Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Downtown San Jose
There was no skyscraper scraping the sky at downtown San Jose. That's probably the reason why I felt genuinely relieved while walking on the streets. The atmosphere was generally relaxing even on a Friday afternoon; not to mention a Sunday afternoon with unexpectedly few pedestrians. From Beverly Heritage Hotel, where I stayed for five nights, to downtown San Jose was a bus or light rail ride for less than one hour. Unfortunately, the surrounding area of the hotel was not pedestrian-friendly. I had to walk along side a free way or express way for about 10 to 15 minutes to access a bus or light rail station. On the contrary, the road was very friendly to cyclists because the designated bike lanes were widely available.

Downtown San Francisco
Magnetron was what attracted a group of three to come to downtown San Francisco. One of them had a flight to catch in the afternoon; another one had never been to San Francisco before; and the third one had no choice but to tag along. Together, they arrived at Pier 39, a popular tourist attraction, via the spectacular Bay Bridge.
Two days later on St. Patrick's Day, I visited downtown San Francisco the second time by BART. I compared the merchandise in the museum store of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art with the merchandise in the museum store of San Jose Museum of Art. I compared the lunch at Caffe Museo with the lunch at Café Primavera. I walked down the 3rd street to take a good look at AT&T Park, hoping that the baseball season had started. I later realized that I should have planned to visit McAfee Coliseum since it was not far from the Coliseum/Oakland Airport Station of BART.

Milpitas
The famous 99 Ranch Market opened a new store at Milpitas Square , where I twice had my dinner. The supermarket chain was famous not only because its popularity among Chinese-speaking customers and large amount of Taiwanese products, but also because the first lady, Shu-jen Wu, allegedly invested in the chain.

The Weather
Wearing heavy coat was not a requirement at the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-March, even though it could be colder in the morning and the evening. The fluctuation of temperature was bearable with a light jacket. A classmate of mine described what the typical weather is like: it feels cool during the summer, about 70 degree Fahrenheit, but it is almost the same temperature during the winter. He had never lived at the west coast until he decided to work in San Francisco, partly because of the pleasant weather condition.

No comments: