SF trip, part one

Today's post covers a quick trip Boo and I took to the SF Bay area to celebrate my birthday in February. I've made no secret of how much we like visiting SF. Now that my sister lives in the East Bay, visits become all the better... and less expensive. This got long, so I split it into two.

Oakland Airport

Terminal 1

It starts with flying in and out of Oakland Airport. While there are lots of airports which look worse, very few of those are in the US. Seriously, the Oakland Airport is hammered. As challenging as it is to navigate through, its lack of cleanliness really makes it a pit. All foot traffic is routed through narrow passageways from the gates down through baggage claim and then out onto 10 lanes of tarmac where various transportation options pass by. We found our way to the car rental shuttle which carries those intending to rent a car from the airport, past some warehouses and the Airplane Institute of Repair to a one-stop-shop for all rental car businesses working "the airport".

Thrifty

We didn't want to be a burden on friends and family, so we reserved a rental car from Thrifty. They weren't thrifty. Nor were they efficient. It was actually very similar to the old Seinfeld episode when he rented a car (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T2GmGSNvaM).

Because of the shuttle model, the customers arrive at the counter in waves. Where once there was no line, suddenly there are 10 people, and the only reason why the first person is first is because s/he simply ran faster. Animosity is created immediately. That first person in line is led through a long series of questions about their rental. Each time, the questions aren't really complete, so the customer needs to ask follow up questions. For example: do you want a FastPass? What's a FastPass? It allows you to get through the bridges faster. Do you want one? What does it cost? $14... This goes on for a while, as the rep slowly explains that some bridges are slower than others and some don't accept cash, etc. So, by the end of it all, you get this picture that the bridges around SF are a complete nightmare only held at bay by getting the FastPass. Do you want insurance? More cross talk about how your own insurance doesn't actually cover you in their rental car, etc. Do you want to pre-pay gas so you don't need to find a gas station before you return the car? That sounds lazy, but the rep explains that the gas prices around SF are very high and finding a gas station in the knotted mess of streets and highways takes a person far more brave than any of us. At about this time, one of the slower runners behind you in line starts yelling about how long it's taking. Perfect. We haven't even gone through the 15 questions on the ATM pad yet. Eventually, we are drifting away from the counter, perplexed and confused. Our $200 reservation had blossomed into a $600 car rental. At least we had a car....

not actual photo, but it was
this big and this empty

Behind the counters in the rental building are glass doors which lead to another counter in a hut adjacent to an empty parking lot. Leaning against the building are travelers, baggage propped around them. Their faces tell the tale: they have been waiting, and they are long past losing their patience. They are now resigned to their fate. Boo and I entered the hut and stood in the queue to learn that the empty lot was what they had for cars. We joined the weary travelers in the mid-day sun and watched the process: a car is returned and handed to a guy sitting under an awning. He quickly removes any trash from the inside, drives the car through the car wash and then over to the hut. After about 30 minutes of waiting, our name was called for a Chrysler 200.

SF, Albany and BART
Leveraging Google Maps, we easily navigated to my sister's place in Albany. Since she was also traveling, Boo and I had the afternoon to ourselves. We walked Solano Ave, checking out the stores and decompressing. We met my sister and grabbed boil-in-a-bag dinner from La Bedaine. The chef Alain, had catered the anniversary dinner a year ago, and we'd been spoiled for French food ever since. Amazing. Truly incredible food. We stayed up late drinking wine and laughing through old memories.

The following morning was our only full day in the Bay Area, so we hopped BART down to our usual haunt: Civic Center / UN Plaza. Or, the west entrance to the Tenderloin. In our case, it was really the east entrance to Little Saigon (what we'd been calling Thai Town). Following a trend of food, we hit Lers Ros Thai for lunch after a quick visit to some friends working at Adobe, south of Market. Lers Ros just seems to get better every time we go. So tasty. We walked off lunch with an uphill hike to Japan Town in a steady drizzle. After replenishing our incense supply at Kohshi, we headed back downhill towards the BART, stopping at Harry Harrington's Pub (corner of Turk & Larkin) for hapy hour. Drinks took us past rush hour, so we grabbed a somewhat empty train back to the East Bay. We arrived after my sister's favorite pizza place closed, so we got pies at her 2nd favorite place (the name of which I don't remember). The next morning, we hit The Sunny Side Cafe for brunch, effectively hitting every place we liked the last time we'd been in the Bay Area.

Next time, I'll cover our stop in San Rafael and Dillon Beach. Thanks for following along!