Sunday, December 23, 2012

Day 9: Salinas to Santa Maria

We woke up at 4:50 in the morning, and quickly brushed our teeth and got dressed. Last evening, we asked for a taxi a 5:10, so we hurried out of the building and boarded the taxi. In about 5 minutes, we arrived at the Salinas Transit Center. It was pretty well-lit at 5:20 in the morning, but we still had trouble finding GATE 8 for  our bus. It was hidden behind a big bush, and separated from the rest of the TC. I found an unmarked change machine, and we used it to get some quarters. It was very cold, so I zipped up my coat and read a book.


At about 5:30, the bus pulled in. It was the same big, Greyhound style bus we rode on the 55. I wondered: Why do they use such big buses on not-so-crowded routes? After five minutes, the doors opened, and we bought our day passes and settled in. We had front-row seats, so we could see out of the windshield! So I took some pictures and fell asleep.

A few hours later, we arrived at Fort Hunter Ligget. Someone got on the bus and took everyone's ID (except the bus drivers and mine). FHL is a large expanse with very few trees, and everywhere in sight there is only yellow, dusty ground. I was glad I would get out quickly! The bus dropped us off at a shelter in the middle of the complex, and turned off the engine. A few minutes later, another bus pulled up in front of the 82. This was the 83, out next leg of the journey. We had a 20 minute wait, so I pulled out my Nook, and Appa took some pictures. I felt like I was stranded, and was thankful that we didn't need to stay here any longer.

Then, the 83 opened its doors, and we got in. It had big, squishy seats, and we immediately fell asleep. I woke up in Paso Robles. We rolled in to the AMTRAK station, and got off. Paso Robles station was nice and quiet, and had lots of shade. The next bus, the 9, arrived soon to the station. It used the same type of bus as the 83, yet with less comfy seats. It winded down Route 101 to San Luis Obispo making many stops at intermediate cities. One time, a slightly drunk man got on the bus, and tried to pay his fare. The farebox said "Coin not valid" in a female voice, and the guy muttered "Only a woman would say that" .

We arrived in sunny SLO, at the transfer station. We took the 4 bus to IHOP, and had (in my opinion) one of the best breakfasts of the trip. The only problem was that when we finished our orange juice, they took it and refilled them. That was okay, until they started to bring more and more glasses of orange juice, piling them on top of the ones we finished! They kept bringing more and more, so I asked the maitre 'd to stop bringing us orange juice. A few minutes later, the manager came by, smirked, and said "How 'bout some more orange juice?" We all burst out laughing.

After visiting the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, a super old monastery with an amazing garden and a museum full of really old artifacts, we hopped on the next bus #10 to Santa Maria. It took us to the Santa Maria transit center, an uncovered concrete expanse with small buses and vans occasionally pulling up to the curb. Then a small blue bus picked us up, and we rode to the Santa Maria public airport. It was the smallest airport I've ever seen! All it had was tiny 2-seater propeller planes! Our hotel, the Radisson, was right next to the airfield, and you could see planes from out your window!


Interesting Essay

Here is an interesting essay I found online:
For the first time
Trying things for the first time can be tough. And once you do it, the experience can change how you like it, forever. If you have a bad time, you may never want to give it a second chance. This exact thing happened to me, the day we roller skated in PE.

Room 408 was buzzing with excitement! My classmates were all thinking about the rollerskating unit in PE. I, however, was wondering if I would like it or not. The same question was repeating in my thoughts. Will I like it? Will I like it? Will I like it...

The class walked into the gym, and sat on the mat for instructions. We were supposed to try to walk in the skates, and propel ourselves forward.
“It’s just like ice skating,” Ms Cherkas said, as if that explained everything. As I feared, all the rollerskates my size were taken. That was the beginning of my very bad experience.

As soon as I stood up, I appreciated the 4 wheels on each feet. With rollerblades, I was sure I would fall down. Experimentally, I pushed forward with one foot.
“This isn’t so bad,” I thought, preparing to do it again. Suddenly, 2 of my classmates whizzed by me, one pushing me aside. Despite what the teacher told me, I moved my hands to break the fall.

“Ow!” I yelled. But the zooming rollerbladers didn’t stop, they just raced on, doing circles around everyone else. Instantly, a sense of hopelessness blossomed in me, almost as quickly as the throbbing pain in my wrist. I’ll never rollerskate again. No way!

Slowly, I got up. Standing up in rollerskates is hard work! Finally, I got my balance, and pushed forward. Unfortunately, I failed to notice my legs getting farther and farther apart. Then, I fell down (of course) this time doing a split.

“When will this be over?” I whispered, desperately clawing my way back to the mat. Exhausted, I sat there for a while. But then, like a ray of sunshine on a stormy day, I heard what I was waiting for.

“Okay, we’re done rollerskating for the day!” shouted Ms. Cherkas. Gratefully, I took off the skates and collapsed. I would never ever roller skate again. And to this day, I never have.



A few weeks after the incident, I was on a 2 week transit trip from Vancouver BC to San Diego! Before the trip, I was very worried, because I am an extremely picky eater who doesn’t usually eat out. And on this trip, that’s all we can do!

At the moment, my father and I were in Corvallis, OR, and looking for a place to have dinner. We settled on a Mexican place called Chipotle Mexican Grill. I had never been there before, and was very nervous that I would hate their food. Like I said, I was very picky, and only ate about 15 different things.

When we arrived at Chipotle, I wondered if we should just go to the pizza shop next door and save a lot of trouble! But I decided against it, and plunged into the restaurant. I ordered a black bean and cheese burrito, and sat down. Just looking at the doughy roll made my stomach churn.
“Will I like it?” I thought.
“NO!” screamed a voice in my head.
“Try it,” said a much calmer voice.
In the end, I shoved an end of the bean and cheese burrito into my mouth, and bit down.
It was delicious. And before I knew it, I had finished the whole thing! And to this day, I am a burrito lover.

In both these situations, there is a saying which entirely sums it up:
“The first impression is the last impression.”

Monday, August 27, 2012

Day 8: San Francisco to Salinas

In the morning, we packed up and checked out of our room early. I had changed the schedule for today  to give us a few more hours in San Francisco. We missed the breakfast at the hotel, but we were able to get some oatmeal for a good breakfast.


While we were eating in the 'jungle', a piece of ice fell from one of the floors above, and shattered on our table! We left quickly, and asked the front desk when the next shuttle to the airport was. There was one right outside of the door, so we ran and caught that one. We BARTed into the city, and took the Muni N Line to the same area as last night, except we ate at Patxi's Chicago Pizza this time. Because we wanted to get to the Caltrain Station early, we took our pizza to go, and hopped back on the Muni Metro. We got off at 4th and King, the last stop, and walked into the station. It was very open and bright, with walls made of glass and no doors. The wait was about 40 minutes, and we sat on a bench and ate.

A while later, a line formed next to the door to our train and they opened the doors. The Caltrain was like no other commuter rail I have ever seen. The inside was separated into only 2 levels, and the top level had a wide gap in the middle! There was a very thin staircase connecting the top and the bottom. The train stopped every 5 minutes at stations, and then I understood why they have separate "Baby Bullet" trains; the local ones were so slow.

After a few hours of sleep, the train reached San Jose. We had to go through an underground walkway to get to the main station, which was very small but pretty. Immediately we walked out of the waiting area and into the transit center. I saw the Highway 17 Express bus, the one we originally would have used to get to Santa Cruz and on to Salinas. The bus stop was on the other side of the station, with a small sign saying 55 San Jose Express with a picture of some palm trees as the background. Because there was no time for dinner today, we walked to the (relatively) nearby Chipotle for an early dinner burrito. It was very hot in San Jose, but thankfully there were many trees near the sidewalks. Once we got back, we met a lady and her teenage son who came from Salinas. She said that, every night, a gang goes around Salinas with guns, and I got scared by that. Luckily, our hotel was not in the gang's area.

The bus arrived, and it was a very shiny Greyhound style bus with a large MST sign on it. Every so often, an annoying cheerful masculine voice coming from the inside of the bus said something like "This is line 55. Monnerey! Service to" and then got a lot quieter and said the stops along the way to "Monnerey!". When we got on, the farebox said (a female voice with an annoyed tone) "Please pay amount shown.". We paid our fares, and asked the driver for day passes. The driver said that we should have asked him before paying, but gave us the passes anyways. The seats were very big, squishy, and dark blue. When the bus buzzed to life, I was surprised at how noisy the bus was, because the equivalent buses in Seattle are much quieter. The bus took about an hour and a half to reach Prunedale Park and Ride, a parking lot with a bus shelter in the middle of nowhere. Because I changed the schedule, we had to wait for half an hour for the next bus, the last one of the day. 8:04 PM. Appa chatted with the woman and teenager, and I read a book on my Nook.

After waiting for what seemed like eternity in the cold, bare park and ride, the small Gillig bus displaying ROUTE 29 TO SALINAS was welcome. The bus was warm, and had brightly colored seats with an interesting pattern in it. The ride was about 15 minutes to the Salinas Transit Center, and once we got there, we were wondering how to get to our hotel. Luckily, there was a line of taxis right across the road, and we took one (littered with cigarette boxes and cigarettes) to the H.I.Express. The new hotel was very clean and our room was modern and spacious. At the end of a long day, I went to sleep.

Here are some photos:
                                                            The faults of Embassy Suites





The view from our suite
Me on the BART to San Francisco

View from the Muni Metro
Muni Metro station by the Caltrain The train, in the distance,
is ready to come to the station.
Us inside the Caltrain station
Our train's information board
22nd street Caltrain station
SOUTH
SAN FRANCISCO
THE INDUSTRIAL CITY
SOUTH
SAN FRANCISCO
THE INDUSTRIAL CITY


San Jose Diridon Station



HP Pavilion in San Jose
The bus stop for the 55
People getting off the 55
                                                    Pictures of the 55








View from the 55
Inside the 55

Big, comfy seats on the 55

View from the 55

Gilroy Caltrain station
View from the 55

View from the 55
Prunedale Park and ride





MST route 29

MST route 29

Interesting seats on the 29

Friday, August 10, 2012

Pictures in the posts

Some posts I make may have no pictures, and I am sorry about that. I just want to get the text part of it done, and then later do the complicated process of adding the photos. Expect another few posts soon!

Day 7: Willits to San Francisco

After we ate breakfast, we walked over to the bus stop. Today was the day I had been waiting for... I have always wanted to go to San Francisco and ride the BART, and today, I will do just that!

The bus stop was just a small shelter, with the transit system's logo on it. But before we settled down at the bus stop, we first got some change at a nearby Laundromat. Then we headed back to the bus stop, and waited for about half an hour. The 65 bus to Santa Rosa was a van, and had space for luggage. Riding down 101, though not down the coast, had some great scenery of huge vineyards and cliffs covered in yellow grass.

Once we got to Ukiah, the bus driver made everyone get off the bus while he took a 20 minute break. Ukiah was larger than Willits, though not by much. I waited for 20 minutes in the cold, reading Hardy Boys, when everybody got back in the bus and drove off. I pretty much slept the rest of the way to Santa Rosa, though I did see yet more endless vineyards as we approached the city.

The bus arrived at the Santa Rosa Transit Mall, and we got off the bus. We were planning to eat lunch in Santa Rosa, but we decided to just get to San Francisco as soon as possible. So, we ate an apple, and caught the 80 bus to San Francisco. On the way to San Fran, we snacked on a bag of almonds to tide us over. The bus dropped us off right next to the Civic Center BART station, and we got directions to Victor's Pizza (Loved it!) One great lunch later, we walked down into the BART station. The first thing I noticed was the total lack of public art (compared to the Link Light Rail), and how deep the station was in the ground! I got a $20 BART ticket, and Appa reloaded his.Then we descended into the Civic Center BART station, with voices echoing every few seconds. Sometimes it was the normal sounding Muni Metro voice saying something like "2 Car N... N... in 3 minutes. 1 Car M in 5 minutes. 2 Car T... T... in 8 minutes. But sometimes it was the creepy, monotone BART voice saying "Ten car train to San Fran Cisco airport in 5 minutes. Eight car train to Daly City in seven minutes. Ten car train to Millbrae in ten minutes." Our train (to San Francisco Airport) screamed in to the station, and we boarded the train. I was immediately impressed by the efficiency of the system, and how fast the trains move. We had to get off at Balboa Park and wait for the next train (track maintainance), but other than that, the ride was very seamless and quick.

Once we got off at the airport, we fed our tickets into the turnstiles, and got out of the station. There was an area marked "Courtesy Shuttles" that we went to, and called Embassy Suites. They said that the shuttle will be coming in 10 minutes, so we sat down at the shelter.

Once the shuttle came, the driver took Appa's huge backpack and we set off. It was a very classy shuttle, with leather seats and a fake wood floor. The ride took about 10 minutes, and once we got there, I immediately saw the old, large hotel. We got off the shuttle, and waited for about 20 minutes (!)
to be checked in. We got our room key, and walked through a miniature jungle, with a river, trees, fish, and plants. The elevator had glass walls, so we could see all across the jungle. Our room was a 2 room suite, with a view of the bay. It had a good shower, and an office (without free WiFi), but the rims of the tiny balcony and the ceiling were crumbling and old. The hotel was in need of a renovation.

Then we went all the way back to the city, and took the Muni Metro N Line to a La Fonda Mexican restaurant, and had dinner. We ended the day with a Muni and BART ride back to the hotel.

Here are some pictures:
View of Willits

Our bed at Super 8

We got change from this "LAUNDRAMAT" before going to to the bus stop

The Howard Hospital bus stop. Any place where the 65 to Santa Rosa stops,
there is a shelter.

Last view of the Super 8

View from the 65 bus on Highway 101
Through the 65's windshield

View from the 65 bus on Highway 101

The 65 in Ukiah

Front of the 65

Back of the 65

Golden gate bridge through the windshield of the 80. We were supposed to take the 101,
but the 80 came first. We saw the 101 just ahead of us later in the ride. San
Francisco was blanketed in fog as we made a dramatic entry across the bridge.

Civic Center BART station

Our BART train pulls into the station. The camera focused on the headlights,
making the station seem dark.

Balboa Park BART station

Inside of the fancy hotel shuttle
View from our Embassy Suites room. Can you spot the plane?

Muni Metro shelter. Complete with next train display!



Me in the Embassy Suites bed