iPhone 3G: The San Francisco Treat -- Part 2

Last week, Mark and I took a “brothers-only” trip to San Francisco. I believe an earlier blog post stated incorrectly that our last trip together was in 1996. I stand corrected. Our last trip was to San Diego for the 2000 Holiday Bowl.

Let’s not kid ourselves. This trip had iPhone 3G written all over it. True, I was out there for business, but when we learned on June 9 that the next iPhone would be released during our San Francisco stay, work seemed to fade into the background. Here’s a blow-by-blow account of what went down in our quest for the iPhone 3G. I’m convinced the Microsoft gods were conspiring against us the moment we left Cedar Park.

Tuesday
3:30 pm – Leave Cedar Park to catch 6:30 pm Jet Blue flight
6:30 pm – Jet Blue flight departs Austin
7:30 pm – After circling Austin five times, we land back in Austin. Reason: Faulty landing gear door sensor.
11:30 pm – Flight is grounded for the evening.
11:31 pm – Book back-up Southwest Airlines flight for next morning.

Wednesday
12:30 am – We spend the night at the Holiday Inn Town Lake. We thought it’d be fun to play like tourists to Austin. Bad idea. This place is/was a dump.
1:00 am – Go to bed expecting new Jet Blue flight in the morning.
6:00 am -- Jet Blue flight is cancelled. Natives become restless.
8:30 am – Southwest gets us to San Francisco. God Bless Herb Kelleher.

Thursday
8:00 am – David goes to work. Mark tours Stanford and rides train up and down the Penninsula. Scouts out three Apple retail stores. After much discussion, Palo Alto is agreed upon as the best chance for a phone.
5:00 pm – Brothers James catch the Cal Train into San Francisco. Walk around Union Square, the Embarcadero and near AT&T Park.
10:00 pm – Back at hotel for one final iPhone sync.

Friday
5:30 am -- Two coffees and two Odwalla bars. No time for the restaurant. There’s phones to be had!
6:45 am – Arrive at Palo Alto Apple store a few blocks from Stanford. Already 200th in line. Make some nerd friends and get lots of great free goodies. Best gift: iPhone screen polisher.
10:00 am – Get to counter only to be told we can’t buy an iPhone 3G at the Apple Store. Both our accounts are on corporate plans and therefore locked. Only AT&T can access our accounts. We fight back the tears and push on.
10:30 am – Mountain View AT&T store is sold out. Try to find three more AT&T stores with no luck.
11:30 am – Head to Palo Alto AT&T store. Wait in parking lot for 2 ½ hours. Survive on free water and Dum-Dum suckers. We later find out this is the highest-grossing AT&T store in the US.
12 pm – I get the last iPhone 3G at the AT&T store.
12:30 pm – Head back to Apple store. Mark marches to front of line and tell security guard our “situation.” The Apple rep remembers us and takes Mark to the next available Apple rep. He says, “You’ve waited in line long enough.”
12:45 pm – Mark has an iPhone 3G. The trip is officially a success.
1:15 pm – We celebrate with a sushi lunch and a Red Mango dessert.
2:30 pm – High on Apple, we drive to Apple’s corporate headquarters in Cupertino. We ask to go to the restroom inside the corporate offices so we can get a glimpse inside Steve Jobs’ inner sanctum.
2:45 pm – Relive the day over Starbuck’s coffee.

Saturday
Spend the day walking around the University of California – Berkely campus and driving down Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway). Dip our feet in the freezing Pacific Ocean.