In September 2004, I joined my wife and a boatload of school children, transportation enthusiasts and homeless people on a ferry tour of the Port of Oakland, one of the first ports to focus on intermodal shipping containers.

Shipping companies have two choices, style-wise, when it comes to intermodal shipping:

A) Patchwork Quilt

B) Monochromatic (with a drop of orange)

They also are free express their personalities through accessorizing.

One style that is universally bad, even at a cargo port: heavy metal dad (although this man does get some credit for looking like Ronnie James Dio rather than Dee Snider).

This tour coincided with our purchase of a new digital camera and, subsequently, the learning of this lesson: in the hands of an unskilled photographer, pictures taken while leaning against the rail of a moving ferry boat can be blurry.

Fun Fact: First introduced in the 1950s, cargo containers dominate international trade because the 8' x 8' x 20-45' metal containers can be moved rapidly from ocean-going ships to rail, trucks or barges.

Since 1962, the Port of Oakland has spent $1.4 billion on cranes, landfills, rail lines, dredging and other infrastructure necessities, while making sure to maintain the fine views of San Francisco.

Not all views are quite so fine, however.