I spent most of last week on the 4th Street Garage in downtown San Jose watching the peregrine falcons on City Hall. I even had an opportunity to visit the mayor’s office on the 18th floor to view Meyye on the Brise Soleil (see picture on left). All three young peregrines have fledged and each has had their own share of (mis)adventure. Each one had to be rescued and returned to the top of City Hall and the young male, Mercury, has had two trips back up. Now they seem fairly content to take short flights near by then returning to the nest area. Up until last night, they are spending the nights together near the nest under their mothers watchful eye. Their flying skills are improving each day and it’s only a matter of time until they all go their separate ways. For more pictures, see San Jose Peregrines 2008.

On Saturday Mary and I hiked Mission Peak as usual. Nick has been joining us on the hike as well. We spent most of the afternoon downtown with the falcons. In the evening we went to see some exhibits for 01SJ, a biennial global festival of art on the edge. A lot of the art exhibits make use of digital technologies and there are events all over downtown. The most interesting exhibit I saw was the City Hall Rotunda Concert + Lighting by Craig Walsh (picture on right). It consisted of a large scale projection display on the glass walls of the City Hall Rotunda. It covered the first two floors of the building and looked like three dimensional tentacles growing and pressing against the glass. The tentacles kept growing and changing colors. It was pretty neat. I don’t think we heard the music that was supposed to accompany the exhibit. I didn’t see much else that I found interesting. You can click on the picture of the rotunda for to see a few more pictures.

On Sunday we spent more time with the falcons downtown, but we didn’t see much action. I’m sure we’ll visit off and on while the falcons continue to explore the city. In the mean time, I guess I’ll have to start thinking about what I want to do next regarding my career. Maybe I can just fly off with the falcons instead…