Berkeley for Dinner with Son

Here I am waiting at the North Berkeley Bart Station for my son Michael to arrive from his job at City Hall in San Francisco Thursday evening.  My 90 mile drive to Berkeley was uneventful (other than a weird sound from my rear right when I pushed on the brakes once I got off the freeway in Berkeley), topped off with a great visit with my Brother Bob at his work, which I would pass within a couple of miles along my route, so I left in plenty of time to see him too.  

   

Had I brought my camera, I could have showed a better picture from the I-80 rest area where you can see the bay, and even the city of San Francisco off in the distance. The first picture at the Bart Station was taken with my Kindle Fire, all the rest are from my cell phone…hence, not the best pictures in the blog today.

Michael picked the Bangkok Jam Thai Restaurant for us to eat at for dinner.  It had been many years since I ate Thai food, the last time being at a Library Convention in some town out of state from my old Arkansas home.  Michael, who is 29, would not have dreamed of eating this type of food ten years ago, but now he likes all sorts of different foods…thanks I am sure to his girl friend Anna for some of this change.  Anna had a meeting to attend on campus at U.C. Berkeley (Cal), so I did not get to see her on this trip.  She actually graduated a year before Michael from Cal, but she still attends some meetings on campus with a group she is a part of.  Missed you Anna…see you in September when we are back in the area.

I ordered the Ginger Bangkok Street Dish with prawns over brown rice.  Michael had a chicken dish with green beans and other veggies with Jasmine Rice.  His dish was a bit more spicy than mine, but I really liked the perfect amount of Ginger taste in my dish, and it was lightly spicy.  One thing I found out at Thai food the first time I ate it is that it can be very spicy hot…so you have to watch what your order.  I love Ginger, and sometimes Ginger can be a bit too spicy…but not last night, it was just perfect.  Michael has eaten here a few times before, so he knew exactly what to expect with his dish.  We both enjoyed our dinner, it was real nice... and always nice to have a meal with one of my kids.  In a little over a week we will be having a few meals with my daughter Stephanie in Salt Lake City.

After dinner we walked down and then across the street to iScream Ice Cream.  I had a half a scoop of Blueberry Ice Cream, topped with another half a scoop of Meyer Lemon Cream Ice Cream.  (Sorry you did not come Marcia, I know how much you love Meyer Lemon...it was DELICIOUS!)

On the trip home the traffic was a bit thicker than I anticipated for 8:30-10:00 pm.  Part of it was due to work on the Carquinez Bridge.  Essentially this is where the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River enter into the San Francisco Bay.  The experts say that this is just a narrow continuation of the bay, and the rivers enter the bay just a few miles upstream.  Essentially, is it where the river delta ends, and the big bay begins in my book.

Although I did not have any brake sounds on the way home from Berkeley, we decided that it was time to get new brakes in our HHR today, which we have owned since 2011.  Previous to us owning it, it was a rental car with one of the big rental car agencies.  I called Brake Masters here in Citrus Heights around 1 pm, and the guy said that if I had it down there within 20 minutes they could get right on it.  I printed out a coupon found on their website, and off I went, arriving in 18 minutes.  They pulled it in within 5 minutes, and 20 minutes later they had finished an inspection, and we put new disc brakes on the front, cleaned and adjusted the back drum brakes, and flushed and replaced the brake fluid, all for $230.  By 4:20 I was back at my sister’s house.