The Streets of San Francisco …
An Indulgency Pattern Production …
Starring…
RightAntler
Special Guest Star …
LeftAntler
Also Starring
Members of the Public
Tonight’s Episode
Arrival
Every since I was a kid the Streets of San Francisco have been in my mind. The title sequence above is all I remember and the star with the big nose: Karl Malden. It turns out Karl was quite the man, a huge line of film credits in a long life that sadly ended age 97 only a few years ago. It turns out that he, together with his daughter, wrote his autobiography – something I will be adding to my reading list!
So why the fuss? Well it turns out this is our first trip to San Francisco proper. A few years ago we did a road trip from Vancouver and got as far as the Golden Gate Bridge. We drove across the span on Boxing Day but time prevented us from going any further and we immediately turned around. It was a beautiful day and all I can say is that in my experience the weather is beautiful here!
This time we flew with Alaska Air which was a good experience, helped by an absence of fuss and in flight wi-fi. After landing we headed for the Bart where I got the first sense of how big the city is. I rather suspect my next trip on the Canada Line in Vancouver will feel more like taking a toy train at Beaulieu or some such equivalent!
Nether the less we did seem to sit in the station for a while with the doors closed. It didn’t help that there was a growing crowd on the platform looking in at us. When the doors opened again the crowd joined us including a young couple pushing an airport kart with two huge boxes loaded on. Again we waited.
Were we on the right train? Why wasn’t it moving? A police officer had the answer. He came into the carriage with his eyes focused on the couple with the boxes. It turns out that there are signs all over the airport saying that the airport karts can not be taken from the airport – it is considered theft. The officer made the point he did not want to write a ticket for that. He also added that he had held the train in the station because of this couple and that all the other passengers on the train were imprisoned because of them! Our first San Francisco drama queen?
The couple were contrite and eventually got off the train (they had to take the kart back). The officer was kind enough to point out that once they and the kart was off the train he would release it from the station, the couple might want to take their boxes off the train sans kart as well. Whilst all of this was happening a fellow passenger was on her cellphone. It sounded like a cross between a realtime roving reporter and someone calling a hockey game as each shot, hit and penalty played out not 6 feet from where she sat.
Naturally this caused a lot of grinning and amusement amongst the other passengers that served us all well as it helped ease the memory of how long we’d been sitting there!
The Bart is rapid and soon enough we were deposited on The Streets of San Francisco. Tune in to tomorrow’s exciting episode There’s a Woodpecker in our room!
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