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Afterword

I’ve had a lot of fun traveling around without a car. Still, the most annoying thing has been dealing with other people listening to something on their phones without headphones. Everywhere I go, calls on speakerphone, loud music, YouTube videos on trains, in lobbies, at stations. So annoying.

Time for bed 💤😴

Step counter app showing about 106,000 steps taken in the last 7 days.

San Francisco Day Trip

Back at SF Caltrain Station, about to head back to SJ, and I’m just struck by how much this system resembles regional service in Italy. It’s obvious they took some cues from them in station design. SF feels a bit like Venice Mestre. SJ feels a little like La Spezia. We need more regional rail!

I visited the house in Glen Park that my great-grandmother Louise rented in the 1950s and ’60s, after she left Detroit and separated from my great-grandfather Silvio. In the 1960s, my grandmother also lived there with her kids—my dad and my aunt—after her husband left her.

A light lavender house with plants in front sits on a steep street.A residential neighborhood is set against a backdrop of sprawling cityscape and distant hills under a partly cloudy sky.Tall, spiky plants stand in the foreground with a scenic view of a suburban area and distant hills in the background.A residential street corner features a yellow building with an orange garage, surrounded by trees and colorful shrubs.A quiet neighborhood street with colorful houses, stop signs, and distant hills under a clear sky.Red succulents are growing between the sidewalk and a curb with a yellow tactile paving surface.

I love how most other cities with botanical gardens keep their exotic plants in conservatories, but San Francisco’s flex is that their plants from all around the world are just kept in a park outside.

Took Caltrain up to the city. Gorgeous day at Mission Dolores Park in San Francisco.

People are relaxing on a large grassy field in a park with a city skyline in the background.A person is lying on a grassy hill reading a book with one leg crossed over the other.A historic building with a tall, ornate tower and intricate architectural details is surrounded by a park with people sitting on the grass.People are relaxing on a grassy hill overlooking a cityscape with buildings and a few palm trees.A man and a woman are sitting on grass, enjoying a conversation in a sunny outdoor setting.

Hint: Oregon isn’t one of them.

Housing market shift: 9 states where buyers are quickly gaining power

Super impressed by Caltrain in the Bay Area! Wish Portland had something similar for certain routes. And no, Wes isn’t the same.

Is In-N-Out’s name intentionally ironic?

“Center for Engineering Management.”

Sunlight casts shadows of trees onto a yellow building with bicycles parked nearby.

It was an absolute trip reconnecting with my former MSU dorm mate in Palo Alto after 25 years!

Two people standing and smiling together on a sidewalk near a restaurant with outdoor seating.

Had a lot of fun exploring Stanford.

Thursday May 1, 2025

The Arizona Garden at Stanford.

So far, San Jose feels a lot like a mix between Lloyd Center and Skidmore Fountain area, if that tells you anything. Looking forward to making larger concentric circles tomorrow in hopes of improveming perceptions.

I don’t often take the window seat, but when I do…

Aerial view from an airplane window showing the wing above a vast landscape with mountains in the distance.Aerial view of a cityscape with a snow-capped mountain in the distance.

Wednesday April 30, 2025

Portland International Airport (PDX)

Finally getting to see the PDX airport renovation in person. #portland

Meeting up with my old college roommate this week who works at Rivian. My six-year-old son made me promise to ask him why their trucks don’t have games in them. Priorities!

Shout out to the neurodivergent folks who make things happen in spite of the world. Sometimes I look back at the gauntlet I just made it through, grateful someone told me it wasn’t possible.