Travel Diary

This was going to be a taxing day. I woke up about 4 AM after getting to bed around 2 AM so yeah, two hours of sleep. Great. always say it won't happen again and it happens again…and again. But maybe I learned my lesson for real. Just not a healthy thing to do.

I left the condo even before 5 AM and had a nice drive down south down I-5. I parked the car, and then a minute later decided to start it up again and…it did not, for the battery was dead. Well, this wasn't good. The battery had been having issues during the cold winter, but I thought we were past that now. It hadn't been sitting idle very long. In fact, it should have been fully charged since I just driven it for half an hour. The battery really was dead now. I'd have to deal with that problem later. For the moment, I couldn't even use the door locks or set the alarm. I had to manually lock all four doors. Wo and misery.

I walked over to the airport. I didn't have TSA touchless for my flight due to an issue a day before. You see I had accidentally posted my confirmation code and full name on Facebook the previous day, and someone must've seen it before I deleted it and decided to cancel my flight. I guess it was because I was posting about being upgraded first class in the person didn't like that. I don't know what reason but it certainly ruined my afternoon. I had to spend a lot of time on the phone to get my flight rebooked and even then, it wasn't in first class, and cost me more miles since it was a last-minute flight. But I did get it booked. Luckily, I had been upgraded to first class once again, and I even changed seats to get to the seat that I was originally upgraded into. Take that, scoundrel. Your plan failed. (Except for me losing time and 2,000 miles.)

So I didn't have touchless because someone else had booked my ticket (the agent on the phone). The odd thing was the touchless security line was LONGER than the TSA pre-check line, and that was very unusual. Anyway, it was a 7 AM flight and I got settled into my first class seat. For breakfast, I had the cinnamon pastry and fruit, which were actually very good. It wasn't a lot of food, but it was very tasty. I also got some coffee. Oh yeah, I was sitting in 1F, so I had a nice view, even though it wasn't the best of mornings for scenery. It’s just a bit dull this time of year.

We landed in Oakland, and I hadn’t been to this airport in quite some time. I noticed upon exiting that the security line was pretty much empty at 9 o'clock in the morning. It's just a very quiet airport a lot of the time. I had opted to maybe try to take BART to Pleasanton and save a little money, but I checked Lyft an Uber and Lyft was just too hard to pass on, so I booked it. My driver was quite nice, although he didn't get out of the car to help me move the luggage. I later discovered it was likely because he was a very heavyset man . It was just too much trouble to do those types of things. But he was very friendly so he still got a tip.

I got dropped off at the Larkspur Landing hotel, and went inside. I asked about an early check-in (although I guess this was very early) and they said they had that option but it would cost me money, like $50, and no, I wasn't going to be paying that much. They also said it would lower as it got closer to the normal check-in time. Good to know. I was able to leave my suitcase there and traveled around with just my backpack. Part of me wishes I had just left my backpack there too, as it was quite heavy. And would only be getting heavier.

I decided to walk south along the 680 freeway adjacent trail and head over to the Pleasanton Sports Park and then past my old house and then over to Safeway. At Safeway, I got a little booze and then I went to Noah's Bagels. I do love that place. It's overpriced but for bagels nothing beats it. Well, maybe some things beat it. I don't know. I guess I should try other authentic bagel places on occasion.

After my bagel, I headed along Santa Rita for a while and then made my way back to the hotel. My back was very, very sore from the added weight of the drinks and snacks. But I finally got to the hotel and reached the check-in time, so there was no extra charge. I went up into my room and got sorted out. And then took a bath and then went to bed for a few hours. Remember, I only had two hours of sleep.

When I woke up later, I headed over to In-N-Out to get a burger. As I never can decide between raw onions and grilled onions, I decided to get one of each and do a taste test. I also got a chocolate shake. Back to the hotel I went. I made a video about the difference, and I guess I really like the raw onions a lot more. It makes it more of a homemade burger. For the shake, that lasted me a few days. I just like the taste, but not all of the calories.

I then played around with the computer, organized photos for a while. Pretty soon it was late and I went to bed.