Our friend CB from our university days passed away in
early December. When Anne and I first
met them, he was already working, and his wife KE a graduate student; Anne and
I were undergraduates. The last time we
saw them was 2007, more than 11 years ago; CB had undergone a lung transplant a
few year prior. We decided to attend his
memorial service, in San Ramon, this coming Saturday.
Wednesday January 9. We had gone in to NYC for a concert the night
before, and traffic was smooth in both directions. It was one of the few times
that we could use the Lincoln Tunnel, and we saw the “switch over” at 5:30 pm
as we were about to enter the tunnel.
The drive up to Newark this morning should have been
quite straightforward. We ended up
taking about 90 minutes, some of the delays was most likely caused by detours I
suggested to Eric (our Wheels driver.)
The delay was caused by an accident close to Exit 13A, as far as we
could tell there was no extensive damage to the cars, but for some reason one
car remained in the center cars-only lanes [Note added: there was a fatal truck
accident earlier in the day that spilled over to the car lane; the accident we
saw was a separate incident.] We got to
the airport at around 9:20 am for our 10 am flight. While I expected to make the flight – I did
it in less than 15 minutes a couple of years ago – we probably would have no
overhead space for our suitcases as the flight was fully booked, and we didn’t
know if the Government shutdown would cause problems with security.
Due to high winds in San Francisco, United texted us that
the flight would be delayed for 30 minutes, and the TSA pre-check line was
quite short. We took our time, but made
it to the gate area as Group 1 was boarding.
I had used my one remaining RPU certificates (regional premier upgrade)
and was waitlisted for first class. We
were planning to have Anne take the seat, although my chances of getting
upgraded was higher due to my Platinum status.
I was handed a First Class ticket as I scanned my boarding pass, but
Anne and I were separated and misunderstood where each other was. The upshot is I ended up taking the seat – a
flat bed in a ps-configured 757. I tried
but failed to get any sleep, and Anne managed to get some in Economy Plus.
Even thought the plane didn’t take off until 10:50 am, we
managed to land on time, despite the 100 mph headwinds. After we landed, we took advantage of our
Priority Pass and got something to eat at Yankee Pier.
I was handed an upgraded boarding pass as I boarded the plane. Anne sat in the Economy Plus section.
Short ribs for dinner in business class.
Getting to the rental car from the terminal took about 30
minutes (I write this down so I know how much time to allow for when I return
the car,) involving a short ride on the terminal train. I had not rented a car from either Dollar or
SFO for a while, this time the agent was quite slick in trying to upsell me. He nonchalantly said I didn’t need any thing
beyond “basic insurance,” which turned out to be something different from
“minimum insurance.” I declined. He managed to talk me into paying for “Plate
Pass” so I don’t have to use Cash lanes on toll roads (at about $12 a day), and
I also wanted the gas option as we may end up being quite rushed when we return
the car Monday. What I still don’t
understand is why the total cost ended up being quite a bit higher from what I
thought it was, and if I ended up with a higher-grade car (the terms used all
sound alike: economy, compact, mid-size, …)
Just needed to be more careful next time.
Traffic in the area was building up at around 3:30 pm,
but was generally okay in the direction of Fremont.
We had dinner at Shanghai Bistro, less than 10 minutes
away by car.
One of the dishes we ordered in Shanghai Bistro.
Hotel: Residence Inn Fremont (2 nights.)
Thursday January 10. Our original plan was to use the few extra
days to go visit some birding sites CS and John S had recommended. As I type this, most of that is up in the
air. First, National Parks are unstaffed
during the government shutdown, and some are closed. Our friend Bill had to cancel his plans to
travel to Hong Kong as his wife Louisa developed a minor health issue earlier
this week, so we planned to pay them a visit.
ML and Shirley, whom we knew also from our Cornell days, would be having
some teas to talk about their mission work.
We found out about these yesterday, and invited ourselves to the session
Sunday afternoon.
Today we went to Bill and Louisa’s house in South San
Francisco. Louisa looked good, and
prepared lunch for the four of us.
Visiting the garden of Lee's house.
Lousia prepared lunch for us.
The outside of the Lee's house. Built in the 1950s.
The inside was completely renovated. Houses on this particular street are valued at $1M on Zillow. We are talking about 1000 square foot of living space, and a lot in the 6000 to 7000 square foot range.
Both on the way over to South San Francisco and on the
way back to the hotel we stopped by this Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge
at the end of the Bay. There were quite
a few waterfowls out and about.
Dinner was at the Seoul Tofu House in the same Lion
Plaza.
Friday January 11. We drove to Davies Symphony Hall to take a
look at the home of the San Francisco Symphony.
It is a rather impressive building, next to City Hall and several
museums. We went into the City Hall to
use the restrooms, and observed many civil marriage ceremonies going on. The way couples wait their turn to go up the
stairs reminded me of Seinfeld’s “Next!” episode. The setting is quite impressive, although the
conveyor belt delivery has something to be desired. Some were dressed casually, and some in
formal bridal suits and gowns. Many of
them were taking selfies.
Davies Symphony Hall, home of San Francisco Symphony. We thought about going to an evening concert but ultimately decided against it. Jaap van Zweden was conducting ... he is really everywhere.
Marriage ceremony being performed inside City Hall.
Quite a few couples are dressed formally. The guest parties range from non-existent to small.
San Francisco is known for the number of
homeless people, and City Hall is only a few blocks away from some of the areas where the homeless congregate. We ventured a bit to the periphery of the
“hot zones” but decided not to explore in depth.
About six food trucks were parked across the street from
City Hall, and they were doing good business at lunch time. We had Cajun seafood dishes.
We then made our way to the summit of Mount Diablo. The road involved driving about 40 minutes
around many switchbacks. Today was a
slow day so I didn’t have to worry about on-coming traffic. Somewhere I read one could see 20 counties
from the mountain, but there were quite a few low clouds today, and I wouldn’t
know anyway.
A panoramic shot from one of the vista points on the way to Mt. Diablo.
Along the way we saw this red-tailed hawk hovering for quite a while. This was the first time we saw a raptor do something like this (they usually glide).
The actual summit of Mt. Diablo (elevation 3849 ft) is inside this tower. Quite unusual.
Two views from the parking lot at the top of the mountain.
After checking into the hotel, we went to dinner at
InChin’s Bamboo Garden.
Hotel: Marriott San Ramon (2 nights).
Saturday January 12. Today was the memorial service for
Chyi-Bin, whom Anne and I knew since our freshmen year in college. There were other Cornell contemporaries who
also attended, and we had a chance to catch up.
Friends from our Cornell days.
CS, Anne and I stopped by Rebecca’s house for a bit later
in the afternoon. I picked up and
dropped off CS at the BART station.
Sunday January 13. We stopped by ML and Shirley’s home
to attend an informational meeting by an organization. What’s remarkable is that their house has
increased value more than 10-fold over the course of 30 some years. The housing market is so tight that many
working-class people cannot afford a roof over their heads. Their church has been providing their parking
lot for cars to park (and people to sleep in) over night. I imagine at some point things will come to a
head. Anne met up with her classmate
from high school whom she had not seen for over 50 years (he left before
graduation to move to the US.)
ML and Shirley have owned this home for 30+ years. The house has appreciated over ten times over this time period.
Photo with Agnes and Kenneth. Anne and Kenneth were high school classmates but hadn't seen each other for over 50 years. Coincidentally Agnes and I went to the Girls and Boys schools under the same division.
We then drove up to Sacramento to Ken Jr’s place and met
their daughter who is about 16 months old.
They had come back from Shanghai a few days ago, so were still suffering
from jetlag. We opted to get takeout
from a nearby Shanghai restaurant and ate at their house.
Jenna, Ken Jr, and Jin.
Jenna warmed up to Anne quickly. She was finally comfortable enough to let me do a high five with her.
Hotel: TownePlace Sacramento Cal Expo (1 night.)
Monday January 14. Anna called and suggested we have an earlier
breakfast at Pilothouse of Delta King Hotel, a hotel converted from an old
riverboat. She brought along Jenna and
Ms. Fong. We stayed until around 11 am
and started our trip to the airport.
Getting over to the airport for our 3 pm flight was easy
enough this time of day, even though traffic was heavy during the entire 90-plus
minute drive. In my many years of flying
this had to be one of the worst experiences I have encountered. I have experienced longer delays (sometimes
as much as a day), but this was not so much caused by mechanical problems or
weather (it contributed some), but by an accumulation of bad decisions and lack
of coordination.
Let me try to reconstruct what happened. To do this I referred to flightaware.com, flightradar24.com,
flightstats.com, and united.com. On the
day of the flight the gate assigned at SFO was 83, and the plane had a tail
number of N588UA. The APP told us it
would be Gate 89, which was reasonable enough, and we dutifully went over there
after getting something to eat at Yankee Pier, again. Sitting at the end of the jetway was a 777
bound for Denver. It had been delayed for so long that some passengers were
deplaning. The agents reassured us our
plane would pull up as soon as that flight departed. Eventually many people waiting at the gate
area departed, and sure enough the gate was changed to 82 – we just got
notified a bit later. Fair enough. We eventually boarded the plane at around 4
pm (working from memory, didn’t note the time.)
The pilot came on and explained there was a fuel imbalance in the
wings. I read up on the issue, and it
isn’t one you want to have as the plane may end up difficult to control. Again fair enough. But the process was slow,
first a mechanic had to show up, then they needed a fuel truck for the slow fuel
transfer process. And we waited for
both. It was 5:51 pm that the plane officially
left the gate. SFO evidently is poorly configured (the pilot certainly
mentioned it many times) and the weather often compounds the problem. The upshot was we were sitting at the gate
for a long time, and wheels up was at 7:15 pm. Touch down was around 3:05 am. So we had a red eye flight. Surprisingly it wasn’t difficult to find an
Uber, and at less than $34 it wasn’t expensive.
During all this, no one complained, not loudly
anyway. When I walked back to the back
of the plane, the flight attendant sitting there told me he had been working
for four days, and just wanted to get home.
We have all been turned into sheep.
Another good thing was the meal was actually quite tasty, and the flight
attendants were generally helpful. The
planes were packed for both our flights.
So we got home at around 4 am, and I didn’t get to sleep
until after 6. Anne had a morning class
later that morning, so she went to bed earlier than that.
