Wrapping Up a Lovely Trip ... Almost
The tail end of my California trip went very nicely... in fact, about as perfectly as they come. On Sunday, I got a ride down to the BART station from Christy, and had a bagel and coffee outside near the Ferry Terminal in SF. While having lunch, an aggressive panhandler walked among the tables; I gave the palms open shrug of "nope, nothing for you here." He replied vehemently, "Yeah, well fuck you man!" Huh. At that point, I figured the only sensible response was to raise an eyebrow, and toast him with my coffee cup while cheerily responding, "Ok, same to you!" Sometimes, I love the city.
I hopped CalTrain down to Sunnyvale--it's important to realize just how spread out the Bay Area is (an observation pointed out to me by others). Going from San Francisco to San Jose is about the same distance as going from Boston to Providence. I find it odd that somebody would commute that distance on a daily basis. But I'm definitely glad CalTrain is there--a nice quiet ride, and finished off the weekly family phone call.
The Sunnyvale trip was to spend time with Jen, Schmooz, Max, & Delaney. A low-key cookout, with special guest appearances by Spackle, Bradley and his fiance Janie, as well as sMark and a friend of his--who just chanced into the cookout pretty randomly (sMark called U-Boat and Christy, and ended up getting directed here).
A lovely dinner with friends under the wisteria on the patio in a perfect climate in the Bay Area is a good occasional reminder that life is worth living.
And Bradley got to show off his iPhone.
The travel home, however, was not quite lovely. It added up to an eight seat ride:
- Taxi to Sunnyvale Station
- CalTrain to Millbrae
- BART to SFO
- Shuttle train to terminal
- SFO-BOS cross-country flight
- Silver Line to South Station
- Red Line to Harvard
- 77 Bus to home
Okay, so the fiddly little shuttle trips weren't bad. But the flight was 6.5 hours in a middle seat. With the person in front of me reclining the seat. And Blades of Glory as the in-flight movie. Didn't manage to get any sleep. Yeah, ugh. It was bad enough that my body made me sleep in to 10:30 the next morning to recover.
posted by Bats @ 2:03 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I admire your commitment to public transport.
But I think, after five seats and SFO-BOS, I'd spend some of my hard-earned cash now I'm no longer a grad student and take a cab. Your soul will thank you.
Wahhh. That picture of the cookout makes me miss the Bay Area a lot. A lot a lot. I spent many many afternoons on that patio. I need to go back to visit.
Wahhh. That picture of the cookout makes me miss the Bay Area a lot. A lot a lot.
Heh... here's your chance, Christy! Lure him back! ;)
Yeah, I think the Bay Area misses you too. Then again, it's worthwhile to have you in New York to hang out with there.
Incidentally--two dinners with Schmooz in 3 days!--he flew to Boston the same day I did for a LIGO conference at the 'tute, and had a dinner shindig at T-Stop & Jessie's.
* Taxi to Sunnyvale Station
* CalTrain to Millbrae
* BART to SFO
* Shuttle train to terminal
* SFO-BOS cross-country flight
* Silver Line to South Station
* Red Line to Harvard
* 77 Bus to home
Ooh, loser poker: I can top that!
- two hour cab ride to Beijing airport.
- 13.5 hour flight to IAD
- 22 hour holdover
- IAD to BOS
- 45 min ride home.
of course, I'm leaving out the details like I got to spend that holdover with my sister (and see her house in Bethesda for the first time) and I got door-to-door service from all airports involved.
I'm with josakana. Especially after a long travel day. Dude, you've earned a cab. As travel goes, it's a sliver of the total carbon footprint.
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