San Francisco

My dev manager says that I have visited more places in the US in 2 years time than he has in 11 years. Saving Orlando and Alaska I have been to most other tourist destinations in the US. But the place that has interested me most is the oldest city of the western US coastline, the place known as the Silicon valley. I have been to this city many times and I get a feeling similar to that of home here. Pity that MS doesn't have a development center here. Most of the cities in the west like LA, LV and Portland are newer cities that have been rebuilt more recently. It shows in the buildings in these cities that most of them have been planned and built in such a way that none of them have any history.

Other cities like NY and NJ have a lot of business centric life styles. One cannot find an old structure still maintained beautifully in these cities. But the city of SFO is a nice mixture of both early US styles and a modern outlook. It is one of the oldest cities of US but still happens to be one of the costliest places though it is not a business hub. I have been here so many times that I know what jokes the guides say to the tourists at Mystery Spot and at what time of the tour :) :) but I still would happily take up a job here any day.

The other thing that strikes me about this city, and makes me long to be a part of it, is the weather. Such weather would let me ride my motor bike all throughout the year as against being able to ride only for 3 months in Seattle. A place where I don't have to look up the weather everyday morn before starting the day is always better than walking around in drizzling conditions all year long. Most of the software giants like Google, Apple, Cisco, HP, Oracle, Yahoo to name of few are headquartered here.

Not that other cities are not good but I would kill to work out of this city and enjoy what it has to offer now that Senthil would also move out there eventually. Lets see what fate has in store for me :) :).