Greetings from Oakland

Last night Helen and I attempted to fly to San Francisco at 6:45 PM Eastern time, with hopes of landing around 10:30 PM Pacific time.  But our Delta plane door was missing a part that allows it to close. 

The first strategy: an unsuccessful search of the warehouse for the fugitive part. The second strategy: an unsuccessful attempt to deliberately remove the part from another plane, and attach it to ours. 

Once both options failed, we deplaned and returned to the terminal. Then we waited for another plane to land, so that we could board it instead. By this point it was approximately 9 PM. The new plane landed, and needed to be "cleaned and catered." So we boarded around 10 PM. But we still couldn't take off; the pilot requested additional fuel because we had been re-routed due to weather.

In the end, we actually left the ground around 11 PM Eastern.  So our arrival time in San Francisco became 2:30 AM Pacific time. By that point public transit was unavailable, so we had to procure an expensive cab ride (which Delta will reimburse) to our hotel.  Our cab driver was a refugee from Afghanistan who used to run a food cart in New York. I liked him, but became very angry when it turned out that he didn't actually know how to get to our hotel in downtown Oakland. We cruised aimlessly for a while, as Helen figured out where to go.  In retrospect I was much too hard on our poor driver--he thought we knew more about the area than we did, and was counting on us to fill in crucial details towards the end of the ride. 

We finally arrived at the hotel around 3:30 AM.

.....
Today we explored Berkeley, looking for places to live come August. Tonight the Haas business school hosts a reception, dinner, and after dinner party.  Tomorrow Helen will continue to be immersed in business school culture, while I make a few library contacts. 

On Saturday we're going hiking (virtually a required activity for West Coast residents) with other business school students and their partners.  On Sunday we'll continue to soak up Bay Area culture, before taking a red eye flight home.

Let's hope the plane door closes.

Comments

[Cynthia]

I've been hearing more & more airplane stories like that lately. Hope you have a smooth trip home, and enjoy your time in Berkeley. I've never been to that part of California, and would like to see it one day.

See you soon in Philly!

[Helen]

I loved the culture shock I experienced when we were out in California:

- Random smiles from strangers on the street!

- Sighting of a "fueling" station for electric cars!

- People living on oak trees in Berkeley in an effort to foil plans to cut down the trees!

I am so pumped about our upcoming move to the West Coast!!!