Zen

SAN JOSE, Calif. – It’s late, I’ve spent most of tonight being angry about the train system in Silicon Valley and I have to get up early in the morning if I want to have any chance of spending a good amount of time in San Francisco.

But I feel like I ought to give some kind of accounting of what I did today, so I’ll do most of it through pictures instead of words.

After going to AT&T Park, I rode the MUNI (which I like, as opposed to the confusing and infrequent VTA light rail system in San Jose) to Fisherman’s Wharf. Yes, it’s the city’s biggest tourist trap. But it’s also home to an In N’ Out Burger. Of all the culinary opportunities I’ve had on this trip that is unquestionably the one I can’t replicate at all on the East Coast.

Maybe the food made me feel lazy, or maybe the tourist-filled air overcame me for a few minutes, but I decided that instead of taking the regular MUNI back to Market Street I’d take a cable car. Five dollars and a really long wait later, I was on my way up Hyde Street at something like a 60-degree angle to the ground.

I suppose the ride was worth it, though the driver had a somewhat discomforting habit of stopping right in the middle of every intersection we crossed on the way back down the hill.

From there, I made a brief and unsuccessful attempt to find some free wi-fi. It was a few minutes before 4 p.m., and I figured I had enough time before meeting a friend for dinner that I could try to get over to Golden Gate Park.

I succeeded, and ended up spending almost an hour wandering around the Japanese Tea Garden. For as much as I like the development in the ballpark district, the Japanese Tea Garden is probably my favorite place in all of San Francisco.

After that, it was off to dinner – at a California Pizza Kitchen. Which may seem odd, but it’s really hard to get in Philadelphia. Then after an hour or so at a nearby Kinko’s, where I managed to upload a few photos to Flickr, it was time to head back to San Jose.