If you're going to San Francisco - Day 2

I got up at 4:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. It was 6:30am back home so I would presume that's the reason. I discovered my ancient laptop would no longer recognize the pcmcia card I had for wireless Internet access so I had to use the hotel business center. I worked a bit and read and then headed to the San Bruno BART station.

BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit. I had ridden the Metra in Chicago and this is similar. A big difference is how you are ticketed. In Chicago, you buy a ticket and a conductor checks it when you are on the train. On BART, you buy a ticket which you load up with the amount you want. The ticket has a magnetized strip (you are warned to keep it away from cell phones and magnets). You insert your ticket into a slot and it pops out the top and you are admitted to the station. You actually get charged when you leave. If you don't have enough on your ticket to cover it, there are "Add-a-fare" machines to add more to your ticket so you can exit.

The ride was fine. No one bothers you. Most everyone sleeps, reads, or listens to some sort of MP3 device. I got out at the Embarcadero station and located the building where my class was. One thing I discovered was there were coffee shops all over the place. There were TEN Starbucks within a quarter mile of where my training would be. I ended up going to a place called Specialities where I got juice and a large chocolate roll (I never eat quite as healthily as I should on these trips :-)).

I went to class. There was a gentleman from London there. He was quite knowledgable and interesting to chat with. The teacher was good as well. We went right up to 5 (started at 9). I walked to a local Office Depot to get a USB based Wireless network connector then got on the BART at the closet station (Montgomery) and headed back. There were actually BART police on this train just keeping an eye on things. I grabbed the car and went back to the hotel. I was tired of course so I got Chili's to go. I got Baby Back ribs and noticed they hadn't put the Awesome Blossom back on the menu. I rested in the room for the rest of the night. I was so tired I didn't even stay up to watch the season premiere of Law & Order SVU.