Browse Day: March 19, 2011

Epic Tax Journey

This morning started like an average Saturday.  I slept past the alarm and walked the dog.  Then, the day took a turn.  Jes had gone to Costco to get new tires for the car but they had to be ordered.  So, our car would have to sit around with flat tire for another week.  In the meantime, we had an appointment with our tax guy that was scheduled months ago. To make matters worse, it was in Milpitas (~47 miles away).

After considering some options, it was decided that we would take Muni to BART to Fremont and take a cab for the remaining 12 miles.  We left the house around 11:30 am and the Muni and BART rides were smooth and took about 60 minutes.  It was easy to get a cab but unfortunately the 12-mile ride costed us $44!!  Ouch.  We arrived at the tax guy’s office on time (1:30 pm) and we were all done by 3:00 pm.  Yes…our tax appointments do take that long.  Luckily, we were prepared for it.  We each brought a book to read and the UCLA game was on the TV.

For our trip back to SF, we decided to take a cheaper route.  It would involve walking, taking a bus, BART, and then Muni.  Knowing it would take a while, we stopped for a Greek lunch before heading out.  Looks tasty, doesn’t it?!

We waited at the bus stop around the corner in the cold wind for about 20 minutes since the bus was running behind schedule. We were starting to second guess our decision until it finally arrived!

The bus ride actually wasn’t too bad.  The bus was pretty empty and didn’t have too many stops.  However, it still took a whoppin’ 45 minutes.  The nice part was that it only costed us $2/person and it was AC Transit so it accepted our Clipper cards.  At the BART station, we waited patiently in the cold rain for our train and were finally on our way 15 minutes later.

Our train car was completely empty at first and it was kinda eerie.  That ride also took another 45 minutes and then our Muni ride was about 15-20 including the wait for the train.

By the time we walked into the lobby of our building, it was 2 hours and 46 minutes later from the time that we walked out of the tax place.  With the amount of time we spent today from start to finish, we could have flown home to Cerritos and back instead.  At least we got a tax refund today to make up for it all.  Yay.

Brother and Jia in SF

After our trip to Hawaii, we arrived at SFO on Tuesday evening.  Jia and Jason had arrived earlier that day and picked us up with our car.  The next day I went to work still a bit sick and was told to stay home the next day because I still sounded terrible.

That evening as the boys were finishing up their WoW game, I took Jia to a Yelp Elite Event for some free cupcakes.

On Thursday, after sleeping in, I took Jason and Jia to the Ferry Plaza where we met up with Jes in front of the Roli Roti truck for a porchetta sammich.

Jes went back to work and we stayed to walk around the Ferry Plaza.

For the afternoon, we took a drive across the GG Bridge to Sausalito.

We got back in time for dinner at La Briciola and then went to the CA Academy of Science for their evening event.  On Thursday nights, they open the Academy for a few hours and feature DJs and serve alcohol.  It was definitely a different feel with no kids around and most of the exhibits didn’t have their lights on.

We made it into the Rainforest before they cut off the line and then spent the rest of the night in the aquarium downstairs.

Here are the rest of the photos from our couple days together.