I spent six days in San Francisco between my trip to Copenhagen and flying out to Philadelphia before heading off to a conference in Vancouver. I wasted no time, in what ended up being an incredibly fun and busy week.
It started the day after I got home, with tickets to Boat from “Beach to Beach†May 6. I met up with my friend Mark for this at Cameron Beach Yard, which I’d never been to.
We were there a bit early, so that gave us time to look around the old streetcars they have stashed away in the barn, which was a highlight of this adventure, even if some of them are in pretty rough shape.
Unfortunately the “boat” in the ticket title was not to be. They had planned on taking us out in the Blackpool “boat” tram, which I took in 2015 on another excursion. Alas, due to a mechanical issue with it, it was swapped out for the 1. It wasn’t too disappointing though, the day was a bit chilly and the 1 is a fine streetcar as well.
The excursion was scheduled in order to celebrate 100th anniversary year of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. Sadly, the historic streetcars can’t go through the tunnel due to changes in the electric wiring that only supports the modern metro cars. Instead, the two hour ride took us down the M-Ocean View line, then over to the L-Taraval (Zoo train!). It stopped at the end of the L line for pictures, before returning to Cameron Beach Yard. We had a lovely time. It had been a few months since we caught up so it was nice to spend the time catching up on work, life, and the latest things to have broken in our respective houses.
I also learned that it’s one of their last excursions for a while, so I’m glad we were able to get tickets to it. The next fun weekend for the organization that I’m looking forward to is coming up in September, Muni Heritage Weekend on September 8-9th.
More photos from the streetcar excursion here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pleia2/albums/72157696524357325
I saw MJ off to the airport on Tuesday night that week so he could start a week and a half of caring for his sister’s cat at our place in Philadelphia. That Thursday I went into the old Mesosphere office for the last time (we’re moving to a bigger place!) and then met up with my friend Stephen to go to the Red Hat wrap-up part where Weezer was playing. We last caught up last summer when he and his fiance came to stay with us during Fosscon in Philadelphia. Since then we’ve both bought houses and had plenty to chat about.
Conference parties aren’t really my thing, but going with a friend helps, and seeing Weezer was quite the draw and we had a really nice time.
And with that, my six days in the bay area came to a close!