chuljin
Lead Service Attendant
Bay Area EveryRail ‘Pilgrimage’, May 24-27
From May 24 to May 27, I took an Amtrak trip from LA to the Bay Area and back, with a goal of exploring every one of the rail systems found there. I managed all except ACE, which wasn't operating any day I was there.
This post is part 2 of 4, one for each day, which I will be posting over the next couple of days. Pictures taken this day can be found here.
Luckily, I had no fixed down-to-the minute itinerary, because the previous day's lack of sleep had caught up with me, and I didn't wake until around 10am.
My hosts invited me to go to brunch with them at Maverick. We were going to take MUNI 22 from their home in the Western Addition to the Mission District. Before we boarded, we had to hike to (IIRC) Turk and Fillmore. It's lucky it was a downhill hike, because my hostess used NextMuni to discover that the next bus was in 15 minutes, so the walk was quite brisk. By the time we reached Fillmore, my shins were burning, from which I did not recover until sometime the next day (when it was replaced by sore feet). We duly boarded and reached 17th and Valencia around 11am. Up ahead, we could see a parade of some kind (everything about it was Brazilian, suggesting perhaps Carnaval) which headed north on Mission, then east on 17th. Maverick was already busy (deservedly, I discovered) and we not be able to sit until 11:45. We therefore went around the corner to a coffee shop to wait it out.
We were seated promptly at 11:45, and my host and hostess had pancakes and french toast, respectively, and I had the Chorizo and Eggs, which I quite recommend. We also shared an order of their rather tasty donut holes, and, this being late morning in SF, we all had mimosas.
If any readers are ever in the Mission District in the mid-to-late morning, I recommend this restaurant. Reserve first, or you'll wait a while. I won't belabor it any more; their own website with menus is above; google their name to find reviews, &c.
After brunch, we parted company, and after a quick 1-block walk north, I boarded BART at 16th, going to Powell. I went up to the surface to the cable car ticket booth and got a 3-day MUNI Passport (lot of good it did me, see the next day's report), and explored Hallidie Plaza a little, saw them turn a couple cable cars at the south end of Powell, and went to the Apple store to get my hosts a thank-you gift, before going back down to take my first ride on MUNI light rail, on N to 4th and King (the Caltrain one, on King south of 4th). This route passes under the Bay Bridge, which I'd never seen that close up before, and I was amazed by its enormous...well...enormity. I explored the Caltrain Depot a little, an impressive and modern-looking facility. I went out onto the platforms, where I asked a conductor if photography was allowed. He said 'No, but go ahead.' 'Huh?' 'No one ever enforces it anyways.' So I got a few pictures, including of Bombardier (new) and Nippon Sharyo (old) trainsets across the platform from each other. I was looking forward to riding this the next day.
I then walked across the street to the other 4th and King station (on 4th east of King) to take MUNI's newest LRT line, the T. I was going to stay on it for a while, but when I'd gone 3-4 stations and not yet seen anything worth photographing or even looking at, I headed back on the T to Folsom, where I took several pictures both of the Bay Bridge that had so impressed me earlier, and the Embarcadero and activity in the Bay.
I then walked along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Terminal, and I noticed an Amtrak sign. I suddenly remembered 'ah, yes, SFC is here' and I made a point of visiting this station, described as the only full-service Amtrak station not served by trains. The single agent on duty was outside having a break, and rather brusquely asked if I needed to buy tickets. I went inside for only a couple minutes, before continuing on to the Ferry Building, whose restored state I quite like.
Then I got onto an F-Market and Wharves (historic streetcars) to Fisherman's Wharf. This trip was, luckily and coincidentally, on Car 1052, which is painted to resemble a Los Angeles Railway Yellow Car. Unfortunately, during this trip I neither rode, nor even noticed, that I know of, the other two I wanted to see: the CTA green car, and the Pacific Electric Red Car. The driver on this trip was assisted by his teenage son, who made announcements and also, several times, scolded the drivers of cars outside for getting in our way.
I explored Fisherman's Wharf for a while, and then was going to take the Powell/Mason cable car back to Market, but the line was too damn long, so I took F back to the eastern terminus of the California line, just west of the Embarcadero. Here the line was quite short, and I soon boarded for my obligatory token cable car ride. I took it to Powell, then got off and waited for a southbound Mason/Powell. When one came along, I was sure it was too crowded, but the driver sent me around the front to the left side, where there was just enough room for me to stand. To my chagrin, I could hold on safely only by facing backwards, toe-to-toe with someone. Pretty soon, a couple standees got off, and I could at least turn around and face forward, where I took a few pics of the trip down. Powell in this area is impressively steep.
Back at Market/Powell, I looked around here a bit more, and had a quick bite at the Carl's Jr at Hallidie Plaza, before going down and getting on the N out to Ocean Beach. I like the Sunset tunnel, which seems a little quaint but useful. I especially like how it was overgrown with weeds and grass beside the tracks at either end. We'd almost reached the end of the line (though I didn't know it yet), and I was the only person still on board, when, at the penultimate outbound station, the driver got off and ran into a nearby 7-11. I alternately sat and stood dumbfounded while he waited in line to buy a bag of chips. Some 10 minutes later, he got back on, and we proceeded one more station to the end of the line. If I had known there was just 2 more blocks to the last station, and 2-3 more to the beach, I'd have just walked. Still, he was a nice guy.
I had intended to take BART to SFO, and was going to first just take N all the way back to Van Ness or whatever, but got a better idea. I would take the N to Church and Duboce, near where the N and J make their early exit from the Subway, then J to Balboa Park (where one can connect with BART). At Church and Duboce, I noticed a small yard above the mouth of the tunnel, where there were stored several Historic Streetcars, horribly abused by vandals. As a coin collector, I was disappointed to later discover that the old Mint is also near here, and I missed it. I had a Jamba Juice and then took the J to the end of the line at Balboa Park. As we approached the station, I thought 'jackpot!' as row on row of stored LRT vehicles came into view. I had some difficulty leaving the station, because the lines between public platforms and off-limit yards is a little blurred here. I then noticed, catty-corner [sp?] from the station, a yard where they keep the off-duty streetcars, so I started to head over to take some pictures, then my camera's batteries finally gave out. I started to wander, looking for someplace to buy new ones. There are hardly any businesses in this area...the only one I found was a small mom-and-pop gas station, which had no batteries. I decided to use the 'not-quite-dead-try-again' trick to get a couple more pictures, then go back downtown to civilization to get batteries, then off to SFO. What I mean by not-quite-dead-try-again is that I've discovered that sometimes when some electronic device thinks its battery is dead and automatically shuts off, if you wait a while and turn it back on, you can eke out a couple more pictures, or minutes of talk time, or whatever. So I turned it back on, and sure enough, it was going to let me take a couple more, so I stood on San Jose Ave, and pointed my camera into the 'driveway' between what I guess are MUNI's offices and LRT maintenance facility. I took a picture, and only then noticed someone standing looking over my shoulder, who said 'what's in the picture?' I thought I'd been busted under some obscure draconian anti-photography regulation, but I turned around and it was just some little old man. He said 'my camera is better! my camera is better!' and brought out a camera and took the same picture I just had. The only better thing I saw was that it had a bigger LCD. Well, I asked him (with some difficulty being understood) where I could buy some batteries (I figured he'd know the area). He asked to see what kind of batteries my camera used, then said 'wait here! wait here!' and disappeared into his garage (it turns out we were standing right in front of his house). He brought me back 2 AA batteries, with his compliments, and a thick stack of business cards. It turns out he deals in obscure or proprietary batteries for all manner of electronics. What luck. Now properly 'juiced up', I took a bunch more pictures of these yards, then onto BART and off to SFO.
Now you will wonder, why SFO? True, my previous fondness for air travel has greatly diminished since I discovered Amtrak, but one of the benefits of being Amtrak Guest Rewards Select Plus is admittance to Continental President's Clubs, and the PC at SFO is one of the few landside (outside security) lounges of any airline anywhere in the world, and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity. So I got to the SFO BART station (where one of the tracks seems to be out of service, and while it seems the average person has little difficulty staying off the tracks, they thought it necessary to 'close' this track by putting traffic cones, spaced about 2 feet apart, all along the edge of the platform). I took a quick trip on the 'red' SFO airtrain over to Terminal 1, went into the PC and flashed my ID and AGRS+ card to the wizened but very sweet lounge dragon (I don't know why they're called this, but people on FlyerTalk more familiar with lounges call them this, so...) and I was admitted. I had a coffee and bit of cheese, watched the news for a bit, then got a gin and tonic. The very nice bartender, Mary N, asked me 'Where are you going? Oh, where did you come from? Oh, what brings you here then?' So I explained to her that I'd gone there just because I could, then broadened to explain the focus of my trip, including the fact that I'd be on Caltrain the next day, to which she said 'Oh, that's interesting! I used to work for Caltrain!' then proved it by knowing how many miles and tenths it was between Diridon and 4th-and-King. So we chatted for a while about commuter rail and mass transit. Imagine talking trains with, of all people, an airline employee, at, of all places, and airport. She reminded me that Caltrain stops at (read: near) SFO too and that I was welcome to come back on my way back from San Jose the next day.
The PC was about to close early, since the next day was Memorial Day, so I bid Mary N and the lounge dragon farewell, and airtrained back to the BART station, thence back to Powell, where I took a few blurry night pictures of the buildings around Hallidie Plaza, then MUNI trolleybus home.
My hosts had already retired for the night, so after reading a bit, so did I, thus ending the second day of this trip.
From May 24 to May 27, I took an Amtrak trip from LA to the Bay Area and back, with a goal of exploring every one of the rail systems found there. I managed all except ACE, which wasn't operating any day I was there.
This post is part 2 of 4, one for each day, which I will be posting over the next couple of days. Pictures taken this day can be found here.
- May 24: AmBus to Bakersfield, thence San Joaquins to Martinez; Capitol Corridor to Sacramento; CSRM and its Excursion Train; SACRT Light Rail; Capitol Corridor back to East Bay; BART to SF (pics)
- May 25: Exploring MUNI and BART, including South Beach, Embarcadero, Fisherman’s Wharf, Ocean Beach, Balboa Park, SFO, and Obligatory Token Cable Car Rides (pics)
- May 26: BART to East Bay, Capitol Corridor to San Jose; Exploring VTALR including Paseo de S.A., Japantown, etc.; Google and Apple; Caltrain to SF (pics)
- May 27: Alamada/Oakland Ferry to Oakland; Coast Starlight to LA (pics)
Luckily, I had no fixed down-to-the minute itinerary, because the previous day's lack of sleep had caught up with me, and I didn't wake until around 10am.
My hosts invited me to go to brunch with them at Maverick. We were going to take MUNI 22 from their home in the Western Addition to the Mission District. Before we boarded, we had to hike to (IIRC) Turk and Fillmore. It's lucky it was a downhill hike, because my hostess used NextMuni to discover that the next bus was in 15 minutes, so the walk was quite brisk. By the time we reached Fillmore, my shins were burning, from which I did not recover until sometime the next day (when it was replaced by sore feet). We duly boarded and reached 17th and Valencia around 11am. Up ahead, we could see a parade of some kind (everything about it was Brazilian, suggesting perhaps Carnaval) which headed north on Mission, then east on 17th. Maverick was already busy (deservedly, I discovered) and we not be able to sit until 11:45. We therefore went around the corner to a coffee shop to wait it out.
We were seated promptly at 11:45, and my host and hostess had pancakes and french toast, respectively, and I had the Chorizo and Eggs, which I quite recommend. We also shared an order of their rather tasty donut holes, and, this being late morning in SF, we all had mimosas.
If any readers are ever in the Mission District in the mid-to-late morning, I recommend this restaurant. Reserve first, or you'll wait a while. I won't belabor it any more; their own website with menus is above; google their name to find reviews, &c.After brunch, we parted company, and after a quick 1-block walk north, I boarded BART at 16th, going to Powell. I went up to the surface to the cable car ticket booth and got a 3-day MUNI Passport (lot of good it did me, see the next day's report), and explored Hallidie Plaza a little, saw them turn a couple cable cars at the south end of Powell, and went to the Apple store to get my hosts a thank-you gift, before going back down to take my first ride on MUNI light rail, on N to 4th and King (the Caltrain one, on King south of 4th). This route passes under the Bay Bridge, which I'd never seen that close up before, and I was amazed by its enormous...well...enormity. I explored the Caltrain Depot a little, an impressive and modern-looking facility. I went out onto the platforms, where I asked a conductor if photography was allowed. He said 'No, but go ahead.' 'Huh?' 'No one ever enforces it anyways.' So I got a few pictures, including of Bombardier (new) and Nippon Sharyo (old) trainsets across the platform from each other. I was looking forward to riding this the next day.
I then walked across the street to the other 4th and King station (on 4th east of King) to take MUNI's newest LRT line, the T. I was going to stay on it for a while, but when I'd gone 3-4 stations and not yet seen anything worth photographing or even looking at, I headed back on the T to Folsom, where I took several pictures both of the Bay Bridge that had so impressed me earlier, and the Embarcadero and activity in the Bay.
I then walked along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Terminal, and I noticed an Amtrak sign. I suddenly remembered 'ah, yes, SFC is here' and I made a point of visiting this station, described as the only full-service Amtrak station not served by trains. The single agent on duty was outside having a break, and rather brusquely asked if I needed to buy tickets. I went inside for only a couple minutes, before continuing on to the Ferry Building, whose restored state I quite like.
Then I got onto an F-Market and Wharves (historic streetcars) to Fisherman's Wharf. This trip was, luckily and coincidentally, on Car 1052, which is painted to resemble a Los Angeles Railway Yellow Car. Unfortunately, during this trip I neither rode, nor even noticed, that I know of, the other two I wanted to see: the CTA green car, and the Pacific Electric Red Car. The driver on this trip was assisted by his teenage son, who made announcements and also, several times, scolded the drivers of cars outside for getting in our way.
I explored Fisherman's Wharf for a while, and then was going to take the Powell/Mason cable car back to Market, but the line was too damn long, so I took F back to the eastern terminus of the California line, just west of the Embarcadero. Here the line was quite short, and I soon boarded for my obligatory token cable car ride. I took it to Powell, then got off and waited for a southbound Mason/Powell. When one came along, I was sure it was too crowded, but the driver sent me around the front to the left side, where there was just enough room for me to stand. To my chagrin, I could hold on safely only by facing backwards, toe-to-toe with someone. Pretty soon, a couple standees got off, and I could at least turn around and face forward, where I took a few pics of the trip down. Powell in this area is impressively steep.
Back at Market/Powell, I looked around here a bit more, and had a quick bite at the Carl's Jr at Hallidie Plaza, before going down and getting on the N out to Ocean Beach. I like the Sunset tunnel, which seems a little quaint but useful. I especially like how it was overgrown with weeds and grass beside the tracks at either end. We'd almost reached the end of the line (though I didn't know it yet), and I was the only person still on board, when, at the penultimate outbound station, the driver got off and ran into a nearby 7-11. I alternately sat and stood dumbfounded while he waited in line to buy a bag of chips. Some 10 minutes later, he got back on, and we proceeded one more station to the end of the line. If I had known there was just 2 more blocks to the last station, and 2-3 more to the beach, I'd have just walked. Still, he was a nice guy.
I had intended to take BART to SFO, and was going to first just take N all the way back to Van Ness or whatever, but got a better idea. I would take the N to Church and Duboce, near where the N and J make their early exit from the Subway, then J to Balboa Park (where one can connect with BART). At Church and Duboce, I noticed a small yard above the mouth of the tunnel, where there were stored several Historic Streetcars, horribly abused by vandals. As a coin collector, I was disappointed to later discover that the old Mint is also near here, and I missed it. I had a Jamba Juice and then took the J to the end of the line at Balboa Park. As we approached the station, I thought 'jackpot!' as row on row of stored LRT vehicles came into view. I had some difficulty leaving the station, because the lines between public platforms and off-limit yards is a little blurred here. I then noticed, catty-corner [sp?] from the station, a yard where they keep the off-duty streetcars, so I started to head over to take some pictures, then my camera's batteries finally gave out. I started to wander, looking for someplace to buy new ones. There are hardly any businesses in this area...the only one I found was a small mom-and-pop gas station, which had no batteries. I decided to use the 'not-quite-dead-try-again' trick to get a couple more pictures, then go back downtown to civilization to get batteries, then off to SFO. What I mean by not-quite-dead-try-again is that I've discovered that sometimes when some electronic device thinks its battery is dead and automatically shuts off, if you wait a while and turn it back on, you can eke out a couple more pictures, or minutes of talk time, or whatever. So I turned it back on, and sure enough, it was going to let me take a couple more, so I stood on San Jose Ave, and pointed my camera into the 'driveway' between what I guess are MUNI's offices and LRT maintenance facility. I took a picture, and only then noticed someone standing looking over my shoulder, who said 'what's in the picture?' I thought I'd been busted under some obscure draconian anti-photography regulation, but I turned around and it was just some little old man. He said 'my camera is better! my camera is better!' and brought out a camera and took the same picture I just had. The only better thing I saw was that it had a bigger LCD. Well, I asked him (with some difficulty being understood) where I could buy some batteries (I figured he'd know the area). He asked to see what kind of batteries my camera used, then said 'wait here! wait here!' and disappeared into his garage (it turns out we were standing right in front of his house). He brought me back 2 AA batteries, with his compliments, and a thick stack of business cards. It turns out he deals in obscure or proprietary batteries for all manner of electronics. What luck. Now properly 'juiced up', I took a bunch more pictures of these yards, then onto BART and off to SFO.
Now you will wonder, why SFO? True, my previous fondness for air travel has greatly diminished since I discovered Amtrak, but one of the benefits of being Amtrak Guest Rewards Select Plus is admittance to Continental President's Clubs, and the PC at SFO is one of the few landside (outside security) lounges of any airline anywhere in the world, and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity. So I got to the SFO BART station (where one of the tracks seems to be out of service, and while it seems the average person has little difficulty staying off the tracks, they thought it necessary to 'close' this track by putting traffic cones, spaced about 2 feet apart, all along the edge of the platform). I took a quick trip on the 'red' SFO airtrain over to Terminal 1, went into the PC and flashed my ID and AGRS+ card to the wizened but very sweet lounge dragon (I don't know why they're called this, but people on FlyerTalk more familiar with lounges call them this, so...) and I was admitted. I had a coffee and bit of cheese, watched the news for a bit, then got a gin and tonic. The very nice bartender, Mary N, asked me 'Where are you going? Oh, where did you come from? Oh, what brings you here then?' So I explained to her that I'd gone there just because I could, then broadened to explain the focus of my trip, including the fact that I'd be on Caltrain the next day, to which she said 'Oh, that's interesting! I used to work for Caltrain!' then proved it by knowing how many miles and tenths it was between Diridon and 4th-and-King. So we chatted for a while about commuter rail and mass transit. Imagine talking trains with, of all people, an airline employee, at, of all places, and airport.
She reminded me that Caltrain stops at (read: near) SFO too and that I was welcome to come back on my way back from San Jose the next day.The PC was about to close early, since the next day was Memorial Day, so I bid Mary N and the lounge dragon farewell, and airtrained back to the BART station, thence back to Powell, where I took a few blurry night pictures of the buildings around Hallidie Plaza, then MUNI trolleybus home.
My hosts had already retired for the night, so after reading a bit, so did I, thus ending the second day of this trip.
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