Pete's Log: Log Entry 360

Entry #360, (Travel)
(posted when I was 21 years old.)
Once again, Arun had to work. So today was "Adventures in Public Transportation" day. First a word from our sponsor:

"Blondie's The Name Of The Band" -- Arun

And a quick note on yesterday's Indian chicken: Arun reminded me that I had "Vandooli" chicken.

Anyway, we will start out with some background info. One of my favorite movies for some time now is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. To sum up the plot, our hero's travel back to 1980's San Francisco for reasons of little importance. Two of them, Chekov and Uhura, are searching for nuclear-powered naval vessels. They figure out that they are in Alameda and start asking people on the streets of SF if they know how to get to Alameda, where they keep the "nuclear wessels" ... so I decided that I had to go see these nuclear vessels in Alameda. After waking myself up and such, I headed for the Berkeley BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. The map informed me that both Lake Merrit and Fruitvale stations were near Alameda. So I figured I'd get off at Lake Merrit and see how things go from there. I purchased my ticket and off I went. Once at Lake Merrit I got onto the first bus that promised to take me towards Alameda. This was #62. After about 20-30 minutes of meandering, it arrived at Fruitvale station. So I guess I coulda stayed on the subway for a few more minutes and saved some time. At Fruitvale the bus driver took a break for some time, during which I had to get off the bus. Then the bus driver switched the bus to be #50, and I was allowed back on the bus. I stayed on this bus until it was no longer heading west. At this point I was fairly close to the southern end of the island Alameda is on. I walked west until I found the bay. I found myself on a beach and decided to take some pictures. I followed this beach north for about 30 or so minutes, which was a fun walk. Then I found that private property prevented me from following the water any farther, so I headed inland a bit. Walked by the Alameda Federal Center which was fairly large, and which had a Marines recruiting office, but no Navy recruiting office. So I continued my trek north. Finally I found myself walking along side what I figured to be the Naval base. I kept walking north, past the entrance to the base, thinking the entire time that it looked like a rather shoddy base. Finally I came upon a sign that informed me that the base was no longer being maintained by the Navy as an operational base. sniffel... no nuclear vessels... So I headed farther north to find the SF ferry. When I arrived there I discovered that the last ferry had left 10 minutes before. So I decided to head back to the base entrance, 8 blocks in the direction I'd come from, because there'd been a donut shop across the street from it, and I was starving. I arrived there, had a good bacon-cheeseburger, took a picture of the sign that explained the status of the base, and headed back to the ferry. The ride across the bay was quite nice. Took several pictures. Arrived at Pier 41 and wandered around the whole fishermans wharf area some more. Bought a knife sharpener and a vanilla milk shake. Hung out and took some more pictures. Walked along the entire harbor stretch all the way to pier 1. Then headed to the BART station and returned to Berkeley. A fun excursion, despite the lack of nuclear vessels. I managed to go by subway, bus, ferry, and foot. Lots of foot. Since a lot of the walking I did was in a northerly direction, I ended up with sunburns on the backs of my legs. Oops. It was a tiring excursion. I'm very impressed with myself for not getting lost. Very impressed.

Went to Cambodiana's (a Cambodian restaurant, believe it or not) for dinner. Had a beef dish. Arun had a chicken curry. Both were quite good. Went to Rasputin and bought a CD by The Queers. It's quite good.

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