baseball field.

Woooops! The Mariner Moose takes a fall right in front of our seats!

Here's a picture of me, Flat Lucas, Jeff, Scott and Dimitri at the end of the game. Seattle beat Oakland 4-0. Our pitcher, Hernandez, pitched 8 scoreless innings and struck out 12 batters.

Flat Lucas Flies Back to Seattle

I took these pictures out the window as our airplane began its descent into Seattle. This mountain is called Mount Rainier, it has the tallest peak in the contiguous United States. You can also see Mount Rainier from my Computer Science and Engineering building at the University of Washington (as well as from many other parts of Seattle).


The flight from Houston to Seattle is 1,883 miles. If we add this to the 4,095 miles we've previously flown, Flat Lucas and I have now traveled 5,978 miles via airplane together.

Flat Lucas Visits a Texas Mall

A trip to Houston would not be completed without visiting the Galleria, a posh mall just outside of downtown.

The Galleria has an indoor ice rink!

Flat Lucas causing trouble.

Flat Lucas loves candy.

There's no Flat Lucas in this picture but I am wearing my belt buckle on the outside of my shirt, just like a true Texan.

Flat Lucas Goes To Court

I was in Houston with my friends Cassandra, Jason, Bobby and Paul. They were there to compete in a mock trial competition. A mock trial is like a "fake trial" where two teams compete to win a case--it's kind of like watching a movie or a TV show with courtroom drama.

The Harris County 334th District Courthouse was the site of the 2007 National Trial Competition.

In between trials, the team had a lot of time to fool around. In this case, we put Flat Lucas on trial for allegedly stealing a Flat Cookie from the Flat Cookie Jar. Paul is the defense lawyer and Flat Lucas is the defendant. Free Flat Lucas!

Jason was the prosecutor and I was the judge. Flat Lucas is on the stand defending himself.

Flat Lucas watching the trial (nervously).

Flat Lucas is free! He had great representation.

Can you spot Flat Lucas... look towards the judge's chair.

Flat Lucas making a mockery of Auxiliary Court 1.

Flat Lucas Becomes A Cowboy

The whole NTC team made their way to Cavender's Boot City--the place to buy western wear like cowboy boots, hats and jeans. If we were going to spend time in Texas, we wanted to look the part.

Flat Lucas Enjoys His First Texan Barbeque

The first thing we did after arriving in Texas was have some bonafide Texan Bar-B-Q at Pappas. We were all starved from our travels.

Pappas Bar-B-Q sign behind a Texas sized truck.

The Suffolk NTC 2007 Team: (clockwise) Paul, Jason, Bobby and Cassandra

Flat Lucas attempts to become Fat Lucas.

The leftovers.