Rails Around the USA:
Summer, 2005

Bay Area

June 24 - 27, 2005

Laurence Krieg

Friday, June 24

Arrived in Oakland 12:10 PM at the Amtrak station on Second Street.

Welcome to California!

After getting directions from a bus driver, I towed my baggage rig to the BART station in downtown Oakland via Webber Street. This took me through the heart of Oakland's bustling "Chinatown", where I had to manouver my rig through sidewalk market stalls redolent of Asian cuisine "in the raw". Though known as Chinatown, there was plenty of evidence of Vietnamese activity, and I suspect several other Asian groups as well.

I didn't have long to wait in Oakland station for the next train downtown, and we raced under the Bay to the accompaniment of an ever-changing cacophany of squealing and roaring running-gear - at least 100 dB, I'd estimate. Emerging into bright sunlight from the Powell Street station, I met Nett shortly after noon at the corner of Market and 5th.

Nett

Nett, whose official name is Soraya Nukunkit, is a Thai alumna of mine who has adopted me has her American Uncle. In addition to teaching her HTML and imaging, I was her faculty advisor for two co-op positions, helped her with US taxes, and generally got to know her pretty well. She met a really nice Thai-American fellow in Ann Arbor, and when they were engaged Martha and I hosted them, along with Nett's mother, who was visiting them, at dinner. They moved to San Franciso last summer in search of work and adventure.

Nett took me to a Thai restaurant, just off Powell, where customers jostled one another and Thai waitresses bustled around at top speed. We were seated in a corner right by the door, and I ordered a crispy noodle sea food dish. It was an intense introduction to sea creatures I'd never eaten before - some of which I'd never even heard of. A once-in-a-lifetime experience! (I hope. ;-) Around mouthfuls of tentacles and other nameless parts, we had a packed half-hour of catching up, since Nett wanted to be back at work promptly by one. Things had been going fairly well, but up until today she hadn't been challenged by her work, which had been mainly "pouring" text into pre-made templates. Today, though, she had been asked to work on a new project, and was eager to do some of the higher-level work involved.

Nett wanted to show me her office on Mission Street, so we trundled off, my baggage rig in tow. Market Street in San Francisco is a wide street of elegant shops and heavy traffic; though only a block away, Mission Street is lined with seedy properties, has only sporadic traffic, and is frequented by large numbers of homeless people. Nett works in a six-storey building whose upper floors house a garment-working company, staffed largely with middle-aged or older Chinese women. One we met in the elevator had little or no English, and Nett says that's not at all unusual. Nett's Web design company is on the second floor; it's all open, with large tables rather than desks for people to work at. Although there are no walls, the atmosphere is rather quiet, since most people work at their computers and wear headphones. Nett tells me IM (instant messaging) is used more often than the phone. She introduced me to some of her colleagues and supervisors, and I tried to put in a good word about increasing the challenge of her work.

Leaving my baggage in Nett's office area, I set off for an afternoon exploring the city, with an agreement to return for coffee after her quitting time. I retraced my steps to the foot of Powell Street, where the cable cars start their trip over the hill. I thought a trip to San Francisco without riding a cable car would be nearly sacriligious, but when I saw how long the lines were of people waiting to get on board, I realized waiting in line wasn't my idea of the best way to explore the city. So I walked up Powell to the top, thinking I might be able to board a cable car with less of a wait somewhere besides the end of the line. Unfortunately, I never found a good place to board - and the cars had people hanging off them on all sides anyway - so I walked to the top of the hill and found a lovely park in front of Grace Cathedral. It was here that I realized I'd left my camera in my baggage at Nett's office, so I would get a totally non-photographic tour of the city. In this little park I sat and enjoyed the Roman fountain, the small children, and the small dogs, while recovering from the climb up Powell Street, and wondered what denomination - Catholic or Episcopal - Grace Cathedral belonged to. None of the signs I could see elucidated the matter, so I climbed the steps to the front door and peered at a notice posted thereon. It turned out to announce a concert of gay and lesbian singers in honor of Gay Pride Week, making it quite apparent that it was the Episcopal cathedral.

So little time, so many wonderful transit vehicles!

San Francisco has arguably the most diverse and interesting set of operational transit vehicles in North America. Since I didn't get a chance to review most of these, here's a list with links to pictures or more information:

• Standard buses
• Articulated buses
• Trolleybuses
• Articulated trolleybuses
• BART heavy-rail electric commuter trains
• Modern light-rail streetcars
• PCC streetcars
• Older "classic" streetcars of many types from all over the world
• Diesel-powered "commute" trains (CALTRAIN)
• "People-mover" unmanned guideway vehicles (at SFO airport)
• and, of course, the famous cable cars

I have an itchy feeling that I've forgotten something obvious and important. Let me know if you identify what it is.

While resting in the park, I had noticed trolleybus Route 1 "California Street" passing by at frequent intervals. I have a fondness for trolleybuses, springing from my enjoyment of them in Santiago, Chile, when I was fourteen years old or so. They're ideal for city bus service: quiet, with rapid acceleration, and - as they say these days - "zero-emissions vehicles". Seeing that route 1 goes out almost to Land's End Park, I hopped on board. Little did I know that San Francisco trolleybusses are more closely akin to amusement park roller coasters than to ordinary busses. The Asian gentleman piloting this bus was determined to wring every bit of performance out of his vehicle. Since passengers got on or off at nearly every cross street, there was a lot of starting and stopping. And of course the streets of San Francisco are closer to vertical than to horizontal - at least along this route. As the doors closed, a recorded announcement always advised us in a soft, feminine voice, "The bus is starting. Please - hold on." At the same time, our intrepid pilot was jamming down the accelerator and taking off with wrist-snapping speed, whether the nose of the bus was pointed at the sky or toward the canyon below. There were also printed signs advising passengers to hold on, since "Sudden stops are sometimes necessary." Yes - and always preferred. Our bus-jockey waited until the last possible moment, then stood on the brakes to bring us to a bone-jarring halt. I suppose they must re-line the brakes nightly on these San Francisco buses; at any rate, the bus never failed to stop exactly where the driver wanted it, even on down-slopes so steep the passengers were nearly hanging from the railings even after we had stopped. These trolleybuses are one of the best-kept secrets of the city: for less than half the cost of a cable-car ride, you can get an experience that will leave your adreniline pumping for hours. (You can see more pictures of San Francisco trolleybuses at the Electric Trolleybus Web Site.)

Well, the bus and I got to the end of the line, where I caught my breath and figured out (using the map thoughtfully provided in the bus shelter) how to get to Land's End Park. This took my through some lovely streets with houses overlooking the water, where, no doubt, the "other half" live. (The first half would be the denizens of Mission Street, I suppose.) I passed the Consulate of Kuwait, and before long reached the park itself. Here the view of the water opened up to those of us without multi-million-dollar residences, and I quickly found my way to Eagle Point. This gives a classic view of the Golden Gate Bridge; yes, I'm sorry I didn't have my camera, but you've seen multitudes of pictures of this scene already, so looking at mine you'd be saying, "Ho, hum." (Not sure you recall that view? Here's one taken a bit later in the day, at the TopicPoint review site.)

I must admit to mixed emotions at Eagle Point. I found it relaxing and inspiring, but seeing all the other tourists snapping away with their cameras gave me some pretty severe withrawal angst. So I walked back to the bus line and boarded the Route 1 trolleybus - but not without first gathering up my courage in both hands. The ride was a lot of fun, not only because of the roller-coaster aspects, but because of the multitude of languages and ethnicities in that one confined space. A whole family of Spanish-speakers - not surprisingly: father relaxed, kids chattering excitedly (mainly about baseball), and mother exhausted; a young Vietnamese couple billing and cooing in the very back seat; various Chinese-sounding folks; a group of nurses speaking what I believe is Tagalog; even a pair of tourists expostulating animatedly in French. The dormant linguist inside me woke up and pricked up his ears excitedly. It was with some regret that I got off at Powell Street.

Back at Mission Street, I met with Nett; we walked over to the San Francisco Shopping Center for coffee and conversation before I dove down to the BART station for the trip to Bay Fair, where Mary Rhodes kindly met me, took me home, and made dinner - a tasty chicken stir-fry.

Saturday, June 25

We got off to a leisurely start today, and drove together in the late morning from San Leandro to Berkeley Convenant Church (BCC) for Rich and Edwin's praise-band practice.

Lunch at Noah's Bagels with Mary (tuna wraps). Noah's is a small shop on one of Berkeley's residential streets; I'm reminded a bit of Packard in Ann Arbor, between State and Stadium. We sat in chairs on the sidewalk and ate our wraps, just across from a homeless man who was still in his sleeping bag on the sidewalk. He, too, was getting a late start to the day.

While Rich and Eddie rehearsed, Mary drove me around campus giving me a little tour. We started by going past the stadium and up Strawberry Creek road to the Lawrence Science Center, whose parking lot has a wonderful overlook. I heard on the news later (July 20) that there's a bad wildfire in that area; fortunately there was no sign of it then, and the view was certainly worth the drive. There are pictures of this, fortunately.

After descending steep Strawberry Creek road, we parked and walked around campus. I took lots of pictures, making up for yesterday's lack of a camera. Near the student center, we heard wild cheering and laughter at intervals which, on investigation, turned out to be a group of Asian young people playing a game. We weren't sure of the language they were speaking (Korean is my best guess) and never figured out the point fo the game, except that it involved boys on one side of a curtain and girls on the other. Some unknown selection method was applied while the curtain was up, resulting in one boy facing one girl, the curtain being dropped, and a tremendous outburst of cheering, screaming, and laughter. For a more sober experience, Mary showed me Dwinelle Hall, where Rich's Linguistics office is located. I was amused to see his office opposite George Lakoff's, whose positions are opposite Rich's in more ways than one.

After our leisurly tour, we picked up Rich and Edwin at BCC before picking up guitar strings for Eddie in Albany, then heading home to San Leandro

The evening's expedition took us to Dublin, in the next valley east, where we attended Blazing Fire Church. The worship there was Pentacostal to the max; the sermon/teaching was given by Holly Miller, an intense, highly focused and spirit-filled missionary to Austria (Graz). It was Holly whom Rich most wanted to see, so he could arrange details of a visit in Austria during his upcoming sabbatical.

We made it home by 10, by dint of extracting ourselves from the lively after-service prayer and fellowship.

Sunday, June 26

Mary goes to Mass at 7:30 this morning, while Rich and Edwin leave for BCC at 7:50 to rehearse with band. This leaves me at leisure to get up, shower, and have breakfast at my own speed.

Mary returns about 8:45, has breakfast, and drives with me to BCC.

Berkeley Covenant Church service at 10:30 with Mary running the computer for Powerpoint; Rich and Edwin are in the worship band (both playing guitars and singing). The service includes dedication of baby by Assistant Pastor Royce Tanaka (Hawaiian). His wife Terry (apparently Polynesian) sat in the same pew as I did at the back, quiet and seemingly shy. I learned that the church has no doctrinal position on infant baptism, and leaves it up to the parents to decide when to baptize their children. The sermon by Lead Pastor Al Tizon (Philipine-American) was on I Corinthians 9, concerning giving to support Christian workers; at several points, he was at pains to explain that he hadn't intentionally chosen this passage for the day when the congregation would meet to decide on the budget. He had just returned from a trip to the Philipines, so the evidence was in his favor, but I know the Lord sometimes works these funny "coincidences" for our edification.

After the service, there was a jolly pot luck lunch (don't ask what I ate!!!). Everybody was warm, friendly, joyous, and welcoming. I felt very much at home.

Mary, Eddie, and I returned directly after lunch, while Rich stayed to moderate the budget meeting. The three of us had a relaxed afternoon at home in San Leandro

After Rich got home (exhausted!) we had dinner at El Torito on San Leandro Bay. The theme for the night was the provice of Yucatán, and I enjoyed a Yucatán combination platter. Sunset over the Bay was quite spectaular, and I got a few good pictures through the window.

We got home and went relatively early to bed, since we can all had to get up early. Edwin will be having maxillo-facial surgery at 8:30, and needs to be at the hospital in Oakland at 7. Rich and I will be ready to leave for the Oakland Amtrak station by 7:30, but I'll check the Amtrak Web site to see how late the Starlight is running.

Monday, June 27

We didn't actually leave for the station until about 10:30. The train was expected about 1:20, so we stayed in San Leandro until Mary called from the hospital to say Edwin was out of surgery.

As we drove to Oakland, Rich told me about the death of Fred Lupke. Fred was a fellow grad student in Linguistics at Michigan, along with Rich and myself. He was quiet, and I didn't know him well, but he and Rich were apparently good friends. When Rich came to Berkeley, Fred came along and they shared an Oakland apartment for about a year. Mary and the children came out, and Fred stayed in Oakland while the family took the house in San Leandro. Then Fred was found to have a form of spinal cancer, which eventually forced him to use a wheel chair. He became a spokesperson for the disabled community in the Berkeley area. He met his death while crossing a street in his wheelchair. Apparently because of the fact that it's legal in California to park right up to the corner, a motorist in a second car failed to see him after another motorist swerved to avoid hitting him. He was thrown 55 feet from his wheel chair and died. The woman driving the car was apparently so upset by what had happened that it was more than a month before she could bring herself to call Rich and express her sorrow.

Eventually, the coast Starlight pulled in and I was able to continue my journey south.