Monday the 13th

Slept the latest ever…8 AM. We packed all our stuff…one suitcase was almost completely full of notebooks and papers we’d collected. As we finished packing a bag Will took it down to the car. When we finally checked out and headed to the car I asked Will for the keys, but he couldn’t find them…he had locked them in the car! The nice manager at the Courtyard had AAA, and had a locksmith quickly come out. It took some time, but he got the car unlocked. The car alarm sounded until we were able to pull down the back seats, pull out the luggage, and find the keys to stop the alarm!

Then we drove north across the big I-80 bridge past the many rollercoasters at Marineworld, up to Napa. We lunched at Jack-in-the-Box, then drove back south shopped at stores near the University of California campus in Berkeley.

I pulled into a spot behind a car just driving off, and was greeted by a friendly city employee sweeping up trash. We shopped for 15 minutes, and as we got back to the car I noticed I’d parked on a yellow curb. Then I noticed a small meter maid cart next to our car, putting the finished touches on a parking ticket!

They say bad things happen in threes, so I thought we were in the clear after surviving the highway traffic jam that lasted from the Bay Bridge all the way to South San Francisco.
We had time to shop a few stores on the SSF main drag, then decided to take a restroom break at Costco, next to the rental car drop-off (and a field of several huge gasoline storage tanks).

With few good options for dinner, we decided to buy a whole cooked pizza in the Costco snack bar, in a separate part of the building. They said we’d have to wait while they cooked a new pie, though they’d just pulled a hot pepperoni pizza from the oven. Just after Ceil returned to Costco to look around, a Costco manager said the snack bar had to be evacuated, due to a possible gas leak. I convinced the help to let me have the pepperoni, and the kids wolfed it down in front of the store, watching as several fire trucks loudly race up. Luckily there were no explosions.

With traffic bad and fatigue setting in, we turned in the car and rode the shuttle and tram to the airport. Checked our bags next to a man checking his “service cat”…later we discovered the man and cat were on our flight. Could the day get worse?

It could. Also on the “redeye” flight, seated right behind us, was the proverbial screaming baby. Screamed a good part of the flight back. I think I got a little sleep. Taking off, we flew over the A’s ballpark, a sight we’d missed.