Maybe it’s that my standards have been raised too high by my travels to Asia or that SFO’s International Terminal is only a few years old, but…
LAX needs a new International Terminal PRONTO! Or at least a remodel. I’ve written about this before, but the lounges look like they’re part of a really boring office block in South Gate.
Yup. Glamourous. Sure.
And they’re pretty small too. Hella small. I’m on SQ and the Raffles Class lounge is actually a shared lounge with Qantas. The Silver Kris lounge at LAX is only for First Class. Bleah. On the plus side, there is FREE wi-fi.
SQ11 was delayed for about an hour. The ground staff did a great job in keeping everyone informed of the delay and as such, no stress. While I was waiting, I turned plane geek and took a bunch of photos. All the planes that land and take off from LAX pass by the Tom Bradley Terminal.
CX. Big nose.
CX leaving, my flight late!
MUJI has an airline??
Hey YL!
Look familiar?? Wahahahahah!
Walk into the light…
…because that’s how you get out of Union Station!
Sunset through the windows of Union Station, Los Angeles
The old ticketing counter (it’s closed to the public, but you can see it)
Check out the counter and the light fixtures. It’s old even behind the counter too!
I would have taken even more photos except my battery died…!
Balloons!!
Yeay!
I’m in Los Angeles (again) for yet another conference. This one is hosted at the Hyatt Century City, a definite improvement over where the last conference that I attended was! My room is on the 15th Floor in the remodeled wing of the hotel.
See those buildings in the middle shrouded in smog? That’s Downtown LA!
Famous fountains on Avenue of the Stars
Of course, before the meetings begin, there’s debauchery. There was a big BIG cigar suite last night. Spent most of my evening there. It involved handrolled cigars, an open bar and lots of silly people. And a cigar hangover due to the Churchill I finished off last night…
Once in a blue moon
Writing from SFO, Gate 73 for my twice delayed flight to LAX…
I have something nice to say about UAL, so you’d better read up! It dun happen very often…
Although UAL deserves its horrible reputation for putting the union before the customers and company, sometimes they get it right.
UA has a service called Easy Update. It will shoot an SMS to your mobile a few hours before your ticketed flight. It will also send you another SMS letting you know when a flight has been delayed and the new departure time.
Because of this, I didn’t have to rush to SFO with two duffle bags, a big, heavy box of books from Amazon, two pet feeders and a couple of nested suitcases with 7 days of clothes for hot environments. The first two items are not mine; I’m just couriering them over for a friend.
Best thing about hot clothes; they take less space!!
So if you’re a UA victim, sign up for Easy Update. It often knows of the delays and rescheduled flights faster than the gate agents do!
Waaaaaaaaah!
Mijita
Mijita is a Mexican place in the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace which is a food mall for foodies.
Lots of good stuff here if you’ve got the appetite and the (big) budget for it. Gotta get down here early though because most of the Ferry Building closes at six. How are they going to get people to stay in the City after hours if nothing of note is open? *blur look*
I was down here today during dinner time so I decided to duck in and eat. The entire menu is in espanol so brush up on your food Spanish if you ever make it here. I ordered the “3 crispy chicken taco” special and a cerveza fria. The cerveza was a dollar more than the Coke light I was going to get. Beer for a buck? Bring it on!
dinner flanked by the good things, hot sauce and beer!
But wait, you say, “those don’t look like tacos”. And you’d be right. They look like taquitos. They tasted like taquitos too. Which is to say they tasted great (with copious addition of hot sauce) but….
These weren’t tacos as we know them! The cerveza was great tho. Burp.
Mijita
1 Ferry Building
Number 44
San Francisco CA 94111
415-399-0814
Coffee!
Now these commercials are the reason why you drink coffee! I like the one with the “machine”.
Wahahahahaah!
Just realized that this is my 500th entry into this amateurish chronicle of food and travel. Imagine that!
Getting to Boston Logan
Besides the strip search that all passengers have to endure at US airports, possibly the most stressful part of catching a plane in the US is actually getting to the airport. Where you will be ordered to remove your jacket, empty out your pockets, remove your MacBook from its case, lose your shoes (and beverages) and walk slooooowly through the metal detector.
It’s tough flying these days. But we endure because the world is big, there’s a lot to see, people are generally good (for the most part) and there’s a lot of food to eat!
The US does not put a priority on “getting to the airport” easily. I live in San Francisco and it took 30 years to get BART (regional rail transit) to go directly into SFO. Oakland is even worse! They had the opportunity to build BART directly into OAK (this was in the 1960’s) when there was absolutely NOTHING out there. Instead, they built an half-assed station with a bus connection to the Terminals. Remember that you’ll often spend just as long on your bus journey then the actual ride time on the BART train from downtown SF to the Coliseum/OAK station. In the language of my forebears, CHI SIN!
But enough of the wonkish discussion of the transit gap. I used to work with urban planners.
Getting to Logan is relatively easy. Take the Blue Line to Gov’t Center and transfer to where you need to go. Unless you begin your journey on the Green Line, which does an uncanny impression of MUNI. It goes slow (realllly sloooooow) and stops every 10 feet…IN THE FRICKING TUNNEL!!! Why lidat? It even says in the guidebooks that if your journey involves the Green Line to allow extra time!
Naturally, my hostel was off of, you guessed it, the Green Line (Kenmore Station). But it was a nice day when I had to leave so I decided to take the Water Taxi over to Boston Logan. You catch the water taxi behind the Marriott on Long Wharf. It takes 10 minutes to cross the harbor and another 5 for the shuttle basi that takes you to the terminals. If you’re running early, this is a nice way to get to the airport.
See that tower thingy in the distance? That’s Logan’s Control Tower
There are several water taxis that run back and forth between Logan side and Long Wharf
Some folks heading into town from Boston Logan
It’s a nice farewell to “America’s Walking City” and it’s always good to learn another way to and from Boston Logan. As long as it’s warm outside!
Buh bye Bahston!
Remember this as you’re ordered to shoe-strip at the checkpoint…
Small small cop car
It’s more like the smallest police cruiser I’ve ever seen! Tripped over this in Chinatown. Just imagine this rollerskate in “hot pursuit”!
So what do you do when he hits you with light and siren? Continue pedalling?
And for those of you who may be thinking that this is some community patrol vehicle, check out the plate on the back!
Yup, it’s a police car alrighty. Guess i’d better pull over.
Samuel Adams Brewery Tour
Besides beans and the Red Sox, one of Bah-ston’s better known products is Samuel Adams beer. More here. It’s named after a real person who was part of the Revolution.
This sign directs you to the Brewery. Big enough?
There’s not much to say about Samuel Adams except that they brew VERY GOOD beer. And there’s several kinds to choose from, such as seasonal brews or varieties that get rotated around. Although their major breweries are in the midwest, the Boston Brewery is where Sam Adams began and is where they still make keg beer for local consumption.
This is where the magic started!! Buuuuurp.
The Boston Brewery has tours. Most of it is a video presentation followed by a walkthrough around the big tanks and some education on what and how the beer is made and its history.
Take the contents of these barrels, combine with a lot of water and process. Voila, beer!
Ever say a beer is “hoppy”? Well, this is what makes it “hoppy”. Hops! But not just ANY hops. Noble Hops!
Beeeeeg beeeeeer taaaaaank
After the “educational” part of the tour, we got to “taste” several brews. Which was what probably, oh say, EVERYONE was there for. There are two bars for the tour groups.
Like most popular pubs, there’s a queue and someone checking IDs…
We were the last tour of the day and because of that, they didn’t shoo us out after 20 minutes so the next tour could go through. So that’s a good tip. Take the last tour on a Friday! I was there for an hour drunking a LOT of beer. Thank goodness I took the T out there.
This is where beer REALLY comes from; it comes from the bar!
The staff would have us all try each brew they had on tap, like a big wine tasting. Fill up the pitchers, pass them around and then have a “taste”. Some of us “tasted” a lot…!
Full of Boston Lager (original Sam Adams brew)
All tasted out! This happened about 9 times before they kicked us out!
We had Boston Original Lager, Summer Ale and Black Lager. When about 2/3 of the crowd left, they opened up the Honey Wheat taps for us. A great time and the tasting was FREE!!! Waaaah!