The Bay Area (and more!)

Hello again... It's been a little while since we last posted, so to make up for it, this one will be really long. Carrie and I are doing really well. Right now, we're at Carrie's parents' house in Santa Barbara, and shortly we will be boarding the Amtrak for San Diego.

Speaking for myself, I've begun getting used to our new lifestyle. It's certainly a change. We don't really have homes anymore. It will be a long time before I sleep in my own bed again, and when that happens, it will be a new bed in California. It's nice not having tight schedules, and not working certainly frees up some time, but the new stresses come from traveling in unfamiliar territory all the time, and trying to make enough sense out of new places to be able to decide, "could I live here and enjoy it?"

We're also spending time with lots of new people. Whether it was my family in Hanford Bay, my parents, Carrie's brother and friends, or Carrie's parents, it's been really neat getting to spend time with people we only get to see a few times a year. I've gotten to see some old friends who I probably haven't seen in 10+ years. I'm looking forward to continuing this for the rest of August.

I'm also getting used to not being fully in touch with the world at all times. I didn't find out about the Minnesota bridge collapse until a day or two later (while Carrie and I drove all over the Bay Area on giant bridges). I didn't realize Barry Bonds had tied Hank Aaron's record until I learned that I would be at the game when he could potentially break the record (more on that later). As we spent a day in Groton MA, I learned that the Celtics had gotten Kevin Garnett on the same day that the Red Sox got Eric Gagne. The notoriously skeptical Dan Shaughnessy wrote a column in the Boston Globe that now was the best time ever to be a New England sports fan. Then I packed up and got ready to check out my new home state of California, on the opposite coast from New England. In away, it's been refreshing to get away from the 24-7 news coverage that the internet, CNN, ESPN, and the like make available.

OK - Enough deep thoughts for now... let's get to what we've seen over the past week or so. Specifically, THE BAY AREA.

I've decided to break this down into different regions of the Bay Area, and then describe our impressions of different factors for each region.

The Bay Area can be broken down to 5 parts: San Francisco, north of San Francisco, East Bay, San Jose, and Silicon Valley / The Peninsula.

NORTH OF SAN FRANCISCO

Carrie and I didn't go north of San Francisco. It's extremely expensive, even by Bay Area standards, and it's only connected to the rest of the Bay Area by driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. For those reasons, we ruled that area out.

SAN FRANCISCO




GEOGRAPHY
San Francisco is surrounded by water to the west, north, and east. With so much water surrounding it, San Francisco is not especially large from a geography perspective. The Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco to the north, and the Bay Bridge connects it to the East Bay. Both bridges area really pretty, and the views are beautiful on a clear day. San Francisco itself is made of many small neighborhoods, each with their own "micro-climates" and unique characteristics. Most of San Francisco is very hilly... it amazes me that they decided to build a city on such hilly land. That said, the topography of San Francisco is a lot of fun. If you live on a hill, you can get some amazing views of the city and water below. The picture above is from an apartment in the Russian Hill neighborhood.

PEOPLE
Carrie and I met a bunch of neat people in San Francisco. Very generally speaking, people in San Francisco are very intelligent and friendly. People like to have fun like anywhere else. What I noticed that was different was that people in San Francisco are really into things like recycling, riding bikes to work, stopping their cars for people in the crosswalk, and the like. People are very open -- at one bar, we witnessed a lesbian strip poker game!

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
San Francisco is a major city, and arguably the most culturally active city on the west coast. There is plenty of music of all types. Bars are plentiful and diverse. We ate lots of good food. There are neat parks where you can go for hikes and climbs, right in the city. San Francisco needs no help in this area.

NEIGHBORHOODS / HOUSING
Due to its geographic restrictions, San Francisco is a pretty dense city. Some neighborhoods are quite crowded with lots of apartments, restaurants, shops, and bars right near each other. Since Carrie and I are looking for a slightly less urban environment than Lakeview in Chicago, this makes some San Francisco neighborhoods less desirable. Generally speaking, we liked places near the Panhandle, the Haight, or around Cole Valley. These neighborhoods were a little quieter and had a little bit less traffic. One neat thing we saw was that many apartments have nice back yards (pictured below)



GETTING AROUND
There are many, many ways to get around San Francisco. One can walk places, although this becomes more difficult in the really hilly neighborhoods. Biking is common, and they even have topographical maps for bikers. We also saw a lot of people riding motor scooters and motorcycles. In terms of public transportation, San Francisco has the MUNI system which goes through San Francisco itself and has good city coverage. The BART system is more well known, and it connects San Francisco to the East Bay, but it doesn't have great coverage in San Francisco itself. That said, in terms of speed and reliability, BART is like heaven compared to the CTA or the MBTA. The trains run on schedule, the stations tell you when the next trains are coming, the trains move quickly, and the seats are comfortable and clean. You do pay more for BART -- they charge by distance, and we always paid at least $2.90 for a one way fare (it was over $5 one way from the airport). For driving in San Francisco, it didn't seem that bad within the city. The hills get a little frightening with a manual transmission, but traffic isn't horrible. Getting across the bridges to other cities can be another story, especially during rush hour.

WEATHER
The weather in San Francisco is cold! A sweater and pants were basically mandatory at night. In some neighborhoods, fog hangs over the city most days. Other neighborhoods such as The Mission get more sun, but even they have a lot of fog. In our 5.5 days in the Bay Area, we got 1 really nice sunny day, and one other day where we got some sun. The rest of the days were largely foggy, and one day had a slow light drizzle for much of the day. To summarize -- you won't get a lot of really great weather days, but you won't get a lot of really bad days either. It never gets THAT cold, especially by Chicago or Boston standards.

SPORTS
The Giants play at AT&T Park, which is a beautiful park right on the bay. I must admit, this is a beautiful place to watch a game. While the atmosphere is nowhere even close to Fenway or Wrigley, the physical setting is spectacular. Unfortunately, the beers are $8+, and food is also expensive. The most popular food item appears to be garlic fries, which I tried and were very delicious, although it leaves you with some interesting breath for the rest of your night. I'll have more on the baseball game later.

For NFL, the 49ers are here, although we didn't check out their stadium. I can't say I feel much for the 49ers... I may need to look into sports bars with NFL Sunday Ticket if I live in San Francisco. There is no NBA in San Francisco... you have to go to Oakland for that.

OVERALL
I could possibly see myself living in San Francisco, but only in certain situations. If possible, I'd want to live somewhere that wasn't as dense, where the weather wasn't foggy all the time. Having access to MUNI or BART would be nice as well. So while San Francisco could work, I think there were parts of the Bay Area that Carrie and I liked better, such as the East Bay. Speaking of which...

EAST BAY

GEOGRAPHY
When we visited the East Bay, we spent much of our time in the Oakland and Berkeley areas, with a little time in Emeryville and Alameda. Generally, there is more space here, and the hills are a little less extreme than San Francisco.

PEOPLE
Oakland is an incredibly diverse and integrated city. Carrie and I were once again amazed as people always stopped their cars even as we approached a crosswalk! Very generally speaking, people in Oakland seemed down to earth and smart, although we didn't really have a large sample size.

NEIGHBORHOODS / HOUSING
Much like the South Side of Chicago, the East Bay has kind of a tough reputation. While one can find neighborhoods that are pretty scary, there are a lot of really beautiful, vibrant, and safe neighborhoods as well. Carrie and I liked the Rockridge area, as well as Piedmont Avenue, and some areas surrounding Lake Merritt. Generally speaking, housing in Oakland is more house-based, as opposed to apartment buildings in San Francisco. People looking to rent could live in one floor of a large house, or possibly even get a small cottage for themselves. One Oakland resident told us that if you live in Oakland, you get views of San Francisco, which is really pretty, whereas if you live in San Francisco, you get views of Oakland. Parts of Downtown Oakland and Emeryville are growing, and they are attempting to lure small businesses. The key is being very selective in exactly where you locate... as there are some parts of town that are not so attractive.

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
While there is probably more going on in San Francisco, Oakland does have its own scene. One night, Carrie and I went to Yoshi's, which is a big name jazz club and sushi restaurant (what a great combination!) Oakland is a little bit more up and coming... While Yoshi's was nice, there really wasn't much else going on in the area surrounding the jazz club. Each of our favorite neighborhoods did have plenty of restaurants, and while the number of bars isn't at Chicago levels, it appears to be enough.

GETTING AROUND
BART goes to the East Bay, and it is a great way to get across the Bay. You could also use BART to an extent within Oakland, depending on where you live. Oakland also appears to have its own bus system. Biking seems doable, although Oakland is a little more spread out, so you may go for longer distances. To go far in the East Bay, you'd almost definitely need a car.

WEATHER
The East Bay still has its share of fog. However, it appears to get a little more sun than San Francisco, and it is a few degrees warmer every day.

SPORTS
The Oakland A's play at the Coloseum, which I understand is a pretty lousy baseball stadium. We met one Oakland A's fan, who basically said that people who go to A's game are there for the baseball, and the baseball alone. This actually sounds more like my style of baseball. The A's share the Coloseum with the Raiders, who are fairly famous for their fans and antics. I could see myself becoming a closet Raiders fan, unless they faced the Patriots (and maybe the Bears). The Golden State Warriors play in the same sports complex. ESPN's Bill Simmons has written extensively about how Golden State gets great home crowds, so this could be another good option.

OVERALL
Carrie and I liked the East Bay a lot. It is a little calmer than San Francisco, and more up and coming. As long as you are selective with locations, it seems like you could get more for your money, both in terms of housing and office space. I could definitely see myself living here.

SAN JOSE

GEOGRAPHY
San Jose is located South of San Francisco and Oakland, at the bottom of the bay. In terms of population, it is actually the largest city in the Bay Area. CalTrain (the commuter rail) can get you to San Francisco, or you can drive on the 101 or 280 freeways. Oakland is accessible via freeway as well.

WEATHER
San Jose gets much, much more sun than San Francisco and Oakland. It's also warmer here. You can't argue with that.

CULTURE / THINGS TO DO
It appears that there are ample things to do in San Jose, although we didn't stick around long enough to sample them. We basically got our information from newspaper listings. Driving around, it did appear that there were plenty of restaurants, shops, and bars, and there were lots of signs advertising the upcoming San Jose Jazz Festival.

NEIGHBORHOODS / HOUSING
Downtown looked nice. It was very clean and had lots of trees. Once we got a few blocks out of downtown, it got more residential, with plenty of nice areas. A renter could live in part of a house or in a smaller cottage. The Willow Glen neighborhood was pleasant, with its own commercial district. Japantown left something to be desired, only because it was really small and didn't have a whole lot of variety. Below are a couple pictures from Downtown.





GETTING AROUND
San Jose appears to have some light rail, and possibly some buses. Driving most likely is the most common mode of transportation, although bike riding could probably work as well.

SPORTS
San Jose is home to hockey's Sharks, and that's about it for professional sports. I believe they have minor league baseball though.

OVERALL
Carrie and I liked San Jose, and I could maybe, maybe see myself living there. To me, things felt a little bit too new and clean... the whole place felt a little sterile. The other issue is that we don't really know anyone down here. So it's possible, but not my first preference.

SILICON VALLEY / THE PENINSULA

I won't get into too much here. Yes, the weather is nicer here. The city of Mountain View did have a pretty downtown commercial strip of restaurants with lots of outdoor seating (pictured below), and Google gives the entire city free wireless internet.



Cities like Cupertino and Sunnyvale left much to be desired. Redwood City wasn't too bad, but I think we'd end up making lots of trips into San Francisco when we wanted to do anything cultural. It was fun going to Apple HQ and Google HQ and being promptly asked to leave immediately though.

In conclusion -- Our trip definitely gave me some clarity as to what the options were within the Bay Area. I could definitely see myself living there, provided I choose carefully.

COMING SOON: The 9.5 hour Amtrak experience, and what it was like to be at AT&T Park for a game when Barry Bonds was going for 756.