Escape From Seattle

Oops, I went to SFO again this weekend. The local forcast said but for only $200 and 2 hours of travel it could be . Done. And after driving it once, flying was a no-brainer: 10x faster for the same price.

After work on Friday, I bought my flight, jumped on the plane and arrived in Oakland before midnight. There's a bus that takes you from that airport to BART, and BART took me into the city. Oh, there was one small incident on the way: APPARANTLY, the TSA does not permit KNIVES on airplanes. The backpack that I brought along as carry-on still contained my Leatherman tool from my last excursion, and the dozen or so security personnel working me over in parallel in the "extra" screening line had no trouble finding it. Luckily, they weren't too upset about my accidental attack on homeland security, and instead of reserving me a cage in Guantanemo, they just sent me back to either put my contraband in checked baggage or mail it home. Super!

I decided to stay in the dorm at the H.I. Downtown because Natalie and I found it agreeable last weekend. This is a really big place and it doesn't seem like you have to worry about reservations (during the Winter). Also, they have free wireless on the second floor (it looks like someone just plugged an access point into the for-pay internet kiosk's LAN. Nice!)

All I really did today was ride around on MUNI reading my book The Best American Travel Writing 2005 (highly recommended, and there are past years' editions). Spent time in the sun looking at the city at Dolores Park, via the J. Next I rode the N to the beach to catch the sunset.

Finally, one site I'll be consulting frequently while I'm here: Burritophile Burrito reviews for the Bay Area and beyond