Where are you, Su Lun?

The year was 1984 and the location is rather obvious. This was my first grad school roommate on the U of WA campus. He was an international student from Hong Kong. We drove down I-5 for a road trip in my old Plymouth Volare stationwagon. It was the car in which he learned to drive! We were poor at the time. I think we had about $90 between us.

   

Forty years later, we've completely lost contact. I wonder where Su Lun Lam is today and how he's doing.

Back in Our Hometown

Air travel still amazes me a little. Jayantha and I have probably spent more time in airplanes than anyone I know. Wait. We do know a flight attendant who lives here but commutes a half a continent away to pick up his overseas flights to Asia, so he's a notable exception for sure!

Still, the physics and logistics involved with a single flight are astounding. Getting back from San Francisco was a tiny flight compared to many. Still, that I could travel so much faster than in a car is pretty amazing. And automotive travel compared to the power of human legs is already pretty remarkable. Don't listen to folks who talk about the good, old days. There may be a lot of really old ones but they weren't that great for most of us.


Monday Morning
To think, we didn't get off the ground until 5:40 PM yesterday but were comfortably soaking in our own hot tub before 9:30. It was only that long as we decided that taking the SkyTrain to downtown Vancouver and then coming out here to New Westminster on another line is preferable to the trusted #100 bus. Just getting from Richmond to New Westminster took one hour and ten minutes. Getting from SF0 to YVR was only 35% longer than that!

Right Now

Remembering a Day of Parade

11-Second Video Clip
We awoke to temperatures which were a bit cooler, in the 20C, but there was not even the tiniest bit of cloud. So we went down from our hotel to watch the San Francisco Pride Parade under blue skies. Already thousands of people were lining the streets. It was about 10:40 and we arrived before the opening Dykes on Bikes roared by this part of Market Street.





We kept watching and watching as the various organizations arrived. Perhaps as a response to corporate sponsorship, the smaller groups and individual organizations came first. The entire parade was enormously long and the large software and hardware companies of the Bay area came.




We were a bit determined to stay through all the parade entries. I think there were about 260 and we didn't see the sweepers at the end until after four o'clock. We'd not eaten lunch! I had sunburn on my arms. It was definitely worth saying we witnessed the actual 2018 parade and crowds!

We head home this afternoon. We will need to check out of the hotel at noon. Then, we can have lunch and take BART to the airport before 2:00 PM.

Pride Weekend in SF

Somehow, I got sort of a day behind here. So, I'll add information for yesterday and save a few of today's pictures for tomorrow. The trip back on our 4:00 PM flight to YVR, probably won't merit much of a blog entry. Therefore, I'll post about what we saw in the 48th San Franciso Pride Parade tomorrow!

So this was our Saturday: We looked at the map and decided we'd never visited the Golden Gate Park here. I thought that meant the lands near the bridge but obviously, this park wasn't. We took an N-train and got out near the stadium. It was such a nice day that many others were visiting. We walked around the Botanical Gardens stopping at a few places on our map. It was nice.





We also make sure to find the Dyke March and it was really crowded down at Dolores Park and the Castro District. Summer is such fun especially as it so recently became official. There is something special about inclusivity in diversity. It is especially needed in times such as this, with renewed fascism so openly threatening to gain traction.

11.5 KM on the Old Keens

Jay and I are not first-time tourists to San Francisco. We don't come frequently, but we've done the most touristy things before. A $7 cable-car line wait was not on order for today. Still, being so close to Powell Street, watching the crowds is an option.

We started yesterday by taking the underground MUNI to the Castro District. When it's sunny in San Francisco, everything is so bright. After, we took a tram to the Embarkadaro and still ended up walking about 11.5 kilometers today.

Some of that was after a nap and a walk to Civic Square. We saw them setting up for the weekend festivities and the many, many homeless. San Francisco has always been a little rough around the edges, right next to rather obvious poshness. That is sort of what makes SF SF.

Good Morning, SF!

It was a smooth ride to SFO on our WestJet flight. We grabbed a BART train right to Powell Street Station. Our hotel is just a five minute walk on Mason Street.

We walked in the Tenderloin and found biriyani for dinner. We try that on our travel and always receive something a little different. We also stopped at a Trader Joe's and picked up some small items.

The sky has been and remains really blue. The news on TV talks about a wicked heat wave coming. I've been rather chilly so far. I had no idea the bay and shore were so much cooler than the inland areas. They're saying it'll be 100+F is some areas but it looks to be a perfect 70F here for all our time remaining.

The bed in the King George was comfortable and I feel rested.

San Francisco

Day 05 - I really don't know why we don't spend more time in that city. We've not been in SF for probably a dozen years, to venture a guess.

We had made plans to see Daragh at 10 o'clock under the clock tower of the SF Ferry Terminal building. After breakfast on our ship, we disembarked and did. We have seen Daragh more often than his city. He at one time owned a bit of Coal Harbour, Vancouver as an investment.



We knew this man when he taught with me in Dubai. We left in 1996 and he a bit before us. Having already done touristy things in the quirky city, we were happy just to walk around a bit catching up.

He is not working at present by choice. So, he wasn't a slave to any sort of schedule. I wanted to walk to Union Square. The temperature was around 78F with a shockingly blue sky. We noticed that several new buildings are changing the skyline. We have to go back when the new subway connects to the BART. Daragh suggested going up in one famous hotel or another for a noon drink in a sky-bar. Unfortunately, it didn't open for lunch, so we went out wait for a historical tram to Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf.





We didn't spend all the quarters he changed in the 'antique arcade'. There were indeed some electro-mechanical marvels for carnivals from years past. There were also early, electronic arcade games from our days at The Harbor Gameroom. Space Invaders and Ms. Pacman are officially historical at this point. We ducked into a famous shoreline restaurant where Daragh ate but Jay and me, a root beer and two litres of IPA, respectively.

We walked back to the MS Noordam at the cruise-ship terminal at Pier 27. We really enjoyed seeing Daragh and vow to not let it be so long until another encounter.

It was a pretty full day of walking as my Mi Band indicated the day ended with at least 14 kilometers on my formerly-new Keens. Our ship slipped beneath the Golden Gate bridge and into the creeping fog of the evening at around 6:30 pm.

I Shall Not Quit!

It sometimes feels as if I'm talking to myself in a public place. This site keeps statistics and I have noted that thousands of visitors arrive every month. I guess that should be enough to encourage me. It should. It's just that this task takes place daily. It has been something I have done every single day since September 1, 2003. So, I guess I can accept that there will be some days when I'm not so keen on it. Even writers greater than I have had to contend with writer's block.


Lost in the fog by the Golden Gate Bridge. - Oct 2003
I must admit it's good being able to go back and review feelings, ideas, and trips over the last eight and a half years. For example, I can easily review a trip to San Francisco just a month after this blog was begun. I can remember going. Yet without the help of concrete blog entries, I would never have been able to recall exactly when it took place.

So, this is all worth the effort. Now, I feel better about putting something here each day! Phew.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Photo taken from inside a restaurant in Chinatown, San Francisco.

Read more about that trip: my eJournal and images: 10.05.2003.

I Left My Heart in Yerba Buena

Yerba Buena, the settlement on the San Francisco Bay, was officially named San Francisco in 1847.

Whatever its name, I think it is the U.S. city that truly doesn't feel like a U.S. city. Here are a few blog entries from a previous trip.

Free Wi-Fi

Here's an interesting nerdy article: TechTV | Free Wi-Fi Blankets San Francisco.

A Reader's Comment

Hi, I enjoyed the article and (Friday's) picture. On my last visit (to San Francisco), I spent an afternoon at Fisherman's Wharf watching them (sea lions) and strolling around. Yes, they are noisy and smelly. But so are a lot of people I know!

Loud and Smelly

Here is an interesting picture from San Francisco that we took this week. There were hundreds of California sea lions at Pier 39 of Fisherman's Wharf. They were a bit smelly and a lot loud! The history of their time there is rather short.

Wanting More ...

Got back from San Francisco into Vancouver at about 9 pm last night. Marvelous time. It's just shy of a two hour flight so there's no reason not to do it again ... soon. Oh, and even though we were there yesterday, we didn't vote for Arnie.

Eccentric

There's something very eccentric about San Francisco. It just feels a bit quirky and a bit foreign. Any city that keeps such a varied public transit system deserves my vote! The cable cars are from another time warp and city transit collects antiquated street cars; not for a museum, but for use. Only unique characters would flock to a city built over, around, and through hills ...

Note ...

Daragh ... thank you very much meeting us and dinner! You have a cool car and live in a neat city. I was wearing my camera why didn't I take any pictures? Well, Chinatown was an easy walk today.

Fair

The Castro district celebrated it's 30th Street Fair today. The weather was rather warm. (The city does manage to grow date trees along Fisherman's Wharf.)

California, Here We Come ...

It's pretty damned early now! The cheap tickets leave YVR at 7:00 am. On a weekend that's even too early to take public transit, so I've got to park in long-term, airport parking.

The last time we were in SF was in 1997 when we went to visit a friend who was terminally ill. Despite the smiles in the photograph below, it was a sad trip. That time we drove the 1600 km (990 miles) down. At the end of the short stay, Jay flew back for work and I drove the truck back alone.


This trip is just for a change of scenery and is taking place under much better circumstances. We'll be back on Tuesday evening but I hope to do some weblog entries from the hotel there.

Change is Good

It's after 10:00 am and I still cannot see anything from the window. Foggy mornings are here. This generally happens in October as we're right next to the Fraser River. It's a bit comforting after this 'no-rain' summer. In true southern-mainland (Vancouver area) anticipation, I am so waiting for a real, complete, soaking, non-stop rainy day.

Do have to go to a Thomas Cook now to purchase a few American dollars. Jay's got another few days off. So we picked up Alaska Air web specials for a long weekend in San Francisco. More info later ...