Here are my phone messages from today:
12:34pm Sat: Trying to take public transportation from San Jose to San Francisco. Wish me luck!
12:46pm Sat: IǃÙm at the CalTrain station by HP Pavilion. I imagine Kanye and company are in the vicinity. I wish I had tickets.
12:48pm Sat: What happened is I didnǃÙt want to buy tickets to a San Jose concert and jinx the co-op (I hadnǃÙt received an offer at pre-sale time).
7:26pm Sat: Jon told me Jay-Z has a show in Oakland tomorrow night. So whatǃÙs he gonna do tonight other than hang out with his friend Kanye?
7:40pm Sat: Except, oh yeah, Kanye has a concert to attend. Guest appearance by Jay-Z? ItǃÙs possible. Man, I wish I had tickets.
Anyway, I just finished eating at Denny’s and I overheard a guy talking about the concert. No Jay-Z sighting. It was nice to imagine though.
Anyway, I left the house at noon, drove, shuttled, took the CalTrain, walked, and got to Union Square around 3:00. I hung out with Jon and Janice and caught the BART at 6:45. That connected to the CalTrain that was late. So I missed the shuttle, but I finally made it to my doorstep around 10:00. It was basically 3 hours of traveling each way and about $20 total. Still worth it.
If I ever do make another day trip to San Francisco using public transportation, I think I can get it down to 2 hours of traveling by driving to a Park & Ride further north and transferring from the CalTrain to the BART at the earliest possible stop. That’d make it 4 hours of travel and a a little over $20 (not counting taxi fare to get where I want there, I’d estimate $25 total). Driving would take 2 hours (not counting finding parking) and the cost of gas and all day parking, which would combine for probably $30-$45. Cost is basically the same, but I’d much rather spend 4 hours listening to music and reading a book than drive an hour each way alone.
Today I used the Tamien Park & Ride, but the train doesn’t go that far south on the weekend. It starts at HP Pavilion, so there’s a shuttle from Tamien to HP Pavilion. And the shuttle schedule starts later and ends earlier. If I drive and use the HP Pavilion Park & Ride, I can avoid the shuttle and start my day earlier and end it later. I’ll stop now, because I just realized that this is probably one of the top 5 boringest posts ever.