Having departed Seattle, I was on my third train of the trip; a 24 hour ride on the Amtrak Coast Starlight down to the San Francisco Bay area. Once we crossed the Columbia River in Vancouver WA, we traveled through Portland and spent most of the daylight hours staring at the Oregon countryside. For you beer aficionados out there, Oregon’s Willamette Valley is where a large percentage of aromatic hops are grown to make all of those delicious Anheuser-Busch beers.
The next morning we were cruising through Sacramento CA, my third state capital of that journey (Olympia WA and Salem OR). And since San Francisco doesn’t have an Amtrak stop, my trip ended in Emeryville, suburb of Oakland, across the bay from San Fran. My AirBnB for this stop was less than a mile from the station so I hoofed it on over to my host Laurie’s house. She had gotten a late night reservation the night before so I couldn’t check in yet. But she let me drop off my bags, brewed me a cup of coffee and allowed me to break her refrigerator in the 30 minutes I was there. She couldn’t get the water filter alarm to stop going off so I googled how to do it. And she couldn’t get her new filter to stop leaking since it wasn’t properly seated in the slot. I offered to help and the filter was a tight fit, so I gave it a little pop with my knuckles to push it all the way in. She was horrified that I “punched” her filter. No good deed goes unpunished. No, I didn’t break her fridge, although she might say differently. Speaking of differences, here is my host’s picture from AirBnB, and here is what she actually looked like. Talk about a bait and switch!
Now I had to get across the bay to San Francisco. Found the bus route and had a $3 ride across the long beautiful Bay Bridge into the city and into their palatial Transportation Center. Then a brief walk down to the waterfront and Oracle Park, home of the Giants. Time for baseball! Great seat, but the game was actually boring. I felt a little out of it and sleepy when all of a sudden a guy walks up to me and shoves his phone in my face. On his phone was a FaceTime call where my son says “Hello Father!” Wtf??? I look up at the guy next to me and it is Matthew’s best friend Zach. He’s a pilot for Frontier Airlines and he just happened to have a layover in Frisco, so he ended up in the same section in the same stadium as me. Small world.
So Zach and I hung out at the game, then hit a couple of bars. He’s young, tall, handsome, with a great job, so it made sense he would need a wingman like me to help guide him. After the game I had scheduled a Golden Sunset Cruise, so Zach went online and scooped up a ticket as well. That cruise got a little chilly as night fell but the views of the city skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Alcatraz were spectacular.
After the cruise, Zach was done; he had to fly out in the morning. I walked around the famous Fisherman’s Wharf, and eventually went to the restaurant Boudin for a nice seafood dinner. A crab stack appetizer, which was crab meat, mango, jalapeño, pesto, red onion and lime vinaigrette molded together. Quite tasty. And for my main course, a pan roasted filet of petrale sole, a flaky Pacific Ocean flatfish. Delicious.
After dinner I walked around the wharf scanning my phone for places with live jazz but there were none close by. My phone was running low on battery so I had to devise a way back across the bay. A Lyft ride home at 10:30 was going to cost $90 including tip. I worked Google maps and transportation options and found a trolley-walk-bus-walk trip that would get me back to the AirBnB for only $3, but it would take 90 minutes. Decided to be practical and take my time using the trolley/bus combo. I walked to the trolley stop and there was a long ramp up to a 3 foot high platform. A young couple was already there waiting. Ok, so the trolley door wasn’t going to be at ground level. Except that when the trolley rolled in, it was indeed at street level. The young couple jumped down to get on board. Being a little older and larger, I spent a few extra seconds trying to maneuver my way off the platform. The trolley driver honked and screamed at me. I screamed back to hang on, that I’m working on it. Got it done, got onboard and he started swearing at me. “Took you F’ing long enough. Thought you were gonna pull a wheelchair out of your bag. You ain’t F’ing Raymond Burr you know!” (Back in the 60s and 70s, the actor Raymond Burr played a San Francisco based detective in a wheelchair named Ironside. Oddly enough, that was my favorite show back then! And he was throwing it at me as a slur. I felt honored.) Finally finished my first day in the Bay Area at midnight; my scary hostess had already gone to bed.
Day 2 was football and concert day. Showered and ready to go, I bid Granny Goodwitch farewell and once again went walking to the train station. This time it was for a nice 40 minute train out to the Santa Clara suburb for the 49ers football game. Everyone on board was going to the game, all clad in their 49er red. I was sporting my new Joe Montana jersey so I fit right in. Let the train tailgating begin! Two interesting items about that train ride. The fencing and walls lining the tracks out of Oakland were all Graffiti covered. Miles and miles of it. And the ride to the suburbs had mountains! Lol, not used to seeing mountains in my suburban views.
Great weather, great seat, great brisket sandwich, great view at the game. The 49ers however, did break my streak of all the home teams winning with me in attendance. The Jacksonville Jaguars won the game that day. The Bears, Mariners, and Giants had all been accommodating in my other stadium visits.
I actually slipped out of that game early so I could beat the crowd and catch an earlier train back to Oakland. My Bay Area highlight was yet to come as I was on my way to a Haley Reinhart concert! For those of you unfamiliar with her, she finished third to country stars Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina on season 10 of American Idol. I fell in love with Haley’s jazzy raspy voice and her powerhouse vocals back then and I’ve bought all her music since then. Monica and I also drove to Chicago to see her once before, about 6-7 years ago. Haley doesn’t have superstar status, but she has a small cult following of fans like me. She plays small venues that hold just a few hundred people but she always sells them out. Oakland’s venue was Yoshi’s Sushi Bar and Jazz Club. What a name, right? And sushi is not my thing, not a fan of raw fish. But new experiences, right, so I dove into the ambiance. I had a flight of 3 different Saki wines; a sweet, a dry, and a hint of cherry flavor. Surprisingly I liked the dry one best. And then I had salmon sushi rolls! Salmon, cream cheese, avocado, cucumber, wrapped in soy paper. Not bad, but I still prefer my salmon grilled and hot. I sat right at the counter (you know, seating for one) so I got to watch Dariella my sushi chef, prepare a lot of different plates.
As for the concert, Haley did not disappoint! Her voice gives me chills. I sat there until the place cleared out. Watched her friend and fellow American Idol alum Casey Abrams taking photos with crowd members and friends. Then I walked back to the Oakland train station so I could do a 15 minute train ride back to my suburb station. Then another 15 min walk back to the Airbnb. I was exhausted. A lot of walking and a lot drinking on this San Francisco tour stop.
Then I got up early for one last 15 minute walk back to the station, again, to start my next leg of the journey. So long San Francisco, hello Los Angeles!
