Wheee! Balloon drop! For 20 minutes…
Riding for Work
View Larger Map
What happens when I have to cross the Bay Bridge during the evening commute AND have multiple appointments? Early evening appointment in Oakland then later appointment in Fairfield? Solution: Ride the motorcycle!
Why? Well, for one thing, you can use Carpool Lanes. That makes a big difference when you’re trying to get onto the bridge. Of course, if you use a carpool ramp, like the Sterling Street Onramp, it’s ALL carpool and it’s all good, except for the short merge. Another reason is that it was a nice day and that’s always a good excuse for a ride.
Meetings ran late, as they usually do. I wound up having dinner at the Fairfield In & Out at 2200, followed by a hair raising ride back to SF on I-80. I like riding distance on two-lane roads but riding at warp 8 on an Interstate, where any bozo can pretend to play Gran Turismo in a real car by mashing the gas pedal and not thinking, is something I’d rather choose not to do…
But I did make it home at the end, so I can chalk this up to experience. Check.
Won Ton King
Actually, that sounds like a Stephen Chow movie. Like God of Cooking. But unlike his movies, Won Ton King is a serious thing…
Serious Wontonmein. Seriously good…
San Francisco, which is still lacking good quality ramen, also lacks good proper Hong Kong style wontonmein. Well, it did until King Won Ton opened in the Sunset. When you first walk into the restaurant, you see a photo of a bamboo pole and noodle dough. They say that they make their noodles by using the pole, much like the celebrated shops in Hong Kong and Macau. The noodles come out springy and delicious. Besides the noodles, the rest of the restaurant also reminds one of Hong Kong. The entire place is fluorescent lit, the menu is on colored copy paper and the service is brusque and curt.
In other words, just like Hong Kong!! YAY!
The one area that’s hit or miss is the wontons. On my first visit, the wontons were almost good enough for me to reduce my HKG trips to annual instead of biannual. The prawns tasted fresh. My second trip, the wontons weren’t quite as tasty (frozen?) but the beef stew was very good. It practically fell apart when it was lifted from the bowl with chopsticks.
Mmmm…beef stew. With mein. And wontons!
So, what’s the verdict? Is it the best in San Francisco? I think so. What to order? Anything that has the mein in it. But i’d go for any of the wontonmein variants. Order some Gai Lon and get some dong ling cha. Try to imagine being in Central just getting off of work. The illusion almost works until you receive your bill, which may as well be in Central because for what you’re eating, it’s expensive. It’s a cheap meal here in SFO but it costs a lot more than it does in Central…
Guess I’ll be still be traveling biannually to HKG, but Won Ton King will make the months I’m stuck here bearable. Like right now.
Won Ton King
1936 Irving Street (between 20th & 21st Aves)
San Francisco CA 94122
+14156829813
Back to Beijing (soon)
When I made my trip to the home village back in February, I was mugged by the authorities for US$135 for a multiple entry visa. At the time, it was either get a single entry or a multiple entry visa. They no longer sold the double entry visa.
A couple of months ago they stopped selling the multiple entry visa. “Smart thing” to do right before the Olympics. Hopefully for everyone who has to work over there, that restriction will be lifted when the games end.
I’m looking forward to a trip back to BJ for several reasons. I’ve a friend I’ve not seen in a while. Would be fun for a visit. In November (!). I’ve been hankering for really good Peking Duck. And the BJ Capital Airport FINALLY has an express train into town.
Nice. If it keeps regular hours, i won’t have to deal with taxi drivers and traffic anymore!
Just scootering along…
I was a member of the scooterist ranks for about 11 years before I made the leap to full fledged motorcycles stromtrooper a few years back. Of course, If I knew that you could do this in the twisties ON A SCOOTER, I might have remained a member of the scooter nation.
The guy who made this video rode a bone stock Scarabeo 250 through Mulholland Drive in LA. A legendary road with all sorts of twisties.
Impressive! Would like to be able to do all that on my V-Strom…!
SQ1/2 to be a A380 route?
According to this Business Week article, Singapore Airlines is planning to replace the old 747-400 Megatop with the A380 Whalejet in early 2009 on the SFO-HKG-SIN run (SQ1) and the return (SQ2).
Of cors, that depends on Airbasi actually delivering the planes! With all the delays and compensation that Airbasi has had to pay SQ for the A380 delays, they could replace a great deal of their fleet with A330s which have been used for compensation in the past.
When it eventually arrives, that means that all SQ flights that leave SFO will be the new cabin configurations! Now that’s exciting…
Saturday Sunday Ride
After getting a late start last Sunday (moral of story: ALWAYS reply to organizer’s emails PROMPTLY), the ride to Lake Berryessa instead turned into an endurance test up the Shoreline Highway. How far could we go?
View Larger Map
This is how far we went…227 miles round trip
The ride started at the Marin Vista Point on the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. Many tourists prefer this view to the other Vista Point on the San Francisco side. It’s a crap shoot when it comes to making a choice about which one to visit. The San Francisco side has parking meters (typical) and rabid meter maids on the hunt for “revenue enforcement” (again, typical). The Marin side has a MUCH better view but means crossing the bridge to get back to San Francisco and a US$4.00 toll. Personally, I’d go for the view from the Marin side.
Current city policy if you’re a businessperson
We weren’t the only ones using the Marin Vista Point for a meeting point. There’s more room here so tour buses, lots of tourists in rental cars and about 80 or so Harley riders came and went before we took off “north”. First stop: Point Reyes Station. This is where motorcyclists who are doing the coast ride make the mandatory fuel and coffee stop. Since we started so late, it became our mandatory fuel and lunch stop. Fuel at the only gas station in town and grilled tri-tip sandwiches from the only grocery store in town.
The wrench is for opening yer beverages!
On the grill today: Freshly carved tri-tip, bratwurst and hot links! The chef is a former motorcycle rider…
Tri-tip sandwich under a tree.
One of us tried to get cash from the only bank in town but their ATMs were out of cash. As was the ATM inside the only grocery store in town. Cash eventually came about 30 miles up the road, on the way to Jenner.
On the way “north”, we passed through several state parks and beaches and lots of small towns. One of these towns was Jenner, the furthest north we’ve gone prior to this trip.
“organic coffee”. Joy.
They have their own Post Office trailer…
Eventually, we made it to Gualala, which is one of the bigger towns on the coast. They have a Lions’ Club, TWO name brand gas stations and a pharmacy!
Ed taking his bike onto the dirt. Not sure if that’s what Scramblers are supposed to do
The ride back was uneventful. Same nature, same nice scenery. We took a detour back to the bridge that saved us all of three miles via Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. With all the traffic that we had to deal with, I’d rather go back through Muir Woods. Hopefully next ride, I’ll be able to jury rig my camera so I can take some pix while on the move…
Loads of fun and 50 MPG to boot!
Economic Stimulus?
This past week has been an expensive one (and I haven’t GONE ANYWHERE!). Here’s some of the things that have been playing havoc with my charge card.
Bluetooth headset to comply with new law: US$30.00
Motorcycle tuneup: US$380.00
New motorcycle jacket that fits right: US$210.00
Then, my car takes a dump on Oak Street heading uphill. In a traffic lane. Tolerant and diverse drivers help me move my car to the side honk and flip me the bird as I sit there blocking 1/3 of the traffic on the street.
New alternator and valve cover gasket AND water pump: US$400.00 US$790.00!!!!
Sheesh.
Audi day at Sears Point
What’s more fun than driving fast? Driving fast on the race track!
bbbbwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Audi will be releasing the new A4 in the US later this year. To coincide with this, Audi sponsored the “Audi A4 Experience” where we learned the basics of track driving and then did some hot laps on the track.
We got a briefing on racetrack dynamics, on the cars we would be driving and theory about apexing through curves. Useful stuff to know every day you drive. Then we walked through the garage (where they stored a LOT of R8s for a different event) to the race track.
That’s a lotta R8s. Does Tony Stark keep his here?
Once we walked out onto the racetrack, we got a safety briefing explaining how to set up the seat, how to drive once we were out there and most importantly, how to get fitted with the mandatory helmets. Hands at 9 and 3 o’clock please.. Then it was time to drive!!
This is how to raise the seat back, this is how to raise the seat
The first two laps were done slow, so everyone could get the hang of playing “follow the leader” at speed and to make sure we were apexing the curves correctly. Then we did the last three laps, progressively increasing speed so that we were doing close to 100 on the straightaways.
Follow tight and fast…
But that wasn’t all. After we did our hot laps, we paired up and drove a road course (marked by cones) in the new A4 and three other cars that compete with it in the market place. The Mercedes-Benz C300 AWD, Lexus IS250 AWD and the BMW 328xi are all sedans with all wheel drive and are priced in the high 40s (except the Lexus which was $10k less). Here’s my verdict from going through the cones:
Merc: Very disconnected, felt the most comfortable, easy to drive.
Lexus: High center of gravity, softest ride, easiest to set off the anti-lock and the traction control
BMW: Nice and solid and heavy. Could use 50 more horsepower
Audi: Fun to fling around, very entertaining.
After the test drives were done, we were asked to fill out surveys on iPod Touch handhelds. Their computers generating the name badges and processing registration were iMacs. How cool!
…scroll down the screen, choose select then send…
In addition to all the driving, there was some looking to be done. Audi brought their new lineup for door slamming and tire kicking duty. Lots of R8s to drool over…
Lined up all in a row, all in silver!
I’m particularly fond of the A5…
There’s more pix to come. It was a nice, hot, fun day at the track. If only BMW would do this kind of promotion out here, I’d drive their cars around the track too!
(non travel) Weekends are for riding!
It’s summer season, when my globetrotting (on a budget) ways are curtailed this year by the double whammy of expensive jet fuel AND greedy, poorly managed/operated legacy airlines. Compared to just the greedy, poorly managed/operated legacy airlines.
So what do I do for fun on the weekends? Go riding! For the past few weekends, I’ve been getting up early (AAACK) and going for rides with a bunch of Triumph riders. The SF Bay Area has a lot of neat places to ride if you want to do a day trip and San Francisco itself has a neat area that’s not overrun with traffic calming (yet) and has lots of hills and twisties.
An entry about a Presidio ride is forthcoming…
Yesterday, we met in a McD’s parking lot in Pleasanton very early in the AM. After filling up the bikes with gas and then ourselves with McD’s brekkie, we proceeded to hit the trails.
Our destination was to ride up Mt. Hamilton on one side and then ride down the other side then ride back up a different way and ride back down, winding up back in Dublin.
Silicon Valley from the foothills near Mt. Hamilton
Ended the ride at Hooters where we enjoyed the scenery and the buffalo shrimp! Should have came on Sunday because motorcycle riders get 20% off!
Motorcycles at rest
I’ll try to photoblog these rides more throughly…they’re exhausting and fun!