Time Wasting Crap

This is just a little free form post. I tried to get a post or two ahead, but it just didn't work out. 50~50 if I produce something of quality for tomorrow. Today, I will settle for this piece of crap to just to maintain the everyday status. 

I have been using the "schedule" function of posting to keep on track for a different project (I have a goal to reach before I open those nuggets to the public.) it works great, but I didn't get any done for this post, so you will have to suffer.

But, perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on myself. It could be worse. I fact, it was so at lunch. I will not name him for it could just be my perception that he was a total waste of time  but I know I'm right. My time is valuable (so, thanks for reading this) and it took all that I had not to walk out and put 35 minutes of my life to a better use, like solving string theory.

Imagine the worst SNL skit about a motivational speaker and add 50 minutes to it. Then add jokes that Carl Reiner lampooned over 50 years ago. You now have a more interesting presentation that what I suffered through. But I was able to get seconds on churros, so at least I gained some weight.

A Great Rail Day Trip pt.2

This post continues the Great Rail Day Trip that we started yesterday. To recap, we take the northbound San Joaquin, train # 711. It is the first one of the day, so don’t oversleep! We stay on the train until the end of the line at Oakland. If you didn’t follow my advice and took advantage of “one for the road” at last call, you probably fell asleep on the trip. Since it is the terminus, the crew wants you off the train to make the turnaround and will wake your ass up.

The next part of our trip involves taking catching the ferry to the ballpark. And I do mean TO the ballpark. There are many great elements to the Giants home field, one of which is that it is right on the water and the ferry will dock right next to the park. Your walk to the upper deck inside the park will be longer than your walk from the ferry to the ballpark gate.

But first you have to catch the ferry. It is an easy walk from the train station to the dock for the ferry. The train will get into Oakland around 11 am and the ferry departs the Oakland dock at 11:30; plenty of time to walk at a leisurely pace, but you shouldn’t plan on stopping for a double chi triple pump caramel low fat soy decaf mocha.

Now the ferry dock is much more than a floating walkway and there really are no facilities to speak of. You can’t miss it, though, there’ll be a line already formed. These are the people who didn’t buy a pre-paid ticket and lined up before the first ball player got dressed to make sure they get a seat. But you were smart and bought a ticket online weeks ago.

Again, you were smart and bought a round-trip ticket for the ferry a month ago when planning to do this day trip. My last call advice is somewhat tongue in cheek, but please follow this tip, you don’t want to be part of the mass that gets turned away.

As you’re getting on the ferry, think about where you want to sit. If it is summer, it could be absolutely stunning out in the open. The sun is shining, the view of the city from the water is incredible, and just when you’re getting a little too hot, you catch a breeze or a gentle spay of water to cool you off. But don’t be a rookie, pack a light windbreaker, for we are talking about San Francisco where the first aid stations treat tourists for hypothermia.

The lack of a scenic view in the valley is completely forgotten once you’re on the ferry. First you will see the giant cranes at the port of Oakland and the vacated Alameda Naval Air station. But the magic really starts as the estuary opens to the Bay proper and you get incredible views of the Bay Bridge looking up from the water. As you near San Francisco and the ballpark, even the locals are turning the heads, taking in the sight of their beloved city from a different angle.

As mentioned, the ferry will dock right next to the stadium, so you merely have to walk down the gangway and get in line for the gate. Usually, there is another ferry arriving around the same time and, combined with the mass of others entering the park and a more thorough security check, you will have a wait to get in.

If you haven’t seen a Giants home game, you really should, no matter how you get there. The physical structure is very impressive and it’s fun just to walk around, feel the excitement of the fans, and see the variety of vendors. (But be prepared to take out a second mortgage for that large beer.)

For those who’ve only watched baseball on TV, it really is a different game live, in person. It is a different, more enjoyable experience. And the AT&T Park has the added bonus of the best view of any sports venue in the country. So even if the action on the field doesn’t hold you attention, looking out into the Bay will. Don’t worry, you won’t be the only one memorized by the view and missing the 5-4-3 double play.

Now there is a timing issue involved in this trip and that is catching the last southbound San Joaquin leaving Oakland at 5:00 PM. The ferry will leave a half hour after the last out of the game. A couple of extra innings won’t kill you, but if the game starts hitting the four hour mark, you have to make a call to get back to Jack London Square and the train station or getting a room in SF and watching the end of the game.

After the game the process is repeated; get on the ferry to Oakland and then get on the train home. Sometimes there is enough time after landing in Oakland to get something to eat or drink in Jack London Square in case you ran out of kidneys to sell at the game for a hamburger. But again, you can buy something in the café car for dinner on the train.

If you like the views on the ride up, make sure to sit on the opposite side of the train going south. Some people will just be snoozing after getting up early and being in the sun all day, others will enjoy a couple of cocktails on the way home.

A word of caution here, if you’re not going all the way to Bakersfield (props to anyone being a Giants fan AND living in Bakersfield) it is important to get off at your stop; the train doesn’t back up for you and as it is the last train of the day, you might have to spend the night in Wasco. The conductor will wake you up when they pick up the seat check for your stop, but it can be far enough before the stop, for those so inclined, to fall back asleep and miss their station. I’ve seen it happen.

This is a great day trip, especially for those in the valley. It is a fun ride and feels fantastic to beat the Valley heat for a day. It is doable in a day and, without the driving, it is very relaxing. Worth skipping last call and getting up early.

A Great Rail Day Trip

Yesterday, I was writing about my preference for taking the train and promised a great day trip. This also includes seeing the Giants at AT&T (or whatever telecommunications conglomerate it is this year) Park. It is doable from any city on the San Joaquin route, but the Bay Area communities will probably take a BART option.

It should be noted that BART is also a passenger rail system that does have a strong commuter element to it. It ranges far enough where it really isn’t considered a metro, it is definitely inter-city (please don’t read it as “inner-city”, that will contradict my point) and used heavily outside commute hours.

But my day trip also uses a uniquely Bay Area public system, the ferry. In the past, crossing any body of water required a ferry. But as bridges became ubiquitous, ferry companies died out like video stores. Large metropolitan areas situated in a bay or deep water, such as New York or Seattle, still have ferry systems. (This scarcity really only applies to the US. Other countries invest in their public transportation systems and all sorts of modes are thriving.)

You start your morning getting to the train station for the 711 the northbound San Joaquin. For Fresno, it means getting up in time for the 6:50 am departure. A little earlier than you might awake if you were driving, but not too heinous, unless your last call last night was a Jäger Bomb and a shot of tequila.

Cities north of Fresno will have a later departure, certainly in the range of most people’s normal waking time. Cities south of Fresno will have to get up earlier, so they should lay off the late night beer pong. This is especially sage advice for the train that leaves Bakersfield at a very early 4:50 am. (But that far south, they are Dodger fans and their interest in going to a Giants game is somewhere between being sued and attending a time-share sales pitch.)

As previously mentioned, the train is a very comfortable trip. You can grab some grub in the café car (The breakfast burrito is tasty!) or bring your own breakfast and just buy hot coffee. Now, you ARE in the valley, so if you’ve driven 99, you know it’s not the most scenic trip. But the springtime offers some great sights of orchards in bloom and there are a couple of interesting spots from the train.

Going north, just after the Merced stop, the train will travel next to the former Castle Air Force base. You can catch a quick view of the static display of planes that now are part of a public museum. (This is a great collection and worthy of a trip in and of itself.)

Another military historical sight is Port Chicago and the Concord Naval Weapons Station. The train bisects the base and you start having a great view of as the Sacramento River turns into the SF Bay. On the landward side of the train, you can see the bunkers were nuclear weapons were kept during the Cold War. During WWII, there was an ammunition explosion here that killed many servicemen, civilians, and is a chapter in the Civil Rights story. 

The train follows the water’s edge for about 30 minutes. It moves it slowest here. The water is just feet away and the speed reduction helps maintain track integrity. But the outstanding side effect is the extra time you get to enjoy some of the best views of the Bay.

Most of the remaining passengers will get off at Emeryville, which is the bus connection to San Francisco. In the early days of the Bay Bridge, the lower level had train tracks and you could ride all the way into SF. If you are going into the city, this is the transfer station for the Amtrak connection, but you can also get off at Richmond and catch BART. The BART station is adjacent to the Amtrak station and you just walk down one flight of stairs and climb another to reach the BART platform. If my lazy ass can do it, then it’s an option for you, too.

You will stay on the train and get off at the end of the line-Oakland (I’m tempted to make a snarky comment about Oakland and the end of the line, but I live in Fresno and sometimes the pot should just shut the hell up.)

 Jack London Square is just a few feet from the Oakland station and our next step/stop is at the other end of this area. Since the post is getting long and I still have a couple of things to do today (I know, I know, nothing is more important than reading my ramblings), I will stop here and continue on tomorrow’s post.

To be continued…

Up next, the ferry, the game, and the return.

Taking the Train

I was trying to think of a blog post for today and drawing a blank. Naturally, the perfect solution was to procrastinate even more by playing a game on the computer. I’m old and prefer board games over modern video games.

The modern advantage is the ability to find on opponent online instead of bribing someone in the house to play a game they really don’t want to play. So, I tell myself, “one game and then time to write”; it usually is a lie and the next thing you know 90 minutes have passed. But this time, my choice of game (Ticket to Ride, a board game involving trains) suggested the topic for today, trains.

I love trains. Now, my level of enthusiasm doesn’t reach the level of radio scanners, taking videos of trains, or memorizing engine numbers (Google ‘railfan’). But the train is my preferred method of travel. If I’m going anywhere in California by myself, I will look at the Amtrak schedule and try to plan around it.

 San Francisco and Sacramento are two of my most common trips and the San Joaquin route from Fresno offers great options. There is a certain distance in which the passenger train can be competitive with the airplane and even the personal car.

Commuter trains are still viable with high employment densities, such as New York and DC. In fact, those areas often have the density to support an independent intra-city light rail in additional to larger commuter trains to the burbs. But inter-city trains for non-commuter purposes and be successful, too.

With a higher train speed, the competitive radius can include air travel. In California, LA and SF are the perfect distance for a high speed train to directly compete with the airlines. Limited landing/takeoff slots, operational issues, and congested terminals add to the actual time needed for air travel and increase the distance in which the slower moving passenger train trips end up taking a similar amount of time.

What about comfort? Unless you are suckering your company for business class or selling a kidney for first class, there is absolutely no comparison between the cattle class of the airline and a standard seat on a passenger train. On a train, you can actually get up from the window seat and stand in the aisle without feeling that you and your seatmate are part of a circus contortionist act like on a plane.

The train is more relaxing. This is bonus for rail passengers. When an airplane passenger gets off the plane, there is stress to be out of that damn tinned can and get a breath of fresh air. As they approach the station, rail passengers are not anxious about escaping, but excited about arriving.

Now, the passenger train in the United States faces some problems. No question. Sharing tracks with freight trains, city planning that encourages automobile ownership, lack of governmental support given to other forms of transportation. Sometimes there are delays on the train, but cars do break down and flights also do get cancelled.

I will stay a train supporter. The San Joaquin is a good choice out of Fresno and tomorrow I will write of a great day trip that is doable on the train.

Fresno Bucket List continued

This post continues the listing of things to experience in Fresno, let’s not say before you die (that’s so, negative), but “at least once”. The ground rules are it still must exist and be available (no riding a street car to the river), within an hour’s drive of Fresno (three hours to Santa Cruz Boardwalk is not a Fresno activity), and a third generation should be discovering it (a movie at Edward’s doesn’t count).

A recap of what I suggested yesterday (for those unfamiliar with the scroll down feature of modern computers).

Eat a chicken pot pie at the Chicken Pot Pie Shop

See a movie at the Tower Theater

Take a walk on the Fulton Mall

Play at Blackbeard’s

Following on the play theme of Blackbeard’s, the only discussion about putting Roeding Park on this list is should there be individual credit for the zoo, Playland, and Storyland. I think each is a great experience and worthy as a unique listing themselves. But I would add that for Roeding Park to count, you have to feed the ducks, play on a jungle gym, or have a picnic. Driving through the park to get to one of the above doesn’t count for out purposes here. Get out of the car.

One item that DOES count when just “driving through” is Christmas Tree Lane. This is a no-brainer for a Fresno list of things to do. For anyone who has lived a year or more in Fresno, there is no need to recount the history of Christmas Tree Lane. Walking it (on or off designated days), doing Huntington Boulevard’s version, or seeing the luminaria of the Bullard area county island counts as extra points towards being a Fresnan.

I’ve bagged on Fresno not being close enough to the coast to count, but there is a water’s edge that counts and that is Millerton Lake. This fits all our criteria to a tee, half hour outside of Fresno, past and current generations are using. Though, if drought conditions worsen, it might not be available, but then we’ll have worse problems than were to play. Camping, fishing, water skiing, most outdoor activities take place here and doing any at Millerton count towards experiencing it.

A very unique Fresno experience is the Forestiere Underground Gardens. For those unfamiliar with the story Baldassare Forestiere came to Fresno and built an incredible network of underground passages, rooms, courtyards with skylights (by hand!) to help escape the Fresno heat. While it may seem crazy to do so, one only has to spend one Fresno summer day with no AC to realize he was on to something.

This is just a sampling of what the list could contain. Perhaps we need to break it into categories like food, events, day to day experiences. I would also have some little things like buying fruit from a street-side stall. Not unique to Fresno, but often grown within eyesight. Buying something from the Central Fish Market. Sure, other places have bigger, more impressive Chinatowns and fish markets, but that one is ours and a Fresnan should say they have been there.

Those are just a few of my items for a Fresno Bucket List. What are yours? Leave a comment and perhaps we’ll start an official list or website. That sounds like a good project. I’ll add it to my list.

Fresno Bucket List

I think everyone is familiar with the bucket list concept, things to accomplish before you die. This post will put a twist on it and a local focus. What are some local things that every Fresnan should do or have done. I don’t want to put a “before death” element on it, per se, but just a kind of checklist that cannot be completed elsewhere.

Unfortunately, some things will be impossible for younger generations to complete, such as having a draught beer from an ice cold goblet at the Hofbrau (Old Fresno and now the Silver Dollar, too), having lunch at the Farmer’s Market (OK, showing my age on that one), or bowling a game at Cedar Lanes. But there are some things, quite a few things, which can still be experienced. My intention is to not only suggest my own, but gather some from readers, both local and visitors.

I think a certain distance radius needs to be in play. I think everyone should visit one of the nearby National Parks and/or Forests, but we can’t really claim them to be part of the Fresno psyche as many people will see them without stepping foot in Fresno (sorry FYI, the airport is not really close to Yosemite and not very international). The same is true of the beaches of the central coast. Sure, it’s great that they are close enough for a long day trip, but Fresnans can’t really claim them as our own.

Obviously, to have import to several generations, we’re not talking about a T.Applechiligan’s that opened on a stand alone pad in front of Target three years ago. But it doesn’t have to be on the Historical Registry, either.

Let’s make the parameters still open or accessible, within an hour’s drive of Fresno and at least the second generation of Fresnans is introducing the experience to their offspring or younger generation.

I will start with one that I haven’t done; eat a chicken pot pie at The Chicken Pot Pie shop in the Tower district. (This is on the top of my mind. As I write this, it is close to midnight and I’m hungry). I have eaten there, but haven’t had a pot pie, so I’m making that a condition.

While we’re in the Tower District, let’s throw in a movie at the Tower Theater; live shows don’t count, movies only. (Why? First time there was a move.) Extra credit for sitting in the balcony.

Walking on the Fulton Mall. This is a big one for me. I will spare you too much personal reflection and current political status. I will use the topic more in future posts. Let’s just say it is threatened and you’ve been warned that you might lose the opportunity to experience it.

Play at Blackbeard’s. Over the years, they have added rides to the facility, so we’ll count doing anything at Blackbeard’s. It isn’t the oldest amusement park (small scale, of course) in Fresno and is actually recent when compared others in Fresno history, Zapp’s Park, i.e., photographed in the Pop Laval collection. But it still exists, thus meeting the availability requirement.

To be continued tomorrow…