Wait... on Day 3, aren't we going to Great America? We should be able to get there by bus, unless I'm mistaken. I'll consult my parents about transportation options. It also depends on where in SF we would like to go, AND when the train gets there. I'll have to talk to you about it later.

Furthermore, my mother has brought up the suggestion of me staying in the same hotel as you guys are in. It seems like no one is available to be a roommate, so if I'm really lucky I might be able to snag a room from the 17th-20th. It would be very convenient as I could go with the other hotel people to the train station (so we don't get lost). However, IF I can't get a room, then, well, we'll stick to the first option, which was for me to meet you guys at the hotel every morning. I'd like to find out if we can get a bus to the train station because I can't walk 3.5 miles without getting tired, thanks to my various health problems.

If someone needs to contact me (VelK) about anything, email me. (evilaquinas@hotmail.com)


EDIT: I'm showing up... anytime. ++Living in the area. ;-)

Originally Posted by iCeD

Okay, I think we have the train routes down for transportation. The only exception to this is the times and routes for day 1, which we've yet to decide on things to do yet. Velk (or anyone that knows more about the area than I) should pass some suggestions along, we need to finalize this. But for now, for both day 2 and 3, we'll be leaving from the Tamien Caltrain station at 10:32 AM. Said station is on 1355 Lick Avenue (QUICKLY! To the LICK STATION!) which is luckily 1 turn away from the hotel we're staying at, but it's 3.5 miles down. You can get there however you want from the hotel. I'm gonna be hardcore and walk. HOWEVER, in order to ensure we depart properly, you need to be at the station at 10:15, around 20 minutes early. This is to ensure we can all buy tickets and still catch the train. Try your hardest to make the time.

This is probably a stupid question, but is "day 1" Monday or Tuesday?

There's a great site called the TakeTransit Trip Planner (covering Silicon Valley , San Francisco, East Bay, etc.) where you can enter in the addresses you're coming from and going to, what time you'll be leaving or needing to get there, and it will tell you some buses and trains you can take.
http://transit.511.org/tripplanner/index.asp

Also, if anyone wants to take a bus from the hotel to Caltrain, it seems to be easier to do that with the main Caltrain station than the Tamien station -- you can walk down to the intersection of Monterey Hwy and Skyway and catch a bus that goes right to the main Caltrain station.

Hmm, good question, Tachyon. From what I was originally thinking, Day One was supposedly August 17th. I'm not sure what the others were thinking, though. Some people aren't going to be coming until late morning/early afternoon on the 17th, so it's questionable whether or not we'll do much outdoors. Furthermore, it seemed like the newer schedule went as follows...

Day One (17th): Meet & introduce, maybe see a movie together, et cetera.
Day Two (18th): Go by train to San Francisco. We still have to make additional plans concerning where we'll visit.
Day Three (19th): Go to Great America. I'm not sure what else we'll be doing that day.

Thanks for the link! It will be very useful.


*
BTW: I have never been to San Francisco via public transportation (except for BART), and haven't actually been there recently (within the past one-two years). For that matter, I haven't travelled around the Bay Area that much lately, so I'm probably not going to be very helpful with transportation as navigation is my weak point. While we're in San Jose/Santa Clara, I can help with choosing bus routes and whatever, but once we leave the county, I'm really unfamiliar with the methods of transportation.

Originally Posted by Agent Megumi

Wait... on Day 3, aren't we going to Great America? We should be able to get there by bus, unless I'm mistaken. I'll consult my parents about transportation options. It also depends on where in SF we would like to go, AND when the train gets there. I'll have to talk to you about it later.

Yeah. A bus would be preferable for getting to GA on day 3 actually. Of course, I'm totally in the dark about good bus routes in the area. Anything anyone can contribute would be nice.

Originally Posted by Tachyon

This is probably a stupid question, but is "day 1" Monday or Tuesday?

There's a great site called the TakeTransit Trip Planner (covering Silicon Valley , San Francisco, East Bay, etc.) where you can enter in the addresses you're coming from and going to, what time you'll be leaving or needing to get there, and it will tell you some buses and trains you can take.
http://transit.511.org/tripplanner/index.asp

Also, if anyone wants to take a bus from the hotel to Caltrain, it seems to be easier to do that with the main Caltrain station than the Tamien station -- you can walk down to the intersection of Monterey Hwy and Skyway and catch a bus that goes right to the main Caltrain station.

Day 1 is Tuesday.

Thanks for mentioning that site, as well as the path between the Caltrain station and the hotel. I believe that's the path I need to take when I first arrive in San Jose.

0.o well my dad will have all the hotel stuff so I wouldn't beable to book in or anything if I went from san fran to the hotel early in the morning. So, maybe it's possible for me to go somewher in san fran and meet you guys? Like your first stop 0.o?

This is a rough draft of the schedule.

August 16th: Arrive.
August 17th: WE NEED YOUR INPUT. We probably won't leave the San Jose area, though.
August 18th: Take bus to Cahill Train Station. Take train to San Francisco. Go to Exploratorium, Japanese Tea Gardens @ Golden Gate Park, and possibly Japan Centre.
August 19th: Great America day.


About Great America: I'm not going to buy your tickets, even though I can get a significant discount, unless you tell me. The people on WC2004's planning committee decided that we're not handling expenses for people who don't provide suggestions and/or input because it's so much trouble when we don't get enough help. Please, give us some input; you are part of this meeting as well, and we can't be the only ones who are suggesting things.

Aww too bad I didn't see this earlier. Maybe I could have suggested a better time/location? Like.... hmm... August 18th through the 21st in sandusky Ohio.

Captain spam and I are having our official yearly meeting there then. :-) And it's closer to central US so that everyone can come!

'cept all the hotels in the area are dives. We should know, we've tried just about all of them out!

I would provide input on what to do on the 17th.. but I don't know the San Jose area ;D.
I'll assume there are theatres tho, maybe we can see a movie 0.o

We should figure out some way of identifying each other. I suggest we do it the corny way and hold signs with our JJ2 names on them.

Okay, some changes to our transportation schedule as per some things that have been shuffled around.

For SF, we'll be leaving at the Monterey and Senter bus stop (which is pretty close to our hotel if I'm not mistaken) at 9:04 AM, which should get us to the main San Jose Caltrain station. After that, we'll be taking the train northbound to SF to spend the day there. After we're done with that, we'll be heading back from the 4th and King SF Caltrain station at 6:37 PM. (I recommend we get there at around 6:15 PM) After we get back to SJ, we should be able to board the bus at 7:59 and get back near our hotel shortly after 8.

GA is a bit messier. Right now we don't have a definite plan (it'll be done soon though, maybe on day 1) We're going to take the lightrail station near our hotel (around 2 miles away from it, roughly) then going to the Baypointe-Mountain View line until we get to GA.

You should keep around $20 with you for transportation, most of which you probably won't need but is "emergency money."

Originally Posted by Black Ninja

We should figure out some way of identifying each other. I suggest we do it the corny way and hold signs with our JJ2 names on them.

or just wear name tags with them = P

I will be arriving at the San Jose airport at 3:17 PM on the 16th.

Also, as a suggestion for something to do in the San Jose area, I have heard that Winchester Castle is cool. It's just a couple miles away from the hotel, so if we are looking for something to do in that area, that could be fun. There is also the Tech Museum of Innovation, which my brother (who used to live in the area) says is kind of cool. Maybe someone who lives in the area knows if these are worth going to?

And, of course, if we get bored in the San Fransisco area, we could stop at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory, which is not far from the exploratorium. There is also supposed to be a lot to do around the nearby area.

Hopefully some of that is helpful - I don't know what plans we currently have.

The Tech Museum is always good. I am not particularly interested in the chocolate factory, having been there twice in the last RecentTimes, and not really liking chocolate anyway.

Pictures!

http://jazz.madskills.org/wc2004/

My pictures are at
www.fooproducts.com/WC2004.shtml
and videos are at
www.fooproducts.com/WC2004b.shtml

Monolith has links to these anyway ... so why am I doing this.. dunno ;P

The videos are awesome :P