A Field Trip Day to San Francisco with Public Transportations

On Tuesday, April 19, 2022, I had a field trip to San Francisco with public transportations. Why? Continue reading this blog.

I started with my Senior Clipper VTA card with $10.00 in it.  

I had to start the day early to make sure that I would not be late for the passport application appointment in San Francisco.

San Francisco Passport Agency

450 Golden Gate Ave.

3rd Floor

Suite #3-2501

San Francisco, CA 94102

6:30am 

It took 15 minutes from Campbell home to Caltrain Lawrence station.  Jeanet took me there and this is the weakest link in the trip. Other segments are more or less reliable and there is no need for private cars.

7:09am - 8:07am 

Caltrain to Millbrae transfer to BART $1.85, face covering required.

8:20am - 8:48am

Red BART from Millbrae to SF Civic Center $2.30

9:15am - 9:40am

Checked in at the SF passport agency - 9:40 done with my application review. I was asked to pick up at 3:30pm in the afternoon.

Now, I had this time to kill in the city.  There is a nearby Asian Art museum, which would be great to visit.  Unfortunately I was told at the door that the museum is closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I had to come back next time.

I saw a double decker tour bus. I asked about its length, time 2 hours and 20 minutes if I don't get out of the bus and it would cost $59.

I decided to visit San Francisco City Hall instead.  It is a great place for the newlyweds to take photos there.  I saw 3 or 4 couples in that one hour.

11:09am - 11:45am 

At Market & 8th street bus stop, I took street car F to Pier 39 ($1.25) for lunch and some crowd and sunshine.

I had lunch at the original Boudin soup and sandwich restaurant for $15.98.

12:38pm - 1:13pm 

I took the street car F back from Stockton & Beach to Market & 8th ($0.00 may be I am still in that original fare's time window)

I hung out at the second floor cafeteria in that federal building until 3:15pm. It was a pleasant place to stay.

3:15pm - 3:35pm

There are five "will call" windows at the agency, and I guess that there are at least 100 pickups at the passport agency.

3:53pm - 4:59pm

I took Green BART from Civic Center to Milpitas for $2.95.

5:22pm - 5:37pm 

I transferred to the VTA light rail orange line (Mountain View bound) to Champion.

5:43pm - 6:32pm 

I transferred again to Green Line at Champion to Winchester for a total of $1.00. This is a long la la ride through San Jose downtown.

At Winchester light rail station, I was picked up by Jeanet to Campbell home.  This is about 3 miles and it is also a weak link in the whole trip.

I ended with my Senior Clipper VTA card with $0.65 left in it.  Maybe the regular fare will be twice that.

What a different and productive day!  Believe it or not, one day turnaround for your US passport.  It was possible for me.

[Brain Teaser Game]

These days we all need some puzzle of sorts for the readers.  Here is one for my readers who consider themselves familiar with Bay Area geography.  Please order the stations from Lawrence to Millbrae.  Leave the ones out you are not sure first, and then take a guess.  The answer can be found in the reference #2.  How did you do? Let me know.

Stations: Belmont, Burlingame, California Ave., Hayward Park, Hillsdale, Sunnyvale, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Antonio, San Carlos, and San Mateo.

References:

1. VTA https://www.vta.org/
2. Caltrain system map https://www.caltrain.com/stations/systemmap.html
3. BART system map https://www.bart.gov/system-map 
4. VTA Light Rail System map https://www.vta.org/sites/default/files/2020-01/LR-Map-2020.pdf

Beekeeping Field Trip

On my bus rides to the Fragrant Hill for hiking, I saw bee hives stacked up along the bus route outside of Fourth Ring road in Beijing. I was quite curious about this outdoor setup. I had honey, walnut, milk, and oatmeal for breakfast routinely for years. I bought a copy of "Beekeeping for Dummies" to read in August 2008. It was fascinating to read.   Bees are one of the oldest domesticated animals.  Honey bees are quite docile, while wasps are not.
Anyway, on August 14, 2010, I paid my first visit to a bee supply outfit, Carrier's Bees in San Jose, which was very close to my Campbell home. I found it in an Internet search. It was good to see and touch the basic components of a modern movable Langstroth comb hive with explanations and tips from the friendly shop owner.
I got a Livingsocial Roundrock Honey voucher as my birthday gift the summer of last year. Finally I managed to redeem it for a 3-hour class and demo in a place near Hunters Point, San Francisco before it expired.
The class took about an hour. It covered the basic honey bee society, the whole life cycle of a hive, the gears for beekeeping, the seasons, the flowers, and the climates.  The honey bee society is a very centralized one.  The one and only queen in the hundreds of thousands (at the peak of the season) bees in colony lives for 2 or more years.  She is well fed, well attended, and her only job is to lay eggs around the clock.  The picture on the left shows what queen's cell is like. The worker bees (sterile females) have a life cycle of 35 days or so.  The drones (male bees) are only good for mating.

This was the first class in this season.  They could not do demos during cold and rainy winter days.  The bees would be resting in the hive. We were lucky to have a nice sunny Saturday.  The hives and boxes were very minimal, as the colonies kept only the minimum to get through the (short) winter in California.  As the bees work and make honey to fill up the existing boxes and frames, new boxes will be added on top to allow for population growth and honey build-up.  On the left, you see a box with all the frames inside.

After our teacher cleaned up the propolis and beeswax a bit, frames were removed for show and tell and also for further cleaning.  The cleaning job was relative simple and straightforward, because the season is just started.





Starting up, the bees use the frames for both nursery and food store.  The queen drops an egg in the cell. After three days, the nurse bees feed the larvae, first with royal jelly, and then soon wean them to regular food, that is, honey and pollen.  Worker bees drop pollen and nectar into cells. Nectar ripens to honey after adding an enzyme and after some serious fanning by the bees to remove water content.  Pollen is packed. Both honey and pollen are food for the colony.

Now, I got hold of a frame that the combs are almost full, because bees are doing their final puking and touching on the cells.  This is a busy society, and everyone knows what she and he is supposed to do.




Many people react so stereotypically when they heard the bee word :-)  I was happy to have Henry with me on this trip. By the end of class, there are enough people convinced that these bees are really docile. We took our hats and veils off for the picture. Unless we confront the bees directly and threaten them, we do not have anything to fear.  Being on the cautious side is always a good idea though.


The last stop was the tasting of local pollens and honey.  There were eucalyptus, lavender, wild flowers and other varieties.  The honey was more expensive than what you can get in Costco. But, the taste was very distinct and unique.  The mass-produced honey is more uniform and less exciting. Locally produced honey is good for people suffering from hay fever and pollen allergy. I suppose that is a vaccine-like effect, with people taking small doses of the same local pollen in their food.

There are only a few classes in summer for the harvesting of honey. Each class would be 4 to 5 hours. It might be fun to attend one of those as well...

One Year Anniversary - Home and Heart

May 20, 2010 was the official date I transferred back to the United States with Oracle. I came back for family reasons. There are certain duties and responsibilities in all stages of our lives. When those are more important, I have to put off my personal likings and preferences, such as adventures and explorations in new things and new places.
To the left is a picture we took this past March in Los Angeles for Joseph's birthday. Michael happened to be in town during the school break, and we were happy to drive down to spend a week in Joseph's apartment.


Here is another picture taken last summer when we took my mom out to an orchard to pick fruit near Davis, California. Recently, her physical health has been in serious decline, but her spirits are still high and her mind is still sound. We hired a live-in 24-hour helper, as she has difficulty getting up by herself now. She is in the hospice program again after a fall in early April. I have the same apprehension about this program. The staff and program are very helpful and humane. But their goal is to do the send-off with the best care and comfort. I am in denial.
The hospice staff advised us to use morphine for my mom for her chest pain. She is in bed about 20 hours a day, except for meals and bathroom trips. Her energy level is low and easily exhausted. Technically, it is a case of myocardial infarction. My younger sister flew in from Taiwan on May 3, and Michael flew back from the East Coast on May 6. We hope that there will be no regrets, but, deep inside me, I am still holding on to that slim chance of near-full recovery.

Michael is coming back to California in early June after one year of teaching at the Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut. This fall he will start working toward a Master's degree at UC Irvine in chemistry. We plan to drive from Avon to Campbell, California. According to the Yahoo! Map planning site, a non-stop drive is 3046 miles. That's what's shown on the left. In this planning stage, we are including a few stops to visit; this will include places I had never gotten back to for 30 years. I'll make a journal and take pictures to blog this cross-country trip.













Otherwise, I enjoy the California weather and seasons. This is something many Californians take for granted. I picked out four pictures for each season from my archive for the Campbell home.

(Spring) Azaleas and roses blossom in the backyard.

(Summer) The loquat tree in the backyard finally bear the first fruits last year since we planted in 2005.









(Fall) Foliage and beautiful yellow leaves of the ginkgo trees in the neighborhood street. There are many ginkgo trees with only two bearing fruits. The smell of the fruits is not so great ;-)

(Winter) Frost in the front lawn last winter. It was quite rare.

My first Caltrain rides - Sunnyvale to San Francisco

I went to the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2010 at Masconi Center in San Francisco. I have attended the IDF in Taipei and Beijing in the past. But, this was my first time attending the Forum in San Francisco. The conference had a different feel to it, because the crowd and culture are different. I did not want to drive to the city and have to worry about parking and traffic congestion. I decided to take Caltrain. In part, I wanted to have the first-hand experience of riding public transportation from the South Bay to San Francisco. Here is a photo of the ticket booth for Caltrain.










From Sunnyvale to San Francisco, the one-way fare is $6, which is not bad compared to how much I would have had to spend for the gasoline if I had made the one-hour drive. The daily parking cost me $3 at the Sunnyvale station.

The next photo is the Sunnyvale station on that early September morning.









The train is quite sleek and nice. This is one of them on that early morning.









Inside this double decker, the construction is sturdy, functional, comfortable, and quite pleasant to look at. From the photo, you can see that the train is not too crowded at all. That's a big problem in the US. Mass transportation is not popular because it is not convenient enough. This is a chicken-and-egg problem. Our society and various levels of government should address this in a serious way. We could not be competitive at all in the future world that mandates an energy-efficient society.






There is a car for people to transport the bicycles. It is quite neat, isn't it?


















When I arrived in the city, I took a photo of the San Francisco station. The walk to the Mascone Center took me only 15 minutes with ease. What a pleasure to do this!

What can you do at 100 Farenheit (38 Celsius) in Davis?

What can you do if the outside temperature is 100 degree? Although it is not humid in inland California, the feel of oven heat with ultraviolet light coming down straight on you is not easy to bear. Swimming is my cure in this hot weather. When I visited Davis over the weekend, I swam at the Arroyo Pool for about an hour, 20 laps totaling 1000 yards. I am slow, but I enjoy the workout. Single entry admission for this facility is $3.50.There is a summer pass, which is whole lot cheaper if you come often. There is a water slide and a huge wading pool. It is a favorite for families. See the two shots of the pool on the left.


















I paid special attention to the temperature difference between Davis (Sacramento Valley) and Campbell (Silicon Valley). That confirms what I heard about the 10-degree difference in Fahrenheit between the inland and south San Jose.

Near my work place at Menlo Park, I often stopped by the Mountain View Eagle Park swimming pool after work for a good swim. The single entry fee is $4.25 for non-resident. I had a 20-use pass I bought in 2005 and they are still honoring that pass. I was quite impressed and happy about that.














Other times, I swam at the Campbell Community Center swimming pool near my home. This one is expensive. The single entry fee is $7.00, and with the 20-use pass, each time averages out to $4.00. I wrote about Beijing swimming experiences and obserevations before. I have a couple of shots to capture the facilities including the locker room and shower. This is quite a paradise to have swimming as a workout option in the US.

Grandma Update from Davis, California

I have been back in the Bay Area for almost three weeks now. I have spent all the weekends in Davis with my mom and my sister. I am glad that Jeanet is there as well to feed us all good and different food. Grandma has stabilized so much that we take her out every day for a walk to a nearby pond. She is still weak and has to be in a wheelchair most of the time. Here is a picture of her with my wife Jeanet, my sister Maria and my youngest nephew Yong-En.

With advice from the doctor when discharged from the hospital, my mother signed up a Hospice Program. We were told that average life span was about 6 months in their program. We have learned a lot about this program quickly. We are still not very sure that this is right for her. Normally terminally ill cancer patients will go through hospice because there no treatment is available. Providing care and comfort in the home is dignified and appropriate for those patients, and is often the preferred way for the last few months. My mother is weak, is diabetic (no need to do injection), and has high blood pressure. She is prone to complications, but not literally terminally ill in my definition. I have to admit that the end of a precious life might really happen in the next few years. Although I struggle to understand and accept this, I try to be with her often, holding her hands, pushing the wheelchair around, and hugging her like a baby. My mom is quite happy to have me around. I try to cherish the times together and take care her the best we can. It is a struggle to think of when she might pass away. God gives and God decides when she will be back. I just don't want to be sorry later.
We are planning to hire a live-in or a 9-5 caregiver for 6 days a week. With this, my sister's family and my family can have the time and energy to take care of other business.

Davis is a college town of 60,000 people. It is relatively quiet and is a carefree place to live. The nearby drainage pond has a few different varieties of ducks, Canada geese, and turtles. See this picture of sun-bathing turtles on a piece of floating deadwood.











Spring is a great time to have a new family. The goose family has quite a few new members in the afternoon water cruising with a fleet formation on the left.












Spring in Northern California is really beautiful. I had a chance to drive through Niles Canyon following Route 84 to the Dumbarton Bridge to Menlo Park. Mid April's plush tender green on the hills really soothes your eyes. The tranquility of the windy road and the sweetness of the air is a treat to me.
I am trying hard to capture this awareness and sense of appreciation after almost 4 years of absence from California. After a while, I'll take everything for granted and be spoiled again in America.


It is also time to work on the yard. I helped my sister trim the bushes to provide more sunlight to the rooms and to grow grapes and vegetables in the garden. Yard work is fun and rewarding.





Only during the week, I am in Campbell at "home". I have not completely unpacked yet. But, the azaleas started to bloom and blossom in the backyard. It is a pleasure to be back in Spring time.

What's Different Between Beijing and San Jose, California (Bay Area)

What's Different Between Beijing and San Jose, California (Bay
Area)

These are two different worlds to me. I decided to be more scientific about documenting the differences I perceived in a short note this time. Here is the note from my August trip to the US. If I don't jot down my impressions at the time I have them, I'll quickly adjust to them and the differences won't be that obvious after a short while.

[Blue sky and bright sun light, clean air and sometimes air is sweet in the nice early morning breezes.]
It was especially apparent when I walked out of the airport. The sunlight hurt my eyes. The Bay Area is special because California is a sunshine state. I recall old conversations
about K-12 education in California. Do you know that this
high-tech state ranks towards the bottom in the US in this category? What does California have to offer, one might ask?
Sunshine and plenty of it. :-)



Here is a lunch picture with my longtime friend LB in an
outdoor sandwich shop in Mountain View. He is my inspiration. He works on what he enjoys and loves, computers and software. He is a lucky guy and I am not far behind either. It was a pleasure to see LB again.


On this trip, he took my family for a special demo of the PDP-1 computer . LB got involved quite early in this project and is still an active member in this organization. This museum is an interesting place to see when you are in the area. Normally, you don't give a eulogy until someone or something has died. And you don't have a history museum until something has matured enough. Food for thought?








[Public Library in America]
I was brought up to treat the library as a place to study. I never checked out a book during my college days in Taiwan. I was taken to the library by my own children. They had class projects and reading to do, and after a while, I found things to do in the library. In China, library systems and audio books are the things I miss very much. For this trip, I needed to find some Arabic language references, so I did my search and reservation in Beijing through the
Santa Clara library system. I got email notifications when the items were ready for pickup. A couple of days after I got to my Campbell home, I went to the library to pick up my books and CDs. What a pleasure to do this so effortlessly!

The Campbell library is the closest and most convenient for me. When I have to spend a few hours in the library browsing books or reading magazines and newspapers, I prefer the recently
remodeled Saratoga library. It is a charming place to have my retreat.

Many people in China know about America from movies, TV shows, and tourists. Yet these are necessarily superficial types of encounters. Public services and places like libraries and parks are truly impressive and enjoyable for the mind and body. How people use library systems reflects the true depth of a nation and a culture. The ability to read, learn and draw conclusions and to ask questions is the true wealth of a nation and its people. I wish to see more of this in China.

[San Jose Airport: cell phone waiting area]
These days people are practicing just-in-time fetching for friends and family members from the airport with the aid of cell phones. It saves parking fees and often saves a lot of time. One catch is that cars need a place to wait for a short while. In many airports, cars circulate along the terminal areas and are forced to move by the parking patrols. San Jose airport has designated an area away from the airport so that you can wait in the parking area until you are called. You can time it just right to quickly get your passengers and go.

I have seen cars parked along the approaching highway curb sides at the Beijing airport and other Chinese airports. It is a safety hazard for sure and can only happen when people are not analyzing the issue. The airport authorities want people to pay and stay in the airport parking lots. Creating services to cater to people's needs is not always a high priority in China, especially when there is a conflict of interest. For instance, the airport authorities want to make parking lots profitable. The fundamental structure of governance and accountability is a problem. Hopefully time and wisdom can correct this.

[Morning swim in Campbell Community Center swimming pool]
I enjoy swimming a lot. It is my favorite exercise, because it does not hurt any joints or muscles. And it is one of the few things I do that's refreshing afterwards ;-)

I found my 3-year old swimming pass and went to the pool at the Campbell Community Center for a morning swim. They still accepted my pass, which made me quite happy.

Swimming outdoors is a true pleasure in California. The Campbell pool opens three times a day for about 2 hours at a time, with times designed for morning workouts, lunch time workouts and evening workouts. I wish I could take my morning swim at my apartment complex in Huaqing Gardens in Beijing. They open in the afternoon around 2 p.m. The concept of swimming as a workout is not yet popular in China. Swimming is still mainly associated with fun and entertainment. I'll have more about differences around swimming and practices around the swimming pool in a coming blog.

[BBQ in the backyard: good beef without added 'water']
The backyard is my favorite part of the house. I like the landscaping and it is the only place not
cluttered with years of collections. Maybe this is the reason I like to move to a new place - to leave all the baggage behind. Barbecuing at home in the summer is commonplace in the US. My favorite is filet mignon without any marination or seasoning. The best beef needs nothing to enhance it and should have a taste of the original raw flavor. Medium rare on the grill with a proper fire and timing will do the trick.

One thing I miss a lot in Beijing is good beef without an unwanted layer of permeated water. It is unfortunate that many animals, including cows, are force-fed with water before being weighed and sold to the slaughterhouse. You can hardly find beef without added layers of water. I wish that someday this practice can stop, hopefully when people are willing to pay a higher price per kilogram of beef without extra water added to it. Cheaper diluted beef does not offer any more beef, but rather a false notion of a better buy.










[How much does a corn on the cob cost?]
From this picture, it is 4 US dollars. ;-) Often people are impressed with how much money
one can make in North America. They think that it would be a paradise in which they could accumulate a fortune in just a few years. How much people can save depends on their living expenses and lifestyle. If you could work in North America by day and live in China by night, then you could save a bundle really fast. That's the way Chinese migrant workers tried to live in the early 20th century, so they could send money back to their villages. Differences between countries will always exist and people will continue to move to gain financially. As the world becomes more globalized and integrated, this physical movement will become less necessary and the differences will become smaller. Income will match the productivity in an more equitable fashion.

This picture shows how much a banana will cost you. This picture is from a grocery store outside of Denali National Park, and the corn picture is from a Saturday outdoor market in Anchorage, Alaska. The fruits and vegetables are more expensive than in a typical Safeway grocery in Northern California.

A taste of Northern California from my viewfinder

[High school students traveling to USA at the Beijing Airport]
My UA flight on July 12, 2008 was fully booked. Among the passengers, about 120 high school students were on board. I sat next to a couple of teachers/chaperons. They were excited and they had long shopping lists. One of them said to the other philosophically, "Let's not buy America to go." Travel and seeing things firsthand without hindrance is a first step to understanding and communication among nations. This is something good to see and I am hopeful to have a peaceful global village.




[The famous BlackBox at Sun's MPK campus]

Well, this might not be the original. It is in front of the MPK12 building, and I suppose that it is for the executive briefing tour. The future of networking, storage, and computing power are all packed in this box, with electricity and network cabled in, and information and heat out. I heard that the Pentagon liked this idea very much.






[Forced Tour at IKEA East Palo Alto]
I just needed to buy a gift certificate for my nephew's LA wedding. And I went in one way and had to quickly do a tour of everything. Here is a shot of a beautifully designed information post. I had to follow the winding road to reach the check-out counter at the end.














[Kaiser Hospital and my annual medical check-up]
I did my blood work and ultrasound a few days before I saw the doctor so that everything would be ready for his assessment. It was good for him to declare that I was good for another 6 months. This shot was at the women's ultrasound floor. Because of "load balancing," I was moved from the regular location to this one. Felt a little out of place at the beginning until I found a few other men there later. Kaiser Hospital at Santa Clara was part of the HMO network I still subscribe to.





[Pruneridge Golf Driving Range, my rare ritual these days]

You must be rusty only doing this driving range practice every 3 or 4 months. I don't even bother to go on the course, because we would hit the balls everywhere and be chased by the next group.














[LA Wedding, all in the family]

Driving down from San Jose to LA is about 6 hours. It was good to see my two sons and my mom again. It was an excuse to have a family reunion. My nephew John got married, the first in that generation. I found my position as uncle was well respected in the scheme of things.







[San Jose RHV airport: biannual flight review]

I did not look too thrilled. I wonder why? My private pilot license requires a biannual flight review to be current. It was one hour of ground instruction and review, and another hour or more air work with a required minimum number of takeoffs and landings. I took this shot in front of the at the RHV airport. It was a lot of mental and physical work to recover from installs and to simulate emergencies.





[Gate of Heaven: my dad and my mom]

My mom is living with my younger sister in Taiwan for the time being. It is her wish to visit the grave site of my dad at Gate of Heaven, a Catholic cemetery in Los Altos, every time she is in northern California. We cut the flowers from our backyard; Michael did a nice job in arranging them.







[Robin and Family in our backyard]

This was a great shot seeing a mother or father robin feeding the young chicks. Our family had a great time seeing this robin family doing their thing in our backyard.









[Century 22 Movie Theater]

I heard in a Toastmaster speech that not having reserved seating for movie tickets in the US was a surprise to Chinese natives. I refreshed my memory on this trip. This dome-shaped structure is a common for movie theaters in the US. We watched "The Dark Knight." This Batman sequel was entertaining and has some interesting philosophical thoughts in it.






[California Living: Castro Street in Mountain View, luncheon in outdoor cafe setting]

This Castro street is becoming a symbol of California living these days. California has nice weather with beautiful blue skies most of the year. It is dry, and outdoor living is feasible and enjoyable. Although California is lagging behind in terms of East Coast high culture and sport teams, and is not well known for public education K through 12, the weather has attracted many new immigrants in the last two centuries. In the boom days of the Silicon Valley, many domestic transplants came to this state as well.



[Police riding Segway in Mountain View, California]

I saw this in LA airport, but I did not have chance to take a picture. This time I used my iPhone to record the scene. It is like child's play to me. A little wild and unthinkable 10 or 20 years ago. The cops need to work more efficiently, I suppose. It is probably more acceptable than seeing them riding on scooters?