Friday was Melody's second conference day, and my mom arrived in the afternoon, so I went down to pick her up. It was laundry day, so after Melody headed out to the conference I did laundry, after which we'd be set for the rest of the trip. Time was running a bit short, so after everything was folded I went to the Muni station to put some money on my Clipper card and go to the train station. The light rail train I was hoping to catch was running a bit late, but I still had several minutes before Caltrain was going to leave. When I got to the train station, I could see how to buy tickets and parking passes, but not how to buy 8-ride passes (which go onto the Clipper card). Time was running shorter, but fortunately I had put enough money on my card to cover the train both ways, so I set out looking for something to eat. Not much luck in the station (because of lines) and I didn't have enough time to go to the store across the street, so I boarded the train, wolfed down some TicTacs and water, and figured I'd get something later.
The train pulled into the Santa Clara station, and since I had about 15 or 20 minutes before the shuttle left for the airport, I wandered around but only found snacks, so since I knew I'd have quite a bit of time at the airport, so I hopped onto the shuttle and was on my way to the San Jose airport.
Once I arrived, the first thing I did was scope out where my mom would be coming out of the secure area, find baggage claim, and make sure I knew where to get the rental car (shuttle to the rental car area in this case), and went looking for food once more. No restaurants, and the newsstand didn't even have sandwiches. Hmm. OK, I guess peanut M&Ms have protein, potato chips are kind of like a starch course, and orange juice fulfills the fruit/veggie course. All set, and I had plenty of time to wait for my mom's plane.
The plane arrived right on time, and before too long my mom was walking out. I took the advantage of free WiFi and waiting for her bag at luggage claim to update her iPad apps, thinking she'd be much happier with an iPad-native Facebook app. We fetched her bag, boarded the shuttle to the rental car area, and were on our way. No line to get the car, and we were soon on our way to Saratoga.
In the meantime, back in the City, Melody took part of the afternoon to walk around the Financial District, wandering among the high-rise buildings.
When my mom and I got to Saratoga, Mrs. Evans greeted us upon arrival and gave us a quick tour of their renovations. The kitchen is completely different from the last time I was there, and they now have much more room to cook. We sat down at the breakfast table and soon Maggie (their basset hound) and Mr. Evans joined us. It was literally as if we were picking up a conversation from the previous day; it's always so comfortable to spend time with them.
It was nearing dinner time, so we headed out to eat Chinese food. After a relaxing meal, I headed over to the train station, made it back to San Francisco, got some breakfast groceries, and headed back to the room.
