Lunch, Gardens, and Frankenbus

Today was food cart day but I have to admit that I've tried almost every vendor of interest to me and none of it was floatin' my boat today.  Instead of truck food, I walked down to the Metreon (formerly owned by Sony), which is next to the Yerba Buena Gardens, for lunch.  My coworker had recommended a Japanese restaurant called Sanraku.  He even went so far as to suggest the Sanraku chicken as the dish to order, so I went with it.  It was absolutely delicious.  The chicken came in nice big chunks of white meat fried in some sort of sauce with vegetables.  The meal came with rice, a nice salad with a light vinaigrette and some cooked but cold broccoli and carrots.  It was all fantastic and I enjoyed my lunch in the garden which is just outside the restaurant.  It was a gorgeous, slightly chilly San Francisco day.  In the sun it was more than comfortable.  There were tons of people sitting on benches or grass, lying about on blankets, reading, listening to their iPods or eating lunch.  It was a very serene setting, especially with the fountain noise in the background.

Fountain at Yerba Buena Gardens

The thing that made me decide to blog about this lunch was not the food, nor the beautiful scenery in which I ate it.  It is what I saw on the way back to the office that made this blog-worthy (to me at least).  In San Francisco, there are these huge buses that are zero emissions vehicles which run on electricity provided by overhead cables (kinda like a bumper car).  The buses attach to the cables with these big curved lightning rod looking things, and the tops of the buses are decked out with some huge transformers a la Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory (please pronounce that laBOREatory.  Thank you).

San Francisco Muni Trolley Bus

I always wondered how they were able to change lanes and turn corners without losing connection to the cables and today I found out.  As I was walking down Mission, a bus stopped just after a red light and I looked up to see that the lightning rod things were no longer connected to the cable above and were splayed out like Bambi's legs on ice (Note to self, consider writing a show called "Bambi's Legs ON ICE!"  It could be a dinner show complete with venison steaks.).  The driver had hopped out of the cab and I said "I guess that's not supposed to happen, eh?" to which he replied "No.  Those corners are sometimes tricky".  So as I watched, he went to the back of the bus and used these two pulleys (that I'd never really noticed before) to physically move those lightning rods out from the bus, and then physically forced first one, then the other to contact the cables above.  It was fascinating.  It wasn't a precision, easy job either.  He had to work it back and forth (while standing in the traffic lane) and get it to catch on the cable.  The first one must have been the ground because it went on easily and made no noise, but the second one took a little more work and made an electrical zap when he got it in the right position.  Pretty cool.  Learn something new every day!

First Some Firsts, But First...

This past weekend was a weekend of firsts for The Bay Area Wilbankses.  The first first came on Friday night when Traci and I went with Josh and Emily to one of their (and now our) favorite restaurants, The Banana Leaf in Milpitas, a city near Fremont.

It is a Malaysian restaurant and Traci and I had never eaten Malaysian food - FIRST!  It was fantastic.  The restaurant's one downfall is its own popularity - that and the lack of a proper waiting area.  It was (and apparently always is) super busy so we were among probably 20 other people waiting for a table.  The restaurant is on the small side and so we were all waiting in a very small area near the front door.  The good news (since it was cold and rainy that night) is that they have big overhead door heaters to keep the cold out, so we were able to stay warm while we waited.  Those heaters made me wonder if we were standing in a kitchen area because they were big radiant hot lamps like you use to keep food warm.  I was assured that they were there only for heating people, not food, and not soylent green which I guess would be a combination of the two.  Speaking of food, it was absolutely delicious.  Malaysian food is similar to Thai food.  They have some of the same soups and they serve curries that are reminiscent of Thai, and they also make a mean iced coffee (and presumably tea).  The service at The Banana Leaf was amazing.  Our waiter was happy to accommodate special requests, brought everything quickly, and was friendly enough.  The food was the best Thai I've had since moving to California and we will definitely be going back to sample more dishes.

We finished up our meal leaving just enough time for us to make it to the movie theater which was our final destination that night.  We went to the Mercado AMC 20 in Santa Clara (another city near Fremont) to see Rango, the animated movie starring Johnny Depp as a lizard.  It was our first movie-going experience since moving to California - FIRST!  Movie theaters - especially AMCs, are about the same everywhere apparently.  Nothing too different or odd about the setup.  We got into our seats just in time for the previews to start.  I think we all enjoyed the movie immensely and all agreed that although it's animated, it's not really a kid's movie.  It was often surreal and had some crazy adult references that kids would not have gotten, but they definitely made us smile.  Amazing animation, and a great, quirky story with a message.  I recommend it to all my adult friends who like animated films.

Saturday we went to a local Bank of America branch to get our shiny new California bank account all setup - FIRST!  We did some shopping and Traci got a new raincoat and we both got some silk long underwear - FIRST!  We also had our first meal at Five Guys in CA - FIRST!

Saturday night we had VIP tickets to see KRS-One in San Francisco at a little club called the Red Devil Lounge.  As you might have already surmised, this was our first concert-going experience in San Francisco - FIRST!  We started by driving around the area where the lounge is, trying to find street parking.  The nearest garage was going to charge approximately $40 for our evening of fun.  Luckily, Traci has a great eye for that sort of thing and pulled a mad dog Uie into a nice spot about a block from the venue.  It was cold, windy, and rainy so we were glad to be decked out (or in as the case may be) in our silk thermals, and Traci was very happy with her new raincoat.  The umbrella we were sharing provided minimal water-proofing for us thanks to the wind buffeting it around.  In fact, I accidentally clobbered Traci on her head with the metal part of the umbrella - FIRST!

We got to the club at a little after 9 which is when doors opened.  The venue's website suggested that opening bands normally start about 30 minutes after doors so we figured we'd be sitting for only a few minutes before things got started.  We went to the front of the line and were escorted to our reserved table upstairs in the balcony.  When we got there, someone was already in our seat (FIRST!).  They pretended that they were supposed to be there and the bouncer asked us to wait while he figured it out.  They were summarily kicked out of our seats and we sat down to enjoy a cocktail.  The opening band didn't start until after 10.  It was a local San Francisco rapper named Richie Cunning along with his DJ, "DJ Bad DJ".  Richie Cunning is the first local rapper I've seen live anywhere - FIRST!  He was super dope.  I loved his set, his lyrical style was very clean and clear and easy to understand, plus he really got the crowd moving.  I also liked all the local references in his raps (BART, Clipper Card, the Giants, etc.).  I was hooked by the time his set ended, and extremely happy we showed up in time to see the opener, which we don't always do so as to minimize our standing around time.  At the end of the evening, I saw him heading outside and stopped to tell him what a great set he had and ask where I could get his CD.  He said he'd be right back and thanked me for my praise.  While I stood in line for the bathroom inside, Traci stood outside (we had gotten very hot in the club which is self-described on their site as "hot and sweaty") and ended up chatting with Richie.  He was really nice and down to earth, especially for a rapper and Traci texted me to tell me that he was out there with CDs (I must have missed him coming back while focusing on my incredibly full bladder).  I met up with them outside and bought both his commercial CD and his mix tape (which included a lot of the tracks from his set).

Richie Cunning

KRS-One took the stage just before midnight and after a couple of songs introduced his DJ as his son.  A family affair and another FIRST!  Krs's set was good but I felt the sound was a little muddy.  They definitely upped the volume for his set, which is the norm for headlining acts vs. opening acts I think.  He played some classics and then did some pretty crazy stuff like rapping over Pachelbel's Canon and another classical piece.  The balcony seemed to be open to anyone who wanted to climb the stairs so despite having a table, we had some people in front of us.  The club is so small though, that merely standing up provided a great view of the stage for us and it was really nice to have a dedicated seat when needed.  The  male of the couple who stood right in front of my seat in the balcony was a SUPER FAN.  He had obviously been to see KRS many times before and knew all the words to the songs and was super excited to be there.  His girlfriend and I traded a knowing "oh boy he's a little out of control" glance at one point.  He was jumping around like a madman (as were some other people) and I started pondering exactly what might happen if the whole balcony fell into the crowd below because it was shaking something fierce.  I figured we'd make it out alive and decided to not worry.  At what turned out to be the end of the show, Krs jumped into the crowd and apparently that was the signal that the show was over, a fact that we recognized because super fan and his crew took off at that point.  Krs's son continued to spin for a while after but it seems like hip-hop acts don't really do encores.

In addition to being a rapper, KRS-One is a political activist, conspiracy theorist, and general whack job - in a lovable sort of way. I've posted two videos below, one of which shows him in that role and the other is a clip of the Pachelbel's Canon rap he did.  They're both kinda muddy sounding, but it gives you a good idea of just how small the club is and just how close we were.  Feel free to drop out of them at any time, I know I did.  This marks the first time I've ever posted rap videos taken by me, to a blog while living in California.  DRINK IT UP!  FIRST!

Chinatown At Last!

Ornate Entrance to Chinatown

Some of our most prominent readers (our moms) have been begging for some Chinatown action in the blog so we're delivering the goods right now.  Starting with this video of a lovely Traci walking along in Chinatown:

Traci and I decided to start our Saturday of adventure with a little brunch, or as they say in Chinatown: "Dim Sum?".  Dim sum is all about leisurely tea sipping and munching on small tapas-sized Asian dishes.

When a much younger Conery and Traci first visited San Francisco in 2000, we landed, got to our hotel (in Chinatown) and were STARVING.  It was 11AM local time but to our stomachs, it was definitely 3PM and lunchtime had come and gone somewhere in the air as we crossed time zones.  We wandered around the area until we found a place that seemed open, which turned out to be a restaurant called The Four Seas.  We entered an unassuming door under an unassuming awning and were greeted with a surprise - a very large, plush, long staircase leading up.  We followed that to the top and reached the hostess stand.  We were seated and almost immediately treated to a bevy of waiters and waitresses walking around to all the occupied tables with big rolling steam carts crying "Dim sum?".  That was our first foray into dim sum and we were hooked, making sure to visit an Orlando dim sum place as soon as possible after our return.

Flash forward to Saturday and we thought it only fitting to bust our SF resident dim sum cherry at the place where it all started, The Four Seas in Chinatown.  Below is a little video of part of our walk to, and entrance into, the restaurant.

Once we were seated, we were given the regular menu as well as this smaller dim sum menu:

We were the only people in the restaurant so we figured we'd have better luck at getting what we wanted if we just ordered instead of waiting for whatever the steam carts held for us.  The randomness of it part of the allure, but we had miles to go before we slept that day and went the easy route.  Along with the obligatory tea, we enjoyed some beef balls, deep fried pork dumplings (which were battered in something akin to corn dog batter, slightly sweet and doughy), some delicious pot stickers and then ended the meal with an order of sweet custard buns (which were not the same as the ones to which we'd grown accustomed in Orlando, but not bad).

While we were eating we saw that there was someone with a small camera rig filming below us.  The picture I took of that is not worth posting really as there was a pole blocking all but the edge of the camera.  It didn't matter anyway, because soon after, there was a large commotion downstairs as a local school band started playing their drums.  That was followed by a very large string of very large firecrackers going off in the street below.  They are still celebrating the Chinese New Year weeks after it officially occurred.  We paid our bill and went downstairs in time to catch this action:

Pretty amazing stuff happening at all times in the city as far as we can tell!

We moved on to the rest of our day which included a nice drive through the Presidio area (which is beautiful) on a very twisty road that was a little scary (as evidenced by the end of the video below):

After we found the location of the Andy Goldsworthy installation Traci blogged about earlier, I took some photos of it as well as some shots of the bay from that area.

It was a gorgeous day and we had a ball exploring touristy things knowing we didn't have to pack it all in to one day like an actual tourist.

The best part of living in your favorite city on Earth?  You never have to leave.

Here Ya Go, Mom!

I talked to my mom on the phone this morning and she mentioned that she loves the blog (she has to though because I'm her son) and especially likes the pictures of buildings in SF that we've posted.  So just for you mom, I spent my walk to and from lunch today snapping some pics of old buildings which I present for your viewing pleasure.  I miss you!  Come see these in person ASAP (that goes for the rest of you too)!

The other side of the tunnel where the food carts setup

The Tempest Bar makes an amazing hamburger

The side of The Chronicle building that said "Go Giants!"
before they cut it out recently

I am fond of this picture

Pickwick Hotel

Priest Update

I walked down to a hardware store today to have a key made and decided to take the long way back to the office to help me with my downtown bearings.  On my way back, I happened upon Priest the U.G.K. whose CD I purchased a few weeks ago.  I noticed while listening to the CD that some of his tracks were mislabeled.  I was accosted by yet another new artist (who somehow has 7 CDs available for purchase - 3 for $10!! I passed this time) and then went to rap with Priest.  He and the other rapper whose disc I purchased were both there and remembered me (they  probably don't sell many CDs to business casually dressed crackahs).  Priest said that he was aware of the error and that it happened when he converted his tracks from PC to Mac.  He then pointed out to me that what I have is a collector's item "like the old baseball cards when the player's bat was on the wrong shoulder".  Heh heh.  Gotta love that answer.  Next time I see them, I'll probably have to buy the other dude's disc but I also plan to suggest to them that they invest in a portable CD player with a headphone jack so they could let people hear what they're missing.  People could even plug in their own headphones if they're creeped out by the community ones.  I'm going to ask for $1 of every CD they sell because of this idea.  I may be becoming a rap promoter or manager or something.

Good lookin' out, homies.

Foodcartopia!

Wednesday was the day the food carts came to the San Francisco Chronicle tunnel on Minna as part of the Off The Grid mobile food service. There were six carts all told - Curry Up Now, Seoul on Wheels, Southern Sandwich, Kung Fu Tacos, Hapa SF and Cupkates. There was a bit of a festival atmosphere when I emerged from the building. There was a brass band playing under a tent (video at the end of the post), people from all walks of life downtown sitting on the curb or in chairs eating the wares of the truckers, talking and laughing, it was pretty cool.

Here are pictures of each of the trucks:

Southern Sandwiches

Cupkates

Hapa SF

Curry Up Now

Kung Fu Tacos

Seoul On Wheels

Those who know me know that Gemini + Foodie = I demand variety so of course I had to try more than just one cart. The offerings will change every week so I really wanted to try them all, but time, money, and a lack of a third arm to carry everything back upstairs kept me down to only two carts this week. I decided to try the BBQ offerings at Southern Sandwich and was undecided on my second choice.

I wandered along the row of trucks and decided to check the menu at Curry Up Now which had the longest line. They had a Tikka Masala Burrito on the menu with either chicken or paneer cheese. I have had Indian Chicken Tikka Masala several times at many different places and thanks to our friend Anita, I've even made it, so I'm well-versed in the dish for a Florida-born cracker. I love it. It's a thick, creamy, tomato-based red sauce with chicken pieces over rice. That, coupled with the long line sealed the deal and I decided to wait. I finally get to the front counter after about ten minutes on line (and freezing by the way because as I've mentioned before, shade matters a lot more here and the tunnel is all shade) just in time for the guy to stop his money-taking duties to start handing out some dishes to waiting people. Apparently the dish of the day was the butter chicken burrito. It was $1 more and wasn't ready to go (maybe they had more demand than they planned for). So I wait another couple of minutes until he finished handing out food and then he takes my order for the chicken tikka masala burrito which he then hands me from the ones in the hot glass cabinet. I take my two dishes and tea back to my desk and dig in.

I started with the BBQ. For $7 I got a nice, big, smoked, pulled pork sandwich with spiced vinegar and rustic coleslaw. The coleslaw was on the sandwich and consisted of really large thick strips of purple cabbage and smaller chopped green cabbage. It was not overly mayonaisey and may have been vinegar based like the sauce. The sandwich was really delicious and most of the meat was super moist and tender. There were a couple of bites that were on the dryer side and the pork was just barely pulled, leaving quite a few big chunks (I'm not complaining, just explaining). They also had sweet tea which was strong and not over-sweetened. The tea was self-served from the side of the truck and they had retrofitted the normal pull down taps with some "American Cross" bathroom faucet handles, which I thought was a nice touch. I ate half of the sandwich and saved half for my better half to try.

Then I unwrapped the hefty $7 "tikka masala" burrito. I put that in quotes to say "the so-called tikka masala burrito". I don't know if perhaps this wasn't Indian curry, or if it's some different region where tikka masala means something entirely different, but this was not what I thought it was going to be. It was a yellow curry chicken and rice burrito. It was not red or creamy and I fully expected sauce to be dripping out of the burrito on my first bite. It was not dry, but it seemed as though the rice had been sauced and spiced and then added to the burrito shell along with your choice of protein (chicken or paneer). It was tasty, don't get me wrong, just not what I expected and not what I was looking for. Another unfortunate thing was that one bite of my burrito included a black spice pod of some sort. It was bitter and crunchy like a nutshell and was black and slightly scarab-like. I'm sure in the no doubt HUGE pot of rice or sauce that pod added much needed and expected flavors. However in a single burrito unexpectedly chomped down upon, it was a less than pleasant surprise. I save half of that for Traci and she liked it but thought she tasted more of a tikka masala undertone than I.

I hope they keep this up at our location because if they do, this will be a weekly happening for me and if not, I'll have to get directions to one of their other locations! My only regret is that I didn't make it back down for a cupcake!

Street scene pictures:

Video of the band:

More Chronicle Adventures

It's Monday which means back to work (thankfully). I am starting to get my bearings inside the SF Chronicle building and I keep finding out about other locations we service which are nearby. Today I got to go to the Chronicle office in the City Hall building!
Sagar, one of the network guys here (and a fellow contractor I found out today) was working a ticket in tandem with me for loss of network connectivity and he was planning to go down to take a look so I asked if I could join him. He was glad to have the company and the extra hands and brain. It's about six blocks to that building from the one on Mission where I work. An interesting fact for all my Floridian friends - shade matters a lot more here. In the shade of the tall buildings at 10AM, it was rather chilly and I was glad to have my leather, but as soon as we broke free of the shade, the 62 degree temperature was perfect sans jacket.

We entered the building which is gorgeous inside and out and had to go through a metal detector. Then we entered the main area of the building which is really ornate and beautiful.




While Sagar was troubleshooting, I stepped outside to make a phone call. Check out how awesomely old school their doors are:


They were the same inside as well. Very Bewitched, don't you think? Darren would be happy to call that his office door!

Once we fixed the issue, we were on our way for the walk back to the office. As we left the building and stopped for coffee, we couldn't help but notice the HUGE and decidedly odd looking sculpture nearby.

It's hard to see in that picture, but trust me it's big and weird. We decided to walk back via a different route which was fine with me, and on the way we stopped to get a closer look.


Here is some information about the statue:

Three-story, 15-ton "Three Heads Six Arms," by artist Zhang Huan in Civic Center Plaza. Three Heads Six Arms was inspired by Zhang's discovery of the fingers of ancient, partially-destroyed Buddhist sculptures on sale in a Tibetan market in the wake of China's Cultural Revolution. The fingers of Buddhist deities are full of different spiritual meanings depending on what gestures they are making. Zhang felt that combining these desecrated parts would alleviate the pain their destruction caused, so he created one large deity based upon the fragments he had come upon in that Tibetan market so long ago.

I read the plaque at the statue and it sounded more like these were actual remnants of destroyed Buddhist monuments but now I'm thinking he based the idea upon actual fragments he found. The point of the piece is unity and that seems like a good reason to make art. There's always something new and interesting happening in my life lately and that's a good thing!

Best... Weekend... Ever...

...(so far).

This weekend was really amazing and I get the feeling that while it was the best weekend so far, there are other, even better weekends ahead.

First of all, this was the first weekend I actually earned and was allowed to celebrate since May. I am once again a proud member of the "OMG Is It Five 'O Clock Yet Association" as well as the "Oh Thank Goodness Friday is Finally Here Group (Local 500)" and it feels great.

Friday night, Traci and I decided to try something different for dinner (since we have so many choices at our disposal now). I found a kebab place on Yelp that had very favorable reviews and several mentions of its authenticity. We tried it out and were delighted. It was a tiny hole in the wall called De Afghanan Kebab House in Fremont. Delicious skewered meats (lamb, chicken, beef and ground sirloin) along with some onion, tomato, cilantro mixture (I know that describes salsa, but it seems wrong to call it that) as well as a cold garbanzo bean salad. On the advice of another Yelper, we also tried the potato bolani. It's basically a flat naan type thing stuffed with mashed potato and leeks. They make it right there by hand, then throw it on the big griddle before cutting it into rectangles and sliding it into a pizza box. It was delicious and a great end to my first official work week.

On Saturday, we walked down to the dog park again. The dogs are loving the fact that we're so close and actually take them to slobber and new and excitingly different dogs every week. We're loving it too as it gives them (and us) a nice long walk and an opportunity for them to burn off some energy - necessary now that they're apartment dwellers with no yard of their own. A couple of hours later we were all back at the house and panting heavily.

Saturday afternoon, Traci went with our friends Joshua and Emily who are currently house hunting, to an open house while I stayed home to wait for our new cable guy. That's right, many of you will be sad to know that we had to ditch AT&T Uverse which was pretty awesome, for Comcast. The change came about because AT&T could not provide solid signal for our cable or Internet because of the configuration of the cable and telephone termination points in our complex. Luckily, we won't be paying anything for our short-lived Uverse experience. Also, it was just enough time with cable, which we have chosen to be without for more than six months, to remind me why we got rid of it in the first place. So we're back to Internet only and will stream our entertainment from the same sources we had in Florida. Also, there is a special running right now so that the middle tier of Comcast Internet service is only $29/month for the first 6 months so - score!

Once the house hunting crew got back to our place, the cable guy was gone and we started pondering dinner. Joshua and Emily had some local grass-fed beef thawing at their house which they offered to share with us. So they retrieved their meat and we provided the veggies and mac n cheese. It was a great dinner shared with friends, and it was followed by an even better event - Traci and Emily's inaugural Magic: The Gathering games!

Traci has been a long-standing hold out on the M:TG front. Joshua learned to play and Emily showed interest and Traci was the last one to grudgingly give in and try it. We watched Joshua and Emily duel and Traci studied the cards in the simple deck I built for her. The Chiets went home and then Traci and I dueled. She said she liked it, but between you and me I think the jury is still out. Hopefully we'll get to play a few more times this week to see if the bug bites her. If not, J, E, and I will definitely be playing more in the future so either way I get to play and that makes me happy.

Sunday was another amazing weather day in the bay area. Upper sixties, sunny, breezy, and generally amazing. Josh and Emily took me to a place called Hellyer Park to play my first California game of disc golf (this also makes me incredibly happy). The course was super hilly and we had to travel up and down the same hills several times to get to all the holes. It's a nine-hole course and you just play it twice if you want a full 18. It's not the best course I ever played, but man was it great. Not too challenging (we played from the pro tees), but challenging enough so that it wasn't boring. We had one disc stuck in a tree which we were able to dislodge using a crappy disc that was bleeding its blue coloring off on our hands. Hobart's Law of Equal Exchange was in full effect and we gladly left the newly lodged disc in its new home so it could bleed on someone else. We left the course slightly tired, slightly sweaty, and completely sated on the disc golf tip. Can it get any better!?...







Yes, yes it can. While the three of us were playing disc golf, Traci got to have her inaugural yoga class in Fremont (apparently she should be teaching them, but she'll just lead by example... like she does)! Since I got home later in the afternoon, she had had plenty of time to relax after her class before we began the next awesome thing we did this weekend. We took my Mustang for a ride to the big 'ol city of San Francisco. It was our first time into the city together since we moved here and it was super cool. We decided to take a ride across the Golden Gate Bridge - cuz we could. It's WAY out of our way. I'm sure for some people it's the perfect way to get somewhere, but for us, it's not on our way anywhere. This was a Sunday drive though so it was perfect. We drove across the Bay Bridge to get to the Golden Gate, and it was nearing sunset as we drove across. We took the first exit before the big tunnel and stopped at a vista point. We walked around a bit, took a couple of pictures, and mostly failed miserably at trying to get our heads into a self portrait with the city and bridge behind us.





The vista area was loaded with tourists and it was fascinating to hear all the different languages of people visiting this landmark. Knowing we can come back whenever we like, we didn't spend a ton of time there and got back in the car for the return trip.



After going back across the bridge to the city, we drove to my workplace which has a parking garage conveniently located right next door. Parking on the weekends is only $7 which is nice. We walked around the Mission area so Traci could get some shots of my building at night and just see where I reside during the week. Then we walked down to The Cravery. If you've read previous posts you know that this is a little shop that makes handheld, gourmet pot pies. They were pretty short on supplies and only had their tiny ones available and in only two flavors. We took that as a snack alert and were able to try the chicken and mushroom and the beef curry pot pies without being stuffed. The crust was flaky and delicious as were the ingredients. I would definitely go back and since it is in walking distance of my building, I feel certain that a full-sized pie is in my future.

After our snack, we wandered around a bit more. I showed Traci the path I walk to and from the BART every day and then we walked over to Market Street where they turn around the streetcars. I had a pretty satisfying moment when a guy came up to us asking if we were planning to ride the street car today. I said that we weren't and he asked if we might in the future. I happily said, "No, we live here" which ended all haggling. It was pretty great. We left that area and did a little impromptu shopping along the way back to the car. On the way home, we stopped and picked up some excellent Mexican food from La Pinata in Fremont. Super burrito + beer = perfect ending to our amazing weekend.