Transit to San Francisco 9 December 2023 : Caspar Institute

Getting there is half the fun

From the very first news of a 50th birthday party for Damiana at China Live on Broadway in San Francisco, we planned this as a “transportation trip” from north of Santa Rosa (where the difficult driving begins) to the City and back. There's a wonderful new capability in town: the SMART train, and its schedule works well with the Golden Gate Ferry from Larkspur to the Ferry Building at the foot of Market.

So with plenty of pre-planning, the downloading of two new apps (one of which didn't work properly, Surprise!)

And let it be said right here (as Rochelle said it): every single public-facing person we encounter, train driver, conductors, ferry staffers, restaurant greeters and servers, and wonderful Maria who saved our butts at our accommodation (another failed app; why am I not surprised?) treated us with courtesy, humor, and humanity.

Smart Train over the Petaluma River (provided by SMART)

Nut Cracker wall at Costeaux Bakery (since 1923)

Very busy Saturday morning at Costeaux. We got seated immediately outside, but the inside wait was 40 minutes. Santa Claus in red shorts on a big chair – hot work in that beard! – but completely without interested children; he left before our quiche arrived. Wait staff struggling to keep up. Costeaux is entirely cashless these days . . . but the food is still up to the old standard.

On down the road and after a misfire found the parking for the Smart train – great naming: Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit. Overnight parking costs $5.30, but you need an app for that . . . and the app doesn't work on an android phone, but the station has wifi, so I loaded the (stupid) app and got 95% of the way through securing our parking spot when the train pulled out and I lost my wifi. No worries, got it straightened out once we got wifi at the Washington Square Inn, where I write this.

The train is very smooth and goes through backyards and industrial ghettoes and across great wasteland fields. Below we travel from Santa Rosa Airport, the northern terminus (for now; one day, Cloverdale!) all the way to Petaluma (teapot through the window) paste deserts of workforce warehousing on several economic levels (but mostly well off, and one long homeless encampment I couldn't get a good shot of just north of Novato.)

(reads left to right, top to bottom)

Petaluma to Marin Civic Center, through a tunnel to downtown San Rafael where traffic stops even though the train isn't in the road, beside the freeway and another tunnel and Larkspur Landing . . . ALMOST. Long trek to the ferry landing. Very bad human planning, but cars are clearly the primary consideration: make it convenient for them! It's about a 25 minute walk from the train to the ferry.

All in all, though, high marks for the train, the train ticketing process, the strain staff. Lots of people in the holiday spirit trekking between Santa Rosa downtown and Petaluma; lot of Xmas shopping going on. Great to see public transportation working well.

Plenty of time between our train arrival and the ferry departure, and then we be cruisin'

Gorgeous day, lots of sailboat action, but not good photography because of where the sun was.

For me, definitely a sentimental journey as coming into the Ferry Building harkens clear back to when the SP Ferry took us from the Oakland Mole to the Ferry Building for dinner with dad, circa 1950.

	We walked from the Ferry landing through the Ferry Building and through the high rises that line the Embarcadero, then up Columbus a little over a mile to Stockton Street and the Inn.
The contradictions that enliven San Francisco were in high relief: snarled traffic; strange, durable conjunctions – City Lights catty-corner from the Condor – and all of it crowded with younglings in Santa costumes, elf costumes, a Virgin Mary in San Francisco's Party Central, the Barbary Coast.

Workforce Warehousing, high-rise style

After a bit of tech-infused drama about getting into the Inn – more on that later – we rested for a few minutes, and then headed up the street to China Live, where Damiana had assembled a banquet room full of her friends in celebration of her 50th. On our way, amongst the partying Santas and elves we saw a man driving his miniature RC car with his rabbit in it, and a Mary (unclear whether intended to be Magdalen or not, but judging by the decolletage, yes).

A lovely party, and always such a delight to see my daughters together and enjoying themselves. Some of the dishes:

Dongbei Vegetarian Potstickers

'Betelnut' Minced Chicken Lettuc Cups

Char Sui Pork 'Crunch' Buns

Chrysanthemum Ten Ingredient Salad with Plum Vinaigrette

Tamarind-Laced Sweet & Sour Basil Glazed Pork Ribs

Shanghai Xiao Long Bao 'XLB' Soup Dumplings (cute!)

Indochine Mahi Claypot, Turmeric & Dill Herbs

Wok Seared Filet Mignon 'Steak Ko' with Snow Peas

Yangzhou Fried Rice BBQ Pork & Sweet Baby Shrimp

plenty of wine, Crémant, and cocktails

Walking 'home' the Barbary Coast Santas had thinned out somewhat, but the blood alcohol level was definitely up, and this end of the City felt a lot like Las Vegas.